Ultimate Guide to Tokyo Disneyland: Tips & Attractions
Not only is Tokyo Disneyland considered one of the best Disney theme parks in the world, but it’s also the most affordable.
The cost of entry tickets, food, and merchandise is considerably lower in Tokyo Disneyland than in the Paris or American Parks. We were so pleasantly surprised!
If you only visit one theme park during your time in Tokyo, it should be a Disney park. Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea? That’s a matter of personal preference!
I thought that Tokyo DisneySea was the better of the two, and the most beautiful and well-themed theme park I have ever visited. The kids preferred Tokyo Disneyland, which is more familiar to them, and has a similar look and feel to the Disneyland parks in France and America.
Thinking of spending the day in Tokyo Disneyland? Here’s everything you need to know – packed full of Tokyo Disneyland tips for 2025, this is the ultimate guide to spending a day at Tokyo Disneyland!
- Before You Go: Tips For Tokyo Disneyland Planning
- Getting Tickets For Tokyo Disneyland
- The Rides In Tokyo Disneyland
- The Food In Tokyo Disneyland
- Other Things To Do In Tokyo Disneyland
- Conclusion
This article may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links. This won’t cost you a penny but will help me to keep the blog running. Thanks for your support!
Before You Go: Tips For Tokyo Disneyland Planning
We watched so many Youtube videos and read so many articles before our Tokyo Disneyland trip and honestly? I’d got myself in a real tizz! Standby passes and Premier access passes. Lottery tickets to access the shows? It all seemed so complicated!
But actually it was much easier than I expected when we arrived, and we ended up being happy to go with the flow and soak up the atmosphere.
To help make it the most enjoyable possible experience for you, there are some things you should know or should prepare before you go. Here are my top tips:
- Arrive at the park early! The park officially opens at 9am (but this is subject to change, so do check for your specific dates) and the gates are often opened earlier. Queues to get in start to form for 7am and they can be LONG! Arriving early means you’ll get in faster and are more likely to get the passes you want/need)
- Link your park entry tickets to your Tokyo Disneyland app. You need these to book standby passes or priority passes, this can only be done in the app. Standby passes are free passes that give you access to rides that might otherwise have closed their queue due to high crowd levels. Priority passes are paid passes that act like fast passes, giving you faster access to rides. The link to download the app is here.
- Get in the queue for one ride while getting a standby pass for your next ride. We got in the queue for the Monsters Inc ride, as this was the closest ride to the park entry. Get your standby pass fast – they run out so quickly.
- Priority passes can be expensive (between £30-40 for our family of 4 for ONE ride) but you’ve already spent a small fortune to get to Japan. If there’s a ride you REALLY don’t want to miss, it’s worth getting the pass. We regretted not doing this last time, and will be learning from our mistake this trip.
Getting Tickets For Tokyo Disneyland
There are 2 ways to get tickets for Tokyo Disneyland. You can either buy directly from the Tokyo Disneyland website OR you can buy from a 3rd party site such as Klook.
We used Klook for several reasons. The Tokyo Disneyland website wouldn’t accept our UK-based credit card, they sent the tickets straight to your phone, and the prices were exactly the same as buying direct but with less hassle. You will be sent a QR code from Klook and you can scan this straight into the app – it’s so easy!
👉 Click here to check availability and to book your Tokyo Disneyland tickets!
💶 Use code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK to get 5% off these prices AND off all other tickets on Klook too!
Ticket prices vary slightly depending on how far in advance you book, and whether you book a weekend or weekday.
A 1 day entry ticket to Tokyo Disneyland on a weekday next month will cost £43.65 per adult, £36.39 for a junior aged between 12-17, £25.99 for a child aged between 4-11. Children younger than that can enter for free.
If you do choose to buy from Klook then use code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK to get an extra 5% off those prices (every little helps!) The booking link is here.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON BOOKING TICKETS: You can only buy tickets up to 2 months in advance, so if visiting on a specific day is important to you then be prepared! Tickets for April 1 will go on sale on February 1. Tickets for May 16 will go on sale on March 16. And so on. Book the tickets you want as soon as the sale window is open to avoid disappointment, especially in peak periods.
The Rides In Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo Disneyland offers a wonderful mix of familar rides that you will find in every Disneyland park (such as It’s a Small World, Peter Pan’s Flight, Dumbo the Flying Elephants, Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain).
But it is also home to some completely unique rides that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. Because we have been to other Disney parks, riding these unique rides was a big focus for us.
Some of the rides we loved the most that I would recommend you take the time to ride include:
- Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek. This is a ride where you immerse yourself into the world of Monsters Inc, using torches to shine a light on the monsters, help Boo, and save the day!
- Pooh’s Honey Hunt. This is one of the original rides that was built in the park for opening day, and it does show a little. But if you love Winnie the Pooh then it’s adorable, and I really loved it.
- The Enchanted Tale Of Beauty And The Beast. This is a trackless ride and one of the BEST in the park. Queues are always huge, but it’s worth trying to get on this ride. If you only buy one premier access pass, this is the ride!
- The Happy Ride With Baymax. This is so worth riding, even though the ride doesn’t look the most exciting. It’s the music and the dancing staff members that make this iconic.
The Food In Tokyo Disneyland
We love our food, and a theme park with disappointing food makes for an overall disappointing experience. Luckily for us, we thought the food in Tokyo Disneyland was very good!
The prices were affordable, and the theming was great too. You can really see that a lot of work has been put into the theming and overall styling of the food here. It’s not just a burger thrown in the tray like you get in the UK!!
If you only eat one thing then please make it the Toy Story green alien mochi. They come in 3 different flavours, and you get an assortment of each. The flavours are chocolate, strawberry and custard.
And they’re a great example of just how cheap the food here is too. These cost 400 yen for a tub of 3. (That’s £2.05 based on todays’ exchange rate). You can find these in the pan galactic pizza port, which is just opposite the Baymax ride.
We also tried the pizza and the Baymax yuzu drink here. Both excellent, and a great choice if you’re travelling with kids who want to eat familiar foods.
We didn’t sit down in any of the table service restaurants, preferring quick service and snacks instead. But we didn’t spend more than £5 on any single item. And we ate pizzas, chinese buns, minnie mouse themed hotdogs, and our weekly allowance of sugary snacks!
I’ve written a full post about the best snacks in Tokyo Disneyland, including prices, that you can read here.
Other Things To Do In Tokyo Disneyland
Of course the rides are only one aspect of the fun of visiting any Disneyland park: there’s also the shows, parades, and character meets to enjoy. Many of these things also operate a little differently in the Tokyo park.
MEETING CHARACTERS
In terms of characters, there are formal character meets which work in just the same way as in other parks around the world. You go to a designated spot (for example Mickey Mouse’s House), you queue (the queue time is posted at the front so you know how long you’ll be waiting) and then you get to meet the character and take photos.
But there are also a significant number of unscheduled characters that roam around the park – more than I’ve ever seen in any other park.
These characters come out and then stand behind lines or circles that are taped on the ground. You can then go up to the line (but not over it) to say hi to the characters and take selfies.
This meant we meet SO many characters, and we thought it was amazing. But I couldn’t help but think this system wouldn’t work anywhere else in the world. Certainly noone in the Paris parks would be following an arbitrary line system!
We were really impressed with how this worked, and it meant next to no queues to see characters.
WATCHING PARADES
The other thing we LOVED were the Disneyland Parades. We saw the traditional daytime parade in front of the castle, and then the night time parade: The Electric Light Parade.
If you only have time to fit in one then make it the Electric Light Parade: it was visually spectacular!
People start waiting to secure a spot around an hour before the parades start (some people wait much longer, but we got good enough spots an hour before) and another difference here is that they reserve their spot by laying blankets or mats on the ground.
They then stay seated on the ground for the parade: we thought this was odd at first, but actually it’s another example of Japanese courtesy.
If everyone is sitting down at a low level, then everyone can see the parade (taking place at a higher level above them) without an obstructed view. Very clever, and in the end we enjoyed being seated (even if it was on the cold floor) for the parades.
Conclusion
Tokyo Disneyland is an incredible theme park. It’s perfect for children and for adult fans alike. We loved the food, the rides, the atmosphere and the whole experience.
If you take any one tip home from this, please let it be to book your tickets in advance. While it is possible to buy tickets on the gate, these aren’t always available and it would be awful to get your kids all the way to the doors of theme park-heaven, and then not be allowed in!
👉 Click here to check availability and to book your Tokyo Disneyland tickets!
💶 Use code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK to get 5% off these prices AND off all other tickets on Klook too!
Have you visited Tokyo Disneyland? I’d love to hear what your favourite ride was? And how did you find the overall experience?
This article may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links. This won’t cost you a penny!
WOULD YOU LIKE MORE FREE POSTS LIKE THIS STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX? JUST HIT SUBSCRIBE BELOW
This place looks amazing. Not me getting excited at Alien mochi!
We got to the point where we were buying 3/4 tubs at a time! They were addictive!!