If I can go to just one...

Discussion of Non-U.S. Disney Parks

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duggett
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Re: If I can go to just one...

Post by duggett » Oct Fri 18, 2013 10:43 am

"I'm happy to try and answer any questions you have. I've still got a lot of my planning research in my head/hanging around from my trip in May. If it's useful, I did put together this post after planning my trip earlier this year with some planning notes: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8803"

Wow, another great response, with a lot of "details" which are the things that can make or break a trip like this. And I really enjoyed your link also. Thanks a million! Will review it all as our planning takes shape, and will certainly come back for more answers if we need them. You seem to be a pro at trip planning!
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duggett
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Re: If I can go to just one...

Post by duggett » Oct Fri 18, 2013 10:48 am

Amy wrote:I went to TDL/TDS during December and it wasn't horribly crowded then, but that was 10 years ago. Since the US parks crowd levels have shifted so much, I don't know if the same shift is happening overseas or not. I had three days, one day in TDL and one day in TDS, then a park hopper day between the two. I would have loved one more day, but I think I saw most everything at least once and a few attractions more than once during those three days.
I stayed right at the parks so I can't speak for the commute time, but I believe it is around 30 minutes or so from the city to the parks. Rest assured the trains are very much on time there though, so if you are expecting a certain travel time, you should be fine counting on that very time!
Yeah, it's amazing how European and Japanese trains can be on-time, down to the minute, while US trains are lucky to be on-time 10% of the time! The park-hopper rules seem odd. We almost never go to just one park per day in the US. Either dinner or the evening fireworks/Fantasmic/Illuminations shows cause us to hop a lot.
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acp
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Re: If I can go to just one...

Post by acp » Oct Fri 18, 2013 11:24 am

duggett wrote:
Amy wrote:I went to TDL/TDS during December and it wasn't horribly crowded then, but that was 10 years ago. Since the US parks crowd levels have shifted so much, I don't know if the same shift is happening overseas or not. I had three days, one day in TDL and one day in TDS, then a park hopper day between the two. I would have loved one more day, but I think I saw most everything at least once and a few attractions more than once during those three days.
I stayed right at the parks so I can't speak for the commute time, but I believe it is around 30 minutes or so from the city to the parks. Rest assured the trains are very much on time there though, so if you are expecting a certain travel time, you should be fine counting on that very time!
Yeah, it's amazing how European and Japanese trains can be on-time, down to the minute, while US trains are lucky to be on-time 10% of the time! The park-hopper rules seem odd. We almost never go to just one park per day in the US. Either dinner or the evening fireworks/Fantasmic/Illuminations shows cause us to hop a lot.
I wouldn't expect on-time trains if you visit us here in the UK, though ;)

I usually like to hop between parks when I visit WDW (or DLRP, for that matter). In Tokyo, I didn't feel the need to. Both parks have evening entertainment (TDL has DreamLights (and will have a new castle projection show next year), TDS has Fantasmic! and both parks share the same fireworks show), so if you're spending the day in one park, it kind of makes sense to finish the day with that park's nighttime show. I found that I didn't really need to park hop in Tokyo. I think that was down to a mixture of it being my first time there, so trying to get through everything and what I just mentioned about the evening entertainment in the parks. Of course, it's down to personal preference (although you don't get to have that choice on the first two days of your ticket ;)).

For what it's worth, taking the monorail you can probably expect it to take around 20-30 minutes to get from one park to the other in TDR (they're back-to-back, rather than with the entrances next to each other like DLR or DLRP).
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Amy
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Re: If I can go to just one...

Post by Amy » Oct Fri 18, 2013 8:08 pm

acp wrote:...

I usually like to hop between parks when I visit WDW (or DLRP, for that matter). In Tokyo, I didn't feel the need to. Both parks have evening entertainment (TDL has DreamLights (and will have a new castle projection show next year), TDS has Fantasmic! and both parks share the same fireworks show), so if you're spending the day in one park, it kind of makes sense to finish the day with that park's nighttime show. I found that I didn't really need to park hop in Tokyo. I think that was down to a mixture of it being my first time there, so trying to get through everything and what I just mentioned about the evening entertainment in the parks. Of course, it's down to personal preference (although you don't get to have that choice on the first two days of your ticket ;)).

....
That is a good way to put it acp. I felt quite content in each park as well. I think it was definitely a full day to explore each park and watch that park's evening entertainment, and then on that last day (if you do three anyhow) you feel a little freer to go back and re-experience the attractions you really enjoyed the first day you went to that park.
I don't know the reason for sure, but I assumed the way the tickets are allocated to the two parks like that is to help evenly distribute guests and alleviate any chance of the park filling to capacity without them being aware. Having to turn guests away would definitely go against how polite the Japanese culture is!

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