Plan on visiting Tokyo DisneySea? Here are a few tips to enjoy your day at this magical theme park based on my family’s experience.
In 2013, we took our children to Tokyo Disneyland when we visited Japan. Our entire family had a magical time and I still remember the touching moment when my son was watching the electric parade going by. He turned me to and said, “mom, it’s so beautiful I want to cry.” Since we had such a great time, when we visited Japan this past summer we were super excited and looked forward to visit Tokyo DisneySea.
What is Tokyo DisneySea?
Tokyo DisneySea is a Disney theme park right next door to Tokyo Disney. Both Disney Sea and Disneyland are owned by The Oriental Land Company who licenses the Disney characters and themes from The Walt Disney Company.
You might wonder since I live in California where we do have a Disneyland Park and California Adventure, why is my family visiting the parks in Japan? The reason is Disney resort in Japan is only 1 hr from my house in Yokohama where as Los Angeles is a 7 hour drive for us. The second reason is because Tokyo Disney is also significantly lower priced than the ones in the US, the ticket price per day is about $64 vs. $96 for an adult, and $42 vs. $90 for a child. I know… crazy right??
DisneySea is currently the 4th most visited theme park in the world, right behind Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland in Los Angeles.
Tips for Navigating Tokyo DisneySea
The theme park is designed as a loop with featuring 7 different aquatic themed areas, from classic American Waterfront scenery to the futuristic Port Discovery, or explore the jungles of Lost River Delta, Mysterious Island, or Arabian Coast. 
This quick guide below is written for non-Japanese speakers as well as tips for your visit based on my own experience.
- When we visited Tokyo Disneyland in 2013, my daughter was only 5 but she was tall enough to go on every ride. We knew DisneySea was designed for an older crowd but was hoping she could get on all the rides. We were not so lucky this time, 11 of the rides had height restrictions and she was too short for 3 of the featured rides: Indiana Jones Adventure, Raging Spirits, Journey to the Center of the Earth. All three rides required a minimum of 117 cm or 3 ft 10 inches. If you have little ones, keep this in mind as they might not be tall enough for some of the featured rides.
- There are 8 rides that offer FastPass, go for Toy Story Mania or Tower of Terror first for your fast pass. When we visited on a Friday, and remaining 6 rides that offered FastPass had lines but not more than a 50-60 minutes wait. For Toy Story Mania, we didn’t have Fast Pass and waited for 90 minutes. It was long…
- Try to avoid weekends and visit before Japan’s school goes on summer break in mid-July. As I mentioned earlier we visited on a Friday, and as we were leaving the resort on Saturday morning around 10 AM, the parks were already at max capacity and weren’t letting more people in until 6pm.
- The Fantasmic show at night can be viewed from numerous locations around the Mediterranean Harbor, don’t waste your time waiting for hours to save a good spot. Use that time to enjoy more rides instead.
- If you don’t speak Japanese, avoid the Turtle Talk attraction. We waited almost 1 hour for the attraction not knowing what it is. Basically it’s a turtle on screen that interacts with the audience in Japanese. If you don’t speak Japanese the attraction is quite disappointing.
Where we stayed near Tokyo Disney Resort
There are 3 Disney hotels connected to the theme parks (Ambassador Hotel, Hotel Miracosta, and Tokyo Disneyland Hotel), and another 6 official hotels surrounding the theme parks that can be accessed via a monorail line.
Last and this year we stayed at Hilton Tokyo Bay which is one of the 6 hotels. Hilton has kids friendly rooms which my children love and they let you use Hilton Honors Points + Cash combination, which brings the cost of a room down to around USD$125 a night depending on the season. The rooms facing facing the bay have an amazing view of the Tokyo skyline.
What did we eat…. yummy!
We ate at Magellan’s during our visit. It is a very nice sit down restaurant located in the middle of the theme park.
I remember we were quite hungry that day and couldn’t wait to eat. Oh my, the food was amazing, by far the best food at a theme park. Prosciutto, smoked salmon, roast chicken, ebi fry, and shrimp salad. Yeap, not your average theme park food. If you want to relax while visiting the park, I highly recommend Magellan’s restaurant.
The Night in Tokyo DisneySea
The night time scenery in DisneySea is very pretty to walk around and enjoy.
For the grand show at night, the current one on display is called Fantasmic. The show happens over the water of Mediterranean Harbor and lasts about 20 minutes.
Mr. JOC recorded the last 5 min of the Fantasmic show (the best part). If you don’t have plans on going, I recommend watching it below on my YouTube Channel! If you haven’t seen it and are planning to go soon, don’t watch it as it will spoil the ending.
Our family had a blast again at DisneySea, so much so that my children has requested that we visit both theme parks next year and spend 2 nights there. I can’t wait to go back with my family and hopefully my children will cherish these sweet memories as they grow older.
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oh wow I would love to visit Tokyo so much, it is on our bucket list, I hope to go in the next few years and take my son to this amazing Disney sea!
Tokyo Disney Sea is a beautiful place . The food presentation at Magallen’s is so lovely . I definitely want to go there .
Thank you so much for your comment, Denise! I hope you can visit the DineySea one day. It was a fun place for adults! 🙂
The magic of Disney!!! I can’t believe Japan park es less expensive than the US park, incredible.
I love the pictures, and the park is like to be in different cities of each continent…amazing!!!
What a great write up! My sister is going to Japan over Christmas, so I’ll definitely be forwarding this to her. Really fun read — thanks.
OMG maybe it’s just your photos, but this Disney looks SOOOOOOO much better than the LA one! ha ha!
Disney sea – this will be on my itinerary the next time I visit Japan. We went to Tokyo Disneyland when I was little..that was totally ages ago. And I love any Disney theme parks, after all it’s the best place on earth. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your pics–your children are sooooo cute!!–and great travel tips, too! I know firsthand how good the food is. Japan never fails to impress me with their cuisine, from a simple bowl of udon to super fresh sushi!
Thank you for your kind words, Donna! I feel like the kids grew up after the summer too after looking at these photos. I think Japanese people (including myself) are pretty picky in general because we have so many good options to choose from, and like to criticize (more like as a topic of conversation) and we always find ways to improve things (sometimes they are not that necessary). At the end, we have pretty good quality things everywhere… Well, most of the time. 😀
楽しそう！ レストランもいい感じ。 もうすぐ誕生日だね。 何する？どこに行く？ 素敵な誕生日になりますように。
oh how much fun and what a wonderful guide too. I feel like I would know exactly where to go and what to do if I went. Your awesome girl
Arigato for the Disney Sea tips. Your husband did a great job video taping the water show! When I try, I always get a bunch of heads blocking the view. Ugh!
My family and I were able to go to Tokyo Disney and Disney Sea last summer for the first time. Even though I grew up an hour from Disneyland, I loved the Japanese version, especially Disney Sea because the Japanese people are extremely kind and polite. Not knowing the Japanese language and not realizing that some attractions are not to be video taped, we had a few Disney employees bow and smile at us as they asked us to stop video taping. Really, who smiles and bows while they scold you?!?!? The Disney employees are so nice, you want to follow the rules. 🙂
Journey to the Bottom of the Sea ride is a must! Hopefully your whole family can enjoy this ride next year.
I have a couple of tips myself:
1. You have to try the various popcorn flavors. They are different from the regular flavor we have in the U.S. like a soy sauce and honey versions, It’s different but oishi! The containers are great souvenirs as well.
2. Don’t bother bringing trading pins. They sell some pins but people in Japan don’t trade them like in America. I looked but couldn’t find any trading stations or people.
3. If you like Duffy, you got to buy Shellie May, his friend. You can only buy her in Japan. They are so cute together! Young Japanese carry these stuff animals all around with them at the parks.
4. If adults want to see a cool Costco, you have to go to a Japanese Costco. There is one near Tokyo Disney. My cousins and I left the teenagers at Disney and 3 of us went to Costco! Wow! They have the best Hokkaido ice cream at the snack bar, amazing seafood pizza, and a bunch of Japanese products. I don’t remember where Costco is exactly but we took a cab to the train station, passed a few stops, got off and took another cab to Costco. It was awesome!
I returned home with a new appreciation of Japan as a whole. What a clean, polite and high tech country!
Thank you so much for your comment (and so sorry for my late response!). My husband was recording with our DSLR too – so heavy! He was actually telling me how tired he was after shooting that video, so he was very happy to read your comment. 🙂 I’m short, so I can’t see this kind of show when I go closer to the front. 😀
You told me an interesting point – yeah Japanese people always ask politely WITH SMILE! That’s a good observation. 🙂
I enjoyed reading your tips! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing with us. Hope other readers find them useful too. I actually haven’t been to Costco in Japan yet. I need to check it out next time. My friends share some things on Facebook sometimes and I find them very interesting!
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed your stay in Japan. Thank you again!
Wow Nami, you wrote back to me! I feel honored. You are an internet celebrity, at least to me. Glad you enjoyed my reply. If I discover something new, I like to share it with others.
I’ve known Japanese people all my life but realize that I am not familiar with a lot of Japanese food. It was evident as I traveled around Japan asking, “What is this? What is that?”. So, thank you for your website and videos. The instructions in your videos are clear and easy to follow. They make Japanese cooking look fun! I’ve made some of your recipes, my favorite is the Japanese cheesecake. It is always a hit! Thank you again for taking the time to write to me. Again, I am flattered!
Aloha from Hawaii,
Marjorie Gorai
Hi Marjorie! Haha, I usually respond, or at least I try…. 🙂 I’m glad to hear my website and videos are helpful. I’m happy to hear your enjoyed the cheesecake recipe! Aloha~~~ 🙂
I guess my lil princess niece gonna do what ever i ask her to do once i bring her into this disneysea…..
I did not even know there was a DisneySea, looks like a blast! Great food pics too!
Love love love your photos!! Tokyo, and everything else! Your little ones are beyond adorable!! I would wanna cry, too, if I saw all this in real life. I PRAY that one day I will make it out to Japan. Such a gorgeous country.
Oh Nami, these pictures are absolutely stunning!!! It is making me wish that I could go to Tokyo DisneySea right now! Your son and daughter look so adorable too – so glad you all had a great time 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing with us 🙂
I LOVE Disney World in Orlando, and I LOVE your photos of Disney Sea. I always wondered w hat it looked like there., Simply beautiful. And the food and hotels look amazing as well. The kids look so happy. Great post
Thank you for sharing this! My son and I watched the video and he kept saying “woah, cool!” I’ve been to Tokyo Disney but never heard of Disney Sea. Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to go one day…
P.S. – your photos are Incredible!!
I’ve heard of Tokyo Disney but never heard of Disney-Sea. Thanks for showing me! If I’m there I will definitely avoid the weekends, the public holidays and the school holidays as I do hate crowds! It’s great that once it’s at capacity they don’t allow any more people in. The food at the resort looks so good and definitely not theme-park food at all. I can just imagine how much your children must have loved their time there xx
Well, this has been a lesson I did not expect 🙂 ! Thought I knew all the Disney ‘places’ but I surely had no idea a DisneySea existed. . . and was so popular. Have to pass your many valuable tips along if I hear someone going up there, especially with children. Altho’ methinks one can always be that child oneself!!! Looks well planned and fun!!
Hi Eha! A lot of people don’t know about DisneySea, but it’s actually very popular! Make sure to recommend when you know someone going to Tokyo Disneyland…since it’s next to it. 🙂 Thank you for your comment!
ディズニーシー行きたい！息子さんは本当に良い子ですね。私も花火を見ると感動します。通常通り、勉強になりました。日本の入場券はアメリカの入場券よりやすいことは不思議ですね。
Aww…cuties!!! Great food, great places! Thank you for the itinerary, Nami!!!
Gourmet Getaways
It seems that not only your children but you also have had lots of fun! The restaurant’s food doesn’t look like from a Disneyland at all (I mean it looks so much better). Your daughter looks more and more like a small copy of you 😉 Incredible!
It’s amazing that is all in one place. It’s also so close to your home in Japan.. what a win. I love that it’s not expensive either… for all that!! You would think it would cost twice as much as the parks here in the US. Your kids must have loved it…. I know mine would!
Say what?!!! Disney in Japan is actually cheaper than the US? Haha I totally gasped at that because (no offense) it’s rare to see something so cheap that’s related to Japanese things such as food, etc. I hope I can go someday! And your daughter is such a beauty~she looks so much like you I think 🙂
Nami, what a fun place to visit – I love all of your pictures but the ones with your lovely children are very hard to beat – they both look utterly adorable. You know I would really, really love to be able to visit Tokyo one day…who knows. Be that as it may, dear friend, you do take the most amazing pictures and I certainly enjoyed my “virtual visit” today.
All the best,
Andrea
Your kids are adorable and this place is magical! What an awesome trip.
Wow.. this look wonderful.. I wish I could take my daughters here some day.
Oh my….had I seen this article before I visited Tokyo DisneySea last month, I would have had more fun, and knew where to go eat and all that stuff (tabelog, seriously?! Where was this when I was in Japan a month ago?). Though it rained all day when I went there, I had so much fun (cappuccino popcorn, yes….) Thanks. It made me smile with good memories 🙂
Hi Hailey! We always wears rain coat whenever we visit Disneyland/Disneysea because we visit in June! Though we always have fun. 🙂 Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip too! 🙂
Thank you so much for this guide! I’m going to both parks next week and I’m really excited to go! 😀 Do you recommend any snacks? I heard that the little green men mochi are a must!
Hi Hesper! Sorry for my late response due to my travel – you probably visited already? I hope you had fun!
It’s ok! I had lots of fun in Disneyland and Sea! Unfortunately, the shop closed before I could get the little green men mochi, but I was able to try the star wars mochi instead! Hope you’re having fun in Japan! 😀
Thank you for your insights on DisneySea we are planning a trip in September to Japan and I will use your information.
Hi Linda! Hope you enjoy your trip to DisneySea in September! 🙂