Introduction
When I went to Universal Studios Osaka last year, everything was complicated - from buying tickets to preparing the walkthrough. However, USJ's financial issue are completely resolved in advance outside the park, and it is much better than Disney Sea Tokyo - you have to handle payment settled while you are enjoying the rides.
Japanese theme parks like to test people’s sincerity to participate. Disney Sea is another place where the rules are intensely complicated. What’s more, DPA (Disney Priority Pass) can only be paid on the spot after entering the venue, which is more than USJ buying fixed tickets before you enter the theme park.
(Undoubtedly it won't be a concern if you have plenty of money to join the hotel package.)
As a Hong Kong Blogger, I always share what I have actually experienced. Disney Sea is new for me (even though it is not the first I have been there), so I can probably understand the areas where visitors may feel confused. I will recommend to experience the games with an easier and relatively economic way as below. There are so many rules that you can learn to make your journey better, but it would be a headache to include all in your consideration.
On the other hand, it is good for me to share my failure experience before you visit, so as to prevent those who come after me from making the same mistakes.
I am not super-experienced local players but I am willing to share what I know with a humble communication heart. (Sadly, there are too many people who know more than me about Disney Sea without saying a word.)
1. Disney Sea - Basic Preparation
1.1 Buy Entry Tickets
1.2 Install Disney Tokyo Resort Apps
- Reminder - In User Registration, Don't leave any space in your "FIRST NAME"
Take the following picture as an example. For Mr. Chan Tai Man, his FIRST NAME requires filling in “Taiman”. If you fill in “Tai Man”, the process of purchasing DPA will be "stuck" during credit card verification. Then you have to change your name immediately. It is necessary to avoid sending time to do so in the park.
1.3 Upload all the purchased tickets into you Disney Mobile Apps vis scanning ticket barcode
(If there are two adults and two children in a family of four, you can first ask Adult A to open Apps to upload four tickets. Another Adult B only needs to register another Disney Apps User. Then Adult A adds Adult B to "friend group". After entered the park, adult A can get SP (Standby Pass) and adult B can buy DPA at the same time. It can save 1 minute which is critical for those popular games.
(Buy DPA and get SP. After selecting the project, the above list will appear. you can handle the companions at once. The names of the companions are only for identification. You can also change the name to "Cat or dog". I used my real name)
"Pardon, hubby?" If your partner only react this to what I have motioned as above, just forget it! Simply install 4 tickets in one App. Assume you are a well-prepared and more reliable administrator for your family to press the button faster for DPA and SP.
2. Basic Information and Frequent Used Pass
There are many videos and articles out there that explain Disney Sea Pass in detail, and sometimes they are too detailed for understanding.
In order to explain it simply, I will first set up a few simple assumptions:
A. Not plan to stay in Disney’s designated hotels.
B. Mainly participate in amusement rides, instead of watching shows (Most of the shows are performed in Japanese so personally I have not much interested to watch.)
C. No special requirements for food
2.1 Fantasy Springs - The super popular new area in Disney Sea. It is also the only area that requires crowd control. The four games in it are called Frozen (Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey), Rapunzel (Rapunzel's Lantern Festival), and Peter Pan (Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure) and Tinker Bell (Fairly Tinker Bell's Busy Buggies). The meaning of crowd control is: visitors who do not have a DPA or SP are not allowed to enter this area.
2.2 SP - Standby Pass - This is actually a "queuing permit" and only for the games in "Fantasy Springs". If you don’t want to spend money to play games in the new park, you must obtain SP so you can queue. However, SP is only “allowed to queue” and there will be not shortcut in waiting queue.
However, there is something special about SP. In the morning, the time to wait for four new games with SP is only 20 minutes or less. However, if the SP period is in the afternoon, the waiting time will be more than 60 minutes. Therefore, if you use SP to experience FANTASY rides during morning, the waiting time will not be much longer than that of DPA.
SP is distributed according to time period. The earlier the SP you draw, the earlier the time you can get. You cannot choose the time period.
(Screenshot taken at 10:46 AM. Basically, all the Rapunzel SP have been distributed around 10:00 am. In the FANTASY area, only Peter Pan’s SPs was still available but the time period is late afternoon. (The park closing time on that day is 9:00. PM)
2.3 DPA - Disney Priority Pass - simply say it is a "paid fast pass", which is a extraordinary mean that can greatly reduce queue time. Each DPA per person ranges from 1,500 to 2,000 yen.
Don't try my code, used already
(According to personal experience, FROZEN’s DPA will be ALL SOLD OUT within 30 minutes after the park opens. Rapunzel DPA will also be SOLD OUT about two hours after the park opens. Peter Pan’s DPA can still be purchased at 1:17 p.m. but it is already dusk. If visitors just come late and cannot get any SP, they can still go into FANTASY Springs by buying Peter Pan’s DPA.)
According to experience, the most popular Frozen DPA will be sold out within 20 minutes of the park opening, and Rapunzel will be sold out within about an hour or two of the park opening. On the contrary, I personally think that the most fun Peter Pan in Fantasy is the least popular among this 3 games. You can buy DPA before afternoon.
You can choose a time period for DPA provided that they are not the games in FANTASY Springs, you can also buy DPA with time period 1:35 at 1:20 pm. That means you can buy DPA immediately if you don't want to wait in long queue.
The game Tinker Bell is special in arrangement. It is a ride that does not have DPA but requires SP to queue up, so first-time tourists often choose to skip this game.
As for the other games where you can buy DPA, I suggest that you decide to buy it as needed or even just before you line up, except the rides in Fantasy Springs.
2.4 40th Anniversary Priority Pass - This is a free fast pass for the poor. The optional games for the 40th anniversary are definitely not those popular. However, games such as Raging Spirits and Indiana Jones Adventure are also worth playing. The waiting time for these two games is nearly an hour during peak crowds. Make good use of the 40th Anniversary Express Pass to plan your journey will be a great help.
(For the 40th Anniversary Express Pass of the Raging Spirits, Pass Barcode will appear 5 minutes before the event time. That means the 19:40 Express Pass can be entered as early as 19:35.)
Please note that for the three types of passes mentioned in 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4 above, you CANNOT draw or buy another one immediately after taking the first. It is actually a bit complicated to explain how to count the time that you can draw/buy again because this depends on several conditions.
But no worry, the visitors can simply check the apps. This have shown the time that you can buy or get the pass again,
You can set an alarm to remind yourself about the time that you can draw or buy again.
(SET ALARM remind yourself to draw/buy SP + DPA + 40th Anniversary Express...5:00 AM is MORNING CALL but surely my kids wake up late...5:45 am finally)
3. Opening Time
First of all, the official opening time is 9:00 AM but mostly this will open earlier. For example, the entry time on the day I went was about 8:40. If you are not an "aggressive" visitor, It is recommended to arrive the gate before 7:30. Then your entry time will be about 20-30 minutes later than the first batch of people who come extremely early.
Even if you can't get Frozen SP, mostly you should be able to buy its DPA.
4. Other Important Notes
4.1 - Frozen is the most most most popular game in the park. If you don’t want to miss this game, it should be a top priority for both SPs and DPAs. You will have much more times to consider other games but Frozen really doesn't have if you click your select button slowly.
4.2 - To buy DPA, you have to pay online. It is probably more convenient to use the credit card confirmed by Face ID than the SMS verification code, because some friends have changed their roaming cards, which affects the receipt of the verification code SMS. On the other hand, please also note that Face ID is relatively easy to malfunction in dark places. If you are queuing for projects such as "Journey to the Center of the Earth", you may get stuck. (For friends who rely on receiving codes to confirm credit card transfers through text messages, you can first ask your friends to send you an SMS to test during the time you arrive in Japan. Try to see if you receive the message. If you receive it successfully, there will be no problem in credit card online payment.)
4.3 - If you are the earliest batch of people enter the park, after entering, you first draw SP or buy DPA to play Frozen, Rapunzel and Peter Pan. There is a high chance that the time period you will get is the time period after 10:00 am. Therefore, when one person in the family is concentrating on their mobile phone. Other family members can drag this phubber to "Toy Story Mania!" and play this popular item that will have long queues later.
Our family of four all think Toy Story Mania is the most interesting games in the park, and it is located not far from the entrance. This is definitely the first item that is highly recommended.
(Personally, I think the map in DISNEYSEA are more complicated than USJ. Sometimes it’s easy to go the wrong way even though you follow the map. Be the way, just go to the left hand side after entering the door and you’ll find TOY STORY.)
5. If your primary goal is to complete the three major FANTASY rides and you don’t want to arrive too early, the following is the recommended steps after scanning the entry tickets: (suggestions are for reference only)
5.0 Arrive at DISNEYSEA around 7:30 am, and you should be able to enter the park about 20-30 minutes after it opens.
5.1 Other members of the family "drag" the "administrator" who was handling the mobile apps, to queue up for Toy Story.
5.2 Administrator should not be responsible for leading the way. He or she should use mobile phone to draw Frozen SP first. If the SP is not available, buy Frozen DPA without hesitation.
5.3 If you successfully draw Frozen SP, buy Rapunzel DPA. If Frozen SP is all distributed and you can only buy Frozen DPA, buy Frozen DPA to draw Rapunzel SP.
5.4 After Toy Story Mania, you can go to Tower of Terror that is next to Toy Story Mania, you can see the waiting time for Tower of Terror before you queue. It would be alright if the waiting time is less than an hour.
5.5 If everything goes well, you can draw SP and buy DPA after two hours at the latest. If you want to save some money, try to get Peter Pan SP. You can buy Peter DPA before 11 if SP is unavailable. If you buy Peter DPA, you can consider to take Tinker Bell SP. Then the completion of Fantasy Spings will be 100%.
5.6 The advantage of above recommended plan is that in addition to experiencing all the main games of FANTASY Springs, you can already play the two most important rides in the zone AMERICAN WATERFRONT before going to FANTASY.
(All SP, 40th, DPA will appear in "YOUR PLAN". You will find my actual selections are different from the above suggestions. It is because my suggested plan is improved after I am learned from mistakes.)
For restaurants, (the assumption is no requirement in foods but you still have to eat, right?) the most popular Royal Banquet of Arendelle in Fantasy Springs and The snuggly Ducking require you to place an order online first and then set a time slot before you can go in and pick up your meal. It should not be difficult to wait in line at other restaurants, so you can make your own choice.
However, Elsa is quite picky about food, so there are two meal sets for choose, like airplane food.
If you want to know more about online food ordering, you can read the following sharing (I also found it online, simple and clear explanation, but Chinese only)
https://www.bring-you.info/zh-tw/disney-mobile-order
Although it is explained in a simple way, it is already a long story.
"Soldiers, the battle to the SEA is about to begin!"
(Photo taken at 7:41 am, our family was still on the train.)
Below are other articles I have written about Tokyo Trip, but only Chinese. Please let me know if you feel interested in some site seeing, and i will try to translate if it can help.
Thanks for your reading!!!
Next Chapter - Disney Sea 2 - Busy First Half with Mobile Phone (Tower of Terror / Journey to the Center of the Earth / Rapunzel's Lantern Festival) - NEW in English
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-2-busy-first-half-with.html
Dinery Sea 3 - Busy Second Half Having fun (Peter Pan / Toy Story Mania) - NEW in English
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disney-sea-tokyo-3-busy-second-half.html#google_vignette
Below are other articles that our family visit Tokyo, Hakone and Yokohama in 2024 and 2017 and 2018, but all in Chinese.
下一回︰七年無事又東京（六）迪士尼海洋DINSEYSEA2 - 忙於操作的上半場（驚魂古塔 / 地心探險記 / 樂佩公主天燈盛會）
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/disneysea2.html
是次2024行程文章重溫：
七年無事又東京（一）飛吧！（行程、預備、訂位資料分享）
http://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/blog-post_7.html?m=0
七年無事又東京（二）新宿事變（六歌仙新店 + 歌舞伎町Tower)
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/tower.html
七年無事又東京（三）魔法背後的魔法（東京哈利波特影城）
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/blog-post_9.html
七年無事又東京（四）進擊的上野 （上野Yamashiroya + 阿美橫丁）
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/yamashiroya.html
在此都回顧一下7年前的橫檳 + 東京故事，以及8年前東京 + 箱根之行，至於14年前的東京遊，舊得有點不好意思分享，對我有愛的人自行在網誌中找找吧！
2017年
「橫東」直撞七天遊一 (Day 1-1) - 回憶．未來
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/day-1-1.html
「橫東」直撞七天遊九 (Day 6-1) - Let's Go Lego!! (LEGOLAND DISCOVERY CENTRE)
「橫東」直撞七天遊十 (Day 6-2) - 大江戶溫泉「麥」語 (已結業)
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2016/04/day-4-5.html
祈趣京箱之旅 (九) DAY 6 東京，後會有祈
https://patrickmakblog.blogspot.com/2016/04/day-6.html
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