Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR) is the best place to travel to with a toddler, especially when you’re fighting jet lag. It’s a magical place and perfect for all ages.
In this blog, I’ll discuss what we did over four fantastic days at Tokyo Disney Resort, some of the best rides for toddlers and how to meet Mickey.
Straight into the park
We landed at Haneda airport at about 7.30 am. By 9.30 am, we were checked into the Disneyland Hotel and IN THE PARK. We were on our first ride (the Jungle Cruise) after buying ponchos (it was raining, but luckily only briefly) at 9.41 am. I have pictures and time stamps to prove it! If this was the level of efficiency in Japan, we would be comfortable here!
What we did
We alternated our days, starting in Tokyo Disneyland.
Day 1: Tokyo Disneyland
This place really is something special. I can’t recommend it enough.
We have been to Disneyland Paris a lot of times, and yes, it does have the best castle, but Tokyo Disneyland is just something else. It’s super clean with big open spaces, lots of areas and rides that aren’t at Disneyland Paris. There’s such a nice atmosphere made by guests who are all so excited to be there.
Before the trip, I’d read a lot about what to do at Tokyo Disneyland Resort, how to maximise passes, etc. (I’ll post my top tips soon.) So, we managed to get tickets to a Mickey Mouse show (through ‘pot luck’), and we managed to snag a lunch reservation at the Crystal Palace Buffet, to eat the famous alien mochis ‘Little Green Dumplings’ from Toy Story.
The first day was pretty exhausting, so we went to bed around 6 pm (thanks jetlag, plus no rest on a 14-hour flight to Japan), after our first Konbini meal (there’s a Konbini in the Disneyland Hotel). If you visit Japan, you’ll get to know a Konbini. They are convenience shops selling everything from newspapers and snacks to really good Japanese food, including bento boxes or donburi bowls and just about any Western food you fancy.
Day 2: Tokyo DisneySea
We rode the famous Disney monorail to Tokyo DisneySea, which blew my toddler’s (actually, all of our) minds! We had early access as we booked the Tokyo Disney Resort Vacation Package and got in at about 8.30 am.
I was straight on the app and managed to get us some decent ride slots, and I snagged a pass to try out the Tangled ride, as it was still before the official launch.
We loved the Little Mermaid area, which has some really good rides for the little kids. Plus, we met a lot of characters as we walked around the park, we went on lots of rides as a family, which was really nice, and we were able to explore the Fantasy Springs area.
My toddler highly recommends Aladdin’s carousel, especially if you’re into waving at people. I think we rode it three times in a row, and about five times over our trips to DisneySea.
The Toy Story ride also went down really well, plus the cars you can climb in when you’re walking downtown. Tokyo DisneySea is enormous, and the lands, the theming, just EVERYTHING is outstanding.
Day 3: Meeting Mickey
It was the day we were all waiting for: Meeting Mickey himself! I’d booked to meet Mickey in advance, just to make sure we didn’t miss out.
As we were staying in the Disneyland Park, we were eligible for early access and rode the Monsters Inc. ride twice in a row. The toddler loved it! It’s very similar to the Buzz Lightyear and the Toy Story ride, and very enjoyable.
We spent time in Toontown, went on the Winnie the Pooh ride, got passes to the Beauty and the Beast ride, and just generally did pretty much everything.
We didn’t ever queue much longer than 10-15 minutes, but because we focused on deciding the rides we’d go on and trying to get the free passes, we would occasionally pay for passes if that didn’t work for the bigger ones. It just makes life with a toddler a lot easier than tantrums and trying to keep them restrained within the queues!
In addition, we watched the light parade and managed to get front row premier seats, again, which we paid for, but we had previously had awful experiences at Disneyland Paris, so we didn’t want a repeat of that.
We also managed to book Mickey’s Luau for a late lunch/early dinner, which was dinner and a show, plus you got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, and the lady chipmunk! This was a great experience, but a bit tricky as the show was very much in Japanese, and we were quite far away, so we didn’t really have a clue what was going on, but it was fun nonetheless.
I remember seeing the pure joy on my toddler’s face as Mickey came over and said hello to him (for the second time in the day), so it was all worth it. The show area was also air-conditioned, which was such a win given it was quite a hot day.
We were in Tokyo Disneyland from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm, which was pretty hardcore!
Day 4: Back at DisneySea
On our second day at DisneySea, we focused on making sure we rode on every single mode of transport they offered.
There were two different train options, buses and vans you could ride on and Disney characters absolutely everywhere. There were also a few play areas in Tokyo DisneySea, so when one of us went to do a ride, the other would stay in the cool area with the toddler playing, so we were able to still do the big rides.
We left the park about 6 pm, and it was so hot! We had some snacks for dinner and then headed off to our next stage of the adventure, to explore the rest of Tokyo.
We absolutely loved spending time at the Disney parks in Tokyo. We saw and experienced so many different things over 4 days, and meeting Mickey might just have been my son’s Disney highlight.
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