Japan Trip 2021

Version 6

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 6, 2019
Hi Guys

We are a family of 4 (kids 6 and 8) in the very early stages of planning a trip to Japan in 2021, visiting from Australia.

It will be around a 3 week trip and we would like 4 or 5 Disney days.

Just wanted some suggestions from people here in terms of:

1. Which hotel/s to stay in to ensure least travel time to parks (our preference is a Disney Hotel);
2. What times of the year are good in terms of both weather and crowds;
3. I've seen that there are "vacation packages" available, which include accommodation, park tickets and FASTPASS. Do I have that right?
4. Just generally, what are good sites for information on Tokyo Disneyland?

I'm finding Tokyo Disneyland a lot hard to get information on than a trip to Anaheim, so any guidance/tips and places to look would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
1. Miracosta is closest to Disneysea. Disneyland Hotel is closest to Disneyland. In terms of closeness, you will be better staying at a Bayside station hotel (ex. Hilton, Sheraton) than Celebration.
2. The days immediately before or after Golden Week are ideal in terms of crowds/weather. January after the New Year event ends also has low crowds but will be cold and potentially have snow.
3. Yes. Vacation packages also include special seating for some shows which IMO is the most valuable benefit of the package.
4. TDR explorer has good info in English.
 
Thanks for this response.

I had a few more questions if that's OK.

1. Are both Disneyland Hotel and Miracosta convenient walking distance to both parks? Or are they only walking distance to the park closest to each?
2. Are the two parks walking distance from each other?
3. What is mid-September like for crowds?
4. The TDR website seems to only allow for 2 day vacation packages, whereas we would like to stay for at least 4 nights. I'd also like to purchase the special fastpasses. Is this an option?
5. Does TDR have a MaxPass style system? Or do you need to go to a physical machine to take a fastpass?

Thanks in advance
 
1. No. You can't really walk to the other park but both are very close to their respective monorail station.
2. No. You would take the monorail between the two parks.
3. Crowds are not bad in September, especially right after the summer event ends but before the Halloween event starts. Going on the first few days of the Halloween event could see elevated crowds though. Obviously weekeneds and holidays are worse crowd-wise. TDR visitors are significantly more experienced and patient than Disneyland visitors so waits may still feel long to you at that time of t he year. Obviously, the post-virus world can be very different so take everything with a grain of salt. If you're there for a longer multi-day trip, I recommend going during the Halloween event so you'll have some extra seasonal shows to enjoy.
4. The fastpasses are included in the vacation package so you don't buy them separately. I think it's a max of 2 days but other people with more experience with vacation packages can help confirm.
5. TDR uses a fastpass system similar to Maxpass. You can go to physical machines for fastpass reminders and show lotteries or do it through the phone app. The phone app is currently in Japanese only and available in Japanese app stores. This forum's rules prohibit talking about getting the app if you do not have a residence in Japan.
 


Hello All - this trip is now back on (hopefully) for April 2022...

My question - when booking a package, do the same perks apply regardless of whether you book at one of the Official Disney hotels, or one of the "Partner" hotels?
 
Regarding closeness to parks, keep in mind the monorail travels in a circle so the parks are just a short five minute monorail trip away. In other words, if you stay at Miracosta you can walk right into Disney Sea, but you’ll need to ride the monorail to Disneyland. Have fun!
 
Thankyou.

Regarding the extra 15 minutes early entrance. Is it necessary to get to the parks an hour early for this like everyone else? Or are you able to show up 15 minutes prior to opening and walk on through?
 


Thankyou.

Regarding the extra 15 minutes early entrance. Is it necessary to get to the parks an hour early for this like everyone else? Or are you able to show up 15 minutes prior to opening and walk on through?

It depends on what you want to do and what the rules are if/when Happy 15 is reinstated. For a while, Disneyland was opening 30 minutes before opening for Happy 15 but now that the entrance is done, it should return to 15 minutes before opening. If your goal is to get on a ride for Happy 15 and then be first for another ride, arriving like 15 minutes before the start of Happy 15 should be sufficient. If you want to be first for a character greeting or get the best spot for shows, then you'd want to arrive earlier than that.
 
We are a family of 5 from the US. Hoping to go to Japan in a couple of years. While Tokyo Disney is our main interest, we also want to see a bit of Japan, specifically Kyoto & Osaka. Does anyone have experience using a travel agent with knowledge of both Disney & Japan in general?
 
We didn’t use a travel agent at all our first trip to Japan. On our second trip we used Tripmasters to book our flights and our hotels outside of the Disney resort. It wasn’t hard to book things online or once we were there.
 
We had someone help us on our first trip and found their services to be invaluable, Not sure if links are allowed here but if you google Be Here Asia and then click on the first result there‘s lots of good info.
 
I love Tom bricker’s blog called travel caffeine. We followed a lot of their daily itineraries when we went. For tokyo Disney I like TDR explorer. We didn’t use a travel agent for our trip. I just read a lot of blogs and Dh and I decided what we were most interested in. One of my favorite things about Japan is you can wander around and still have a great time without a real plan, especially in Tokyo. I wrote a pretty detailed trip report on here if you’re interested and we did vlogs on YouTube too
 

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