Return trip to TDR!

redflag216

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 17, 2016
I have the great fortune to be traveling back to Japan a week from Saturday (1st time was in January 2016). My partner and I have set aside one day to go to Disney Sea. I begged for two days, but that fell on deaf ears lol. I am super excited to experience this one of a kind park, but I have some reservations about food served there - mainly due to our not so great food experience at Disneyland last year. We are both vegetarian, but we DO eat seafood. From the research I have done it looks as if there is more selection to choose from, but I would rather not have any surprises like last time...when we ordered a seafood dish (I believe it was gratin) and it had little pieces of bacon all throughout. If anyone has any input to steer me in the right direction - food wise - that would be greatly appreciated.

Also, we plan on being there for park opening, so what could be an alternative plan of action if we decide not to do toy story mania? We have planned to be there on May 31st, with hopes that the middle of the week won't be too crazy!
 
We literally just left there yesterday. You may want to consider bringing your own food - it would be very difficult to get lists of ingredients for their food and would cause confusion. You don't want that.

If you have done Midway Mania in the US parks, skip it. Go directly to Tower of Terror for a fast pass then go to Journey to the Center of the Earth and ride it. Once your next fastpass is available, get one for Indiana Jones (the special effects are amazingly different from the Disneyland version). Another option would be to use the single rider line for Indiana Jones (basically no wait if you don't mind riding separately). Then get a fastpass for Journey to the center of the earth again (you will probably want to ride it twice - it is that good). Another option is the new Finding Nemo Searider attraction. It is fun and cute - if you like a heartwarming Nemo attraction you will need to run there first for a fastpass as lines will be easily 1 to 2 hours. (I should have had said "fast walk" )

Get to the gate an hour before park opening. You will be surprised how many people are already there (and we were there only on weekdays in mid May) 30 minutes later and you would be standing well behind the ticket booths (assuming you will already have tickets) don't wait till the day you are going to get tickets.

If you use fastpass efficiently you can get on every major ride - always get another fastpass as soon as one is available - you don't have to use it - but you don't want to be caught by surprise when all pases are gone for the day.

Have fun!! Disney Sea is the most beautiful park ever! Please don't miss making a whole park loop after the sun goes down - you will be amazed at the beauty of the park at night.
 
If you don't mind being ovo-lacto vegetarian, I believe one of the sit down restaurants has a few bona fide ovo-lacto vegetarian meals, at least going by the TDR website. There is still a huge lack of vegetarian options though and I can't imagine visiting TDR as a vegan.
 
If you don't mind being ovo-lacto vegetarian, I believe one of the sit down restaurants has a few bona fide ovo-lacto vegetarian meals, at least going by the TDR website. There is still a huge lack of vegetarian options though and I can't imagine visiting TDR as a vegan.

A vegan blog I follow said that the vegetarian dishes in the restaurants can also be made vegan as it's just spaghetti and salad - hoping that's the case as otherwise I think I'm in for a couple of days of fruit and cereal bars when I go in September.
 


Basically every restaurant, at Disney or somewhere else, is usually willing to make adjustments to their dishes. However I think if you do not speak Japanese it might be more difficult to communicate exactly what you want and do not want.

If I were you, I would study some sentences in Japanese that might come in handy. And take it with you in writing. I am not sure I could mime vegetarian options.
 
A vegan blog I follow said that the vegetarian dishes in the restaurants can also be made vegan as it's just spaghetti and salad - hoping that's the case as otherwise I think I'm in for a couple of days of fruit and cereal bars when I go in September.

Hopefully that works out. I think the salad might be easier than the pasta? I find Japanese restaurants are only sometimes good about changing things, it really helps to have someone fluent with you. :/ I've had a few unfortunate experiences with my mediocre Japanese and even with friends who were fluent.

Outside of TDR there are some amazing vegan places in Japan. T's Tantan Ramen was so good and I really liked Chien-fu. While we are just vegetarian, I like vegan places when possible because I know everything is safe. I also like Nataraj. My favorite vegan place in Kyoto closed and I miss when Eat More Greens was vegan.
 
I just read a trip report from last October with the following remark. Maybe contact the poster of this report, he'd probably has tips.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/f...d-11-30-complete.3556346/page-2#post-56721476

Andy's friends decided to get a pizza or calzone from there, but Andy and I had prepared food at the AirBNB to bring for lunch which we ate there. The vegan options at Tokyo Disney are pretty sparse. Only two restaurants have any options for vegans and the sets are pretty expensive, so we made some fried rice and pasta.
 


One more question....what is the best way to get to Disney sea (once we get off the subway)? Would it be quicker to walk or take the monorail?
 
We did not take the subway but I assume you ore going to Maihama station? If so - yes. There are signs everywhere directing you to it and it drops you off directly in front of the park. Make sure you buy a round trip ticket or multi day ticket.
 
If you are able bodied it might be quicker to walk. The monorail goes to DL and the neighbor hotels first. Plus unlike WDW it's not free.
 
Basically every restaurant, at Disney or somewhere else, is usually willing to make adjustments to their dishes. However I think if you do not speak Japanese it might be more difficult to communicate exactly what you want and do not want.

If I were you, I would study some sentences in Japanese that might come in handy. And take it with you in writing. I am not sure I could mime vegetarian options.

In my experience, Japanese restaurants do not generally make exceptions, substitutions, etc. At TDS, the only restaurant listed as having a vegetarian meal is Ristorane di Canaletto. http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/bfree/food.html I had the vegetarian meal there about two weeks ago and there are multiple options for one of the four courses, but otherwise you will have one option per course. The food was pretty good, but not great. It was a nice environment and nice to have some piece of mind about a vegetarian meal. If anyone is interested in what exactly we got or pictures of the food, I can look at my notes. The meal was 4200 yen per person.

There are a few other vegetarian snacks around the park, and eating fish would also open up your options quite a bit though I wouldn't be surprised to find surprise meat in other dishes. While the salad in a cup is meatless in some TDR locations, at Duffy's place in Cape Cod (the exact name escapes me sorry) the salad in a cup had undisclosed pork on top.
 
In my experience, Japanese restaurants do not generally make exceptions, substitutions, etc. At TDS, the only restaurant listed as having a vegetarian meal is Ristorane di Canaletto. http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/bfree/food.html I had the vegetarian meal there about two weeks ago and there are multiple options for one of the four courses, but otherwise you will have one option per course. The food was pretty good, but not great. It was a nice environment and nice to have some piece of mind about a vegetarian meal. If anyone is interested in what exactly we got or pictures of the food, I can look at my notes. The meal was 4200 yen per person.

There are a few other vegetarian snacks around the park, and eating fish would also open up your options quite a bit though I wouldn't be surprised to find surprise meat in other dishes. While the salad in a cup is meatless in some TDR locations, at Duffy's place in Cape Cod (the exact name escapes me sorry) the salad in a cup had undisclosed pork on top.

May I hijack the thread and ask what were your favorite snacks? I admit, I am planning to bring some snacks from home as is. Goldfish, pretzels, and maybe Cheerios for my daughter and vegetarian and/or vegan protein bars for me, since I am trying to eat more protein, or maybe Kind bars.
 
May I hijack the thread and ask what were your favorite snacks?

At TDS: Potato Churro, the "assorted snacks" at Nautilus Galley, little green men (which may contain gelatin in the pudding filling, really not sure - I decided to live on the edge and not worry too much about gelatin, though I still avoided as much as possible. I had to have the little green men.), baked items from Mamma Biscotti's, chips and guacamole in Lost River Delta... French fries are also available.

At TDL: Sweet potato fries (plasma ray's), churros (I liked the melon one in tomorrowland), scrump dumplings (same gelatin situation as above) at Hungry Bear, baked cheese potatoes (in fantasyland), tipo tortas (especially the sweet potato, also in fantasyland), baked goods from sweetheart cafe (Mike melon bread and read bean bone especially), waffles. Again, regular french fries are around.

Popcorn is available all over both parks. My favorite was the salt and pepper, but it wasn't anything too special. The soy sauce and butter one was also good but didn't taste super unique. The honey and chocolate ones smelled awesome but we never got around to eating any.

We also had a few meals at Ikspiari. Guzman Y Gomez has a veggie burrito. Kua Aina has a couple options (avocado sandwich, pancakes, etc.) and a really easy to understand website where you can review beforehand. Pitta00 has I think two vegetarian pizza options. We also had breakfast at Honolulu Coffee Co one day.

Vegetarian at TDS is not easy but is doable. Vegan would be much more difficult, especially without additional knowledge of Japanese.
 
At TDS: Potato Churro, the "assorted snacks" at Nautilus Galley, little green men (which may contain gelatin in the pudding filling, really not sure - I decided to live on the edge and not worry too much about gelatin, though I still avoided as much as possible. I had to have the little green men.), baked items from Mamma Biscotti's, chips and guacamole in Lost River Delta... French fries are also available.

At TDL: Sweet potato fries (plasma ray's), churros (I liked the melon one in tomorrowland), scrump dumplings (same gelatin situation as above) at Hungry Bear, baked cheese potatoes (in fantasyland), tipo tortas (especially the sweet potato, also in fantasyland), baked goods from sweetheart cafe (Mike melon bread and read bean bone especially), waffles. Again, regular french fries are around.

Popcorn is available all over both parks. My favorite was the salt and pepper, but it wasn't anything too special. The soy sauce and butter one was also good but didn't taste super unique. The honey and chocolate ones smelled awesome but we never got around to eating any.

We also had a few meals at Ikspiari. Guzman Y Gomez has a veggie burrito. Kua Aina has a couple options (avocado sandwich, pancakes, etc.) and a really easy to understand website where you can review beforehand. Pitta00 has I think two vegetarian pizza options. We also had breakfast at Honolulu Coffee Co one day.

Vegetarian at TDS is not easy but is doable. Vegan would be much more difficult, especially without additional knowledge of Japanese.

How hard was it to get a table for dinner in Ikspiari restaurants, specifically someplace like Pita00? I'm thinking of canceling my ADR inside the park so we have the option to not buy a park ticket arrival day (and hopefully we can can just see the FW from our room or by going outside, I'm not into Castle projections...)

So far we're doing Sherwood for breakfast our first full day before Sea, spending the morning in Sea and then doing lunch at the Blue Bayou and then going back to Sea for dinner at the Italian place and maybe Fantasmic. Next am, we will eat something in the room and do the waffles and hit up whatever rides/shows we want. I have a reservation someplace for lunch that claims to have something.

What are your thoughts?
 
We got right in everywhere, including Pitta00, without a wait to be seated.


Thank you very very much! I think we will cancel our reservation for arrival and try Ikspiari. We can hopefully still catch the fireworks and do some shopping before going to bed, and that way have more energy for the next day. I am debating whether I want to splurge on Blue Bayou. My daughter really wants one of the cakes, but I am just not sure that is worthwhile since we can try cake somewhere else. Ugh! I hate having to make these decisions and I am trying to work on my weight so dessert is less important to me. What do you think?

We're debating trying to do Fantasmic. We've never done it before because my DD always has gotten too scared in the past so we left before it and lately we've done the dessert party because Star Wars. <3 (I'm a nerd.)
 
Our dining was limited based on dietary restrictions, so I can't say whether Blue Bayou would have been worth it. Atmosphere wise, it looked pretty much exactly the same as at Disneyland.

Fantasmic at DisneySea was really cool - it's a lot different from the US versions and to me worth making a point to see. I think the scariness factor is pretty similar to US versions with some villains and fire, but that segment doesn't last long. While we were there it also started fairly early in the evening, I'm thinking it was at about 7:30 or 8:00.
 
Our dining was limited based on dietary restrictions, so I can't say whether Blue Bayou would have been worth it. Atmosphere wise, it looked pretty much exactly the same as at Disneyland.

Fantasmic at DisneySea was really cool - it's a lot different from the US versions and to me worth making a point to see. I think the scariness factor is pretty similar to US versions with some villains and fire, but that segment doesn't last long. While we were there it also started fairly early in the evening, I'm thinking it was at about 7:30 or 8:00.

Mine is older now, so I m hoping to do Fantasmic in WDW in Sept. We've mostly been skipping it because it conflicts with the Star Wars fireworks/dessert party. (The time she was too scared and we left she was 4 and there were not Star Wars fireworks. Now, she's 6.5, so I have to get her a Suica and a Rail Pass for Japan.)

Blue Bayou in TDR does have 1 vegetarian option, I just know my daughter is not going to eat it and only wants the cake, and it just seems a lot of money and time to spend when she wants the cake lol I have done "nicer" restaurants in WDW with her. I love the Naracoosee's brunch. She's done the Cali Grill, though last trip the food there was disappointing and upset my stomach. We tried the Brown Derby last trip and I was surprised by how pleasant it was. At DL I've mostly done character meals (Ariel's and Goofy's) or eaten outside the parks. >>; We're usually visiting family 10-15 miles aways and there are just so many amazing places to eat in SoCal. (I'm a huge fan of vegan Vietnamese.)

Decisions! I'm splurging on our hotel and our hotel when we return to Tokyo so I'd love to be a little more budget minded when it comes to food, but I also don't want a hungry and cranky child and since we only have 1 full day and until day 4-5 on day 2, I don't want to go too far and miss things. Though maybe we are better off just eating in Ikspiari for dinners.

We're planning to spend a lot of the trip outside of Tokyo.
 

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