Tokyo Disneyland

My husband is a huge theme park fan and I am not. I tag along, I eat the snacks, but I don’t like waiting in lines or being in large crowds.

Me eating snacks at Tokyo Disney Sea in 2018

A few years ago I went on a wives trip to Tokyo and we managed to visit Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea. Our tour in Korea was cut short so we never had the chance to go back as a family and my husband has been dying to ever since. He had a few comp days that lined up with a day off of school for London so we took a last minute trip to Tokyo for the weekend.

We bought our Tokyo Disneyland tickets on Klook because none of our credit cards would work on the Tokyo Disney webpage. The parks are trying to be as cashless as possible (I still used cash for some snacks) and they accepted our Visa and American Express cards. You cannot buy the discounted after 3/5 tickets on Klook, those had to be done at a ticketbooth.

We arrived at our hotel around 2:00 and I mentioned that you could purchase discounted afternoon tickets. My husband was sold. We had time to unpack, have a snack and check out our hotel. We made our way to Tokyo Disney Sea and finally managed to find the ticket booth to purchase tickets. Brandon and London made their way onto Journey to the Center of the Earth and a few others while Millie and I explored Ariel’s playground. We met back up to ride Raging Spirits (London’s favorite overall) and Nemo & Friends Searider.

Since we chose to come after 5:00, I’m glad that we had eaten beforehand so we didn’t waste time looking for dinner here and were able to maximize the four hours that we had. Highly recommend doing it that way! Also, since it was a Thursday evening, the park was not at all crowded. We were able to jump on rides very quickly and see as much as possible. The girls were so excited and we wore them out. I mentioned before that I’m not a big theme park person but we have taken both girls to Disneyworld before and at different ages. Age 3 seems to be great time for Disney. When we took London right before she turned 3, she managed the whole day in awe without a nap or throwing a fit. Millie just turned 3 and she was just the same. They are so into the rides at this age, it is really fun to experience with them.

The next morning (Friday) we decided we weren’t going to wake the girls and rush them to the park. We let them sleep in and we managed to miss the morning crowd rushing into the park. I was on my morning walk when I came across the Disney entrance and it was just like I remembered from my previous visit - lines of people waiting at the gates to get in. I was so thankful we decided to let the girls sleep. Once they woke up, we ate breakfast and made our way into the park around 10. No lines, no crowds, just perfect. My plan for the day - eat all the snacks. My husband’s plan - ride all the rides. I think we did a pretty good job with both.

We started with Monster’s Inc and made our way around. Splash Mountain was hands down a family favorite for the day. I recorded us going down the waterfall and right after I pushed stop, Millie said “THAT WAS FUN!” I was so bummed I didn’t catch it on camera because her face says otherwise.

Splash Mountain, Tokyo Disneyland 2023.

This was the longest line we waited in all day at 55 minutes. London said she would’ve loved to ride it again, but she didn’t want to wait that long again. We skipped over the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast because it was an hour plus wait almost all day. Other than that, everything was pretty easy to jump on. The girls even got to meet some of the characters which was so fun for them! Millie is very into Daisy Duck right now and that night London wanted to watch all the Pocahontas movies.

We saw the afternoon parade and the evening light show parade before we made our way out of the park at closing. The parade is a whole production in itself. During the day, we got to see Rapunzel swinging around her float by her hair and at night Minnie Mouse looked right at London and motioned to her matching bow headband. Needless to say, London was thrilled.

I highly recommend visiting Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea during the week. Neither were busy like in the States and I felt like we were able to maximize our time and money. One day weekday pass adult tickets are ¥8,400, juniors (12-17) are ¥7,000 and kids (4-11) are ¥5,000. Weekend tickets are ¥9,400, ¥7,800 and ¥5,600. The Early Evening Passport (weekends and holidays) after 3:00 are ¥7,200, ¥6,400 and ¥4,400. Weeknights after 5:00 all tickets are ¥4,800 (~$35USD). We spent $106 for 3 after 5:00 tickets and $163 for 3 weekday passes. Also, for my friends living in Asia, Daiso carries Minnie Mouse headbands for 5,000₩‎. I bought 2 of each color for 20,000₩‎ total - at $15 total, that’s less than I’ve ever paid for a Minnie headband. I also highly recommend paying attention to the weather - and the wind! - before going. The winds were between 16-23mph the whole weekend we were there and it was CHILLY at Disney at night. I was so glad we brought jackets and pants.

Our trip was pretty last minute and all of the Disney resort hotels were sold out except for one at $2,500/night and that wasn’t in our budget. Honestly, based on the proximity of all the local hotels to the park, I’d have a hard time paying that price even if it was in my budget. We knew we wanted to stay as local as possible so we didn’t have to travel far to get to Disney and we chose the Hilton Tokyo Bay. We loved it so much! We chose the Family Happy Magic Room Ocean view room for the bunk bed and ocean view. This is not the cheapest room option they offer but we’ve learned what works best for us when traveling with kids. It was a 3 minute walk to the rail line and there was a free shuttle. They also loved the amenities the hotel staff left for them and London said she loved the kids toothpaste they had and wants me to find it for her. We’re trying to earn those Hilton rewards right now however there are soooo many hotels on this strip including the Toy Story Hotel that had an incredibly fun looking park. We took the shuttle bus from Narita Airport and it cost our family about $45. I **highly** recommend booking the shuttle bus back to the airport ASAP because when we went to book it, it was completely sold out and we ended up having to take a taxi back to the airport and it was almost $200.

Credit card blurb: We are maximizing our travels as much as financially feasible while living in South Korea and one way we’re doing so is by using our credit cards to earn points. For this trip, we used our American Express Hilton Honors card to earn 14x points on the hotel stay. You get complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond status, one free night stay per year, $100 resort credit if you stay 2+ nights, and up to $250 in statement credits for eligible purchases made directly with participating Hiltons. Less than a week after returning for our trip we were already credited $250 back. (You also get 7x points on travel which is currently better than their Platinum card, 7x points on dining in the US and 3x points on everything else.) While we typically prefer to stay in AirBNB’s while traveling with kids, I always price out all my options and this time, staying at the Hilton was incredibly comparable. If you’d like any American Express referral links or have any more questions on our stay at this particular Hilton, I would love to answer them for you! I should mention that American Express waives their yearly fees for military members. If you don’t travel or use their benefits, you might not find their credit cards to be as valuable to you.