Tourists Visiting Tokyo's Disney Parks Should Take Advantage Of These Major In-App Features

Like other Disney parks around the world, Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea have phased out FastPasses in favor of paid line-skipping for their most popular attractions. You can still jump in standby lines, but the days of picking up free paper FastPasses from ticketing machines are long gone. The good news is, both parks currently offer a free digital substitute for the old FastPasses with certain rides. Before visiting the world's two best-rated Disney parks, you should download the official Tokyo Disney Resort App and link your park tickets to it to take advantage of this option. With the app, there are several important features to be aware of for accessing select rides, parades, shows, shops, and restaurants.

The first feature shown in the app under "My Plan" and the DPA logo is Disney Premier Access. It's essentially a paid FastPass that gains you one-time entry to a single attraction at Tokyo Disney Resort. The U.S. equivalent would be a Lightning Lane Premier Pass at California's Disneyland Resort or Florida's Walt Disney World. For rides, Premier Access is priced according to popularity, with the most in-demand ones commanding a fee of 2,000 yen (about $13.60), and the second tier fetching 1,500 yen (around $10.20) per ride.

Note that you can only purchase Premier Access once you've passed through the entry gates to Tokyo Disneyland or DisneySea. For riding the most rides at Disney, it's arguably best to line up early and "rope drop" the park of your choice, entering it as soon as it opens in the morning. If you arrive later in the day in Tokyo, you run the risk of the Premier Access attractions you want being sold out.

At Tokyo Disneyland, Premier Access is currently available for three rides: Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast, the Happy Ride with Baymax, and Splash Mountain. In the American Disney resorts, the Tiana's Bayou Adventure ride has replaced Splash Mountain. As such, all three of these Japanese rides now qualify as exclusive attractions Disney fans can only find in Tokyo. Personally, I would prioritize Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast over the other two, since there's never been a version of that ride anywhere else. The Happy Ride with Baymax is also unique in that way, but it's more of a kiddie ride that will probably be a one-and-done unless you just really enjoy spinning around on an Alien Swirling Saucers-type attraction.

Premier Access for all parades and shows costs 2,500 yen ($17.00). In my experience, this option can be hit-or-miss, depending on how soon you get in the park and snatch up your seats in the app. It helps if you're staying at one of the official resort hotels and you can use the Happy Entry guest benefit to access the park 15 minutes before the general public.

I initially had a good experience using Premier Access to secure front-row seats for Tokyo Disneyland's daytime parade, Harmony in Color. We could see the parade floats passing in front of Cinderella Castle in the park's central roundabout. However, when we used it again months later for a Halloween parade, we were disappointed to be seated a few rows back, with the shadows of trees photobombing us. If you don't mind sitting a while, you may be able to stake out a better spot elsewhere along the parade route without paying extra for Premier Access.

At Tokyo DisneySea, Premier Access is now available for three of the four attractions in Fantasy Springs, the new expansion area that opened in June 2024. DisneySea switched from a virtual queue system to standby availability for Fantasy Springs in April 2025. However, the rides in this area are still drawing long lines and may continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Disney Tourist Blog recommends going with Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey as your first choice for Premier Access, followed by Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure (which is different from the classic Peter Pan's Flight at Tokyo Disneyland).

In terms of wait times, Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure is about evenly matched with Rapunzel's Lantern Festival, but the latter is a shorter ride that might not justify the 2,000-yen additional fee as much. Outside Fantasy Springs, visitors to DisneySea can purchase Premier Access for Journey to the Center of the Earth, Soaring: Fantastic Flight, Tower of Terror, and Toy Story Mania. All but Journey to the Center of the Earth are Japanese versions of attractions that can be found stateside at Disneyland and/or Disney World (unlike the rides in Fantasy Springs).

That said, both Soaring and Tower of Terror have different ride buildings and backstories than their U.S. counterparts. If you're short on time, they could be worth the Premier Access surcharge. Yet there's something to be said for waiting in line and drinking in the details of their intricate queues, which could be considered attractions in and of themselves. Beyond rides, the app offers Premier Access for shows like Big Band Beat: A Special Treat, the new Dreams Take Flight, and the nighttime harbor spectacle, Believe! Sea of Dreams, at Tokyo DisneySea.

When Tokyo Disney Resort was celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2023, it introduced a new complimentary Priority Pass, which functions much like the old FastPass. Two years later, the celebration has mostly ended, but this pass is still on offer, with the resort continuing to note that it will be "available for the time being until further notice." In the app, under "My Plan," click on "40th Anniversary Priority Pass," and you'll be given a choice of available attractions, usually with a one-hour return window. Show up at the ride anytime within that hour, and as long as it hasn't broken down, you should be able to breeze through its Priority Access Entrance (the former FastPass line) instead of waiting on standby.

You can book one Priority Pass at a time, with the next one becoming available two hours later or after the return time for your last pass (whichever comes first). Tokyo Disneyland currently offers the Priority Pass for five rides: Big Thunder Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek, Pooh's Hunny Hunt, and Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. The two that are unique to Tokyo are Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek and Pooh's Hunny Hunt, so you might want to go with one of those as your first choice.

At Tokyo DisneySea, your two best bets for a Priority Pass would probably be Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull and Raging Spirits (in that order). 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Aquatopia, the Magic Lamp Theater, Nemo & Friends SeaRider, and Turtle Talk all have an average wait of about 15 to 25 minutes. So, you're not saving yourself that much time by using a Priority Pass on those.

Priority Passes are swell, but as a someone who's visited Tokyo Disney Resort many times since 2014, I can sympathize with fans who miss the egalitarian days of free FastPasses for every E-ticket ride. Tokyo Disneyland can be cheaper to visit than Disney parks in America, but the separate Premier Access fee really adds up when you pay it multiple times. That's especially true for shows, where it's 2,500 yen per seat. On the plus side, there is a way in the app to reserve shows for free, if you're lucky. Entry Request is the new name for the old lottery system at Tokyo Disney Resort. You can attempt the Entry Request lottery once for each show, and if you win, you'll be assigned a seat for the performance time you've selected.

Tokyo Disneyland offers Entry Request for the shows Mickey's Magical Music World, Club Mouse Beat, and the kid-oriented Jamboree Mickey! Let's Dance! Tokyo DisneySea offers it for Big Band Beat, Dreams Take Flight, and the Dockside Splash Remix. The one show DisneySea doesn't offer it for is Believe! Sea of Dreams. This water show can be seen from almost anywhere around Mediterranean Harbor at night, but if you want to get into the reserved seating area, you'll need to fork over the extra dough for Premier Access.

Another option for other shows, if you don't win the lottery, is to line up for the first performance of the day. Some shows allow guests in on a first-come, first-served basis for that performance only. This isn't always an option when crowd levels are high, so check with a Cast Member, and be sure it's not overlapping too much with your Premier Access and Priority Pass return times.

During the pandemic, Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea started operating a virtual queue even for standby lines, with some requiring a Standby Pass to enter. Fortunately, the only ride at either park that still requires a Standby Pass is the Happy Ride with Baymax at Tokyo Disneyland. On crowded days, though, you may need a Standby Pass to enter certain gift shops, such as Emporio, Galleria Disney, or McDuck's Department Store at Tokyo DisneySea.

If you plan on dining at a table-service restaurant, the Tokyo Disney Resort App has two other useful features worth noting: "Book Restaurant" and "Book Show Restaurant." When you have a park ticket for a specified date, you can book Priority Seating for such restaurants up to a month before that date. The system will cut you off at 8:59 the night before, but even if you weren't able to make a reservation ahead of time, you can try again in the park after 9 a.m. Speaking from personal experience, there may be cancellations that open up throughout the day, so it's worth checking the app.

At Tokyo Disneyland, Priority Seating is available for restaurants like the Blue Bayou, the Crystal Palace, and Restaurant Hokusai. At Tokyo DisneySea, it's available for restaurants like Magellan's, Ristorante di Canaletto, and the S.S. Columbia Dining Room. Some of these restaurants are popular enough that they may otherwise be booked solid on the day of your visit. The same goes for exclusive show restaurants like the Polynesian Terrace and the Diamond Horseshoe in Tokyo Disneyland. Keep an eye on the app, however, and follow our other tips for Tokyo Disney Resort first-timers, and you may be able to snag a last-minute reservation for restaurants and attractions.