How Much Can You Do at Tokyo Disney at Night?

Ideally, you need a day in each of the Tokyo Disney Parks to do them justice, but if you’re tight on time during your Tokyo trip, you might decide to take advantage of one of Tokyo Disney’s evening passes to just spend a few hours in the park. But how much can you actually get done with an evening pass?

5.01 pm, enter Disneyland. 5.30 PM. Swing about in a giant teacup past Beast and Belle dancing, marvelling once again, about how they manage to do that thing where they turn him into a Prince. Sounds pretty perfect right? I couldn’t believe my luck either, but it happened. 

On my last trip, to Tokyo Disney.  I booked an evening pass to Tokyo Disneyland. I entered the park at 5pm on the dot, as soon as I got in the gates, I booked a Disney Premier Access to Beauty and the Beast and I was on the ride by 5.30.

From there, I went and explored Toontown, riding Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. Then, I went to Fantasyland and rode some cute kids rides. I even managed to catch a proposal in front of the castle!

From here, I headed to Tomorrowland Terrace. The main reason for my evening visit was to see the Electrical Parade, one of my favorite shows in Disney, but it was raining the evening of my visit. When this happens, Tokyo Disney cancels the main parade and puts on a smaller one called Nightfall Glow.

Don’t miss it – it’s not quite as spectacular as the Electrical Parade but the floats still twinkling in the darkness and you’ll see many of your favorite characters.

Tomorrowland Terrace is a good place to aim to eat before the parade, as if things take time you can see it pass from the outside seating. However, by the time I’d scarfed down my Baymax Burger, the first floats were still making their way from Toontown to the main Plaza giving me the chance to watch the parade from the steps of the restaurant which gives you a front row seat for the action.

From here you’re right on top of Tomorrowland, so it would seem the obvious place to go next, but, this is the one area that I’ve always found it hard to visit in Tokyo Disney at night. The queues are always 45-60 minutes in the evening, and all the free passes to help you jump the queues were snapped up hours ago.

With only about 90 minutes left of park opening, this didn’t seem the best use of my time, so, I went over to Adventureland where most of the rides had just 10-minute waits. Time to ride Pirates and take in Stitch in the TIki room – it’s all in Japanese but I still love it.

Then, I headed back to the park entrance to have a quick look in the shops – I still had two days in the parks to come so I didn’t need to head around further to Westernland, but if I’d wanted to I could probably have snuck on a quick ride on Haunted Mansion or Splash Mountain before the park closed.

Admittedly, I go to Tokyo in a quiet part of the season, and, it was raining on this particular evening, so perhaps crowds were less than normal, but I still managed to do almost everything I wanted to (if we ignore that Tomorowland exists!).

So, if you like the sound of it, here’s what you need to know…

How the Evening Passes Work

There are slightly different timings depending on if you are visiting the park in the week or at the weekend. In the week, you can buy passes that let you in the gate at 5pm, while at the weekend, they start at 3pm.

In both cases, you can visit until the park closes – which is normally around 9-10pm.

Obviously, if closing time varies when you are traveling, you would want to use your evening pass on a day that gives you the most time in the park.

Where to Buy Evening Tickets for Tokyo Disney

You can only buy evening passes via the Tokyo Disney website or app. This is important as this doesn’t always work well with foreign cards.

If you’re buying a few days tickets in one go, start with buying the Evening pass. Even if it accepts your card at first, the site can get temperamental and block your card after you buy a couple of different tickets.

Day tickets can be bought by other suppliers, but the evening passes can’t, so, get that one under your belt first then if your card gets refused you can always buy your day tickets from Klook. I

f you have trouble buying from the Disney site, have a look at our guide to buying Disney tickets which might help as it explains how to get them to unblock your card if they can.

How Much are Evening Passes?

The cost starts at 4500 yen for a weekday ticket and 6500 for the weekend version compared to a full day at the park which costs 7900. Children’s prices vary, so check those for the exact ticket and age of your child.

The evening passes are a little cheaper than the day passes, but not a lot. If you’re looking at things from a budgetary perspective, you’d be better spending a little more and having the whole day in the parks than cramming everything into one evening.

Should you Visit Disneyland or DisneySea?

The billion-dollar question.

There’s a lot that goes into a decision about whether to visit Disneyland or DisneySea if you can only fit one park into your trip (see more about deciding between Disneyland or DisneySea) and I think it’s even harder to decide at night as you have to decide between the two-night shows, both of which are fantastic.

I’d strongly suggest reading the above piece to make the right choice for you, but, if you’d like my opinion.

If you have one full day and one evening to allocate to the parks, it’s simple. Go to Disneyland in the evening and spend your whole day at DisneySea.

The addition of the Fantasy Springs area has made Tokyo DisneySea at least a one-whole-day park, if not a two-day one. If you want to try and increase your chances of getting into Fantasy Springs, and certainly if you want to ride more than one ride there, you need to be in the park early in the day – you’ll be lucky to find passes arriving there in the evening (although it’s not impossible).

But what if you only have one evening to go to the parks – what then? 

If you go to the US parks regularly, then go to DisneySea – it’s the only one in the world, and even though you’ll only just touch the sides with an evening pass, you’ll want to see it. More of the Disneyland rides are similar to the ones in the US.

If you’ve never been to a Disney park, then go to Disneyland. Because more of the park is open to you, and the lines for some of the classic rides are usually pretty short in the evening,  I think you’ll feel like you’ve done more ‘Disney’ that way.

Also the Main Street Electrical Parade Dreamlights is just incredible and seeing the castle at night is magical. 

Other Useful Evening Tips

Check For Premier Access

While the 40th Anniversary Priority Passes usually run out early in the day, Disney Premier Access passes can now hang around a little longer, especially on a quieter weekday.

If you pick Disneyland for your visit, do your best to get a Premier Access pass for Beauty and the Beast the minute you walk in the park. It’s the most popular ride, queues can be 2-3 hours long and, you don’t want to spend your whole night standing in one.

In DisneySea, Soarin is the most popular pass, but, if you’ve ridden this at the US parks, try and grab Journey to the Centre of the Earth instead as that’s unique – or, check for any of the rides at Fantasy Spring (more on those in a minute).

Consider a Pass for the DisneySea Evening Show

The evening show in Disney Sea takes place on the lake in the middle of the park and it isn’t as easy to get a good spot for at the last minute as the parade in Disneyland as people snag the prime seats early.

If you want to see it from the front of the park, using an evening pass, I’d strongly suggest trying to get a Premier Access pass for the show as soon as you get into the park. This will allow you to take your seat a bit later giving you more time to explore.

Getting into Fantasy Springs

This new area at Tokyo Disney resort is immensely popular and works a little differently from the rest of the park – you have to have either a pass via a Vacation Package, a Disney Premier Access pass or a Stand-by pass for the rides or you can’t even go in to walk around.

If this doesn’t mean anything to you, read our longer guide to getting into Fantasy Springs after this.

The chance of getting a pass to get into Fantasy Springs is very slim in the evening – so don’t promise any kids the Frozen ride just in case! But do look all the same – they release passes throughout the day so you never know if you might get lucky.

Know the Parade Route

If you do go to Disneyland, it can save you time to position yourself at either the start or the end of the parade route, and then use the advantage of others waiting for the parade to jump on a ride with shorter queues.

At night the parades start in Toontown, then make their way past the castle and finish off in Fantasyland. The advantage of Toontown is that you know exactly when it’s going to arrive, and it’ll be past you first, giving you time to get to a nearby big-ticket attraction like Haunted Mansion, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt or possibly, even Beauty and the Beast on a quiet night, before the queues build back up.

Save Time With Mobile Ordering

If you’re going to dine in the park, use mobile ordering. This allows you to order your meal online for a set time to save queuing. See more about which restaurants offer this, and how to use it in our dedicated post on Disney mobile ordering. 

Don’t Leave Things Too Late

Unlike the US parks, where you can join the queue right up until the time the park closes, the lines for the rides at Tokyo Disney can close well before the park does.

If the park closes at 9 pm, and the queue for Beauty and the Beast is two hours long, they will stop people joining the normal queue from 7 pm.  

Decide on 3 Must-Rides

Focus on visiting those and make everything else a bonus.

Fancy a Beer?

As it’s evening, if you’re looking for a tipple to accompany your time in the park, you’ll find beer, at least, in many of the restaurants and cafes at both Disneyland and DisneySea.

It’s not like Epcot where you can drink your way around the world though – you don’t really take them away and wander.

If you’re looking for something other than beer, the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge on the SS Columbia in DisneySea has a full bar (Priority Seating is recommended).

Don’t Bother With the Fireworks

They aren’t as good as the ones in the US so you’d be better off trying to get some last rides in.

However, there is a new show starting on the castle at Disneyland on September the 20th that might be worth sticking around for. As I’m writing this before then, I haven’t seen yet. I’ll update this once I have to let you know if it’s worth waiting for.

Make Priority Seating Bookings

Personally, I wouldn’t bother with a sit-down restaurant in the parks on an evening pass, they will take up too much time, but if you want to, remember, Priority Seating Bookings open a month before the date you want to visit. It’s at 9 am Japanese time for Disney hotel guests and 10 am for everyone else.

Shop Early

Shops get busy at the end of the day. If you see something you want to buy, grab it there and then or you might not have time to come back and get it. 

Plan Your Journey Home

Trains and shuttle buses back to hotels will be crowded if you stay right until park closure, just be patient and make sure you know what time your hotel shuttle bus picks up if you’re using one.

This was one reason I really liked the Mystays Maihama where I stayed on my last trip – while it had a shuttle bus, it was also walking distance back from DisneySea, and had public transport options from Disneyland so I didn’t have to worry about cramming onto a bus with everyone else. 

So, that’s my quick guide to what you can get done in Disney at night. I’m going back to do Disneyland in the evening again on my next trip so, it must be worth it!

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