TDR Impressions & Observations 6/16-6/20

JKalai

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Hello everybody! :wave:

We just came back from Tokyo (6/16-6/20) and I thought Id share with everybody our experiences we had at TDR. Hopefully this helps some of you out!

Transportation:
We took the Friendly Airport Limousine from Narita to TDR and it was really easy. Ticket counter was right after you exit baggage claim. We skipped the kiosk and used the ticket counter. The agent at the counter spoke perfect English and they took our credit cards no problem. The bus was right on time to the minute and they took our luggage. The attendant gave us tickets for each piece of luggage to redeem them at the destination.

Hotel Miracosta:
WOW WOW WOW. Me and SO have stayed at Deluxe resorts both at WDW (Poly) and DL (GCH) and this hotel blows both of them away. The room rate was pricey (about $450 a night for our nights as we avoided the weekend) but IMO it was worth it for the experience and convenience for our first trip. Our airfare was paid with credit card points so we figured we could splurge on the room. Our jaws dropped when pulling up to the resort on the bus and entering the lobby. The Miracosta is the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in and the service was top notch (almost absurd). The pictures online do not do this resort justice. I seriously couldn't believe how clean the property is. Everything looks brand new.

We checked in at around 4pm with no line. The lobby was crowded with people waiting around, but we got our room right away. It was weird watching the agent check us in as they still use paper and pencil for record keeping. The agent apologized profusely for taking an extra 2 minutes to check us in (???) , held our credit card and room key out with both hands and bowed so low that his nose touched the desk :earseek:. Then a CM met up with us and our bags on a cart to show us to our room. It seemed like he was new and in the middle of training, so he seemed very nervous about showing us to our room and showing us around the room once inside.

We booked a Venice Side room and got a room facing the canals and the American Waterfront. I can't stress enough how easy of a walk it is from your room to the gates... MUCH closer than GCH at DLR. On the first day we took the elevator closest to the room down to the ground floor, walked through the lobby and down the stairs to get to the gates. We then figured out if you kept walking down the hall, the further elevator on your floor will take you directly to the gates. The elevator door from your floor opens and the gate is literally right in front of it.

Housekeeping still does the towel animals at TDR! Sometimes they would even do two animals and leave one on the nightstand and one in the bathroom. They did a really awesome bunny that held our toothbrushes. It was a bit of a culture shock to have the Castmembers in the hotel stop and drop whatever they are doing and start bowing to you.

TDR:
If you are a Disney Parks fan, you owe it to yourself to take the time and money to visit TDR. It is amazing and exceeded the sky high expectations we had before we went. The castmembers are SO nice in the parks and it really shows that they take monumental pride in working for TDR. DisneySea is as amazing as everyone says (even with Mt. Prometheus fully under scaffolding). Me and SO walked around and rode barely any rides the first night because we were so amazed at the sights from everywhere in the park. I LOVED Sindbad and was blown away by Journey to the Center of the Earth. They are easily two of the top 5 rides in any Disney park I have ever been to. The Oriental Land Company truly spared no expense with DisneySea and it 100% shows.

Quick Observations
- Drinks are so cheap! 200 yen (about $1.85 US) for each of the bottled drinks. It was so fun going around and trying the different kinds of drinks we don't have here in the US.
- The popcorn was awesome! We tried the Soy Sauce, Strawberry, Milk Chocolate, Honey and Garlic Shrimp. Our favorite was easily the Garlic Shrimp popcorn.
- During our 4 days in the parks, I did not see a single stressed out parent. Every single family had a smile on their face and everyone was having such a great time. Courtesy is truly contagious at TDR.
- The rides look so well kept! Every single ride we went on, me and SO constantly commented on how well they keep the rides looking brand new. It is obvious why they take rides down for refurbishment for such long periods of time. On Indiana Jones in DLR, I can barely touch the handlebars because they are usually always sticky and dirty. At TDR, it looks like they just changed them yesterday. The same goes for all the other attractions.
- The monorail is so clean and so quiet. It was a shock to us to see CM's stationed on the monorail when running as they announce stops and clean the handle bars. After experiencing the monorails at TDR, I wouldn't mind paying to have access at WDW as they looked so good. Monorails seemed very mellow at park closing compared to WDW where there are 30+ minute waits to get on them with everyone pushing and shoving. It seemed like all the locals walk from the gate to public transit to get back into Tokyo leaving the monorails basically empty.
- The bathrooms are SO clean! They even have hand sanitizer in the stalls to rub on the toilet seat, haha. If you like to wipe your hands with paper towels instead of the hand dryers, I would pick up a cloth as none of the bathrooms had paper towels. Same goes for 90% of the bathrooms in Tokyo.
- The umbrellas were a life saver! During the first day we were commenting on everyone carrying around umbrellas and how we wouldn't normally see them in the US. The heat took a toll on us with the sun out on the first day and I eventually caved in and bought an umbrella (even though they were pretty pricey). It was probably one of the best investments as it really helped with walking around in the sun and waiting around for the parade.
- The food stalls close pretty early. We are so used to eating a bit later in the evening here in the US parks. I'm not sure if it was just on the weekdays, but it seemed like all the quick service and food stands closed around 8:30. Around 9 or 10, we were left with very few options to eat dinner and had to resort to ordering room service in the room (which was great but pricey).
- Magellan's was a 10/10 and easily one of the best meals I've ever had at any Disney Park. We both had the Lobster and it was perfect. Since we were staying on property, we were able to make reservations on the website in 100% English prior to arrival.
- Everywhere except the popcorn stalls accepted our credit as we both have Case Sapphire Reserve cards that have no foreign transaction fees. Every card transaction prints out two receipts for you to keep so by the end of the day we were overflowing with receipts. Also prepare to bring home TONS of extra plastic bags. "Oh, you're purchasing a mug and a shirt?" "Here, have 3 extra plastic bags along with the one we're going to put your stuff in"
- The CM's really seem to appreciate you trying to speak Japanese even if it's not 100% right. It was funny for some of them to say things such as "you're doing a great job!" when we tried. SO is normally really shy... but by the end of the stay, she was saying konnichiwa and arigato gozaimasu to everyone!

I'm sure there are other things I forgot, but overall it was an amazing trip. If you are concerned about the language barrier, I wouldn't worry one bit as the CM's are SO helpful. Me and SO are starting to plan our trips for 2020 and beyond, and we are almost tempted to go back to TDR rather than visit any of the other Disney Parks. I just got back and once I get everything settled, I can post pictures of everything.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
 
We weren’t able to use credit cards at the popcorn carts either. The only carts we could use cc were at the ice cream carts.

Great trip report thank you!

Strange about the popcorn carts. We used our chase sapphire reserve cc at 5+ popcorn carts in both parks two weeks ago.
 


Popcorn carts & ice cream carts should both accept CC. No idea what happened there! Maybe some kind of technical difficulty.

I love the garlic shrimp popcorn, too. Try the Chinese spice flavor next time. I feel like if you like one, you will like the other.
 
Popcorn carts & ice cream carts should both accept CC. No idea what happened there! Maybe some kind of technical difficulty.

I love the garlic shrimp popcorn, too. Try the Chinese spice flavor next time. I feel like if you like one, you will like the other.
Dh said the Chinese spice was his favorite popcorn flavor. Mine was either soy sauce or strawberry
 
We used a credit card at popcorn, churro and ice cream carts without any issues on our most recent trip. I don't think we ever purchased a drink from a cart, so I'm not sure about those.
 


Thanks for the review...

Great job.... I wish we could budget around and get to stay on site, I just can't get there yet... depending on how many points we can save, and hack around to get the most for them... I really don't think that's gonna happen... dreaming about it is fun though....

Did you just do Disney? while in Japan... if visited or tour else where in Japan... would you mind posting about that adventure as well
 
Popcorn carts & ice cream carts should both accept CC. No idea what happened there! Maybe some kind of technical difficulty.

I love the garlic shrimp popcorn, too. Try the Chinese spice flavor next time. I feel like if you like one, you will like the other.

Yeah, that was weird. We also encountered some bottled drink carts that didn't accept CC. We were going to try the Chinese spice, but at that point we already had 4 boxes of popcorn! There's always next time I guess!

Thanks for the review...

Great job.... I wish we could budget around and get to stay on site, I just can't get there yet... depending on how many points we can save, and hack around to get the most for them... I really don't think that's gonna happen... dreaming about it is fun though....

Did you just do Disney? while in Japan... if visited or tour else where in Japan... would you mind posting about that adventure as well
We also did Tokyo for 3 1/2 days. I can write up a mini TR about those days as well! I'll also add some pictures too. I've been slacking on uploading pictures, but I'll get to it ASAP.
 
Great review! We felt the same about Miracosta, except we paid much more per night in April. Did you purchase a package? We never got towel animals, lol!
We did not enjoy Magellans and actually preferred the Vista Lounge with its lovelty views of the lagoon, better food, and right in the hotel.
We also were able to use our credit card at the popcorn stands.
Glad you had a great time.
 
Great review! We felt the same about Miracosta, except we paid much more per night in April. Did you purchase a package? We never got towel animals, lol!
We did not enjoy Magellans and actually preferred the Vista Lounge with its lovelty views of the lagoon, better food, and right in the hotel.
We also were able to use our credit card at the popcorn stands.
Glad you had a great time.
Thanks!

No, we didn't purchase a package but we were glad we got to do 99% of the stuff we wanted to do. The only thing we couldn't do was Big Band Beat. We tried the lottery every single day but was unsuccessful. We also tried One Man's Dream II and didn't win that either. We figured it'll give us something to look forward to the next time we go :)

We were looking at the Vista lounge, but SO is the type of person that likes to stay in the parks as long as possible so we decided to skip out on that. On the check out day, we did do the Oceano breakfast buffet which has a great spread and SO even liked the Japanese breakfast considering she is a picky eater.

Maybe we will try the Vista Lounge next time!
 
We also did Tokyo for 3 1/2 days. I can write up a mini TR about those days as well! I'll also add some pictures too. I've been slacking on uploading pictures, but I'll get to it ASAP.

I would be interested in hearing what you did in Tokyo besides TDL. Sounds like you had a really nice trip.
 
I would be interested in hearing what you did in Tokyo besides TDL. Sounds like you had a really nice trip.
Not the OP, but we did a lot while in Tokyo. Some of our favorite things were the Edo Tokyo Museum, Teamborderless digital art museum, and shopping in Shibuya and Harajuku.
 

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