This article is reprinted from the WeChat public account of a reader in our WeChat group, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. Original link.

Conrad Tokyo Breakfast

Because of jet lag, we woke up very early in the morning. Our room just had a standard city view, but for a kid from the countryside, the skyscrapers were still a big hit.

Hilton Diamond status included breakfast, and our 4-year-old ate free. Breakfast was available either at the restaurant on the 28th floor with a city view or at the executive lounge on the top floor (I think?), and the kid picked the top floor. That dining area had a Tokyo Bay view.

There were dining areas on both sides of the corridor, and we chose seats facing Tokyo Bay. Egg dishes were made to order, and we got an omelet and scrambled eggs.

On our side there were all kinds of drinks. My partner brought back a milk green tea with tea foam on top (?), and while I liked the foam, the tea itself was too sweet.

The scrambled eggs used seaweed, and it still had a bit of that grassy ocean flavor. They were very softly cooked though, and I actually liked them quite a bit.

The omelet was folded up almost like the egg on omurice. Since my stomach still wasn’t feeling great, and I didn’t want to share with my partner and risk cross-infection, I didn’t try this one and my partner ate it.

Halfway through the meal, we realized there was another buffet area with food on the opposite side of the corridor, so we quickly went back for another round. There were American, Japanese, and Chinese options, and the spread was pretty extensive, though most of it was served cold. On the plate I picked out, everything was just okay except for the onsen egg. Still, compared with hotel breakfasts in North America, this was better by a mile.

As I mentioned in the previous post, award-ticket uncertainty meant I built most of the flexibility in my itinerary around Tokyo, so the Tokyo portion kept changing. We were originally supposed to stay at the Conrad for several nights, but after all the adjustments, we ended up staying just one night. We stayed at 6 hotels total on this trip, and comparatively speaking I thought the Conrad was quite good. It’s close to Shimbashi (less than 1 km away; cross a pedestrian bridge from the small subway station and you’re basically there). The room size was about average, and adding an extra bed cost extra. Breakfast was decent too. The service—especially the concierge desk—felt warmer than what we got later at Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills. And of course, it had the standard Japanese hotel feature of a smart toilet, which almost goes without saying.

DisneySea Experience

After breakfast, we checked out. After yesterday’s experience dragging luggage through the subway, my partner said he had no interest in hauling bags around while looking for elevators again. So we took a taxi to our next stop, Disney Sea Hotel.

Tokyo Disney currently does not offer park hopper tickets, so if you want to visit both parks, you need to buy separate tickets. We’ve already been to the other parks before and they all feel more or less similar, so this time we skipped Disneyland. Only DisneySea has LinaBell and her friends merchandise; you can’t buy it in Disneyland.

In our family, the kid doesn’t like rides and Dad doesn’t like crowds, so my expectation for DisneySea this time was basically to spend money on Duffy and Friends merchandise! (aka Duffy and his friends, aka LinaBell, StellaLou, etc.) So shopping was the priority, and everything else was just whatever worked out.

Download the Tokyo Disney app in advance. As soon as you enter the park, you can scan and link your tickets in the app. One phone for the whole family is enough. After linking, open it right away and look at the My Plan section.

Standby Pass is for reserving times to enter shops or restaurants and the like. Shops sometimes require timed entry for crowd control. For example, on the day we went, 4/10, it was the first day of Tokyo Disney’s warm-up for the 40th anniversary celebration, so if you wanted Duffy and Friends merchandise or 40th anniversary limited items, you had to reserve through Standby Pass. For Duffy and Friends merch, look for shops with the keyword Duffy. Since there are required time gaps between reservations, it’s best to book as soon as you enter the park. In the past few days, DisneySea changed it again so shop entry no longer requires reservations, but each ticket can only be used to buy Duffy and Friends merchandise once. So the actual rules depend on the day. Also, if you weren’t able to reserve a restaurant in advance, you may be able to do it here.

Entry Request is the lottery system for shows and similar attractions. We didn’t win anything that day...

Disney Premier Access is the paid option for skipping lines, buying premium viewing for light shows or fireworks, and so on—in short, all extra paid add-ons. We originally wanted to buy a spot for the nighttime show, but then saw it started at 7:30PM, while our restaurant reservation was at 7:40PM, and for us dinner obviously mattered more.

Right after entering the park, we ran into a parade, so while frantically trying to set up Standby Pass, we watched it from a distance.

The tall building below is the DisneySea hotel—literally inside the park.

The Japanese are incredibly hardcore—this was still early in the morning, and people were already sitting by the river saving spots for the evening show...

After finally sorting out Standby Pass and Entry Request, our kid said she wanted to ride the boat. We got in line for the Gondola and waited about 20 minutes. The queue area had lots of benches, which was perfect for lazy people like me and my kid.

A lot of the girls at Tokyo Disney were dressed incredibly cutely, covered head to toe in Duffy and Friends accessories. The atmosphere on the boat was great too. The two gondoliers at the front and back of the boat cued the passengers several times to chant along.

A quick aside about restrooms in Japan: the larger stalls are often equipped with this kind of child seat. There was also a small toilet seat ring for babies hanging on the wall. One thing on the wall was the flush sensor, and the other kept playing the sound of running water. I later looked it up and found out it’s called the “Sound Princess” (Otohime). Since many Japanese women find bathroom noises embarrassing, they used to keep flushing repeatedly, so this device helps mask those sounds and makes things less awkward.

The one on the left is toilet seat sanitizer. Restrooms in Japan generally don’t provide seat covers, so you’re supposed to squeeze some toilet seat sanitizer onto toilet paper and wipe down the seat before sitting.

Dell

And this is the baby check-out seat, where moms can place the baby while using the restroom.

Anyway, the attention to detail was amazing. That said, the restroom conditions inside Disney were definitely on the better end. Some were relatively basic, but most of them were still quite good. Disney

My kid said he was a little hungry, so we stopped by a snack shop and grabbed something to eat. They took suica too, which was super convenient!

This strawberry seasonal item was pretty good, and not overly sweet.

This one was good too, though the coffee was a bit too bitter for my kid.

Please excuse the receipt getting all messy from the coffee chocolate...

Right next door was a shop that didn’t require a standby pass, so we went in to browse. This store mainly sold food items, with lots of 40th anniversary gift boxes.

My kid said the gondola wasn’t the boat he wanted to ride—he wanted the big boat on the lake—so we went to ride that instead. These non-thrill attractions basically had no line at all.

After that we went on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. My kid had been terrified beforehand, but it was actually a pretty gentle ride. It was very dark, though, and there were some fairly scary sea monsters.

It was almost time for my reserved shopping slot for Duffy and Friends. We bought some popcorn; in the park, there were both sweet and savory flavors. The sweet popcorn lines were huge, while nobody seemed interested in the savory ones. There was also a popcorn bucket with LinaBell on it at one stand, but we never figured out where that one was.

Across from the popcorn stand, the 40th anniversary lake show was going on. The song was incredibly catchy.

The show ended right on cue, and my reservation time had arrived, so off we went to shop for Duffy and Friends!

A lot of people were lining up to take photos of this display window.

A whole wall full of Duffy and Friends merch—pure happiness! A few items had purchase limits.

After a serious shopping session, I came out completely satisfied. I wanted to put on my favorite StellaLou ears, but Tokyo Disney is right by Tokyo Bay, and the sea breeze was pretty fierce. StellaLou’s ears are so big that they kept getting blown over.

We ran into Disney characters several times in DisneySea; that seems much less common at other Disney parks. The atmosphere at Disney in Japan really is fantastic.

The characters were also very proactive about interacting with guests.

My kid said he wanted to ride the train. On the way there, I saw a LinaBell combo meal and instantly lost my ability to keep walking...

After eating, we continued on to the train. The more times I visit Disney, the more chill I get about rides...

We were seated sideways, and lots of people waved along the way.

Spring had arrived, and all the flowers were in bloom.

Earlier, I hadn’t realized that the entry request was actually a lottery, so I went over to ask the staff at the show. The staff member’s English wasn’t great, so we used a translation app, and that’s when I found out we just hadn’t won the lottery. To cheer us up, they gave my kid a 40th anniversary commemorative sticker.

Since we didn’t get into the show, we headed to Turtle Talk instead. Unless your Japanese is extremely good, I’d just skip this ride. It’s basically an AI sea turtle randomly picking people in the audience to talk to, so if you don’t understand Japanese, you’ll come out looking confused the whole time.

Because we kept going wherever my kid pointed, we had been walking back and forth nonstop, and with my family’s pretty weak stamina, it was actually quite tiring. So we decided to take advantage of the hotel perk, head back to the hotel to drop off the Duffy and Friends merch we bought, and rest for a bit.

When you leave the park, they stamp your hand with a colorless, odorless stamp as proof of re-entry.

Disney Sea Hotel

There are quite a few Tokyo Disney Hotel options. Disneyland Hotel and Disney Ambassador Hotel both have many Disney character-themed rooms to choose from. This time I booked Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta. The hotel is located inside DisneySea (which I’ll refer to as “the Sea” below), and from the restaurant or some guest rooms you can look out over the park. Tokyo Disney hotel reservations open on the official website three months in advance. If you want a specific room type, I’d recommend booking as soon as reservations open; I booked mine on opening day. The hotel restaurants also open for reservations three months ahead and are very popular, so I booked breakfast that same day too. I heard hotel guests can also book restaurants inside the park in advance, but I couldn’t figure out how. In the end, I booked when reservations opened to the general public one month in advance. Sakura, the only Japanese restaurant inside DisneySea, only had a table for four left at 7:40 PM, so I grabbed it right away. The Tokyo Disney website does not require a new registration; you can reuse your US Disney account login. When buying Disney tickets, the official website does not accept non-Japanese credit cards. It’s very easy to buy tickets on klook, and you also don’t need to book too far in advance. Or, if you’re staying at the hotel, you can buy tickets at the hotel and they are guaranteed to be available. In addition, hotel guests can enter the park 15 minutes early. We entered the park on the day we arrived at the hotel, so we didn’t use that perk. The hotel decor is European in style and very grand. We checked in first and dropped off our luggage. Valuables can be stored in a small, vintage-looking room full of lockers next to the front desk. The hotel was crowded, and we waited in the check-in line for a while.

There weren’t any special perks with our room at the MiraCosta; we just booked a standard Mickey-themed triple room. One of the beds had a pull-out bed underneath, and it felt quite spacious for three people.

The room’s color scheme made it look a little dated, but the actual facilities were perfectly fine. They also provided dedicated toiletries for kids.

They even provided a little step stool for kids to stand on at the sink. When we travel in the US, we usually bring our own, but we skipped it this time to pack lighter. Of all the hotels we stayed at on this trip, Disney was the only one that provided a step stool, which made it the most kid-friendly by far.

DisneySea at Night

After a short rest, it was almost time for my reservation at the 40th anniversary shop, so we headed back into the park.

Compared with Duffy and Friends, the 40th anniversary merchandise was honestly kind of ugly. I walked around and didn’t end up buying much. Then I went to the shop next door that didn’t require a reservation, and it was actually easier to shop there. They also had some non-hot-ticket Duffy items, so I ended up doing another round of “qualifying purchase” shopping.

Everything looked pretty in the display windows, but once I saw the actual items in person, some of the color combinations were... hard to describe.

It was very windy that day, so the fireworks were canceled. The light show started at 7:30, and we admired it from afar for a little while.

Sakura Restaurant

After watching for 10 minutes, it was time to go to dinner. We had booked Sakura, the only Japanese restaurant in the park. There were two set menu options each for adults and kids.

This was the appetizer.

This was the kids’ meal.

Main course.

My husband’s tempura set.

The food was decent, standard Japanese fare. It wasn’t especially amazing, but it was perfectly fine. The portions were generous. Since we were starving, we polished off almost everything.

By the time we came out, the park was almost closed. We didn’t stay any longer and just went back to the hotel to rest.

DisneySea near closing time.

There was also a gift shop inside the hotel with quite a bit of 40th anniversary merchandise. At that point it was packed with visitors who had spent the whole day focused on rides.

Disney in the Morning

When we woke up early, we discovered that from our room we could see the castle at Disneyland.

Our breakfast reservation was at 7:40 AM, so we got ready and headed out to eat. The pattern on the lobby dome seemed similar to the one on the room ceiling?

The restaurant was on the side with a direct view into the park. At that hour the park hadn’t opened yet, and there were only a few scattered staff members inside.

Breakfast was buffet-style, with both Japanese and Western sections, and there was a very wide selection. My child’s high chair was also Mickey-shaped, and my kid—who normally refuses to sit in a high chair—agreed to sit in it for Disney. We mostly picked Japanese breakfast items. My favorite was the grated yam with soy sauce, and I had several small bowls of it.

The bread looked so cute too.

After breakfast, we went back to the room, grabbed our luggage, and checked out. Overall, I liked the Disney Sea Hotel quite a bit. The pajamas in the room were very comfortable, and it was also pretty kids-friendly. The downside is that it does feel a little dated, but compared with old hotels in the U.S., it really doesn’t look old at all. The Disneyland Hotel and Ambassador Hotel also have lots of character room options. We’re thinking of coming back once our kid is more into rides to try those out.

The day before, our kid spotted the Disney monorail while we were in a taxi and insisted on riding it. So mom and dad had no choice but to promise that the next morning, after check-out, we’d leave by monorail. As we walked across the overpass and looked down, we were stunned.

There’s a luggage storage area right at the monorail station, which is super convenient.

This was the 40th anniversary train. Before Tokyo Disney, we had only ridden the one at Hong Kong Disneyland. Disney in the U.S. and Paris don’t have Mickey-themed trains.

The interior was dreamy too.

Even the music at the station had a great atmosphere.

If you look on google map, you won’t find the Disney line. Just take public transportation to JR Maihama Station and transfer to the Disney line. The Disney line has stops at both DisneySea and Disneyland. There’s also a Disney Visitor Center at Maihama Station. You can buy tickets there, and supposedly hotel guests can also leave their luggage there and head straight into the parks.

About the Author

This article is reposted from WeChat reader Wei Disney Ren 33’s food and travel blog. These are all great original articles, so if you’re interested, feel free to follow along.

Japan Trip Series