Abbreviations
Summary
TDL and TDS are amazing parks. The detailed theming and immersion is overwhelming - especially TDS.
From our experience the TDR parks are for the Japanese. They are as accommodating as possible to the rare westerners like us, but the attendance is predominantly Japanese. On our first day at TDS we saw two other Westerners all day.
It was apparent to me that the Japanese take their Disney very seriously. They arrive at the gates very early (lines form an hour before park opening), they are FASTPASS experts, they know where they want to go, they are willing to wait in insanely long lines for rides and (more on this later) for flavored popcorn, and they eat up all the Disney theming and characters.
Planning Resources for TDR
Tokyo Disney Made Easy, Kevin Yee, Book - Barnes & Noble
***********************************
Overview of TDR
***********************************
The two parks at TDR receive huge attendance. In 2008 TDL was the third most attended theme park in the world, close behind DL and MK. TDS was in fifth place just behind DL Paris and thus the most attended second gate in the world and ahead of sixth place Epcot. From this report http://www.teaconnect.org/etea/TEAERA2008.pdf the top eight are all Disney:
1. MK 17.1 million
2. DL 14.7
3. TDL 14.3
4. DLP 12.7
5. TDS 12.5
6. Epcot 10.9
7. DHS 9.6
8. AK 9.5
13. DCA 5.6
I am not a DCA basher but I am a DCA realist, and thus I have to throw in that while I was at TDR it occurred to me more than once that TDS as a second gate compared to DCA is laughable. DCA looks like a cheap, pathetic park next to TDS. I have been to DLR many times, WDW twice and DLR Paris once. When DLR starts looking ahead to adding a third gate they should look to TDS. Building a TDS in Anaheim would be huge.
TDR sells entrance tickets of one to four days. If you buy 2+ day tickets you must declare at time of purchase which park you will visit on day 1, and then day 2 must be the opposite park. On days 3 and 4 you can park hop and do not need to pre-declare parks. The tickets must be used on consecutive days. There is no taking off days in between.
There is no official Disney transportation from the two local airports Narita and Haneda. There is bus and train service to TDR. We flew into Narita and, because our flight was delayed into Tokyo, missed the last bus to TDR. So we had to shell out $200 to take a taxi to TDR because I did not want to risk the Tokyo train system with all of our luggage. We got back to the airport on a bus for about $25 each.
Kevin Yee goes into all the details of hotels, tickets and transportation.
See next post for Day 1
Summary
TDL and TDS are amazing parks. The detailed theming and immersion is overwhelming - especially TDS.
From our experience the TDR parks are for the Japanese. They are as accommodating as possible to the rare westerners like us, but the attendance is predominantly Japanese. On our first day at TDS we saw two other Westerners all day.
It was apparent to me that the Japanese take their Disney very seriously. They arrive at the gates very early (lines form an hour before park opening), they are FASTPASS experts, they know where they want to go, they are willing to wait in insanely long lines for rides and (more on this later) for flavored popcorn, and they eat up all the Disney theming and characters.
Planning Resources for TDR
Tokyo Disney Made Easy, Kevin Yee, Book - Barnes & Noble
***********************************
Overview of TDR
***********************************
The two parks at TDR receive huge attendance. In 2008 TDL was the third most attended theme park in the world, close behind DL and MK. TDS was in fifth place just behind DL Paris and thus the most attended second gate in the world and ahead of sixth place Epcot. From this report http://www.teaconnect.org/etea/TEAERA2008.pdf the top eight are all Disney:
1. MK 17.1 million
2. DL 14.7
3. TDL 14.3
4. DLP 12.7
5. TDS 12.5
6. Epcot 10.9
7. DHS 9.6
8. AK 9.5
13. DCA 5.6
I am not a DCA basher but I am a DCA realist, and thus I have to throw in that while I was at TDR it occurred to me more than once that TDS as a second gate compared to DCA is laughable. DCA looks like a cheap, pathetic park next to TDS. I have been to DLR many times, WDW twice and DLR Paris once. When DLR starts looking ahead to adding a third gate they should look to TDS. Building a TDS in Anaheim would be huge.
TDR sells entrance tickets of one to four days. If you buy 2+ day tickets you must declare at time of purchase which park you will visit on day 1, and then day 2 must be the opposite park. On days 3 and 4 you can park hop and do not need to pre-declare parks. The tickets must be used on consecutive days. There is no taking off days in between.
There is no official Disney transportation from the two local airports Narita and Haneda. There is bus and train service to TDR. We flew into Narita and, because our flight was delayed into Tokyo, missed the last bus to TDR. So we had to shell out $200 to take a taxi to TDR because I did not want to risk the Tokyo train system with all of our luggage. We got back to the airport on a bus for about $25 each.
Kevin Yee goes into all the details of hotels, tickets and transportation.
See next post for Day 1
Comment