Many Disney fans probably don't need much convincing to dream about a visit to the Tokyo Disney Resort. But allow us to offer eight reasons why you should consider making that dream a reality in 2024.
Tokyo DisneySea has won our Theme Park Insider Award as the world's best theme park seven times. Its elder sibling, Tokyo Disneyland, combines the best of Walt's original Disneyland with the best of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. What theme park fan wouldn't want to visit that at least once in their life?
You might assume that the best Disney parks come at the highest price. But that's not the case in Tokyo. In fact, with daily tickets starting under US$55, the Tokyo Disney theme parks offer the lowest prices for any Disney theme park around the world. (For the record, Tokyo Disney is owned and operated not by The Walt Disney Company, but by the Oriental Land Co., under license from Disney.) And when eating, the price you see is the price you pay at Tokyo Disney. Tipping is not a thing in Japan. But don't worry about the quality of service - see our last reason, below.
Tokyo DisneySea is the home park for Disney Parks' Society of Explorers and Adventurers, the parks-original franchise that has spread to pretty much every other Disney Experiences property around the world. Tokyo is where you can see an SEA version of Tower of Terror, as well as enjoy a meal in SEA's headquarters at Magellan's.
A visit to Tokyo Disney also allows fans to step into Disney Parks' past. This is the last place on Earth where you still can ride Disney's Splash Mountain. The Country Bears might have closed yesterday at Walt Disney World, but they play on here at Tokyo Disneyland. Heck, Chip 'n Dale's Treehouse remains in Tokyo Disneyland's Toontown. Tokyo DisneySea even has a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride, though it is not the same thing as the old Magic Kingdom attraction.
But Tokyo is not just some Disney Parks museum. These parks offer some of Disney's best new dark rides, including the new trackless Beauty and the Beast ride that was so unfortunately overlooked by many due to its premiere during the pandemic. Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast anchored a massive expansion of TokyoDisneyland that included a major new indoor live-production theater as well as new attractions in Toontown and Tomorrowland.
And speaking of new attractions, Tokyo DisneySea gets its biggest-ever expansion this June, with the opening of Fantasy Springs. DisneySea's eighth port stands between Arabian Coast and Lost River Delta and will include four new attractions, three restaurants, and an in-park hotel. Frozen Kingdom will offer the new Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey boat ride. The Tangled-themed Rapunzel’s Forest will include the Rapunzel's Lantern Festival boat ride. And Peter Pan’s Never Land will feature two new attractions: Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure, a 3D ride with a 40-inch height restriction, and Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies. The hotel will be Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel, with the 419-room deluxe Fantasy Chateau and the 56-room luxury Grand Chateau.
Tokyo might be the best place in the world to eat, and Tokyo Disney has provided the most consistently excellent food of any Disney theme park resort. And at reasonable prices, too. I linked my old review of Magellan's above, but dining aboard DisneySea's Queen Mary dupe - the S.S. Columbia - remains a wonder, too. Everywhere you look around the resort, from the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall in Tokyo Disneyland to the Gyoza Dogs in DisneySea to the many flavors of popcorn available throughout the parks, you will find plenty of culinary delights at Tokyo Disney.
Japan leads the world in customer service. The combination of Disney and Japan equals the best of the best. I have joked that you could drop a kernel of that flavored popcorn at Tokyo Disney (not that you would want to - it's so tasty! And I normally hate popcorn), and a Tokyo Disney cast member would catch it before it hit the ground. Greeter positions that were cut long ago in the United States remain in Tokyo. Even with a language difference preventing most American tourists and most Tokyo Disney cast members from communicating verbally in a common language, the cast here remains well skilled and courteous in serving guests from around the world. Ultimately, people make the magic, and Tokyo Disney cast members are among the world's best.
For tickets and packages to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, please visit our partner's convenient Tokyo Disney tickets page. In addition to the expensive Disney-branded hotels on site, you can find two U.S.-branded hotels right on the resort's monorail line: the Hilton Tokyo Bay and the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay. Check out those links for rates from our partner. (Each sale through those links also goes to support Theme Park Insider.)
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I've been waiting for this one to pop up because I just visited Tokyo Disney for the first time a few months ago. After years and years of wondering if I would ever get to visit them in person, I was able to spend one day at each of the parks toward the end of a 2.5 week Japan trip. These parks are hyped so high by many that visit them, and I have to be honest...
Tokyo Disney is kind of overrated.
Now, that doesn't mean they're bad parks, nor does it mean that anything Robert said is untruthful. However, a running feeling I had throughout both days at the resort was that while the parks (especially DisneySea) were absolutely contenders for the best park title back in the 2000s and the quality of them hasn't dropped, other parks have simply caught up and even surpassed TDR. A common theme among all Japanese parks (including Disney) is that they keep everything in pristine working order, but they also generally don't make technological enhancements to attractions unless they're absolutely necessary, so while the rides themselves are fine, they lack the modernization found at other parks and thus tend to feel dated. Another big surprise to me was that at such an immersive park, a lot of queuing took place in temporary rope switchback queues along the walkway, which I something I think should have been better designed around (at parks where an hour is considered a below average wait, there's no excuse for permanent queues to overflow at 45 minutes). Lastly, a lot of the cloned attractions are not as good as their versions at other parks and several of the unique attractions raved about here (most notably BatB, Journey, and Tower) had the issue of really good set-up with an underwhelming payoff.
Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed Tokyo Disney, but I expected to leave feeling like I couldn't wait to come back and instead it was more of a "that was fun and worth doing again next time I'm over here" feeling. I do think the resort is absolutely worth checking out as part of a larger Japan trip (though it's not worth going to Japan just for Disney), but I would caution against going with the expectation that the parks are going to blow away everywhere else you've been.
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I spent 4 days at Tokyo Disney in October and all these reasons are legit! Especially that customer service one. They do not mess around at Tokyo Disney. These employees are friendly and super helpful and they find a way to make it work with the language barrier. The barrier is almost non existent as most can get by with their English. Really nice people.
On a negative note though, but at least to prepare the-never-before-been-there visitors... the crowds are intense. Yes I've been to the American parks during busy times but the wait times, even in the morning, can be daunting here for rides and snacks so just keep that in mind. Plus the Japanese are there early more so than Americans. You will wait. Buying their version of ILL Genie+ and using it efficiently is a MUST or prepare to wait 2+ hours for the wonderful Beauty and the Beast ride. Another smaller negative... it can be hard to find drinks at times. Not sure why but yeah.
Having said that I've been to Tokyo Disney twice, 2016 and 2023, and it's a pretty darn cool place well worth the trip over there. Fantasy Springs will be awesome.