Visiting Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea: Which is Best For Kids?

If you only have the time or the inclination to visit one theme park during your time in Tokyo you might be wondering which one you should choose. Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea?

We get asked whether Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea is the better resort a lot. Especially by families. And honestly, the answer depends who you’re travelling with!

We’ve now been to both parks three times. And we’ve started planning our fourth: We’re a family that loves Disney. So it should be no surprise that my boys love both of the Disney Tokyo resort parks: both offer incredible rides and character experiences, and are beautifully well themed. So no matter which park you choose, you’ll have a good day!

The Disney Tokyo resort is considered one of the best Disney resorts in the world, and you really shouldn’t miss out on either of the parks if you have the time and money to visit both. But if you only have time for one, which should you choose? Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea? That’s the question this post intends to answer!

🎫 Planning a Tokyo Disney visit?
Tickets can sell out and prices vary depending on length of stay.
I’ve broken down the best Tokyo Disney ticket options for families, including when to buy direct vs third-party.
👉 Tokyo Disney Tickets: How to Choose The Best Option For Your Family

Heads up! This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click and make a purchase, I might earn a very small commission – at no extra cost to you. This helps to keep the blog going. Thanks for the support!

Is Tokyo Disneyland Good For Kids?

Tokyo Disneyland is what is often referred to as the ‘Castle Park’. This is the Disneyland that most people are familiar with: although Tokyo Disneyland is unique, it has many similarities with the castle parks in Florida, California, and Paris.

If you’re kids have never been to a Disneyland Castle Park before then Tokyo Disneyland is probably the best choice for you. This is the park most like the Disneyland that kids dream of: the castle, Toon Town, and Mickey Mouse.

My boys really love this park, and they think it’s much better than the castle park in Paris, thanks to the quality of the rides and because it ‘feels bigger’ (I think that has a lot to do with the immersive attention to detail in every land in the park)

This is also the park with the most attractions for younger kids. Toddlers and pre-schoolers in particular will find they can ride so many more rides in the park.

Before we dive into the rides, if you haven’t already booked your Tokyo Disney tickets (for either park) yet, I always recommend using Klook. My discount code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK will get you an exclusive extra discount.

👉 Click here to check availability and book your tickets now.

Head to Fantasy Land where children of all ages can ride It’s a Small World (which currently has a unique to Tokyo Groot takeover), Dumbo the Flying Elephants, Peter Pan’s Flight, the Teacups and Pooh’s Honey Hunt (a ride that is unique to Tokyo Disneyland)

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And in Toon Town you’ll find Gadgets Go Go Coaster (a perfect first roller coaster experience for pre schoolers) as well as splash pads, play areas, and the opportunity to meet Mickey and Minnie in their respective homes. This is also were pop-up character meets happen throughout the day.

It’s a little niche but in Town Town you’ll also find the Roger Rabbit ride: a family-favourite film for us, so the boys always make us ride this twice! The boys say the ride is as funny as the film, and it’s the best queue line ever!

Other rides in Tokyo Disneyland that families shouldn’t miss include:

• Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek (this is a track ride where you hunt for monsters using flash lights and score points. Older kids will love the competitive nature of this – my boys always love it when they can beat us!)
• The Happy Ride With BayMax. Another Tokyo Disney exclusive, this is a simple ride but it’s the cast members that make it special. They sing and dance the whole ride, encouraging riders to join in!
• Splash Mountain. A water ride with a big drop, my boys loved this. Maybe best for school aged and older, but worth riding as its the only Splash Mountain left in the world!
• Enchanted tale of Beauty and the Beast. This is a story style ride and the best ride in the park! Anyone can ride this (we had a baby being carried sharing a teacup with us!)

The shows and parades in Tokyo Disneyland are also AMAZING for the whole family. If you have smaller kids that can stand a late night then please stay out for the nighttime Electrical Light Parade. It is one of the best and most visually spectacular Disney parades i’ve ever seen.

(Sidenote: I also love that in Japan everyone sits on the ground for the parades. This means no matter how far back you’re sitting, your little people will always have an amazing view!)

Is Tokyo DisneySea Good For Kids?

When you walk into Tokyo DisneySea it feels like a much more grown-up park. It’s spectacularly beautiful, but without the candy coloured fairytale of Disneyland.

It’s so well-thought out, themed, and architecturally magnificent. When I first walked into the park and saw the Mediteranean harbour I genuinely gasped: the Disney version of Venice looks even more beautiful than the real Venice!

Of course, these are all factors that makes this park an incredible, not-to-be missed destination for adults. But what is there at Tokyo Disney Sea for kids?

Firstly if your kids love Duffy and Friends then that’s a great reason to visit Tokyo Disney Sea. The first teddies both boys were given when they were born (by my late mum) were Duffy Bears so this was a huge reason to visit the park for us. My boy just love Duffy! They met Duffy, watched the Duffy dinner show (there is a separate charge for this), and went to Aunt Pegs store. It’s heaven for Duffy fans.

No idea what i’m talking about? Don’t worry! Duffy is much bigger in Asia than he is anywhere else in the world. And you don’t have to like or even know Duffy to enjoy this park.

Tokyo DisneySea also isn’t without its family rides! In fact there are just as many excellent family ride options in here as there are in Tokyo Disneyland.

Some of the best family rides in Tokyo DisneySea include:

• The Adventures of Sinbad. This is Tokyo DisneySea’s small world. With an infectious tune and the cutest tiger mascot, this is a great ride for all ages.
• Mermaid Lagoon. This is the child-friendly heart of the park. Featuring playgrounds, splash play features, and half a dozen rides suitable for children of all ages (including a junior coaster for school age + children to enjoy) it is this area that makes me wonder why people suggest Tokyo DisneySea isn’t child friendly. This area of the park was built exclusively for kids!
• Disney Springs. A new section of the park, ALL of the rides here are family friendly. We rode them all on our last visit (lets call it market research) and as well as enjoying them all, we thought they were all child-friendly. If you can only do one make it Frozen. If you can do two? The Tangle ride is very short BUT the lantern scene is the most beautiful theme park ride scene i’ve ever seen.

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It’s also worth mentioning that the food at both parks is amazing and you’ll find child-friendly options everywhere. If your kids are struggling to adapt to an eastern palette then there are burgers and pizzas, but you’ll also find excellent curries, noodle bowls, and PLEASE don’t miss the toy story alien mochi. You can read my favourite Tokyo Disney snacks here.

Booking Tokyo Disneyland Tickets And Tokyo DisneySea Tickets

Tokyo Disney prices are incredible affordable. In fact, Tokyo Disney prices are the cheapest of any Disney park in the world! (I’ve even spoken to people from America who travelled to Tokyo to take their kids to Disneyland because they said it was cheaper than booking a Disney World vacation!)

There are lots of options available when booking your tickets to Tokyo Disneyland for 2025. You can book your tickets directly via the official Tokyo Disneyland site (link here) you can buy your tickets in person when you arrive in Japan, or you can use a third-party site such as Klook.

We choose to book our tickets via Klook for all of our trips because:

• You can save a couple of quid using my discount code, THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK

• They are English-friendly. You can set the language of the Klook website to whatever works best for you (English for me!)

• It’s easy to pay using a foreign credit card (something I often find a stumbling block when using Japanese websites)

• You get instant tickets that you can use straight from your phone.

👉 Click here to check availablity and book your tickets today

The good news is booking Tokyo Disney Sea tickets is exactly the same as booking Tokyo Disneyland tickets. So it doesn’t matter which park you choose, you book your tickets in exactly the same way! This link will allow you to book tickets to either park.

Park Hopping – Can You Visit Both Parks In One Day?

If i’d written this question just a couple of weeks ago, the answer would have been no. After Covid, Tokyo Disneyland Resort stopped offering both annual passes and park hopping tickets.

But they are reintroducing park hopper tickets for a limited time only this summer. This ticket will allow you to hop between Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea and enjoy the parks during the summer season. Its available for visits between 2nd July and 15th September.

You can find out more about these here.

Tokyo Disneyland Opening Hours

Thinking park hopping might be the best choice for you? The good news is that the Tokyo Disneyland parks opening hours are long, so while it would be impossible to see all of both parks in one day, you could get a pretty good overview.

The Tokyo Disneyland opening hours are from 9.00am – 9.00pm. But if you want to get into the park as soon as the gates open, I recommend arriving at your chosen park at least an hour before the scheduled park opening time.

Where To Stay Near Tokyo Disneyland Resort

Another question i’m asked a lot is where to stay when you visit the Tokyo Disneyland Resort. There are six official Tokyo Disney Resort hotels – these are the Fantasy Springs Hotel, The Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, Disney Ambassador Hotel, the Hotel MiraCosta, Toy Story Hotel, and the Tokyo Disney Celebration Hotel. (You can check these out on the Disney website here).

We’ve never stayed in one of the Disney Resort hotels: we’d LOVE to, but the budget just doesn’t stretch to it when you try to visit Asia annually like we do. So I’m not in a position to review these. BUT there are lots of Disney Partner hotels, and hotels in Tokyo Bay that provide easy access to Tokyo Disney Resort too. We’ve stayed in a couple of these partner hotels.

🏩 You can read my post about the best hotels in Tokyo Bay here.

Final Verdict: Which Park Is Best For Your Kids?

Tokyo DisneySea is a completely unique park, and if you’re in Tokyo then I really think this is a place that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. Particularly if you’ve already been to other Disney resorts before. If you’re a regular Disney visitor or if you’re travelling with older kids that love going on rides then I think this is the park you should choose (it’s my personal favourite of the two).

BUT….

If this is your first/only Disney resort experience, or if you’re travelling with toddlers or pre-schoolers then I would suggest that Tokyo Disneyland is the best resort for your kids!

Kids don’t care if a theme park is unique, or how much the imagineers managed to make it look like Venice! They hear Disneyland and they want three things: The Castle, the tea cup and elephant rides, and Mickey Mouse!

Further Reading

Don’t scroll away yet! If you’re planning a big family trip to Japan then here’s a selection of other content that will help you with your trip planning and make your visit the best family holiday ever!

🌊 The 7 Best Rides at Tokyo Disney Sea (Plus Photo Spots and More Family Planning Tips)

🏰 Tokyo Disneyland Tips for 2025. What you need to know before you go (From a mum whose been!)

🎌 The Ultimate 14 Day Japan Itinerary for First Time Visitors

Have you been to Tokyo Disneyland and/or Tokyo DisneySea? Which park did you think was best? And if you’ve only visited one park, I’d love to know which one you chose and why!

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Heads up! This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click and make a purchase, I might earn a very small commission – at no extra cost to you. This helps to keep the blog going. Thanks for the support!