On-Site Non-Disney Hotels at Tokyo Disney Resort
When planning a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort, the first thing you must decide when selecting a hotel is if you want to stay on-site or off-site. A huge benefit of staying on-site is that all hotels (both the three Disney-branded hotels, and the six non-Disney hotels) have easy access to the Tokyo Disney Resort Line, aka the monorail. This is great because it means you don’t have to take a train in from the city every morning and then transfer to the monorail before entering the park. You can simply make the 5-10 minute walk (or take the complimentary shuttle) from your hotel to Tokyo Disney Resort Line’s Bayside station, and then ride the monorail to the front entrance of Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea. It’s incredibly easy and fast, and getting in line to enter the parks as early as possible is crucial if you want to beat the crowds.
The two non-Disney on-site hotels that are most convenient for foreign travelers are Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay and Hilton Tokyo Bay. Both offer large rooms, staff that is fluent in English, good amenities, and are the two hotels closest to Tokyo Disney Resort Line Bayside station. If the prices between the two were the same we’d go with Hilton Tokyo Bay due to its large and more modern looking rooms; but you can’t go wrong either way. You’ll be paying a slight premium to stay at these two hotels. Prices on the Hilton and Sheraton can range anywhere from $150 during some parts of the year up to $500 during the busy times of year. We have video room tours of the Hilton Tokyo Bay and Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay on our YouTube channel. The other four hotels on-site (Sunroute Plaza Tokyo, Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel, Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel Club Resort, Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay) are owned by Japanese companies and have varying levels of quality. During our research we have stayed at Hotel Okura many times and never had a bad experience in doing so. Okura's rooms were a bit dated, but clean and spacious. The only problem we had was that the beds were rock hard, which we've found is the norm with most Japanese hotels that we've stayed at. We have a video room tour of Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay here.
Off-Site Hotels
The benefit of staying off-site is, of course, the lower price per night. However, the downside is that you’ll have to rely on public transportation to get in and out of the resort. There are plenty of good, affordable hotels with a short train ride to Tokyo Disney Resort. Another off-site option is Airbnb. This will save you the most money, especially if you're traveling during a busy tourist season like Summer or during cherry blossoms season when hotel rates skyrocket. Airbnb will be the cheapest option of all, plus you'll be staying in someone's actual apartment/house, so you'll get a taste of how the locals live. If you want to save as much money as possible, and the thought of riding in and out of the resort on busy trains or buses does not bother you, then you should go with the off-site option. Overall, it’s cost versus convenience.
Last updated by Guy Selga on October 22, 2019