James & Gemma do Tokyo Disneyland - Day 5

[James&Gemma]

Originally Posted by disney20042012

Hi, love the trip reports, I have never even considered Tokyo before, is it a trip that you can book a package for or is it for the DIY? I have just looked on the net and can see that you can book resort hotels but was wondering about flights etc. How did you manage the language barrier?

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We did this trip completely DIY, not sure if packages do exist but in our research for the trip we did not find any.

As for flights we collect Air Miles/Avios points with BA so we used some of our points to book a flight to Narita Airport (The Closest one to Disney).

As for the language barrier the Japanese are so friendly, usually with a bit of pointing at what you want and trying your best with the limited amount of Japanese we would strongly recommend people learn you can usually overcome it.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by James&Gemma

We just took pictures but there were some people videoing the show, however the messages before the show were all in Japanese so I'm not 100% sure if you can or not.

And don't forget there are strict rules in TDL & TDS of no tripods, unipods or anything of the sort.

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Thanks for that.

[Alyson]

I am fascinated by your report and the photos are really good, the theming seems to be on another level.

I know we will never go there because DH won't queue for anything longer than 5 mins and I'm not far behind him, staggered by the wait times, but with the population and how the tickets work, it makes sense

Thanks again for posting, it's lovely to read all about somewhere different

[Guest]

The detail at Tokyo Disney is exceptional even more so than you get at WDW. Disneyland California has a Snow White waterfall with white Italian marble statues of Snow and the dwarves. The Japanese had it copied faithfully.

[Guest]

When's the best time to go souvenir shopping? Did the parks quieten down any point during the day? Are we ok to buy our tickets online with Disney & collect there?

[Guest]

Originally Posted by geoffa

The reason is that the Japanese are not ones for lying in bed. They hit the parks first thing en masse and thus, like James reported, within minutes of park opening rides already have a two to three hour line on Standby. Think of every attraction being like Toy Story Mania at DHS.The guide books I have say that even though you might go when kids are in school you will get massive parties of them (in uniform) visiting for a couple of days. We have had to plan really hard to avoid schoolkids and "Silver Week" which can occur in September - a 5 day holiday! Thankfully, that doesn't occur again until 2015. Like Disney Paris weekends are to be avoided (the locals descend on the place) and even Mondays and Fridays can be significantly busy because people take extended weekend stayovers. The peak and off park does not work like the American parks.
It's worth knowing too that you must buy your tickets at the park becase they are day specific. If you buy a 4 day ticket you have to use 4 days in a row - no breaks. If you've bought from an agency which won't be date specific you come last on the list for entry if the parks reach capacity.

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We are really struggling with when to book for! Ive tried to research each month but still undecided!

[James&Gemma]

Originally Posted by princess_chazy

When's the best time to go souvenir shopping? Did the parks quieten down any point during the day? Are we ok to buy our tickets online with Disney & collect there?

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Unfortunately the best time to shop is first thing in the morning after that the shops are heaving. And avoid going when the parks are closing, some shops we couldn't even get into they were so busy.

The parks do tend to quieten down a bit after the last show of the day. I.e. Fantasmic in Disney Sea but only a tiny amount and this only concerns rides.

You will be fine buying tickets for the park online direct from Disney and picking them up at the gate. The other alternative is to buy them at the hotel (if you stay at one of the ones listed on the Disney website) as they still guarantee you admission.

[Guest]

Thank you. Can you advise any websites that may help us decide on time of year to go? I'm thinking October November isn't really a good idea if we plan to do any rides!

[Guest]

We're thinking October would be a good time to go crowd level wise from the various books we've read, but can't. We have to go September because of my OH's business commitments.

[Guest]

The book I'm reading at the moment says fall is best for weather but crowds could be high from the locals.