We are headed home now from the parks in Japan. I will share some random thoughts and observations for those who plan to do a pre or post trip to the Japan parks that may be helpful. We did 4 days and nights from June 1 - 4. Two nights were at TDL resort and two nights at the MiraCosta.
We did rope drop on 2 of the days, one at TDL and the other at TDS. It was pretty crazy but very well organized insanity. FPs on Saturday were all sold out within a couple of hours of park opening. Have a plan.
Lines for quick service around 11 am were about 45 minutes to well over an hour. Eat early or make reservations! The food, even at the quick service locations is really good!
People will begin securing spots for the parades and shows well in advance.
The Disney Fandom is STRONG! Feel free to wave your Disney freak flag high and proud! You will fit right in. I walked in, took one look and thought, I have found my people!
If you haven’t been here before, do not let the names of rides fool you into thinking you have experienced something similar at another park. No. You. Have. Not. I cannot stress this enough. Just to be clear, read this paragraph again before moving on.
For anyone going on their own in need of an airport transfer: we used
https://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/bus_services/narita/index
It was about $18 per person from NRT to the the park resort area and the same on the return. They do stop at each resort hotel in the area so give yourself time. Our bus arrived exactly on time at 7:02 am to the MiraCosta and got to NRT at about 8:20 am after making all the hotel stops. Our flight is 10:50 am and it took about 15 minutes to get though security and customs. We didn’t book the transfer back online since it was in Japanese so we did it it through the hotel but needed to pay cash.
Laundry is available at TDL in convenient coin operated machines that dispense their own detergent. We did a few loads when we arrived. I think it was about 3 coins to wash and 1 coin per 15 minutes of drying. There is an ATM at the hotel but the least we could take out was about $100.
We did visit Downtown Disney to check out the
Disney Store since we heard the merchandise was different than at the parks. This was an utter disappointment and while there is a variety of merchandise it was underwhelming and looked like poor quality replicas compared to what is at the Tokyo parks. We hit a Starbucks while we were there and can also write that under the poor life decisions umbrella. It was the only example of inefficiency we saw. The time it took to line up to order, wait for the order (2 coffees) and the get the order was over 45 minutes. It isn’t done by name either, it’s by by number and we don’t speak Japanese so you keep an eye out for what looks like your order and see if no one claims it or keep checking in with your number.