Tokyo Disneysea Guide
While building our yearlong itinerary, we only chose a few big, splurge destinations. A two-day visit to Tokyo DisneySea was definitely one of them! I’ve been a big Disney fan since I was little and have even worked for Disney years ago. After dreaming about a trip to Tokyo DisneySea for the past ten years, I was pinching myself that we were headed there on our year of travel!
PLANNING YOUR TRIP
There are so many ways to enjoy Tokyo Disney Resort! Here’s how we made our choices.
TOKYO DISNEYLAND VS. TOKYO DISNEYSEA
Being from Los Angeles, we’ve been lucky to visit Disneyland often. Tokyo Disneyland has a very similar layout and list of attractions to Disneyland in California, so we decided to pass on it and spend all of our time at DisneySea.
DisneySea is a park filled with different location-based lands (Arabian Coast, American Waterfront, etc.). It shares similar rides to Disney California Adventure, but the whole theme of the parks are very different.
NUMBER OF DAYS
Disney is very popular in Japan and we read a lot about the crowds. Occasionally, the parks will reach max capacity and they will stop letting people in! We knew that we needed two days visiting DisneySea to ensure that we didn’t feel like we were rushed and could enjoy our time.
ACCOMMODATIONS
There are a handful of Disney hotels. They even have a hotel (MiraCosta) connected to DisneySea where rooms overlook the park and guests have their own entrance! We decided to stay at a Disney hotel (Celebration - Discover) which was located about 15 minutes away by bus. The hotel buses ran consistently and are complimentary. We also benefited from the perks of staying at a Disney hotel, like getting in 15 minutes before opening time. Before you laugh at the bonus of 15 minutes (in California, you get in an hour before open), it made a big difference to our day! More on that later.
TIMES TO VISIT
It’s best to arrive as early as possible to benefit from using Fast Passes. In California, we often get to the parks later and stay late. You do not want to take that approach at DisneySea! Fast Passes will be gone and it will definitely change how many rides you can enjoy.
Also, don’t be deterred by rainy weather. Our first day at DisneySea happened to be on a national holiday, but it was also a rainy day. The rain definitely helped with the crowds and the park was less busy than the following day that was sunny and a regular weekday.
A FEW THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
TDR APP
This isn’t an official Disney app (the official one is only in Japanese), but this app was such a great tool during our visit. We used it for (mostly) accurate attraction wait times, Fast Pass information and showtimes.
SHOW LOTTERIES
DisneySea has a few live shows that are very popular. If you haven’t visited a live show at a Disney park, you must on your next visit! (Frozen at California Adventure is amazing and the old Aladdin show will always hold so many great memories). At DisneySea, you enter a lottery to see if you win tickets to the show. The lottery takes place at Biglietteria, near the park entrance. You pick the show and showtime that you would like to attend and scan all the tickets in your party. Then, surprise! Either you get a magical charm sound if you won tickets, or a sad sound if you didn’t. (Of course, every thing is over the top at Disney!) Read our daily itinerary below to see if we got tickets.
FAST PASSES
Fast Passes are an art form at DisneySea. Japanese people in general are super efficient and, of course, they utilize the Fast Pass system to its fullest potential. Fast Passes will quickly be “sold out” for the day. For Soaring (DisneySea’s newest ride), they are usually gone within 20 minutes of the park being open. On our visits, all fast passes were done being distributed by 3 PM. Another crazy thing that we saw, at one point they were only allowing entrance to Soaring to people with Fast Passes. You couldn’t even wait in the 3 hour line if you wanted to! And yes, 2-3 hour lines are common at DisneySea. Luckily, we didn’t wait in any line over an hour. More on that in our daily itineraries below!
SNACKS & RESTAURANTS
SNACKS
Snacks at Tokyo Disney Resort are a big deal and reasonably priced! Warning the lines are long! Often as long as some attractions. The parks are known for their flavored popcorn (strawberry, honey, curry to name a few) sold all over the parks in very cute reusable containers. But we didn’t enjoy the popcorn as much as other snacks.
Sea Salt Ice Cream Monaka : Trent said that this is one of his favorite desserts, ever. Delicious wafer with strawberry ice cream, jelly and sea salt. We bought them in the Mermaid Lagoon and the Lost River Delta.
Alien Mochi : Sold near the park entrance at Mama Biscotti’s Bakery, the kids had Alien Mochi. They saw them in a YouTube video that we watched months before visiting, but unfortunately they didn’t love them. They’re so sweet, but they’re very cute and hard to resist.
Chandu Chicken Curry Bun : I’ll explain our love for Chandu (the character) more later, but our love for this savory snack is equal to it! A chicken curry filled in a sweet, steamed bun. We ate it both days during our visits to the Arabian Coast.
RESTAURANTS
We could have probably ate from the snack carts during our entire trip (Turkey legs, potato churros!), but we did try a few restaurants at DisneySea.
Vulcania : Located inside the volcano in the center of the park, Vulcania is a buffet style, Chinese restaurant. Buffet style restaurants are very popular at Tokyo Disney Resort. They probably serve 600 people per hour at Vulcania! You make your way through the buffet line, choose and pay for your items. Then a cast member assists you with your tray and escorts you to a table. A nice touch! Another note, no bottled water is sold at the restaurants in the park because they have water spouts and cups.
The Chinese food at Vulcania was good. Our expectations for food is low at Disney, so we were happy with the food at Vulcania.
Horizon Bay : This was our best sit down meal at DisneySea. The kids had the cutest kids meal (photo above) and we enjoyed a Salmon meal.
Zambini Brothers’ Ristorante : We had pizza and pasta here both nights. It was fine, nothing memorable. But it filled us up.
Alright, buckle up for our daily itineraries to see how we spent our days at DisneySea!
DISNEYSEA DAY 1
Took the JR train from Tokyo to Disney Resort, checked into our hotel and then took the bus to DisneySea. All by 8:45 AM!
We got Toy Story Mania Fast Passes (for 8 PM return) and then tried our hand at the Big Band Beat lottery. We won tickets!
Then we headed over to Mysterious Island and went on 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, a unique ride to DisneySea. Based on the book, it’s a submarine ride entirely in Japanese. Trent and I enjoyed it, but the kids hated it! So many crying children exiting the ride. The only real bummer of our trip was that Journey to the Center of the Earth, another unique to DisneySea ride in this area, was closed for about a month.
Onto Mermaid Lagoon, which we knew would turn those tears into excitement! A very sweet cast member stopped the kids and gave them “First Visit” stickers with their names written in Japanese. She also offered to take a photo of us, which is my new favorite. It was one of those special Disney moments that made my day!
Next was the Arabian Coast. Went on the carousel, Sinbad’s Journey and then Jasmine’s Flying Carpets. Sinbad’s Journey is another unique to DisneySea ride. It’s a dark ride similar to It’s a Small World. The ride really grew on us and we ended up riding it 4 times because of the cute tiger character named Chandu. After the first ride, it became the “Chandu ride”!
By this time we were able to get another round of Fast Passes and used them at Raging Spirits, a rollercoaster ride in the Lost River Delta land.
It started to rain so we headed back to Mermaid Lagoon. Even though it was packed, it was amazing! Mermaid lagoon is the most impressive area of the whole park. It’s beautiful, colorful and full of details that Disney is known for. Great children’s rides and a playground area all indoors. A few rides and then off to Vulcania for lunch.
It was Fast Pass time for T and I at Raging Spirits. Very exciting because it was T’s first loop ride. He loved the ride and I loved how they say, “Adios Amigos!” as each car leaves. They get really into it!
A quick break to note that the restroom experience at DisneySea is so much better than the States. Every toilet is a Japanese-style toilet! Weird to comment on a restroom experience, but it had to be said.
Then we headed to Big Band Beat. Lottery tickets have assigned seating and we won the best seats! Perfectly in the center, in the third row. The show was filled with popular jazz songs from the 1920s. Our favorite part were the tap dancers! Mickey and the gang perform throughout parts of the show and that really helped keep the kids interested.
Spent the rest of the afternoon zig-zagging to different rides throughout the park. First to Fortress Explorer, a beautifully designed area with science and engineering-based activities and exhibits. The kids loved the small boats that you could drive via remote throughout obstacles. There was also a huge ship to explore. A great area to spend time in when you need a break from the lines. We also rode Sinbad again, the Arabian carousel and Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster. These are all located in different areas, but the park is easy to get around.
We needed to kill about two hours before we could use our Toy Story Mania Fast Passes, so we got into our first true line of the day. We waited for over an hour for Nemo and Friends SeaRider and I’m so glad that we did. The ride is Star Tours-like in design and so endearing. We all loved it!
Toy Story Mania is exactly the same as the California Adventure ride, except the queue area is filled with giant-size childhood toys. It was much more interesting and impressive than the California version. We were going to pass on Toy Story Mania all together during our visit, but our kids talked us into getting Fast Passes and I’m so glad that we did. It our family’s favorite ride.
We caught the end of the fireworks show as we walked out of the park. What a great day!
Off to bed and onto Day 2. If you’re still reading this than you love Disney as much as I clearly do! High-five kindred spirits!
DISNEYSEA DAY 2
DisneySea opens at 8 AM, so we were up and on the bus by 6:30. So early, but we were ready to make the most of our second day!
We lined up with other hotel guests and entered the park 15 minutes early. I split off from the family and walked real fast (since there were signs that said “no running”), took the back way (learned from other DisneySea blog posts) and got us Fast Passes for Soaring for 11:15! I don’t know if there’s anything else that I’ve achieved to be more proud of!
Then we headed to Indiana Jones and enjoyed the quiet before the official open time began. On Day 2, we made the most of the Rider Switch Passes. DisneySea offers Rider Switch Passes to anyone accompanying someone who doesn’t meet the riding restrictions. They use your park ticket to record the pass. This way you can enjoy other rides while your other family members ride the attraction, then your Rider Switch Pass works just like a Fast pass when you switch off.
Trent and T enjoyed Indiana Jones while Liv and I went on the Flounder roller coaster. Front seats and the only ones on the ride! Then I took my turn at Indiana Jones, but T would NOT go again with me. Too scary! I blew past a 30+ minute line. The version of the ride is awesome and the use of the Rider Switch tickets made it even better!
Off to Raging Spirits where we did the Rider Switch process again. Raging Spirits was the only over an hour wait time for the day!
Liv and I went to see the Little Mermaid show, while the boys rode the rollercoaster. The show was was amazing! A live Ariel swung through the air while we enjoyed all of the Little Mermaid songs in Japanese.
Before heading to Soaring, we got even more strategic with our Fast Pass plan. We knew that we would pick up 3 Tower of Terror Fast Passes later in the day. So we used our last park ticket to pick up a Fast Pass for Raging Spirits (T loves that ride) and we would have one of us adults use the Single Rider entrance to ride with him.
Soaring is another family favorite. Once again this version is almost identical to the California Adventure ride. The entrance area, however, was amazing and uses some new-to-us technology that was very impressive. A must-see!
Another fun DisneySea note. There are so many people fully dressed up in costume that it’s hard to tell who is a Disney cast member and who is a guest! We saw three Jack Sparrows together and it took us about 5 minutes to figure out that one was actually a Disney Cast member.
After another visit to the Fortress Explorer, a couple of rides on Sinbad’s Journey and catching part of the water show, we headed over to the American Waterfront to end the day. We had time until our Tower of Terror Fast Passes and didn’t know what to do. We wended up having drinks at the Teddy Roosevelt lounge. Located inside the huge cruise ship, the S. S. Columbia, in the Waterfront, the lounge is filled with dark wood, deep booths and a great cocktail list. You don’t even realize that you’re in Disney!
We purchased our souvenirs (Minnie ears for Liv, a Chandu key chain for T and a Duffy purse for me). We ended our day with Trent and I taking turns on Tower of Terror. The ride’s format is the same as other parks, but the theme is very different. It was a great version and it’s a whole different experience riding it in Japan. Everyone gets much more into the ride and loves being scared!
Oh Disney, you got us again and we loved it! So happy to spend two days at DisneySea. We hope that if you made it to the end of this post that you get to visit it someday too!
