Tokyo Travels - Day 5 part 2

[hornetgirl]

Day five – part 2

And so it was time to leave the Hilton Shinjuku and move on to the second part of our adventure – Tokyo Disneyland. When we collected our bags, the hotel’s lovely lady bellhop, who looked like she might be about 16, asked if she could help us with our onward journey. We needed to get back to Tokyo Station to catch a Japanese Rail train to Maihama, and while getting to Tokyo Station would be easy enough, it’s huge and we didn’t fancy doing the trip with our luggage in tow, so we decided a taxi would be our best option. The bellhop took us to the taxi rank outside the hotel and explained to the driver where he needed to take us.

The taxi was absolutely spotless inside, with white cloth covers fitted over the seats and white crocheted head rests. The driver wore a smart grey uniform, complete with peaked cap and white gloves. Whilst the metro would have been cheaper, we were happy to pay the 3200 yen fare (about £22.50), especially as we were dropped at a small side entrance, which took us straight to the line we needed without having to negotiate the vastness that is Tokyo Station. There appeared to be two services to Maihama, an express one and a local one. More by luck than judgement we managed to catch the express one, which took about 15 minutes.

Our destination was the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, which we could see from the station. It looked an easy walk, so off we set. It didn’t take too long but was a bit awkward with our luggage. In hindsight we should have used our Pasmo cards and taken the resort monorail round to the hotel.

The sign near the entrance/exit reminded me of the DibbCast.

As we approached the hotel, a little Japanese boy pointed at the topiary and excitedly shouted “Donald-san.”

The hotel lobby was stunning and reminded me very much of the Grand Floridian in Orlando.

Check in was quite straightforward, although there seemed to be a lot of paperwork involved. We were presented with the cutest room keys ever

four-day passes for the monorail (due to Japanese regulations, the monorail isn't free here but on site guests receive passes as a little perk)

and our Happy 15 tickets, which are the nearest thing Tokyo has to EMH – basically on site guests have a separate queue at the park entrance and are let in 15 minutes ahead of everyone else, which gives you a bit of a head start for securing past passes and getting a first ride done.

We also purchased our park tickets. The CM showed us a list of the choices available and we opted for the 3 day version. For the first two days we had one admission to each of the two parks and for the third day we could park hop. We also had to specify now the order in which we would visit the parks, so we chose Disneyland for day one and DisneySea for day two.

Formalities completed, we were taken to our room by another teenaged female bellhop. She seemed keen to practise her English and enthusiastically pointed out lots of details in the hotel’s theming, stopping every so often so she could challenge us to find the hidden Mickeys, of which there were many.

Mickey and Goofy’s voices were also used in the elevator for the “Doors closing” type announcements, although they were in Japanese so we have no idea what they actually said.

Finally we reached our room and after checking that we were happy with everything, the bellhop left us to admire the details. It was beautiful.

And oh my goodness, what a view.

When we could tear ourselves away from our beautiful room, we decided it was time for something to eat. We could have got evening tickets to one of the parks, but decided to save them until tomorrow, so instead we caught the monorail to Ikspiari, the nearest thing Tokyo has to Downtown Disney/Disney Springs. Even the monorail was beautifully themed.

We couldn’t agree on where to eat, so opted for the food court on the lower level – where we both chose the same thing anyway! As soon as he saw us, the staff member produced an illustrated menu with English writing on to help us. We had stir fried beef with noodles.

With many of the places we ate at, we found that most people didn’t bother with soft drinks and just helped themselves to cold water from a tap in the dining area, and this was no exception so we followed suit.

After eating we checked out a little supermarket near to the food court, but didn’t bother with anything else as we didn’t think the majority of the shops looked that interesting. I did buy a bar of chocolate in the supermarket, just because it looked so pretty.

Then we caught the monorail back to the hotel

where we admired more of the lovely details

before heading to our room to unpack before bed. PJs were provided in the room, so Sean duly obliged.

[kevin_cambs_uk]

WOW, you bring back such great memories.

Again its the attention to details, the cleanliness, the politeness that shine through in Japan, the monorail, made me realise how shabby the one in Florida was.

Said it before and I will say it again, cant wait to go back , and once a again a great write up! I think we will get the taxi to the Tokyo station.

The taxi services are superb though super clean, super efficient and very helpful

I Love Japan!

Roll on the next day please!

[sheluk]

What an exciting day & your hotel & view looks amazing! Really makes me want to visit now

[hawki]

Wow Lucy, I love the room & that view is amazing! Cant wait to read the rest, thanks for sharing

Julie

[smedley]

Gorgeous!

[blusteryday]

Great post...loving the view!

[Gill H]

Oh wow, the hotel room looks beautiful. Glad you found it so easy to get there.