Our family of 5 will be visiting Tokyo Disney for the first time in late June 2024. We have 3 days to spend in the parks and I am not sure how many days I should devote to each park. We are Disneyland California regulars and know those parks well. Our kids are old enough to be in the parks open to close. I know our trip coincides around the time of the opening of a massive expansion at TokyoSea. Any advice as how best to spend our time would be most appreciated!
Just left there.
Things to consider:
Lines will be long so download the app and get virtual passes (should still be free)
Disneyland
Alot like US properties with a little different theme.
If you stay on property, hit up beauty and the beast when the let you in early. Its a long line usually.
You have a monsters inc ride, a snow white ride, and a beauty and the beast that are different (granted snow white is like winnie the pooh). They do have a kids area in the back right. I didn’t ride those.
Everything else is the near identical as US rides. Buzz astros blasters, peter pan, winnie the pooh, thunder mountain, splash mountain, space mountain, star tours, IASW, Pirates, etc. they have a baymax ride but it is just like the aliens saucer ride at Hollywood Studios. Space mountain is slightly more intense here.
DisneySea is all about the themes. Cool park but not many rides. You’ll have to decide between one of the big 3 rides when getting in early: journey to the center of the earth, Tower of terror and Soarin (soarin is the same as the DW version). All 3 will have multi hour waits during the day. Outside of those 3 you have a nemo ride, a water cart ride, indiana jones, kid rides in mermaid area, a “submarine” ride, sinbads (water raft like pirates), mini coaster ride, and a couple of others.
My wife and I could have come close to completing both parks in a day going during non peak season. We didn’t stop to see the shows because they are in japanese. We saw parades.
I would say, it comes down to what is important to you.
If experiencing something different is most important then maximizing your time in DisneySea is the way to go. Lines will be very long for the big 3 rides. My buddy who lives in Japan and goes frequently says the lines can be upwards of 5 hours. But the smaller rides should be normal wait times and you have the virtual queue options for the smaller rides. The bigger ones do have a single purchase pass. 2000 yen for Soaring and I believe Journey to the center of the earth was 1600 per person.
If experiencing the most rides is important, maximizing Disneyland will be important. The electric parade is cool but people line up early for it. It starts in frontier land and goes through tomorrowland. The fireworks show has a good chance of being canceled.