Tokyo 2016 Day 1 - Travel and accommodation

Another Tokyo post, 5 years late! 😂

Our journey started at Penang early morning through Malaysia Airlines, with a 3 hour layover at KL.  It was almost 8pm when we reached Narita.  It was our first time using the country carrier and I must say, the service was almost at par with Singapore Airlines.  Airline food was nice, flight steward service was very pleasant and seats/pillows/blanket were comfortable.  Only downside was the in-flight entertainment, it was quite limited compared to SIA, but adequate for our 7-hour flight time.

Once we landed, we breezed through immigration and skipped the baggage carousel as we traveled light with only hand carry luggage.  I bought our Keisei Skyliner express train tickets from the airport counter which included one transfer before our final stop at the JR Akihabara station.

Entrance to Washington Akihabara Hotel #ctto

Hotel for this trip was the Washington Akihabara Hotel, chosen for its affordable price and prime location, just across the Akihabara station!  The single room allows children under 6 years old stay for free.  The room, at 15 square meters, was the smallest size I've stayed in; it has a double bed and a corner desk stacked to one side of the wall and a small walkway on the other side.  

As is normal with Tokyo hotels with small rooms, it was the main reason we only packed carry on luggage.  The tiny room turned out to be very manageable between one adult and one child. Toilet and bath was cozy but well laid out.  We loved soaking in the deep tub every night after long walks during the day.  Cotton yukatas were provided and replaced daily.  I used the yukata instead of my own pajamas, it was less laundry brought home. 

Akihabara at night #ctto

Convenience stores and restaurants were aplenty once we stepped out of the hotel.  The bright lights of Akihabara surrounded us in this part of Tokyo.  Big electronics stores, maid cafes, shopping stores, restaurants - all Akihabara has to offer was right outside the hotel's doorstep.

Lawson convenience stores are all over Japan #ctto

On this trip, we mostly bought ready-to-eat food items such as baked goods, sandwiches, onigiri (rice balls), bento meals, drinks, among others from Lawson.  Our full schedule didn't allow enough time for proper sit down meals, although we managed about 4 or 5 nicer meals.

Tips for Tokyo Disney Parks

I logged in tonight after several years and found a couple of Drafts, waiting patiently to be posted haha

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#ctto

These are some tips and learning from our visits to Tokyo Disney Sea (September 24, 2015) and Tokyo Disneyland (July 6-7, 2016).

1. Buy your tickets ahead of time.  You can get it online, at any Disney stores in Japan or at the park itself. Make sure you queue up only to get in the park, not to buy tickets.  Save yourself this precious time. 

2.  Come prepared and do your research.  If you have only one day to visit, zoom in to the rides you want to go for and shows you want to see.  Download the online map and strategize your way around.

3. Check the crowd forecast of the Tokyo Disney Park you want to visit. Make sure you don't visit on national holidays, school holidays and weekends. This crowd forecast link is very useful even if it's only in Japanese. 

Our 2015 Disney Sea visit was crazy full of crowds with a national holiday and a school break on that weekend.  We didn't have much choice, our schedule was pretty tight to choose another date.

For our 2-day 2016 Disneyland visit, it was significantly much better.  Crowd forecast was the lowest in July 2016.  We were able to get Fast Pass (FP) tickets fairly easy for the most popular ride, Monsters Inc., then queued our way in to other rides.  Maximum wait time was about 20 minutes for the Peter Pan ride. The rest of the standby waits were just 5-10 minutes.  Ticked off almost all the rides on our visit, skipping just the roller coaster rides like Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain.

4. Line up early.  30-45 minutes before the park opens is NOT early.  Queue up at least 1 hour before the gates open.  That way you can run, I mean walk briskly, to get Fast Passes early and queue up at the more popular rides.  We were there an hour before opening and the lines were already quite long. We used that time to eat our breakfast and power up for the day.

At DisneySea, the FP machines for Toy Story Mania were already covered, meaning closed, by the time we got there.  It is quite far from the entrance and the crowd level was just too much that day.

At Disneyland, Monsters Inc was much nearer the entrance with a shortcut alley on the right side of World Bazaar. We got several Fast pass tickets primarily because crowd forecast on our 2-day visit was the lowest levels.

5.  Use and maximize the Fast Pass system.  The Fast Pass system is an effective way to maximize your time inside the park. It saves visitors significant waiting time at the most popular rides which have the Fast Pass system in place.  You basically line up at the FP machines, get your park tickets scanned and claim your ticket with a specific return time.  Come back on that time window and you skip the longer standby queue to the much shorter, express line!  

You can only use one Fast Pass ticket at a time.  You can have a new one (for a different attraction, or the same ride if you want another round), only after a two-hour period or at the start of your return time, whichever comes first. 

These FP tickets can also run out, so make sure you get them early.  If there are several members in your group, assign one to get the group's Fast Passes while others queue up for other attractions or eat or just take a break. 

Get a Fast Pass only if the ride's standby time is over 30 minutes.  If standby time is less than 30 minutes, it makes more sense to just line up and use the FP for rides with much longer waiting times.

6.  Bring food and drinks inside the Disney parks.  Food prices inside the parks can be expensive. We saved Japanese yen by bringing in convenience store food items such as onigiri rice balls, breads, sandwiches, bananas and boiled eggs.  We ate while waiting for our rides.  We refilled our water bottles at water fountains available inside park restaurants.  

We also enjoyed park food like popcorn, pizza, frozen popsicle sticks and fizzy drinks.  The lure of the food carts was too hard to resist :)

Note that on crowded days, the queue for restaurants can be as long as the queue for the actual rides! Thus bringing food is another practical way to save those valuable park hours time.

7.  Go all out and dress up in all your Disney themed items.   The Japanese are crazy with their outfits when visiting both Disney parks.  Synchronized costumes, bags overflowing with Disney character bag tags, Disney shirts/shoes/caps/headbands/sunglasses, Disney popcorn tumblers, to name a few.  Some even come in wearing traditional kimono attire, complete with wooden sandals!  

8.  Wear comfortable footwear.  I cannot over emphasize this enough. Your feet will thank you later after all the long walks throughout the park and runs to the Fast pass machines.

9.  Bring power banks for your gadgets.  Taking pictures and videos will drain your  phone's battery, so make sure you can juice them up with power banks.

10.  For parades, save your spot 30 minutes to 1 hour by putting down a plastic sheet like what the Japanese do.  We used our park map to reserve our spot and came back to it after our toilet break.  

11.  Get your downtime during shows and queue time.  For those with younger children who still need naps, there were a few quiet spots we found at both parks.  At Disney Sea, Sarah was able to take a nap at the Sultan's Oasis where they sell the Chandu Tail.  At Disneyland, turn left after watching the Country Bears Theater show and there's chairs and tables suitable for some down time.  Both spots were less crowded and considerably quieter, perfect for naps!

12.  Buy Disney merchandise at the park's closing time.  The stores stays open past the closing time; get your souvenirs then, minus the crowd.  There's another Disney store near the Maihama train station which sells Disney items with same price tags as those inside the park stores.  

13.  If you can shell out extra yen, stay at the Disney hotels.  Guests get an early 15 minute advantage to enter the parks before the official opening times.  One can get the first Fastpasses to the popular attractions and hop right away to other rides.  I've read so much how Tokyo park visitors literally run to get FPs once the gate opens, so those 15-minute advantage is a great headstart. But if budget is a constraint, just wake up very early and see tip #4.

I'm sure these Disneyland tips from our 2015 and 2016 visits will still be useful and handy once we can all travel again.   Someday very soon, I hope.