Off season for Tokyo Disney/Tokyo Disneysea

[la2lvtom]

Hey all, I am thinking of taking my pops to Tokyo Disney in 2010 and was curious if anyone had an idea when the off season was outr there? I have tried asking travel agents out here but no one seems to know. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, Thanx

[Wes]

I know Elissa and others will be able to give better advice than myself, but my friends and I were there in February, which is considered "off-season" in terms of general tourism in Japan. The parks, especially Tokyo Disneyland, were still fairly busy. For example, a Tuesday with temperatures in the mid 30's, all the e-tickets had 1+ hr. waits. We were still able to get everything done, but it's not walk-ons like the American parks would be mid-week in winter. Hope that helps.

[robbalvey]

The 'off season' for Japan theme parks in general can be in September/October...HOWEVER the Disney parks can be *packed*, especially during the Halloween festival season.

 

I have heard early June is also lighter.

 

I would look at the resort hotels website and they have prices for peak and non-peak periods.

 

The non-peak periods is when you'll find the lighter crowds, but be warned, even during some of the non-peak times we have gone, we have seen the park both very empty (depending on the weather) and up to 2 hour waits for major attractions.

 

Tokyo Disney is one of the (and sometimes ranked the #1) busiest park in the world.

 

It's not that common that you'll see the park empty.

 

--Robb

[jray21]

^Ditto what Robb said. This calendar is your best bet. Click here. It is the rate calendar for the Mira Costa Hotel on Disney property. If you scroll down you will see a calendar with the different "seasons" color coded. I personally have seen the least amount of people in June. June is right before schools get out, and most importantly, right when finals occur. Because of this, there is usually no one going on vacation. No surprise, but japanese students take finals very seriously. We always go during the week in June, and it has always been very empty. Never more than 20 minutes for any ride, except for Winnie the Pooh, the new Monsters Inc. ride, and lines for the characters. The last trip we took in June, at night, every single party was given their very own vehicle for Indiana Jones because it was so empty. June is considered the rainy season, but that also helps keep people away, and since they are built for snow, the rain doesn't disrupt much at all.

[la2lvtom]

Hey Robb and all that replied thanx for the input, went to AAA today to find out about a package for Tokyo Disney (hotel, tickets and transportation from Narita airport. Using frequent flyer miles for the airfare), I was thinking of going September 21st through September 26th but my Nihon-go Sensei (japanese teacher) told me their are 2 big national holidays that week so it looks like we will be going the 14th through the 19th instead. We will be doing 4 days at the Disney resort and it was hard but I talked pops into going to LaQua park, I would have liked to do some other major parks there but this trip is more for pops so maybe in 2011 TPR will do a Japan trip again and I'll tag along on that one

[SharkTums]

^You may want to see if Tokyo Disney has their September schedule up yet. You may miss out on some rides as they prepare for their big Halloween event.

 

The great thing about Tokyo Disney Resort is that they post all of the closure information super far out in advance to help you plan.

[therooboy]

The extra crowds are worth putting up with for their Halloween shows & Haunted Holiday Mansion. One of my favorite times ever at a park.

Good luck, hope your dates work out.

 

I would like to also add that i used the guide from here, on TPR, for my Tokyo trip & it was of enormous help. Most parks were easy to get to by public transport.

[la2lvtom]

I just checked and the calender only states "early September through late October special event Disneys Halloween". It does not say anything else, are any of the "E-ticket" rides closed for this or just the smaller ones? As far as the TPR guide it was very helpful thats why I picked LaQua to be the only other park to visit this trip (even though Robb seemed to dislike Thunderdolphin a great deal it still looks visually intriging enough to ride) plus being an old time wrestling fan the Tokyo Dome was home to some of the great Japanese wrestling events and I really would like to see the place.

[rosscoe]

Star Tours will be closed for rehab during the time you are there, Disneysea at this stage has nothing closed.

[la2lvtom]

So last week I booked my airfare leaving San Francisco on Sunday September 12 and coming back on Saturday September 18 (used my frequent flyer miles so I booked first class both ways , 747 there and 777 back on United) and on Friday I reserved my room at the Disney Mira Costa hotel (superior room on the Tuscany side, cheapest rate at the hotel only 205000 yen ). Gonna do 4 days at the Disney resort and on Saturday the plane leaves Nayrita at 5:40 pm so we should have enough time to hit LaQua in the morning before heading to the airport (I know everyone says how bad Thunder Dolphin is but I really want to ride it) I remember reading that Robb & Elissa know enough Japanese to get by there, how much is enough? I've been taking classes for a couple of months now and I was wondering how much I really need to get by.

[jray21]

Japan is really english friendly. You should have no problem, especially if you spend most of your time at Disney. The only thing is that I would study up on the Katakana alphabet. Almost all of their food menus are written in that, and since it is english based, you can understand a ton of whats on the menu. I really like thunder dolphin. That park is a lot of fun, plus they have a Baskin Robbins with some different flavors. Just make sure that while you are at Disneyland/Disney Sea you check every single food cart, in addition to the popcorn carts. Unlike the normal hot dogs, turkey legs, and popcorn standard carts of America, every food cart in Disney Sea is different, and most in disneyland as well! Their chicken legs are so good, as are their Gyoza buns! I am so jealous! And you will absolutely love the Narita first class lounge. The sandwiches are sooo good! It makes the SFO lounge look worthless!

[la2lvtom]

Wow the food sounds amazing glad I'm dieting now so when I go I can gain all this weight back (actually just dieting so I can fit on Top Thrill Dragster and Millenium Force when I go to Cedar Point in May...sad I know). My Japanese sensei showed me numbers in Kanji so I can understand prices on the menus but I really don't want to learn the Kanji symbols the speaking language is hard enough already. I have a day pass for US Airways lounge at SFO but now I'm excited to see the lounge at Narita. 6 months away and I am already so excited. thanx for the info

[jray21]

Kanji is definitely too difficult to be really useful. But Katakana is pretty easy to learn. It includes 48 "letters," but is much more useful than any other japanese alphabet. Hiragana is their basic alphabet, but unless you know the translation, it is useless. For food, katakana can be very easy. For example, you could easily figure out that Cho-ko-re-to (チョコレト） is chocolate, or do-na-tsu（ドナツ） is donuts, or su-to-ra-be-ri（ストラベリ） is strawberry flavor. I have taken japanese for a few years, but whenever I was in Japan, most of the time I used english, and the rest of the the time I used katakana. TPR cultural lesson for the day

[la2lvtom]

Thats good to know, 3 months studying Japanese and all I can remember is "Nihon-go wa chotto wakaii mas" - my Japanese is not too good, and "Aishiteru-kedo Kekkon wa dekanai" - I love you but I can't marry you. I figure those are the 2 phrases I will need the most... lol.

[Totopez]

Well, it seems like you will have a great time! I went to DisneySea the same time last year (I was in town for Tokyo Game Show), and it was pretty crowded. Waiting time for Journey... was never less than 90 minutes, most of the time at least 120. All Fastpass slots for the rest of the day were gone around 1 pm, to all rides that I wanted to ride. But as you will have two days in each park, I am sure you will be able to ride what you want. One tip, if you don't mind riding with strangers, try the single rider-line that is available on Indiana Jones, Raging Spirits and 20 000 Leagues... It allowed me to do five rides on each of Indy and RS without any waiting time. And as said before, Popcorn! Curry and Black Pepper are my favourites, I am not that much into sweet stuff like caramel or strawberry.

 

Regarding LaQua, Thunder Dolphin is definitely worth a ride. You might end up with a few bruises, but the first drop is worth it!

[MichaelD]

It's perhaps somewhat irrelevant now, but we've been to Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea twice now in mid to late April and both times the parks were very much empty on weekdays, but busy on the weekends. A weekday when it rains is ideal for Tokyo Disneyland if you don't mind getting a bit wet, which is what we got this second trip - come round about midday and the (light) rain started and you could see the park emptying out, so much so that everything was more-or-less walk-on from about 3pm onwards.

 

Doing Pooh's Hunny Hunt 6 times in a row as a walk-on is from what I've heard not all that common.

[rosscoe]

 

Regarding LaQua, Thunder Dolphin is definitely worth a ride. You might end up with a few bruises, but the first drop is worth it!

 

I loved Thunder Dolphin, the ride's I had was very smooth.

[Loefet]

Thunder Dolphin is definitely worth a ride, so is Galaxy Express 999 in my view.

 

Looks like you are going to miss 20K Leagues and Star Tours since they are most likely closed, according to Screamscape: http://www.screamscape.com/html/tokyo_disney_.htm

Also another thing to have in mind about crowds, there is a big 3 day holiday starting on the Saturday you are leaving so it might be a bit of a crowd at Tokyo Dome city/LaQua.

 

You should learn Katakana since you will need it to go through standard menus, but having some basic skills recognising the most common Kanji (entrance, exit, some directions, etc.) can be a good thing, you will probably do that pretty quick once you are there, especially if you take a few trains around the city. But as long as you know how to say, Hi, Good morning, Good evening, thank you, good bye, thanks for the meal, etc. then you will be fine. But in Japan, the more Japanese you know the better you will be treated

[Wes]

TDR actually keeps a very comprehensive and up-to-date listing of ride closures.

 

http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/tdr/english/plan/schedule/stop.html

[rosscoe]

Thats one of the things I loved about Tokyo Disney, the website listed everything that was closed. Which made planning a whole lot easier.

 

. But in Japan, the more Japanese you know the better you will be treated

 

I did not find that to be true at all, I went with very little knowledge of Japanese and even out in the middle of nowhere ( Hells Pass, Snow Monkeys ) I was treated better than I was at some of the places in my own country.

[thomas2]

Kanji is definitely too difficult to be really useful. But Katakana is pretty easy to learn. It includes 48 "letters," but is much more useful than any other japanese alphabet. Hiragana is their basic alphabet, but unless you know the translation, it is useless. For food, katakana can be very easy. For example, you could easily figure out that Cho-ko-re-to (チョコレト） is chocolate, or do-na-tsu（ドナツ） is donuts, or su-to-ra-be-ri（ストラベリ） is strawberry flavor. I have taken japanese for a few years, but whenever I was in Japan, most of the time I used english, and the rest of the the time I used katakana. TPR cultural lesson for the day

 

Actually it's チョコレート,　ドーナツ　and ストロベリー

 

Just avoid the public holidays and school holidays if you want to visit a park. I went to Universal in Osaka on friday and had to wait 20 min. at most while my friend who went today (it's Showa day in Japan, a national holiday) texted me that the wait was 2 hours!

[la2lvtom]

Thanx all for the advice, looks like it will be a great time when me and pops go, I see Star Tours will be closed (no biggie for me don't really like the ones out here anyways) and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (by the description it sounds like a shorter and smaller version of the Disneyland subs so no biggie either). We were too late to book at Mira Costa so we decided to spend the extra 20,000 yen and book at the Disneyland hotel but Robb mentioned in a trip report that he really liked it there so I guess thats cool. I do have a question though, our plane lands at Nairita at 4:35 p.m. and the last "limo bus" leaves at 5:10 so I don't think we will make it through customs in time to catch it so anyone have experience taking the densha / chikatetsu (train or subway) from the airport to Disney?

[jray21]

I have taken the subway/train with luggage and it was really easy. Since you are arriving during rush hour, the subway could be quicker than the bus, but it can be really really really really crowded on the subway.

[SharkTums]

I would go check at the bus area when you get to the airport. Japan is VERY efficient and you will make it through customs and baggage faster than you think.

 

If you miss the last bus or don't feel like waiting for the next one just take the Narita Express to Tokyo Station, then switch to the Keiyo Line to Maihama.

[la2lvtom]

I would go check at the bus area when you get to the airport. Japan is VERY efficient and you will make it through customs and baggage faster than you think.

 

 

We plan on taking carry-on luggage only with us so your saying there is a good chance we might still be able to catch the last bus? That bwould be nice and easy but I do appreciate the info on the trains just in case.