My Weekend at Tokyo Disney Resort

To Infinity and Beyond!

The Tower of Terror

As of this year I am 4/6 of the way completed with my goal to visit every Disney park in the world. Tokyo Disney Resort took every expectation I had and completely blew it out of the water. Tokyo Disney Resort has two parks in the resort, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea. Tokyo Disneyland is where the castle resides and looks very similar to Magic Kingdom in Orlando. Tokyo Disney Sea is unlike any other park in the world and has some of the coolest, most unique rides in the world. 

Accomodations

Disney Tokyo is about an hour outside of Tokyo and there are little options to chose from in hostels. I decided to treat myself to an AirBnb for two nights at 70 USD dollars per night. Disney has their own hotels and partner hotels that surround the area but were too expensive for my budget so the AirBnb I stayed at was 2 miles away from the parks but with public bus it took 30 minutes to get to and from. The bus system was extremely easy to use and cost about 250 yen (2.50 USD) one way. 

The welcome sign my host left me

The Travel

I flew in from Osaka KIX airport to Tokyo Narita airport on Peach airlines on a Thursday. The airport has a bus that will take you straight to the parks for 16 USD so I decided to take that and head to Ikspiari for the evening.

Ikspiari

The bus drops you off on the below level and you take the stairs up to the top level and head straight into Ikspiari or Downtown Disney. Unfortunately this is not one of my favorite Downtown Disney areas. Essentially it is a giant shopping mall that is very common in Japan. There were a few areas of the mall that were Disney themed and they had a Disney store but the merchandise could be found at any Disney store in Japan. Most of the park specific merchandise was located inside the parks. They also had a guest relations to purchase your tickets, a movie theater, and some restaurants to eat at. If you are planning to visit Ikspiari I would suggest half a day at most to explore unless you are really into shopping. 

The Disney Store

The cinema

Mickey and gang outside the cinema

The area leading up to the cinema with restaurants

Tokyo Disney Sea

It cost about 65 USD to get in to Disney Sea for one day. Compared to the Orlando parks, that is crazy cheap! On Friday I woke up extremely early to open the park. That day it opened at 8:30 am so I arrived around 7:45 am to wait in line. People line up extremely early to get into the parks here (like 5 am early) and this resort is extremely popular. Tickets for the weekend were sold out when I went, so plan ahead to buy tickets if you are considering coming. Also, go on a weekday because the weekends are heavily crowded.

The park consists of multiple lands themed with names like Arabian Coast, American Waterfront and my personal favorite, Mermaid Lagoon. Thankfully I met up with an extremely nice couple who currently live in Japan. Ema completed the Disney College Program like I did so we connected on Facebook and she and her husband, Take (pronounced taa-key), offered to show me around the parks.

Ema and I

The three of us watching one of the shows in Disney Sea

When we entered Disney Sea we went to ride the Tower of Terror first (pictured above). The theme to the ride is completely unique to any other Disney and centers around a man who brought home a cursed statue from an expedition he completed. The statue cursed the man, he then perished in an elevator and the ride sends you hurling up and down as if you were in the cursed elevator. 

We also did rides like the gondolas in Mediterranean Harbor

Italy or Japan?

Journey to the Center of the Earth, which is a high speed thrill ride inside the volcano in the middle of the park.

Fastpass at Tokyo Resort is still paper, unlike at Walt Disney World

Indiana Jones Adventure, Temple of the Crystal Skull was another high speed thrill ride in which you have to help Indiana Jones escape. This was one of my favorite rides!

They also have a roller coaster called Raging Spirits, inspired by Indiana Jones. Extremely similar to the one in Disneyland Paris.

It goes upside down, which I appreciate since not many Disney rides do.

Mermaid Lagoon is my favorite land in all of the Disney lands anywhere in the world! Simply because if you know me, you know I have an obsession with the Little Mermaid. So the chance to visit an entire land dedicated to the best Disney Princess? SIGN ME UP. They have rides, shows, restaurants and gift shops all dedicated to my favorite singing red head and it is all inside or "under the sea."

The entrance

A Japanese girl cosplaying as Ariel

The view upstairs, once you go inside

King Triton's Concert was a live action show featuring Ariel and her entire family. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE.

Outside again in my ears.

They have a few rides outside too, such as Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster and Scuttle's Scooter

They have a second princess land dedicated to Princess Jasmine that was probably my second favorite area, called Arabian Coast.

In the building is a carousel starring your favorite best friend, Genie

Aladdin mosaic

Jafar is always lurking

Jasmine mosaic

The Sinbad water ride was a slow moving ride in a boat that takes you on the unique adventure of Sindbad as he looks for treasure. Similar style to "it's a small world"

Even Rajah hangs out in the Arabian Coast by the flying carpet ride

A few other cool rides included Aquatopia, Nemo and Friends SeaRider and the Electric Railway, pictured below in order.

Tokyo Disneyland

One day for both parks was just not enough! I had to make it work the best I could though, so I bought an after 6 p.m. pass that they sell for around 40 USD. The park was open until 10 p.m. so you had 4 hours to get as much stuff in as you can. Since I had never experienced the Haunted Mansion decorated for A Nightmare Before Christmas, I wanted to check it out! We headed over to Toon Town after where I got to relive all the nostalgia from my childhood at Disney World's Toon Town that has since been taken down.

The Haunted Mansion's Nightmare Before Christmas

Toon Town!

Mickey's house

We also checked out Small World and Tiki Room which have their own flare on them! You can see Disney characters in Small World unlike at Walt Disney World in Orlando and Stitch hangs out in the Tiki Room in the Japanese version. Both were equally adorable rides!

The Food

Chocolate popcorn

Something else that is unique to Tokyo Disney is the flavored popcorn. Around both parks you can find flavors such as garlic shrimp and chocolate popcorn to try. There are a multitude of flavors and they are a great snack to munch on all day.

The Ursula buns are filled with pork and shrimp and can be found during Halloween.

The Green Alien Mochi was probably one of my favorite snacks! For around 300 yen (3.00 USD) you get three of them flavored in chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.

You can also try to Chicken Curry Bun but I was not feeling so adventurous at the time!

For lunch we went to Dockside Diner, which is a new quick service restaurant in Disney Sea. Unfortunately, the roast beef sandwich wasn't my favorite as it is served cold. 

For dinner at Toon Town in Disneyland, I tried the mickey mouse hand chicken sandwich. I believe it had bbq sauce on it and lettuce as well. For park food, it was not bad!

Oh and in case you were wondering, they have a Crystal Palace restaurant at their park almost identical to the one I worked at in Walt Disney World.

The Characters

I loved getting to see some characters that you don't get to see in any of the other parks normally. Likewise, I loved that they had characters just out roaming around for you to see. People stood in a circle around them and called out their name to get their attention, took a pic and left. No excessive lines and waiting.

Daisy and the MOST adorable little Snow White

Abu!

Rafiki gave me some monkey loving

Jafar was just hanging around the entrance to the park, probably trying to steal another princess or something...

Though they weren't actually characters, these friends dressed up as Ron Stoppable and Kim Possible from the tv show and even brought Rufus along. I LOVED it!!

Ema and Take were such troopers considering they stayed with me until park close that day. For those of you who counted, that is 15 hours! I definitely did not want to leave and I immediately called my aunt afterwards to tell her that we would be returning. Tokyo Disney has captured my heart and I am so thankful I get to have these experiences. Next stops will be, Shanghai and Hong Kong to finish out my Disney Park quest. Plans are in the works for some time in 2019!

To see more of my adventures, follow me on Instagram  @KaseyMeetsWorld


P.S. I went dressed as Mia Thermopolis from The Princess Diaries to celebrate Halloween 😃