Hi Brandi,
You're going to have an awesome time at the Tokyo Disney Resort! It is amazing...
If it's at all helpful and you can be bothered I'd suggest reading the Tokyo part of my trip report from my trip to Tokyo this November (we went from the 4-8 November however many of the Christmas decorations were already up at this time in November and the crowds were only moderately busy. The trip report can be found
here and contains all kinds of fun info and tips (yes, I am selfless plugging it). My pre-trip report also outlines how we went about planning and can be found
here. There is information in this pre-trip report about a crowd calendar we managed to find and decode for Tokyo Disney which can give you an idea about how crowded it might be when you are planning to visit.
Other things that helped me in my planning for our trip to the TDR was trip reports written by other people as there is so little officially English information on the web RE the Tokyo Disney Resorts. I just googled Tokyo Disney Trip Reports most of the time and read a few of the top posts. The most helpful was this report on DisneyTravelBabble found
here. She also includes a lot of information about things to do around Tokyo.
If it's in your budget I would highly recommend staying on property. The lines at Tokyo Disney can get insane and staying on property gives you the ability to enter the parks 15 (in the case of TDL) or 20 (in the case of TDS) minutes before the rest of the guest literally RUN into the parks! The Japanese also know how to make good use of the Fast Pass system so make sure you know which are your top priority rides and Fast pass your favorite and then as soon as you are able to get your next Fast Pass (it will tell you when you can on your Fast Pass ticket) grab one for your next favorite...We tried never to be without a Fast Pass, getting three to four per morning as soon as we could as all Fast Passes are generally gone by the early-mid afternoon.
Our favorite attraction was by far Pooh's Hunny Hunt at TDL. It's a classic dark ride with an amazing ride system and some really fun effects and surprises. We rode it 4 times. Monsters Inc Hide and Go Seek is also a great ride (TDL) as is Journey to the Centre of the Earth (TDS) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skill (TDS) and the Tower of Terror (TDS). We really also enjoyed riding the TDL versions of Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain as they were so smooth compare to their US counterparts and always in great shape!
Tokyo Disney Sea is perhaps the most beautiful theme park in the world! It's level of detail and artistry is next to none. You'll probably just want to spend some time looking and taking pictures!
Anyway that's all the specific info I have right now - If you read my trip report you can get my thoughts on EVERYTHING the Tokyo Disney Resort and Tokyo in general has to offer!
OUTSIDE OF DISNEY THESE ARE MY TIPS:
If you like the strange, bizarre and bright and fun go to Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku. It cannot be properly described but is insane and fun. One tip though, eat before you go!
If you are looking to experience the history and culture of Japan, the Rikugien Gardens are a beautiful example of a traditional Japanese Garden and the Edo-Tokyo Museum is a great way to get aquainted with Japanese culture and history from the mid 1600s to today.
I cannot recommend highly enough the Backstreet Guides to Tokyo. You can google them and find their webpage. We used them to do a tour of historic Kamakura (which is about an hour our of Tokyo by train) and our guide Miwa, was AMAZING! The tours are completely private and for the whole day it only cost about $400 AUD...You can also do cheap tours of the Tokyo are itself but the company has amazing knowledge and insight and it's so helpful to be able to have an English speaking guide on your first day to acclimatize!
I hope you have a WONDERFUL trip - it's a wonderful place to visit...Good Luck with all the planning
