TDR October 2023?

[Happy99]

Hi everyone. We are planning our first visit to Japan. We have travelled to the Caribbean and Europe a few times but never to Asia.

Planning on three nights at Tokyo Disney Resort, four or five nights in Tokyo then off to Kyoto for four nights.
Travel dates mid October 2023.

I have read up on the parks, hotels, park tickets, etc.
We are planning on staying at one of the three deluxe hotels on property. Hoping to use DVC points but if that does not work we are ok with paying for the hotels since it will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for us.

We will be four adults, me, my husband, my adult son and his girlfriend. My son is the Japan culture lover and my Disney loving child. This trip is all his planning and his graduate school graduation gift.

Questions:
Anything anyone can share about TDR that you wish you knew before you got there?
Must do's?
Restaurants: any which should not be missed? Whether in the parks, hotels or Ikspiari area.
Anything else anyone wants to share would be wonderful.
Ikspiari similar to Downtown Disney area?

Tokyo and Kyoto - will take any suggestions here as well.
Planning on staying either at the Tokyo Station Hotel or the HIlton Tokyo.
Kyoto - Hyatt Regency

Thank you

 

[Brancaneve]

Hello! The four of us will be going to TDR, Tokyo and Kyoto in June of 2023. I am also seeking advice and information from the always helpful Disboards

 

[steve76]

Hi everyone. We are planning our first visit to Japan. We have travelled to the Caribbean and Europe a few times but never to Asia.

Planning on three nights at Tokyo Disney Resort, four or five nights in Tokyo then off to Kyoto for four nights.
Travel dates mid October 2023.

I have read up on the parks, hotels, park tickets, etc.
We are planning on staying at one of the three deluxe hotels on property. Hoping to use DVC points but if that does not work we are ok with paying for the hotels since it will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for us.

We will be four adults, me, my husband, my adult son and his girlfriend. My son is the Japan culture lover and my Disney loving child. This trip is all his planning and his graduate school graduation gift.

Questions:
Anything anyone can share about TDR that you wish you knew before you got there?
Must do's?
Restaurants: any which should not be missed? Whether in the parks, hotels or Ikspiari area.
Anything else anyone wants to share would be wonderful.
Ikspiari similar to Downtown Disney area?

Tokyo and Kyoto - will take any suggestions here as well.
Planning on staying either at the Tokyo Station Hotel or the HIlton Tokyo.
Kyoto - Hyatt Regency

Thank you

Ikspiari is essentially a shopping mall - it’s not really “Disney” other than including a Disney store (which is mostly general Disney stuff rather than Disney parks stuff). It can be useful if you’re staying at the Ambassador hotel, or if you need a meal on property without entering the parks (I ate at Guzman y Gomez, a Mexican quick service which was nice), but on a short trip to Disney I certainly wouldn’t recommend allocating any time to it. Focus on the parks, and maybe the Disney hotels.

I’m not as experienced as others on the board, but my advice for Kyoto would be to make sure you do plenty of the “smaller” stuff. On my first trip to Kyoto I did all the “must dos”, which it turns out are basically the sights with coach parking for tour groups, and came away slightly underwhelmed (in comparison with the rest of my trip - I still had a lovely time). In November I went back and did a lot of the “smaller stuff” - including tiny temples, and this time I fell in love with it. My particular highlight was Arashiyama in eastern Kyoto, which was a full day of monkeys, river, “rural” Kyoto and temples. I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention other websites here, but TomBricker’s travelcaffeine.com is an excellent source and well worth reading for ideas on itineraries.

 

[steve76]

In addition, in case it hasn’t cropped up yet in your research, you can send your luggage between hotels (usually next day) for a very modest price. This means that you can travel with only an overnight bag rather than lugging suitcases around with you on the trains etc. It’s called various things including Takyubin and every hotel I’ve ever used in Japan are happy to receive luggage and send it on for you (I haven’t actually tried to send luggage from a Disney hotel yet, as I usually do TDR at the end of my trip, but I have sent it to them).

Based on my experience I probably wouldn’t to 5 nights in Tokyo, and I would instead consider adding in another destination for an overnight stay, or adding another day to Kyoto (and maybe doing Nara as a day trip). If you want to do a day trip from Tokyo, I really like Kamakura. You can do a really nice loop by getting the train to Kita-Kamakura, then work your way to central Kamakura (doing all the temples on the way), then the electric railway to Hase (for another temple and the Big Buddha), then continue to Enoshima Island. When you’re done you can get the cool suspended monorail back to Ofuna to get the train back to Tokyo.

If you’re doing a relatively short visit to TDR, then I would suggest maybe doing that at the end of your trip (if you’re flying home from Tokyo) when you’re over the jet lag.

Just my 2 cents, everyone has different tastes and different travel styles!

 

[CanucksRock]

I’m planning a trip for April 2023. Aiming to get the flights booked then filling in the blanks. Going for about 2 weeks. Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto are in the plans. At least 4 days at TDR. May do 2 days towards the front end, then 2 days towards the end as the 40th Anniversary starts in the middle of our trip.

 

[Haley R]

We went in 2019. Here’s my trip report:
Thread 'Japan Trip Update/Report'
https://www.disboards.com/threads/japan-trip-update-report.3751378/