Disneyland/Disneysea Tokyo booking woes!

[Guest]

Okay thank you for the info ! I’m so paranoid that they will sell out but hopefully not xxx

[AntonyJ]

That is so kind - with her going to the parks Monday’s - can I ask how / why?

Originally Posted by fifi500

Had a fantastic time, thank you. I did rather fall for Tokyo over my 2 weeks. I am extremely lucky in that as a single traveller on my return flight I was approached to take a flight 24 hours later due to over booking and as a result have a complimentary ticket for a return flight within the next year, plus not everyone turned up so I made the flight anyway. So I will be going back.

If anyone wants any information from the Disney area, my DD will be visiting most Mondays (and any other days she can fit in) for the next year so will be willing to find out what she can or take photographs to pass on.

I will start a trip report in the next few days but be warned I also spent days cleaning student accommodation and shopping for pans and toilet roll, so some days may be more interesting than others! !

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[fifi500]

My DD is on her year abroad as part of her Japanese language degree. She is studying this year at a university in Tokyo and it looks like her timetable will work out that she has no classes on a Monday, so her plan is to visit Disney on these days as to avoid weekends in the parks.

Her Grandparents kindly gifted her enough money before her trip to purchase a 2 park annual pass and extra to cover her transport costs for a weekly visit.

[AntonyJ]

Lordy!

Love her grand parents - do they want to adopt “slightly” older people, a grandson to complete the set say? :-)

[AntonyJ]

But in all seriousness - wow!

What an opportunity for her - now to have a think about things to ask her about Japan and Disney there.

Take it she is a huge Disney fan herself? In general or just the parks?

[fifi500]

A fantastic opportunity for her and as her first experience away from home quite a step. She is a huge disney fan in every way, she caught the bug age 4 when she watched a disney stage show at a shopping mall in Singapore (Grandparents lived in Singapore at that time). Since then we have made 12 trips to DLP and 6 to WDW. Her long term ambition in to work in a disney park and be able to use her japanese language skills. A Disney annual pass and transport costs is so that she always has somewhere to go that has a familiar feel and never has to worry that she can't afford it.

Please do ask any questions, the university in Japan has rather left them to their own devices with no way of mixing with other students although she is not a big socializer anyway so she does rather need little missions to do and purpose to her visits to Disney so that she does not get bored on her own. I have set her the challenge of photographing all of the gold 35th anniversary mickey statues for me

I am putting together a report , it will cover lots of practical things that we have discovered( cash from 711, printing boarding cards at 711, using the trains , how much is in English etc) as apart from disney we did no tourist attractions but more setting up a real life. So hopefully it will be useful to someone.

[AntonyJ]

Your report sounds v useful so I for one look forward to it.

Some things to start with:

I have been devouring YT videos of Tokyo and the Disney parks, as after our first 2 or 3 days at Disney we move into Tokyo. I am not an adventurous eater and while there will be some Japanese food I will be eating, the videos of 711 / Lawsons show the high quality food they do themselves. Do Lawsons have English on their own brand food goods as the YT videos I have seen suggest?

711 ATM network seem to be best at taking UK cards to withdraw cash , that your experience?

Will most stores, departments stores, food shops (apart from the smaller places to eat) in Tokyo itself take debit / credit cards?

I have added a Suica card to my iPhone and on the YT vids it seems to be accepted in 711 / Lawsons to buy things, and also in the food places you seem to find in / around major stations, that correct?

Finally for now, bit random, one thing I like getting from States is anti bac gels to clean hands, in different scents, from Bath and Body Works - any chain like that in Japan? In one video I saw the cosmetics chain “It’s Demo” did many Disney themed ones , but no idea on scents.

[fifi500]

I can answer some of your questions and will get DD to search out further information.

Food wise we are also extremely unadventurous and booked our hotel with this in mind, so had a room with a kitchenette, which we did use. DD is vegetarian and I have a shellfish allergy. I found that foods at 711 and family mart were sometimes named english but ingredients only listed in japanese so I was absolutely dependent on DD to check any foods that I liked the look of. We very quickly realised that convenience stores were not suitable for us (no fruit/vegetables ) and searched out proper supermarkets. 2 particularly good supermarkets were Seiyu which is owned by Walmart (we used the one near Sunshine city, Ikebukuro ) and Seijo at Ikspiari, Disney. Both had English labels and we could buy fresh fruit and vegetables, pasta, cheese etc. DD has a Lawson next to her local station so will pop in and take some photos of the food packaging for you over the next few days.

We used 711 cash machines for withdrawing cash. We both set up Starling accounts as they have no fees for overseas withdrawal, before our trip and they worked fine.The machines had an English option, minimum withdrawal is ¥10,000 approx £70 then in multiples of 10,000. For the ¥10,000 withdrawal you could choose 10 x 1,000 notes or 1 x 10,000 note. We also used our starling cards in Dubai airport, Hanaeda airport, Disney to purchase tickets and the Seiyu supermarket. Other we used cash, it is such a cash society and we found in the non touristy areas we were in that everyone used cash and we generally found that trying to do anything that was not the normal was difficult. For example in 2 different mcdonalds (classy I know) my DD tried to order just 1 meal and an extra fries, she had no problems with the language but they could not understand that she did not want 2 meals. Sitting looking around everyone without exception had a set meal.

Generally I would say you need to carry quite large amounts of cash - for example on my last evening at Disney we left the park at 10.30 pm, we came out to find that the train lines had gone down and after speaking to staff our only way to the next station was by taxi, so we joined the taxi queue, it was hours long and in that time we missed the last train from the next station. We were looking in the region of £100+ for a taxi , so just as my husband was about to book us a disney hotel for the night (from home) , it was announced by megaphone that they were running one train to Tokyo station (about 1am)so we ran and managed to get on that and once at Tokyo station we got a taxi back to Ikebukuro, it cost us about £40. Taxis are cash only and if we had not had the cash we would of been a bit stuck. Lots of people were very upset and clearly did not have the money for taxis, but no support was being offered. With my husband on the Internet at home looking up options and finding us the right exit for a taxi rank and cash available we got back to our hotel at 3am without those options I dread to think.


We had a physical suica and pasmo card which we used just for the trains, very easy to recharge with cash at machines at the station, with English instructions option. Each time we swiped them at barrier they gave a balance. I did see signs to use them at various stores but never tried it. We had both so that DD now has both and can keep her travel expenses to university separate to her leisure travel, as she can claim back university costs . They seemed interchangeable and even worked on the Disney monorail.

Antibacterial gels - shall we just say that I came home from each florida trip with around 30 handgel, I came back from Tokyo with none. They exist, nice but standard scents - strawberry , peach, citrus etc But it is all about the cute case not the contents. A sanrio one was around ¥700 , each character case had a different scent gel. Disney had packs of 4 each with a different character. DD will photograph them for you with prices on her next Disney visit ( not tomorrow, it is freshers week so she has some extra bits on at uni).

Hope these answers help, let me know if I have not explained things well and I will try again,.

[AntonyJ]

Ohhhh you and your daughter might be my new best friends - thank you so much!

Away for long weekend in Stockholm at moment, so will type longer reply later in day when get a chance!

Now, does your daughter need a delivery of Walkers crisps next May ? ;-))))

[AntonyJ]

You love anti bac too - you are perfect lol!

I am boring with food, but like chicken and thin cuts of beef.
Raw fish I cannot even think about trying alas, and do not like soups so food like ramen that comes with that huge amount of broth, is not really for me. Food that comes in sauces rather than soup am fine with. I had a fear I would be mostly eating in McD but research has shown many things I will eat thankfully.

Diet drinks - I hear it can be hard to find coke / Pepsi in sugar free forms, Coke Zero is not commonplace I read. Did you see that? I do not drink hot drinks so ice cold water / diet cola is a fav.

Think that is it for now