It's official...ABD is going to Japan!

Would the same be true for weekdays the *very* end of May?

Sayhello
I used the crowd calendar below when planning our Tokyo Disney trip:

http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/

It is in Japanese so you have to use Google Translate. I found it to be very accurate. You can see there are different colors for each day on the calendar which correspond to crowd levels. If you click on a date, then on the right you can see when they expect certain Fastpasses to sell out for the day. You can click on both Disneyland and DisneySea. If you look this week, you can still see the forecast for May. They also have what they used for a forecasting factor. So, we went in mid-May and it said there would be school trips (which was true).
 
Ahhh you are totally right! I forgot that the 3rd year students all go on class trips around that time, and Tokyo Disney is a very popular destination. The crowd calendar linked there is super great, it tends to be pretty accurate.
 
@CurryPopcorn - thank you for both the post on anime and the post on TDR, and for jumping on to help,with some of our questions. The anime one is extremely helpful for me.
 
I think it should be okay! Beginning of May is generally not a great time due to Golden Week (a whole bunch of holidays at once, so the country basically has a week off all at the same time), but I don't think there's anything major going on at the end of the month.

As a side note, Golden Week next year might be extra long due to the emperor abdicating on April 30. I think all of the ABD trips safely miss that time period, even with the TDR add on (although the April trip cuts it a little close.) For anyone who is going in April that might plan to stay in the country longer, it'd be something to keep in mind.
Good info to know about the emperor. I had checked Golden Week dates for 2019 & it appears that it starts the Monday after the April trip ends, including the TDR add on. I’m hoping that any overlap might be Friday afternoon only, heading into the weekend.
 


I used the crowd calendar below when planning our Tokyo Disney trip:

http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/

It is in Japanese so you have to use Google Translate. I found it to be very accurate. You can see there are different colors for each day on the calendar which correspond to crowd levels. If you click on a date, then on the right you can see when they expect certain Fastpasses to sell out for the day. You can click on both Disneyland and DisneySea. If you look this week, you can still see the forecast for May. They also have what they used for a forecasting factor. So, we went in mid-May and it said there would be school trips (which was true).
Yikes! I couldn't get anything readable on that page using Google Translate. I may have to try some other browsers. What does it say for May 29 - 31? (Or actually, May 30 - June 1 would be the 2018 equivalent Wed - Fri)

Thanks!
Sayhello
 
Yeah, sometimes google translate will make the crowd calendar a little illegible. Here's a super fast how-to image for getting the most important basic info from it. Click on the red box at the top left for Disneyland info, or the blue box on the right for DisneySea. Months are written using numbers, so 5月 = May, 6月 = June, and so on.

crowdcalendarhowto.jpg
 
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Yikes! I couldn't get anything readable on that page using Google Translate. I may have to try some other browsers. What does it say for May 29 - 31? (Or actually, May 30 - June 1 would be the 2018 equivalent Wed - Fri)

Thanks!
Sayhello
I use Google Chrome and it works well on my laptop.
 


Yikes! I couldn't get anything readable on that page using Google Translate. I may have to try some other browsers. What does it say for May 29 - 31? (Or actually, May 30 - June 1 would be the 2018 equivalent Wed - Fri)

Thanks!
Sayhello
As you can see from the calendar, May 30th and 31st are yellow about 40,000 guests. June 1st is orange about 50,000. Below is a guess of when Fastpasses will sell out on June 1st this year. As you can see, Monster's Inc FP will be gone by 10:00am and Pooh (which is very different from the WDW version), by 11:00am. The Japanese are very knowledgeable when it comes to FP's. I believe Supra is Splash Mountain and Honte is Haunted Mansion. It looks like there are still school trips at this time frame (at least this year). We really enjoyed the school children. They were fascinated by us (we were maybe four of the seven Westerners in the parks) and they wanted to practice their English on us. They were most fascinated with my tall (about 5'11"), blond daughter. They would look at her height and then look at her feet to see if she had high heels. Then, they would ask for a photo:)

Screen Shot 2018-05-30 at 1.53.33 PM.png
 
As you can see from the calendar, May 30th and 31st are yellow about 40,000 guests. June 1st is orange about 50,000. Below is a guess of when Fastpasses will sell out on June 1st this year. As you can see, Monster's Inc FP will be gone by 10:00am and Pooh (which is very different from the WDW version), by 11:00am. The Japanese are very knowledgeable when it comes to FP's. I believe Supra is Splash Mountain and Honte is Haunted Mansion. It looks like there are still school trips at this time frame (at least this year). We really enjoyed the school children. They were fascinated by us (we were maybe four of the seven Westerners in the parks) and they wanted to practice their English on us. They were most fascinated with my tall (about 5'11"), blond daughter. They would look at her height and then look at her feet to see if she had high heels. Then, they would ask for a photo:)

A friend of mine just did the rope drop rush for a fastpass at DisneySea and he said it was insanity.

When I went there I counted seven Westerners the entire day. We stood out like a sore thumb! It was pretty funny.
 
A friend of mine just did the rope drop rush for a fastpass at DisneySea and he said it was insanity.

When I went there I counted seven Westerners the entire day. We stood out like a sore thumb! It was pretty funny.

Totally off topic for Japan, but we had the exact same experience at Shanghai Disneyland when we were there about a month after opening. Our first day there we literally saw two other Westerners in the park the entire day!
 
We are headed home now from the parks in Japan. I will share some random thoughts and observations for those who plan to do a pre or post trip to the Japan parks that may be helpful. We did 4 days and nights from June 1 - 4. Two nights were at TDL resort and two nights at the MiraCosta.

We did rope drop on 2 of the days, one at TDL and the other at TDS. It was pretty crazy but very well organized insanity. FPs on Saturday were all sold out within a couple of hours of park opening. Have a plan.

Lines for quick service around 11 am were about 45 minutes to well over an hour. Eat early or make reservations! The food, even at the quick service locations is really good!
People will begin securing spots for the parades and shows well in advance.

The Disney Fandom is STRONG! Feel free to wave your Disney freak flag high and proud! You will fit right in. I walked in, took one look and thought, I have found my people!

If you haven’t been here before, do not let the names of rides fool you into thinking you have experienced something similar at another park. No. You. Have. Not. I cannot stress this enough. Just to be clear, read this paragraph again before moving on.

For anyone going on their own in need of an airport transfer: we used https://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/bus_services/narita/index

It was about $18 per person from NRT to the the park resort area and the same on the return. They do stop at each resort hotel in the area so give yourself time. Our bus arrived exactly on time at 7:02 am to the MiraCosta and got to NRT at about 8:20 am after making all the hotel stops. Our flight is 10:50 am and it took about 15 minutes to get though security and customs. We didn’t book the transfer back online since it was in Japanese so we did it it through the hotel but needed to pay cash.

Laundry is available at TDL in convenient coin operated machines that dispense their own detergent. We did a few loads when we arrived. I think it was about 3 coins to wash and 1 coin per 15 minutes of drying. There is an ATM at the hotel but the least we could take out was about $100.

We did visit Downtown Disney to check out the Disney Store since we heard the merchandise was different than at the parks. This was an utter disappointment and while there is a variety of merchandise it was underwhelming and looked like poor quality replicas compared to what is at the Tokyo parks. We hit a Starbucks while we were there and can also write that under the poor life decisions umbrella. It was the only example of inefficiency we saw. The time it took to line up to order, wait for the order (2 coffees) and the get the order was over 45 minutes. It isn’t done by name either, it’s by by number and we don’t speak Japanese so you keep an eye out for what looks like your order and see if no one claims it or keep checking in with your number.
 
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So happy to hear you loved the Tokyo parks. I often worry that people will have too high of expectations after hearing they are the best in the world. I just love everything about them. They are clean, the rides are all beautifully refurbished, the cast members are unbelievably friendly and helpful, and I loved seeing all the Japanese in matching outfits carrying their Duffy's. For such a rule-abiding culture, it cracked me up so see the Japanese running past cast members holding "Please walk" signs at rope drop! They do line up early for parades, but then sit down in a very civilized manner on mats. No children on dad's back or blocking other's view. We used the airport limousine bus as well. We missed the bus to the Disneyland Hotel because our flight got in slightly late and they were able to help us get on the bus to Tokyo Disneyland (mere steps from the hotel). It worked out very well. I love Japan!
 
As everyone knows I am a Massive Four Seasons fan. But I did find the concierge to be very weird that I decided not to book the Kyoto Hotel. So when it goes to Four Seasons Kyoto please can you keep me in the loop.
 
Excuse my search noob-ness again. Was trying to find the very helpful thread about booking at the Mira Costa in TDS. I had printed out very detailed instructions... which work for the most part. That being said I am trying to figure out how to perfect the process. So far we haven't been able to see the balcony harbor view ever available (even though we have the straight link to it)

And here's another question to make this topic relevant again (aka) more recent bookings of it. For those that stayed in the Harbor View Room... did you have a perfect view of fantasmic? - or a better way to put this... could you open the window far enough to hear it and potentially video from the room... or just sit at your table there and watch? (which is fine with me to negate said balcony room if this is the case)

I am very confused about all the 'different' harbor rooms... And I have been trying to find youtube videos explaining this difference, but there aren't many for reference (at least in English)

Thanks all

Signed... This Mira Costa Process is worse than having blood drawn every 3 months (no joke)
 
Excuse my search noob-ness again. Was trying to find the very helpful thread about booking at the Mira Costa in TDS. I had printed out very detailed instructions... which work for the most part. That being said I am trying to figure out how to perfect the process. So far we haven't been able to see the balcony harbor view ever available (even though we have the straight link to it)

And here's another question to make this topic relevant again (aka) more recent bookings of it. For those that stayed in the Harbor View Room... did you have a perfect view of fantasmic? - or a better way to put this... could you open the window far enough to hear it and potentially video from the room... or just sit at your table there and watch? (which is fine with me to negate said balcony room if this is the case)

I am very confused about all the 'different' harbor rooms... And I have been trying to find youtube videos explaining this difference, but there aren't many for reference (at least in English)

Thanks all

Signed... This Mira Costa Process is worse than having blood drawn every 3 months (no joke)

We booked and stayed at the MiraCosta in a Porto Paradiso side Suoerior Harbor View room. The view for Fantasmic was perfect! We watched it both nights we stayed from the room. Although the window only opens up a smidge, there is no trouble hearing the sound. I used my iPhone to record the show and posted it on FB. The sound is very clear. Watching it online, you'd never guess I was recording from that narrow opening. When we go next year with ABD we will still a couple of more nights beyond the park add-on and would be happy book the same room again. Our friends were next door and they did a FB live of the show via iPhone.
 
We were also in a Superior Harbor View and had no issues with view or sound. The windows have little circles in them so to film the show you want to have a thinner camera or use a phone so you can put out the small opening as @calypso726 said. It doesn't bug you if you are sitting there watching it but you can't film from the other side of the glass easily - it messes with the focus too much.
 

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