One increasingly common refrain we’ve seen from readers in response to recent Walt Disney World price increases on restaurants, resorts, park tickets, and more has been: “For the cost of a trip to Walt Disney World, I could visit [insert international destination].” Is this sentiment actually correct? This post breaks down the components, with comparisons on airfare, accommodations, admission, food, and line-skipping.
Some fans don’t realize this, but their vacation dollars go further at Disney’s international parks. Not only are they less expensive, but they’re home to incredible attractions and lands like the new World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland and Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea. Just take a look at our Rankings of the Best Disney Theme Parks in the World!
This isn’t to say the U.S. parks are slouches or that you shouldn’t visit. “The grass is always greener” and all that. Some of our Japanese friends dream of visiting Walt Disney World, and wish they had Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Slinky Dog Dash, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Avatar Flight of Passage, and more. Suffice to say, the last decade has been very good to Walt Disney World fans, even if we don’t always appreciate it.
Before delving into this comparison, context is necessary. One is median wages and household income are significantly higher in the United States than Japan. As is probably obvious, the target demographic for each destination is domestic tourists, not international ones, so local incomes make a big difference in pricing. Another is the strength of the respective currencies. Honestly, this is the difference-maker right now in a comparison of costs at Tokyo Disney Resort vs. Walt Disney World.
This is really a story of the U.S. dollar versus the Japanese yen. As of late 2024, the yen is around the 154 level against the U.S. dollar and just hit a 3-month low following the U.S. presidential election. To put this into perspective for those are are unfamiliar with traveling to Japan or foreign currency, a good/normal rule of thumb used to be a 100:1 exchange rate. Now, it’s above 150:1. I’m no mathematician, but that’s a massive improvement. It’s also on top of the lower baseline prices in Japan. This is great news for Americans traveling to Japan.
Now for the bad news: the window on this probably will close before 2027. While historically weak, the 150 level is actually the worst that the exchange rate has been on our trips to Japan in the last few years. The trend has reversed, and will likely continue to do so, because the U.S. Federal Reserve has signaled it’s going to start cutting interest rates, whereas the Bank of Japan is finally raising them.
Regardless, the next couple of years should still be a great time to visit Tokyo Disney Resort with the exchange rate good-to-great by historical standards. Just not quite as fantastic as it was earlier this year, when flirting with the 160 mark.
This is great news for Americans traveling to Japan, but it doesn’t apply to everyone. Don’t walk into a supermarket in Japan and shout about how “cheap” everything is in there. That won’t win you many friends. People who live in Japan and are paid in yen have a different perspective on this topic.
Point being, this makes comparing prices at the domestic parks to the international ones is apples to oranges. We love Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea and think they’re generally better than the U.S. parks, but that conclusion doesn’t require a price comparison to “prove the point.”
We’re going to set all of that aside–but just know that it’s not a straightforward comparison. Explaining the why of it is beyond the scope of this post, which exists to determine whether an American Disney fan can fly halfway around the world to Japan and still have a cheaper vacation than traveling partway across the U.S. to Walt Disney World.
Finally, it’s also not a question of whether a trip to Japan is “cheap” in absolute terms. It’s relative. Which is the cheaper of the two options: a trip to Walt Disney World or a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort. A trip to any Disney park is financially out of reach for most of the world’s population, so we’re all quite fortunate if we’re ever able to visit any Disney park anywhere. Use “less expensive” as opposed to “cheaper” if you’re bothered by terminology.
Stated that way, the real question is whether traveling to Japan and visiting Tokyo Disney Resort is less expensive than visiting Walt Disney World for Americans with the means to vacation at Disney Parks in the first place. Phew. Not exactly as concise of a headline. It’s a narrow comparison aimed at only a sliver of the world’s population, but there’s a decent chance you’re among that demo if you’re reading an English-language Disney blog based in the United States.
Nevertheless, we feel all of these caveats are necessary because this type of post inevitability frustrates some fans. As with anything, your mileage may vary. Let’s set all of that aside and dig into this Tokyo Disney Resort vs. Walt Disney World cost-comparison…
Airfare: Tokyo vs. Orlando
Flights are frequently viewed as the insurmountable obstacle for visiting Tokyo Disney Resort. If you search from a regional airport in West Virginia on Christmas Eve (returning on New Year’s Eve), you might conclude that all dates from all airports cost $5,571 roundtrip. Of course, that’s not reflective of average flights costs, just as it wouldn’t be for airfare to Walt Disney World.
Cheaper airfare is actually what prompted this post. I have airfare alerts set through a handful of different websites and my email has been blowing up with notifications lately, including from cities I’ve never seen before. It used to be the case that inexpensive airfare was possible out of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Now, those prices are even lower–but there are reasonable options from elsewhere. Here’s a small sampling of the deals I’ve seen:
For whatever it’s worth, we’ve frequently paid around $600 roundtrip for flights from Los Angeles. Our general rule is that we pay out of pocket for anything under $900, and use miles for flights above that. The only time we’ve paid more is when not flexible with dates.
One thing we’ve noticed in the last few years with airfare to Japan is that it’s typically cheapest either when there are sales (obviously) or inside 6 months. Oftentimes, last minute flights have the lowest prices of all. We’ve almost never found the best prices over 8 months in advance.
Ascribing a value to flights is a challenge since they’re so dependent upon travel dates and your home airport. At the absolute maximum, the cost should be LAX-TYO + LAX-your home airport (and you can do a stopover at Disneyland!). Flights to Japan will be more expensive than prices the vast majority of tourists would pay to get to Walt Disney World. For this comparison, we’re doing a party of 4 and setting the per-person cost to Tokyo at $900 and to Orlando at $200.
Here are the airfare totals:
- Round trip flights to Tokyo: $3,600
- Round trip flights to Orlando: $800
The whole ballgame here is essentially whether lower costs on everything else in Japan can close this $2,800 gap. Of course, that difference increases or decreases based on your party size–you’ll have to do the math for yourselves.
Monorail Loop Hotels
For years, we’ve recommended visitors on a budget eschew the Disney-branded hotels in favor of the Tokyo Disney Resort Official Hotels that are on-site and offer monorail access to both parks. To draw a Walt Disney World comparison, these would be like putting the Swan & Dolphin in the Contemporary’s location.
We have stayed at every single one of these, but favor the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay or the Hilton Tokyo Bay. We almost always book the latter since Sarah has Hilton Diamond Status, which gets us free upgrades, breakfast buffet, and concierge lounge access for meals. We have logged more stays at this hotel than just about anywhere.
Both of the Hilton and Sheraton would be Deluxe Resorts by Walt Disney World standards–so long as you get updated rooms (Ocean Dream at the Sheraton; Celebrio at the Hilton). The Sheraton’s modern rooms are newer, but I have a soft spot for the Celebrio rooms at the Hilton. Honestly, I’d pick these new rooms at the Hilton or Sheraton over the Incredibles rooms at the Contemporary; both are easily superior hotels as a whole to the Contemporary.
Since most of the above airfare deals encompass dates in Winter 2025, I’m going to choose January 19-25, 2025 as the dates to price out hotels. This heavily favors Walt Disney World, since that’s one of the cheapest rate seasons for resorts and there’s currently a 25% off deal. I want to err on the side of giving Walt Disney World every possible advantage, as I don’t want anyone to claim this comparison is biased towards Tokyo Disney Resort.
For those dates, Hilton Tokyo Bay is $187 per night, which is higher than the average we’ve paid this year. It’s also more expensive than the almost-inevitable Black Friday flash sale that Hilton will offer. By contrast, the Sheraton is a bit over $200 per night. Nevertheless, I’m also throwing Toy Story Hotel (though it’s sold out for most dates in this range) into the comparison. Even if they were the same price, we’d book the Hilton over Toy Story Hotel, but feel it’s only fair for a Disney vs. Disney comparison.
Here are the hotel totals:
- Tokyo Disney Resort Hotel (Hilton): $1,235
- Tokyo Disney Resort Hotel (Toy Story Hotel): $1,801.20
- Walt Disney World Resort Hotel (Contemporary): $3,656.48
- Walt Disney World Resort Hotel (Wilderness Lodge): $3,348.95
Just like that, we’ve come really close to bridging the gap!
Park Tickets
As discussed in our Tokyo Disneyland Discount Ticket Tips, tickets can sell out in advance. We highly recommend purchasing at least a couple weeks in advance from TDR directly or via authorized TDR ticket seller Klook (especially useful if your credit card has issues with the TDR site).
Full single-day park tickets cost 7,900 yen to 10,900 yen for adults, which is approximately $52 to $72. Tokyo Disney Resort has not yet resumed sales of multi-day tickets or Annual Passes.
For our dates in Winter 2025, tickets are $55 per day for adults and $33 to $46 for kids. (Tokyo breaks down guest ages as follows: adults are guests ages 18 & over; Junior is ages 12-17; child is ages 4-11. Guests ages 3 & under are free. Throughout this post, we’ll assume the family of 4 in question is 2 adults, one junior, and one child.)
For 5 day tickets, here are the totals:
- Tokyo Disney Resort tickets: $933.90
- Walt Disney World tickets: $2,817.98
For Walt Disney World, we priced out 5-day tickets; for TDR, 5 single-day tickets. These are all one park per day tickets, since that’s all TDR offers currently. It is possible Walt Disney World will offer a 4-park ticket deal around this time next year–but we wouldn’t count on it, as winter is becoming increasingly popular. However, it would be cheaper to purchase that.
The per-day cost also does decrease for Walt Disney World with longer duration tickets, but even 10-day tickets in August or September are still more expensive than single-day Tokyo Disney Resort tickets. The gap does narrow considerably, but TDR still wins. (It would be a different story for international guests who can purchase 14-day Walt Disney World tickets, as the per-day cost is lower on those.)
Line-Skipping: Lightning Lanes vs. Premier Access
Paid FastPass has (sadly) spread to Japan, and is available at popular rides and entertainment at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea. Known as Premier Access, it’s their version of Individual Lightning Lanes. Tokyo Disney Resort also still has a version of free FastPass, now known as Priority Pass. (Learn more: Guide to Priority Pass & Premier Access at Tokyo Disney Resort.)
We have not bought Premier Access for any attraction, instead using early mornings and late nights to knock everything out (including multiple rides on Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast) without much issue. However, if you’re a first timer with limited time, it’s likely that you will purchase it for one ride at Tokyo Disneyland and 3-5 rides at Tokyo DisneySea. (Yes, that’s quite the imbalance–due largely to the new Fantasy Springs at TDS, and a far better lineup of free Priority Pass attractions at TDL.)
Premier Access costs $10 to $13 per ride, so budget about $30 per person per day to line-skipping at Tokyo Disney Resort. That’s a rough estimate, it could be higher if you opt to purchase Premier Access for entertainment or other attractions (we wouldn’t recommend that).
It’s probably fair to say the average guest will spend about the same on line-skipping at Walt Disney World as they would at Tokyo Disney Resort via a combination of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass. Since we don’t purchase any of these options, for the most part, and since they’re entirely optional at both destinations, I’m not going to include them as a line-item. Just know that “about $30/day/person” is going to be around the average for both. Frugal travelers can get that to $0, whereas high rollers can easily clear $50.
Counter Service Restaurants
Food is less expensive at Tokyo Disney Resort. If you’re just purchasing an entree, you can often do so for $6 to $8. Hungry Bear Restaurant is my favorite counter service spot for curry in either park, and it charges ¥900 for the curry on the left and ¥1,100 for the port cutlet curry on the right. That’s a total of $13.20 for both bowls.
Special sets are also available that include drinks and desserts, and these typically cost $10 to $14 at Tokyo Disney Resort. By contrast, entrees at in-park restaurants at Walt Disney World typically cost $11 to $15. There are no special sets, so you’re looking at spending an extra $9 or so for drinks and desserts.
We’re not going to include those here, despite them increasing the gap, as drink and dessert sizes aren’t comparable. Also, we don’t typically buy these things, anyway. Here’s how the comparison breaks down, doing adult meals for all 4 guests in the party:
- Counter Service Meal (TDR): $28
- Counter Service Meal (WDW): $48
Of course, this is just one meal. The difference increases over the course of multiple meals and days.
Buffets: Crystal Palace vs. Crystal Palace
This buffet exists in the exact same building in both Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland. The key differences are that no Winnie the Pooh characters are present and the cuisine is better at Tokyo Disneyland. In addition to meats, sushi and seafood, Crystal Palace also has a formidable dessert lineup. The little green mochi are, to borrow a phrase from Joey, where we win our money back.
The Crystal Palace buffet costs 4,500 yen per adult or 1,800 to 2,850 yen for kids. There is no tipping in Japan, so that’s the out the door cost. By contrast, Crystal Palace at Walt Disney World costs $62 per adult and $42 per child plus tax and tip. Here are totals for our fictional family of four:
- Crystal Palace at TDL: $90.67
- Crystal Palace at WDW: $250
Suffice to say, the gap is significantly larger on buffets than counter service restaurants–but this isn’t apples to apples given that one is a character meal and the other is not.
Table Service Restaurants: Magellan’s vs. California Grill
It’s a very similar story with full table service restaurants, right down to there being no apple-to-apple comparisons. The two restaurants where we dine more than any others are Magellan’s and Ristorante di Canaletto, both in Tokyo DisneySea. Our last meal at the latter, a waterfront Italian restaurant, cost $23 per person for individual pizzas and tiramisu. This is equivalent to a ~$50 meal at Via Napoli.
The special set we’d order at Magellan’s costs $40 for a bread course, one starter, one entree, one dessert, and drink. This is like a fancier version of California Grill at Walt Disney World, which cost approximately $110 out the door per person the last time we dined there. For this comparison, we’re doing the adult’s menu exclusively at Magellan’s, plus 2 adults and 2 kids at California Grill:
- Magellan’s at TDS: $160
- California Grill at WDW: $316
Table service menu prices are more expensive to begin with at Walt Disney World, but ~20% tips on top of those already higher prices also make a really big difference. If you do a lot of sit-down dining, the value proposition at TDR improves considerably. However, we wouldn’t recommend doing many table service meals if it’s your first trip to Japan–there’s so much to see and do! (Magellan’s is a must, though.)
Tokyo vs. Walt Disney World: Cost Comparison Conclusion
Ultimately, it should be clear that Tokyo Disney Resort can be cheaper than Walt Disney World for the average American family of 4 that has to travel to both destinations. I hate math, so I’m just going to add up the costs of airfare, accommodations, and admission. Almost everything else, including things we omitted–like souvenirs and transportation–will likely cost less in Japan.
Choosing the higher-tier hotel (Toy Story) at Tokyo Disney Resort, the total for just those components comes to around $6,335. The total for Walt Disney World with the cheaper hotel (Wilderness Lodge) is roughly $6,967. Food is going to vary too much from family-to-family, but I can fathom a scenario in which it’s more expensive to eat at TDR–it should be around half the cost of Walt Disney World.
Of course, you can get both of those numbers higher or lower. Choose the Hilton or Sheraton, and it should drop for Tokyo Disney Resort. Have trouble finding flight deals, and it could soar for Japan. You could also opt for a cheaper Value Resort at Walt Disney World, but the “problem” with that is there are budget hotels that are <15 minutes from TDR and cost well under $100 per night. The salient point is that there are ways to cut costs for both–you’re just probably more familiar with the methods for Walt Disney World.
Going with a longer duration, as we would recommend for both destinations, does increase the per-day basis of tickets at Walt Disney World, but that also dilutes the per-day cost of airfare to Japan. Unless you truly torture the math to produce the conclusion you want (in which case, why even read this far?), it’s difficult to overcome the cheaper costs for accommodations and food at Tokyo Disney Resort. And again, the above budgets don’t even take food into account, which could end up being about twice as expensive (give or take) at Walt Disney World.
Not to mention the reality that you’re likely spending time elsewhere in Japan, where there’s an abundance of amazing low-cost or free activities. It’s hard to replicate than in Central Florida, with the exception of manatee watching and a handful of other things. Most of the things you’ll want to do around Orlando are touristy, with prices to match.
Tokyo Disney Resort is cheaper than Walt Disney World, but in the past, the gap was never this wide. Unless you were a solo traveler, couple or lived in California (in which case, you could do Disneyland instead of WDW), it was almost impossible to overcome airfare. It won’t always be this way. Right now is a uniquely great time for Americans to visit Japan to take advantage of our stronger currency and greater purchasing power.
This means that you won’t just encounter “cheap” prices at the parks–you’ll find them pretty much everywhere you go. That will remain true so long as the exchange rate continues to be historically favorable and around the 130 to 160 yen to dollar level. As a threshold matter, this assumes you’re able to score reasonable airfare, are comfortable traveling internationally, and have the desire to visit Japan.
Of course, not everyone is willing or able to travel internationally to Tokyo Disney Resort. But if you read this deeply into the topic, we’re guessing you’re at least on the fence. In which case, you should absolutely do it. In the decade-plus that we’ve been effusively praising Tokyo Disney Resort and recommending Japan to anyone who would listen, we’ve heard from maybe 3-4 people who were disappointed, and literally hundreds who said it exceeded expectations–many even called it the trip of a lifetime.
Anyway, just some food for thought if you’ve been curious about visiting Japan but assumed it was out of reach. Not only is it potentially in reach, but now is a fantastic time to go between the strength of the dollar and new Fantasy Springs. It also might be a good time to take a break from Walt Disney World, with no new major attractions on the horizon until 2027! For everything else you need to know, we have a ton of resources in the links below.
Planning a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort? For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Trip Planning Guide! For more specifics, our TDR Hotel Rankings & Reviews page covers accommodations. Our Restaurant Reviews detail where to dine & snack. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money post. Our What to Pack for Disney post takes a unique look at clever items to take. Venturing elsewhere in Japan? Consult our Ultimate Guide to Kyoto, Japan and City Guide to Tokyo, Japan.
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the cost comparison of traveling to Tokyo Disney Resort vs. Walt Disney World? Have you visited Japan in the last few years? What was your experience with the strong dollar and weak yen? How did you feel about the value proposition of Tokyo Disney Resort? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
