The Bounds Do Tokyo Disney - Day 1
The Bounds Do Tokyo Disney
Cast of Characters -
Melanie (37) - that's me
James (37) - that's hubby
Josh (8) - oldest, loves Donald and thrill rides
Ryan (7) - youngest, loves Stitch and Goofy, and not too sure about those thrill rides yet
Pre-Trip thoughts:
Ever since finding out last spring we were moving to Okinawa, Japan, I’ve been more than ready to visit Tokyo Disney Resort, something I never imagined doing in my lifetime. We originally planned to make the trip this summer, but my husband’s earlier- than-expected orders to deploy (he leaves mid-April) means we got to go last week!
We wanted to stay at the resort, but the very expensive Disney hotels (Disney Ambassador and the gorgeous MiraCosta) were out of the question. There are six “official” Disney hotels, and included in those are a Sheraton and a Hilton. We considered both, but after doing our research, we went with the Sheraton. We are Starwood members, and the Sheraton came highly recommended by Nanci, the wonderful Magical Journeys leader. We got a great rate online of 18000 Japanese yen/night, which is about $155/night.
We planned for 5 nights, Sunday-Friday, with 3 days in the parks. Overall, we didn’t have much of a plan, and I admit, I didn’t do a lot of research beforehand. They don’t take priority seating for dining until the day of, so we didn’t make an advance arrangements. We also didn’t have any advance transportation arrangements made, as you buy your bus tickets to the resort at the airport. And park tickets were to be bought at the hotel.
So with only plane tickets and a hotel reservation, we were off!
Day One:
We left Okinawa at 8am on Sunday morning on a Pokemon plane (deemed “way cool” by my boys), and we arrived a few hours later at Haneda airport in Tokyo. Just before landing, we got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. Easy as pie, we got our luggage and purchased bus tickets to our hotel. Before we knew it, we were on the bus headed for the resort, and about 20 minutes later, we could see Cinderella Castle and the volcano from Journey to the Center of the Earth. We made it! After stops at the entrances of Disneyland and DisneySea, our hotel was next.
Our luggage was whisked away by the excellent bell staff at the Sheraton, and we walked around awhile to get our bearings. We then began to notice why the website advertised this hotel as being one of the top places to have a wedding in Tokyo. I think we saw no less than 6 wedding parties that day. With two chapels and numerous reception rooms, it’s apparently a huge business.
Since we couldn’t check in until 3pm sharp and it was only about 11am, we went ahead and bought our park tickets. Prices are cheaper than in the States. We ended up purchasing 4 day tickets, and if I remember correctly, the total was around $435 for two adults and two children. After not being able to find something quick and easy for lunch at our hotel (our only gripe about the Sheraton), we decided to check out the monorail and head to Ikspiari, Tokyo Disney’s equivalent of Downtown Disney.
We made the quick walk to the monorail station, which is right across the street from the hotel, taking some pics along the way. They run a shuttle, the Disney Resort Line, back and forth to the monorail station, but we chose to walk most of the time. I believe the monorails are run by and must abide by the regulations of the city of Tokyo, so a small fee is charged to use the monorails.
The monorail has four stops. Bayside Station (our stop, which serviced the “official” hotels), DisneySea, Resort Gateway (Ikspiari and the Disney Ambassador Hotel) and Disneyland Park. We purchased our tickets from the handy kiosk, and we were off on the way cool monorails with Mickey shaped windows and hand straps. And they are huge (also having to do with the transportation regulations). Ryan was in heaven, as he loves the monorails! On our ride over to Ikspiari, we got a good look at DisneySea.
Once at Ikspiari, we quickly found Planet Hollywood and had a good meal. It was nice to indulge in something distinctly American and familiar since we’d now been out of the States for 8 months. Our waitress spoke very good English, so no problems with the language barrier at all here.
After lunch we checked out the large Disney Store, and realized quickly we may have a problem with souvenirs. More on that later. We walked around the shops for another hour or so, then checked out the Disney Ambassador Hotel, which is adjacent to Ikspiari. Nice hotel, great Disney theming, including Peter Pan and friends on the ceiling in the lobby.
As 3pm approached, we headed back via monorail to the Sheraton to check in. This time, we got to check out Disneyland on our way back. All my boys wanted to go to the park that day, but we’d have to wait. I guess we are too used to having length-of-stay passes at other Disney parks.
Check-in went smoothly, again no problems with language. The Sheraton employees spoke very good English, and we tried to respond with our limited Japanese. We were upgraded to the Starwood Preferred floor, which meant access to the Lounge. Included was all the free soda, coffee, tea, snacks and beer we wanted, and a beautiful view of Tokyo Bay. Woohoo! A very nice surprise. We received a Park View room, which was perfect. Cinderella Castle was directly in front of us, and I loved waking up every morning and seeing it. We also could see parts of DisneySea as well.
Our room was fairly small, but I understand that’s the norm in Japan. It had two double beds, and that’s all that mattered. A very nice bathroom as well, which I had been told of, with superb amenities.
We got settled in our room, and then went to check out the Lounge. Spent an hour or so in there, with the boys in heaven with their favorite melon soda (which they will greatly miss when we leave Japan) and I with my beer.We took lots of pictures of the spectacular 11th floor view. After that we checked out the Disney Fantasy shop in the lobby and called it an early night. I think we were all in bed by 7:30pm, as we’d been up since 4am for our flight. Ryan and I were awoken around 8:30pm by the fireworks from Disneyland
, so we watched the show and went happily back to sleep. It had been a very nice first day.
Next Up:
Tokyo Disneyland Park
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Originally Posted by NotaGeek
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