A Tokyo Disneyland holiday planning group member Simon Langrehr Vacation Package breakdown
My experience with the Tokyo Disney Resort Vacation Package
I am writing this, mainly because when I was trying to research many facets of the vacation package I had purchased for the Tokyo Disney Resort, it was extremely hard to find information. This will include everything I learned during the process, so you can decide if the vacation package is worth the price tag. You can book vacation packages 4 months before your first day at the park, on the first day of that month. My first day in the park was March 10, so I could book on November 1.
Enjoy Lots of Attractions – 3 Days Vacation Package
In Spring 2024, my wife and I visited the Tokyo Disney Resort for the first time. I was already set on purchasing a vacation package after doing the same at the Disneyland Paris resort in 2023. I essentially purchased it blind, and then tried to figure out what I had purchased. The first thing I realized, during the booking process, was that it was allowing me to select attractions. I had no clue what was happening. It turns out, the vacation package I booked was “Enjoy Lots of Attractions- 3 Days.” This package allows 3-day access to the parks and 3 attraction tickets per day.
Attraction Tickets (only for those with vacation packages)
With the vacation package I selected, I had the option to select 3 attraction tickets for each day. These are essentially FastPass reservations, like Disney World used to do. The difference is that not all attractions have a designated time, and some of the tickets don’t even have a designated attraction. When you select, you will have 3 options for each ticket.
1. The most popular attractions (Beauty and the Beast, Soarin’), you will have to select a time to experience the attraction.
2. The slightly less popular attractions (Journey to the Center of the Earth, Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, etc.) you will be able to experience at any time. Options 1 and 2 on this list are the same attractions that qualify for Disney Premiere Access (more later)
3. Eligible attractions. These tickets can be used for any attractions from a list (none of the attractions included above). Some of these include haunted mansion, monsters Inc: ride and go seek, 20,000 leagues under the sea, and Indiana jones adventure. These tickets can be used for any eligible attraction at any time. This is the same list of attractions that is available for the 40th anniversary priority pass (more later)
You can select any combination of these 3 options for each of your days in the parks.
Here is what I booked:
Day 1: Soarin at 1 pm, Tower of Terror, and Journey to the Center of the Earth
Day 2: Beauty and the Beast at 1 pm, Splash Mountain, and an eligible attraction (We skipped out on Baymax but consider this if you are interested in the attraction).
Day 3. Journey to the Center of the Earth, and 2 eligible attractions.
Note: If I could go back, I would have done Tower of Terror again on day 3, instead of one of my eligible attractions. Because the eligible attractions were available on the 40th anniversary priority pass, I was able to book these pretty easily, separate from my attraction tickets that were part of my vacation package.
Note: Attraction tickets are physical tickets that come in the package kit (more later) that must be presented at each ride in order to access it.
Dining Reservations (for those with vacation packages)
Dining can be booked one month in advance. However, the advantage with vacation package users is that dining for your whole trip can be booked at the same time. This is a big perk because dining reservations can fill up fast. Other visitors will have to login each day to reserve dining. Also, and this is the part I am still confused about: I was able to book dining early. It was supposed to go live one month in advance at 10 am Tokyo time. However, I logged in at 9:00 am and was able to start reserving. I am not sure how early this would have been an option for me, but I would definitely suggest logging in earlier than 10 am on the day you can reserve.
When you go to reserve, you will login to the Tokyo Disney website, and go to your travel case. This is where you will be shown an itinerary of your stay, and you can select different time periods to reserve dining. This is what I reserved:
Day 1: Magellan’s at 15:00
Day 2: Blue Bayou Restaurant at 14:50
Day 3: S.S. Columbia Dining Room at 14:50
Check-in at your Hotel (for those with vacation packages)
The first day of your stay, I would recommend using early check-in, which is allowed for vacation package users. This allows you to check-in at your hotel early (7 am at the Toy Story hotel, which is where I stayed) and still make it to the park before it opens. This is extremely important in Tokyo, as people gather early at the front gate of the park. On the day of your check-in, you will not qualify for Happy Entry (more on this later). You won’t be able to access your room until 4:30, but you will receive your package kit (more on this too) and will be able to drop off your luggage.
Please note, the staff at the hotel seemed slightly confused when I showed up at 7 am on the day of my check-in, but just tell them you have a vacation package, and you want to check-in early.
You will receive a package kit in a folder that contains a TON of tickets. This includes tickets for the parks, attraction tickets, and tickets for other perks, such as popcorn buckets and drink vouchers (more later). It was a bit overwhelming to be handed so many individual tickets. Make sure you have a way to keep track of these. I went through all of them, and only took the ones with me that I would need for the first day. I left the rest in my luggage and sorted them in my room the first night.
Once you get the park tickets, you can scan them into the Tokyo Disneyland app. Do this before entering the park, so you can immediately begin reserving Disney Premiere Access, 40th anniversary priority pass, and entry requests (more later) upon entering the park.
Other tickets in your vacation package
There were perks that I wasn’t even aware of until I received my package kit with all the tickets. This includes a voucher for a popcorn bucket and one refill of popcorn (my wife loved this). Simply take the ticket up to any popcorn stand in the parks.
Also, we had 2 drink vouchers. These could be used for a variety of cupped beverages at different drink stands around the parks, and they were unlimited!
We had 2 vouchers for shoulder bags. These could be redeemed at the store inside the Toy Story Hotel.
We had 2 vouchers for original goods. We also redeemed this at the store inside the hotel. There is a preselected list of souvenirs that you can choose from. We ended up with a giant bag charm and a towel handkerchief.
Finally, we had 2 vouchers for breakfast on the mornings of days 2 and 3, at the Lotso Garden Cafe at our hotel.
Park Access with Vacation Package and Happy Entry (for those staying at Disney hotels)
The vacation package I purchased was very strict with what park could be visited on each day. Day 1 was DisneySea, day 2 was Disneyland, and day 3 was DisneySea. There is no park hopping, unless a separate ticket is purchased for the other park on the day you want to hop. This seemed annoying at first; however, I was extremely happy with how this was setup once I was there. DisneySea is absolutely the park you should spend 2 days at, especially if you are a frequent visitor to Walt Disney World or Disneyland. I considered buying a separate ticket to Tokyo Disneyland on the third day, but ultimately decided against it.
Anyone staying at certain Disney hotels get access to Happy Entry, which is a 15-minute head start into the park. The main advantage to this is that is allows you to bypass the massive queue of people waiting to enter. Happy Entry is a separate entrance entirely. At the Toy Story Hotel, you only get this benefit at the Disneyland park. However, the more expensive hotels give you this benefit at both parks. Please note, you can’t use happy entry on your first day no matter what! I only was able to use this on day 2, and it definitely helped me get a head start on the crowds.
40th Anniversary Priority Pass (for anyone at the parks)
This will probably not be a benefit forever, or maybe it will switch to a different name. However, this is essentially the same system as Disney World’s Genie+, but it’s free! You can reserve one skip-the-line at a time, and then reserve a second one in 2 hours or when it’s time for your first one, whichever comes first. I averaged 2-3 of these a day, as they did run out fast.
Immediately when you enter the park, use the app to select your first priority pass. I would do this before any Disney premiere access (DPA) or entry requests.
Here’s what I did:
Day 1: reserved Indiana Jones Adventure, then Nemo and Friends SeaRider, then 20,000 Leagues under the sea (for myself) and Magic Lamp Theatre (for my wife)
Day 2: reserved Monsters Inc: Ride and Go Seek (these sold out for the whole day extremely quickly) and then Space Mountain (please note, Space Mountain will soon be switching to a DPA and then will be closing for a multi-year refurbishment in Summer 2024).
Day 3: reserved Indiana Jones Adventure, then 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I could have done more, but we had done everything by this point.
Please note, Indiana Jones Adventure and Raging Spirits both have extremely quick single rider lines. In general, the priority pass is a lot more helpful at Disneyland compared to DisneySea.
Also note: The Tokyo Disney app will give you QR codes for both the 40th anniversary priority pass and DPA (next). These QR codes are scanned at the attraction in order to access. This is different than the physical attraction tickets discussed previously.
Disney Premiere Access (DPA) (for anyone at the parks)
For the most popular rides, you can pay to reserve your spot. This is similar to the Genie+ paid rides at Disney World. However, I barely used this service, since I got attraction tickets with my vacation package for all of these rides that I wanted to do. The only exception was that I booked Beauty and the Beast with this service so we could ride it twice. I would recommend doing this immediately after your first 40th anniversary priority pass in the app. You can select a DPA for each available ride. This includes Beauty and the Beast, the Happy Ride with Baymax, Splash Mountain, Soarin’, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Tower of Terror.
Entry Requests (for anyone at the parks)
Some of the entertainment offerings here require a lottery system to get to see the show. I had heard scary things about this system before I was here. However, it worked fine for me. I only used it once, but here was my experience. I requested the last showing of Big Band Beat on my first day at DisneySea. Immediately, it gave me a barcode, which means I was successful. I used that barcode later to enter the show. I would do any entry requests after you reserve your first priority pass and any DPA.
By Tokyo Disneyland holiday planning group member Simon Langrehr
Photos: Barbara Bryan, HolidayPlanning.com.au
