You may be just starting out on your Tokyo Disneyland research for a Japan trip, or perhaps you are just finalising preparations. Either way, you will be well versed in ‘Disneyland Strategy 101’. Everywhere you look there are the 10 commandments of make sure you do this, avoid that, run here, never go there, and so on! But what if your family just wants to go to Disneyland and have a good time? After our success at Disneysea in doing EVERYTHING wrong, we doubled down on Tokyo Disneyland and went against the grain to fantastic results.
How did we do it?
- Check the crowd calendar and pick a day expected to be lighter than normal (It’s in Japanese – just use Google Translate). Sure this might mean a weekday, but you are on holidays. Avoid the crowds and go when it makes sense. We wen’t on an orange or slightly below normal. Disneysea we managed to go on green which was well below normal.
- Don’t get there early. Take the sleep in, get the buffet breakfast and roll on in around mid-morning. The lines do clear, and with your e-tickets in hand you can stroll on in like you own the place.
- Use the app. There are many options, try a couple. Sure it is ok to know which are the best must do rides, but use the app to time your run. We were told that Winnie the Pooh was THE ride to go to at Tokyo Disneyland (we respectfully disagree by the way – it’s Buzz Lightyear or Monsters Inc) but that didn’t mean we had to do it first. Waiting list apps show you not only current wait times, but also projections over the day. Use this info to go to rides with 20 minute or less wait times, this will ensure shade and comfort as you will almost always be undercover and save the line ups for when they are at their smallest. This varies by ride.
- Get your tickets int he lottery. At both locations we got some great tickets. Every visitor can scan to enter the ballot, and most people win something, especially on the quieter days.
- Use the fastpasses when you can. The combination of the app for wait times and fast passes for express entry is awesome. We used it to great effect, even though we got there late.
By using the above strategy we got to do all the rides we wanted, we were never rushed, we were able to sit down and eat at low peak times (as we had a big and late breakfast) and we had the best possible family time at Disneyland.
Maybe you are an ex-crack commando, maybe not, but either way running fast pass to fastpass and executing a finely tuned plan just doesn’t sound like a good time at the happiest place on earth, does it?
Check out our latest video attached showing how we used the app and got to see it all at Tokyo Disneyland.