Tokyo Disney Resort Part II: Tokyo Disneyland
Disneyland like you've (somewhat) never experienced it before.
The story goes that Walt Disney and co. chose Anaheim for the first ever Disney theme park due, in large part, to its proximity to the major metropolitan area of Los Angeles.
And not long after Disneyland opened in 1955, in the late ‘50s, a businessman from Japan inquired about the possibility of building a Disney theme park abroad. Walt was actually interested in the idea, but like many of his projects, it ended up fizzling out before it could get started.
Still, the desire from the Japanese to build and house a Disney park of their own never really went away, and by 1983 it had become a reality.
And no offense to L.A., which I love, but you can’t hold a candle to Tokyo in terms of sheer numbers, with 41 million residents inhabiting the metro region — the most populous metropolitan area on the planet.
So yeah, all of Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR) gets pretty busy with not only 41 million people within a train ride of visiting, but all the people who are visiting from around the world, plus things like affordable ticket prices ($50-$70 for a single-day ticket), park-unique attractions, and seasonal offerings.
As I noted in Part I of this series, we only had one day carved out for each park, as this was tacked on to our overall larger trip to Japan. So I’m sure there are folks reading this who have way more experience than I do — but here’s what I learned about Tokyo Disneyland during my one-day visit.
A manageable and familiar park
The first thing I noticed walking into Tokyo Disneyland was something that would stay with me throughout the day: a simultaneous sense of the familiar and new.
Sadly, we arrived an hour later than we planned to thanks to some train mixups, but on the upside that meant we didn’t have to wait in the insane security lines at park open.
Because we were transferring from our stay in Shinjuku, we had some luggage with us. Thankfully, it was easy to find storage lockers near security and store things away for the day. (Sidenote: We used a luggage transfer service for our bigger items — totally worth it. Ping me with questions.)
Getting through security was also a breeze. And as soon as we walked through the metal detector one thing became clear — the scale of Tokyo’s Disney parks is… pretty damn big.
There’s no esplanade here, but instead roughly a 100-yard walk from security to the ticket gates, where you can imagine it was full of eager parkgoers just an hour earlier.
I pulled up my tickets on my TDR app, and we were in with no issues.
And that’s when the familiar/new sensation kicked right in. As we entered what I continue to call Main Street, even though in Tokyo it’s called World Bazaar, I was hit with the familiar shopfronts, a marching band, and all the things you’ve come to expect from a visit to Disneyland or Magic Kingdom.
But then you look up and see the conservatory-style roof covering everything, and notice the side street that cuts through with additional restaurants and shops. The whole thing feels a bit more like a mall than a turn-of-the-century American main street, but at least you have somewhere to get out of the rain/heat/kaiju/whatever else Tokyo throws at you.
And then you walk out of the World Bazaar to the most impressive Disney castle I’ve ever seen in person.
So I need to take some photography classes, but hopefully this gives you a sense of the scale here. Beyond the Partners statue is a huge area for walking and parade viewing before you even reach the castle.
One thing that really struck me about the castle was the sense of realism. There’s more grey and you can see the individual stones (or at least something that’s made to look like individual stones), and as you get closer it truly towers above everything.
And this was common throughout the park: the wide open spaces. Unlike the bottle necks you get in Disneyland, and even at time in Magic Kingdom, there’s plenty of space for everyone to get to wherever they’re going, even though there are probably thousands to tens of thousands more people in the park at any given time compared to the U.S.
From here it was a similar experience throughout the park. All the familiar lands are there, even if some, like Westernland (which is in essence Frontierland) have different names or vary a bit in how they look or feel.
What you need to know about the attractions
The name of the game at both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea is reducing the amount of time you’re spending standing around waiting. Especially if you’re like me and you only have one day at the park — and even moreso if you’re really like me and got to the park late because of a stupid train.
So do your homework beforehand and figure out what your priorities are. At Disneyland, you’ll probably end up having some extra time to ride a few extra things if you play your cards right.
Since I’m a pretty regular visitor to Disneyland and have reasonable access to Magic Kingdom, I chose to focus on the attractions that are either totally or mostly unique to Tokyo.
And critically, I wanted to spend as little time in really long lines as possible, while still enjoying as many attractions as I could. Did I mention lines get insanely long there?
So here’s what you need to know:
These are the attractions that have Disney Premier Access (DPA aka the Tokyo version of Individual Lightning Lane):
Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast
The Happy Ride with Baymax
Splash Mountain
And yes, you read that right — they still have Splash Frickin’ Mountain.
Now here are the attractions that have 40th Anniversary Priority Pass access available:
Big Thunder Mountain
Pooh’s Hunny Hunt
Haunted Mansion
Star Wars: The Adventure Continues
Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek!
It’s worth noting that most of the classic rides here are more or less clones of the Anaheim parks. Space Mountain is still in the midst of a major renovation, but otherwise there’s not much difference (besides the language) for most of the similar attractions. More on that below.
The most-unique attractions: Beauty and the Beast & Pooh
If you’re a plebeian like me and don’t have a Vacation Package or Happy Entry, then the first thing you’ll want to do when you get inside the park is secure a DPA for Beauty and the Beast. The standby times regularly reach 160 minutes on a slow day, and this is one you do not want to miss.
The immersion and practical effects are on par with any of the best experiences in any theme park in the world, and it is by far the most unique attraction in all of Tokyo Disneyland. Pay the $$$, it’s well worth it.
It’s worth noting that we got into the park a little after 10 a.m. and had no problem getting a DPA for Beauty and the Beast, although our slot was for later in the evening. I think by 11 or noon they were all gone, but they are definitely attainable as long as you prioritize it.
The next thing we planned on doing was to grab a Priority Pass for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, as we had heard that it’s apparently a banger and pretty unique compared to the U.S. Pooh rides. Sadly, the passes for Pooh were all gone due to our lateness, so instead we grabbed one for Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek!, since that seemed to be the most unique out of what was available.
We opted to wait in a roughly 50-minute standby line for Pooh anyways, and this actually ended up being one of the highlights of the day.
Since I wanted to avoid spoilers, I won’t leave too many here, but suffice it to say this Pooh ride is bigger, better, and longer than any of the other Pooh rides in America. I’d recommend getting an Anniversary Pass for this one, assuming you get there earlier than I did, or hitting it up when you enter while the line is reasonable.
Splash Mountain and other attractions of note
I also want to point out Splash Mountain here. The last thing I’m going to do here is go down any kind of political rabbit hole (there are plenty of other places to do so, if that’s what you’re looking for), so I’ll simply say that setting all that junk aside, it’s pretty damn cool that there’s somewhere in the world where you can revisit this classic attraction. And since it’s all in Japanese and you have to travel a bazillion miles to get there, it feels totally outside all the baggage it would carry at home.
We used a DPA for this one as the wait times, even when it’s chilly, still hit up to 90 minutes or longer on the regular. We got a time in the early evening so I was able to anticipate this one all day long.
And it was well worth the wait — not only is this version at least as good as Magic Kingdom’s, it might even be somehow better. There are even a few scenes and characters that you only get, and only would have ever gotten, in Tokyo.
It’s a little bit weird, assuming you don’t speak Japanese, to watch the story unfold in a different language, but since you probably pretty much know it by heart it doesn’t really affect the experience. I honestly didn’t know it still existed at TDR until we started planning, so the mere fact I was on Splash Mountain kind of just blew my mind the entire time. It really felt like a special experience.
Honestly, between Beauty and the Beast and Splash Mountain, that just about made the entire trip worthwhile.
The one weird thing on Splash Mountain? There was literally no “splash.” For the final drop, there were some misters going, but at no point did I feel even a touch of water splashing into the log. I’m not sure if that’s just how they roll, or if they turned down the splash effects because of the cooler temps.
With all of that out of the way, I’ll try to keep it brief for the other stuff here by using the time-honored tradition of bullet points.
Here are the other highlights in terms of attractions:
Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek!: It’s fine. For younglings it’s probably a blast. Basically you have flashlights and when you shine them on anything that has a Monsters, Inc. icon, it does something, like bop up and down. Kinda cool. Otherwise, it’s basically like riding through Mike & Sulley to the Rescue in Anaheim. Maybe save this one for when the California attraction is defunct.
The Happy Ride with Baymax: OK, this was unexpectedly way fun. It’s just a clone of Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree or Alien Swirling Saucers, except it’s Baymax themed. But the best part is there’s a playlist of special songs that play during the ride, and people are FRICKING INTO IT. Each song has it’s own special dance and Cast Members give 100% during each run. Many folks in line and on the ride will join in the dancing as well. Even if you don’t ride this one, just go check it out. We used a DPA for it, and I’d say it was worth it — but I wouldn’t wait in the 90+ minute standby line for it.
Western River Railroad: Unlike at Magic Kingdom or Disneyland, the railroad at Tokyo Disneyland doesn’t double as a way to commute around the park. Instead, it’s a confined ride. But other than that, it’s pretty much a repeat of the other Disney railroads with the highlights all mashed together (yes, it has the dinosaurs). It’s a fine way to kill some time in between DPAs as the wait time is generally pretty low on this one.
Pirates of the Caribbean: I’ll never say no to Pirates. This one’s darn near an exact clone of Anaheim and Orlando (it’s even mostly in English) — with the notable exception that the more progressive updates in the U.S. have not yet been instituted in Tokyo. Namely, men are still chasing women and Redd is still up for auction. I guess in Tokyo they keep their Pirates old school.
We also took a round on small world, again because of shorter wait times and DPAs scheduled for later in the day, and it was… fine. The queue is all inside and little bit unique, but otherwise this is one you can skip.
Oh, and a word to the wise: Stitch Encounter is NOT, I repeat NOT, a clone of the Stitch’s Great Escape!/ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter attractions of ye olden days at WDW. Since Splash Mountain is still there, along with some of the other old school versions of things, I just assumed that’s what it was. NOPE. It’s more like Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor where a digital Stitch interacts with the audience… fully in Japanese. So unless you are fluent, I’d suggest skipping this one. Although, I will admit I still had a sense of terror as I prayed that no one in my party would get called upon during the show.
What you need to know about the food
Ramping up to our trip we watched approximately 17,000,000 videos, with a large percentage of them mentioning that the food was pretty meh. We didn’t have a chance to sample a whole lot, but I’d say that myth was fully busted — we got down on some yummy stuff, ya’ll!
Before we dive into the food, a quick heads-up: mobile ordering is much less common at TDR. This is true for both parks, so do your homework ahead of time. Just like basically anything in Tokyo, people will line up and wait if there’s an option to do so, so planning ahead in terms of what you want to mobile order, and what you’re willing to wait in line for, will go a long way.
The first thing we housed was the fried fish sandwich that comes on a Chinese-style bun — basically like the dough you’d get for a bao bun. The buns are also colored yellow and shaped to look like a duck’s foot, since these are available at Huey, Dewey and Loui’s Good Time Cafe in Toontown.
We also got some more basic stuff here, like a Mickey-shaped pizza and some fries. They were at least as good as anything you’d get at the U.S. parks, and the fish sandwich was actually pretty great. Highly recommended.
Nearby we also found one of the few popcorn lines that wasn’t a 45-minute wait, and grabbed some honey-flavored popcorn.
The popcorn is a whole thing at TDR, across both parks. The lines can get pretty long, so check out which flavors you might want ahead of time and plan accordingly. Also, they sell some pretty cool popcorn related items, like a popcorn bucket holder that we got. It comes with a strap and you can place up to two regular sized popcorns in there. We’ll definitely be bringing it with us on future trips.
Sadly, I think the steak plate at Center Street Coffeehouse has already been updated since we were there, but I’m sure it’s still pretty delish. I guess we had the fall-themed version and now it’s winter? But either way, this place was super good all around. That gratin you see in the pic above? So. Damn. Good.
This was the one restaurant we were willing to get reservations for and spend precious time sitting and eating — I’d recommend it if you’re thinking about it.
We also got the Baymax plate, which features beef stroganoff and chicken curry separated by a rice Baymax.
Cute and tasty at the same time.
One cool general thing at TDR is that they will post the dates for seasonal offerings right there in the app, so when you’re doing your research you should be able to see what will be available during your visit, instead of having to guess and scour social media to figure it out.
Lastly, I need to mention these little guys.
The Little Green Dumplings are all they’re cracked up to be. Yummy and sweet cream filling inside a mochi-like wrapper made to look like the aliens from Toy Story. Yes and yes. You can find them in a few spots across both parks at TDR. My only tip for these? Get an order for each member of your party. Maybe two.
That was about what we were able to get in foodwise at Disneyland. The general vibe was that the food was better than I expected, so chow down.
Shows and parades
Sorry, but there’s not a lot I can offer you on this one, other than a few general tips.
When it comes to shows, both Disneyland and DisneySea offer a lottery for every show to get priority seating. Not a virtual queue, a lottery. Several shows also offer paid DPAs to gain guaranteed seating, but it seems those went pretty quick, as when we tried to grab one for Mickey’s Magical Music World they were gonezoes.
In terms of parades, we did catch a little bit of Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights. While we saw people nabbing spots for parades well ahead of time throughout the day, we had no problem finding a good viewing spot for this one, even after it had already started. It’s basically the Tokyo version of Paint the Night. Pretty cool, but nothing I’d make special plans for myself.
Otherwise, sadly, I can’t give you any more advice on this front — but if you had a chance to see any shows or parades at TDR, drop a comment!
Final tips and closing thoughts
Here’s the bottom line: You’re probably going to be able to do the stuff you want with little to no issues, even if you only have one day and get there late. To do everything, you could probably easily do so with a Vacation Package or an extra day.
Would I have liked to check out Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion, just to see if/how they differ (and to get my fix)? Sure, but leaving for the day without hitting those attractions really didn’t bother me at all. I came away with a great dose of Disney while also experiencing some cool, new things.
Would I go back? If I go back to Japan, I doubt I’d spend my precious time coming back to Tokyo Disneyland… unless a representative is interested in paying a non-influencer like me to take a special trip to the park to experience the new Space Mountain when it opens…
That said, I’m really glad I got to have the experience, and it’s certainly something I think every Disney Parks fan would enjoy at least once in their lives.
Great breakdown of hte unique versus clone attractions distinction. That insight about prioritizing DPA for Beauty and the Beast really saves folks from wasting a full day in standby, especially when you only got one shot at the park. Had a similar approach at Universal Japan where I learned the hard way that trying to do everything ends up being way less enjoyable than hitting the truly unique stuff. The observation about Tokyo's spatial layout being more generous than Disneyland's bottleneks is underrated since crowd flow makes such a diff in overall park experience.