Tokyo Disney Resort Houkoku
Special Guest Trip Report
Megara's Visit to Tokyo Disney Resort
May 11th-15th, 2005 - Part 1
(Posted 05/01/06)
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INTRODUCTION
My husband and I visited Tokyo, Japan for 7 nights in early May 2005. We spent 4 days at the Tokyo Disney Resort and here is my trip report.
During my research on various websites, I found that a lot of first time visitors to Japan were really lost in relation to finding information. I have decided to do a "how I did it" report and then a quick wrap up on the "what we did". I hope this report will help others, as other reports have helped me.
Part 1 - How I Did It
We decided to visit about Japan 2 years earlier and wanted to visit Tokyo DisneySea as it sounded so amazing. We also wanted to shop in Tokyo and visit Mt Fuji and I had a lot of questions like - when should we go, where to visit, which hotel, what location (Disney area or central Tokyo) and should I learn Japanese? But the thing that most worried me (after reading reports) was the trains. I had used Sydney's & London's underground, but Tokyo scared me.
I, at first, found it difficult to find information about Japan. My travel agent told me that we were the first people he'd ever booked to Japan. I embarked on a research mission that was nearly the end of me. I booked everything myself except the flights. I read travel guide books on Japan, searched the internet for trip reports, searched Japanese tourist websites and looked at travel brochures from travel agents (itinerary ideas). Once I became familiar with places I wanted to visit, I took notes & narrowed my searches to specific places.
Thank god for the internet, is all I can I say!
Click on photo below for a larger view.
Language
I was not familiar with the written symbols or the language so I bought a Learn Japanese CD Rom, but gave up half way as I thought reading words won't help me understand them. I did take a travel Japanese translation book with me, and only used it sparingly. After visiting Japan, I found there is no need to worry about the language barrier. I simply began all sentences with "Do you speak English?" and was mostly answered by "a little". A little was good enough for me. If English was a problem, a phone call would be made (whilst the staff member squatted behind the counter) & reinforcements would come running from the back to help. I found that speaking a little Japanese in return, like thank you - "arigato" impressed them and they seemed very pleased that you made the effort.
Food
The food menus have pictures and most places had plastic food displays outside the restaurant. We simply pointed to what we wanted. The meal sizes are smaller and we found the food very nice.
Hotel / Location
First question was - Do we stay in central Tokyo & commute to Disney every day or vice versa? I searched tripadvisor.com & hotels.com for people's opinions on different hotels. I read/asked questions on laugingplace.com discussion boards (and found them to be the best source of information, especially the people who live there) and heard about a new Disney partner hotel opening in February 05 - The Palm (& Fountain) Terrace Hotel. They are 2 hotels next to each other. You cannot book online unless you can read Japanese. I rang the hotel directly and the recorded message was in Japanese followed by English. You are asked to wait for an English operator and if one is not available, the call is terminated. This may take a few tries until you reach an English speaking operator on another day.
The Palm Terrace Hotel has a free Disney shuttle bus to the Disney parks. The service in very regular early mornings and late evenings (every 10 mins), during the day (every 30 mins). The bus trip takes about 30 minutes. The buses are very clean - no dirty marks on the windows & the window sills are spotless.
The hotel has a convenience store, a Disney shop, breakfast restaurant, every floor has a laundry with very clean washing machines/dryers. You cannot make international calls from your room but there are public phones on every 2nd floor.
We were delighted to find out that we were the first Australians to stay at the Palm Terrace and their longest occupants ever. They told us that Japanese only have 10 days holiday per year & only stay for 3-4 nights.
Click on photos below for a larger view.
Airport Shuttle
At the time of our trip, the Palm Terrace hotel did not have a direct airport shuttle service (but currently do). We travelled with the Airport Limousine (www.limousinebus.co.jp). I emailed the shuttle company & found the cost was around $30 each AUD each way. We had to catch the shuttle from the airport to the Brighton Hotel (another Disney partner) and from there catch a taxi ($10 AUD) to the Palm Terrace which took about 6 minutes (and the same for the return). It was quite easy. The taxi's are so clean it is unbelievable. The taxi driver didn't speak English, but the door staff at the Brighton Hotel did and did all the talking for us.
Trains
From our hotel, we caught the free Disney shuttle bus (30 mins trip) to Tokyo Disneyland (Maihama Station is right at the entrance). At the station we purchased train tickets at the window (machines looked difficult). To the attendant, we pointed to Japanese symbols for 'return ticket' & said "Tokyo" & held up 2 fingers to let him know how many tickets we required. We managed very well on sign language (not the official one, but improvised international symbols like pointing to watches & holding up how many fingers). We also found people in the street were extremely helpful and they would either point us in the right direction or walk with us to the right area.
Yes, Tokyo has different train lines run by different companies. I cannot begin to explain it, as so many have done before. If you do some research & know where you are going - it's far easier.
Our first day, we purchased a 23 ward pass ($12 AUD), but hardly used it. We found that you cannot see all of Tokyo's main districts in one day. The place is huge and the you can spent a lot of time looking in shops. We ended up walking between a lot of the districts, which nearly killed us, but we did it. I would suggest purchasing a train ticket to where you need to go, as you need it. The tickets are only a couple of dollars. We discovered that the Japan Rail Pass is only worth having if you are travelling regularly between cities, like Kyoto, then its worth it, but not if you are just visiting Tokyo.
Tokyo station is huge and the signs for the train lines are written in English and Japanese and colour coded. Transferring from JR Yamanote Line to JR Keiyo line requires a lot of walking and we were thanking our lucky stars that we decided to stay in the Disney area, as commuting after a day at the Disney parks would have been unbearable.
Click on photos below for a larger view.
Money
We took American Express travellers cheques. We could cash them at the hotel & Disney parks. Ikspiari would not cash them. The Japanese are very honest, no need to count your change, they do it for you.
Park Tickets
We bought a 3 day Magic passport from the front desk of our hotel on the morning we wanted to visit. The tickets were dated from today 1st day Disneyland, 2nd day DisneySea and 3rd day park hop.
We had no problem entering the parks on all the days, as we had heard that if your tickets were not dated, you may not get in, but we didn't have a problem.
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