Slept in until after 6am today, but still went down for breakfast around 7am.  After breakfast took a walk around the resort area, crossing the street and walking along the sea wall on the back side of the hotels and then back along the street in front of the hotels in a big circle.   Boarded a monorail at Bayside Station and took it to the Gateway Station.  Walked around Ikspiari for a while then walked over to the Disneyland Hotel area.  Boarded the Resort Liner there and returned to Bayside Station and the Hilton.  Stopped by the lounge for a bit then back to the room to do some packing.   Ventured out again for lunch walking over to Bayside Station and taking the resort line around to the Gateway station and Ikspiari.   Ate lunch at McDonald’s then walked over to the train station and returned our Sucia cards to get our deposit back.  Returned to the Resort Line station and boarded a train.  The front seat was open so went all the way around then out to Bayside station.  Caught a bus to the Hilton since it was raining and returned to the room.  Hung out there and worked a bit then stopped by the lounge for a while, explored the hotel and called it an early night.

• Today the weather forecast said 100% chance of rain in the afternoon starting just after lunch and continuing through Saturday morning.   Since we already had done four park days in a row we decided to take a break today and stay around the hotel and relax and try to stay dry.
• Since it was not forecasted to rain until later we set out for a second attempt to walk around the hotels and look at Tokyo Bay from the sea wall and Fantasy Springs from street level.  We were able to complete the circle without rain and the views were different and interesting to see.  The weather had started to change so we did cut the route a tad shorter to avoid getting rained on again.  Today there were a lot fewer people out than our previous attempt. Not sure if it was because we were later in the morning or the weather.
• Around 10:30 we took the Resort Line to Ikspiari and found it very peaceful onboard and at the shopping center.  We spent some time shopping including a visit to Bon Voyage which was much more pleasant to walk around this visit than our last one on a weekend.
• We had planned to stay out until lunch but no one was hungry yet and the winds were picking up so we took the resort line back to Bayside Station and returned to the hotel for a while.
• For lunch we still were not hungry enough for a big meal so ended up at McDonald’s in Ikspiari.  I was using the mobile app to order and it really gave me some fits.  Seems it did not want to find my location and the data transfer was dead or too slow on my cell network. I could not get it to join the McDs or other free Wi-fi either.    Once I finally got the meal ordered and picked up it was great.  Again the food was among the freshest we have had at a McDs.
• We decided we were not going to do a second day of sight seeing in Tokyo so today returned our Suica cards.  We did well with them this trip getting our fee down to only 7 yen a card.  The way these cards work is you pay for so much on the card and a deposit up front.  Then you can use them for the trains or other purchases.  When you are done you can return the card and get your deposit back.  There is a 220 yen return fee that will be deducted from your remaining balance, but if your balance is less the fee is forgiven.  We purchased 2000 yen cards (1500 to use and 500 deposit).  We used the cards for our sightseeing day and had 387 yen left on them.  Ended up using this to purchase Cokes which came out to 380 yen.  So that left 7 yen on the card when we returned it to get our 500 yen deposit back.  7 yen was definitely worth the convenience of having the card.
• On the way back to the hotel after lunch we ended up in a nearly empty front car of the Resort Liner and were able to sit in the front seat.  Of course this meant staying on board for a complete round trip before vacating my seat and then exiting at our second time reaching Bayside Station.   Always fun to sit in the front and enjoy the great view of the resort, even in the rain.
• As predicted the rain did roll in after lunch and stuck around all evening, at times it was rather hard too.  We were happy to not be out in the parks in the rain. Checking the wait times they were still fairly high given the weather so looks like we made the proper call there.
• We had not purchased our ticket for tomorrow yet for the parks because we were waiting to see how the weather shaped up as well as making a final decision on which park to visit.  We finalized on Disneyland and when I checked the website it said limited tickets.  So I went ahead and tried to purchase.  When I clicked to purchase it said there were no tickets.  I tried a couple times on the website and app and nothing worked.  So at this point I decided to go talk to the hotel guest services.   They looked at the app and then disappeared to check something.  When the person returned they issued me a ticket saying I could purchase tickets tomorrow morning at 7am at the ticket window, cash only. They would not accept credit card or charge it to the room.  My thought was to keep trying the website but at least I had a backup plan for the morning to get a ticket.  Another reason I wanted to keep trying online was to use a credit card. I did not have enough cash for the tickets and wanted the more favorable conversion rate on the credit card vs the exchange machine in the lobby.
  

2023 Tokyo Disney Trip Summary

Links from today:

• Pictures: Tokyo Disney Resort Fantasy Springs Hotel Construction (5/19/23)
• Pictures: Morning View of Tokyo Disney Resort (5/19/23)
• Pictures: A Walk Around the Bayside Hotel Area Taking a Look at Tokyo Bay
• Pictures: Tokyo Disney Resort Toy Story Hotel from the Tokyo Bay Side
• Pictures: Tokyo Disney Resort Line – Toy Story Monorail
• Pictures: Tokyo Disney Resort Line – Dream-Go-Round Monorail
• Pictures: Tokyo Disney Resort Line – Purple and Pink Monorails
• Pictures: Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Construction (5/19/23)
• Videos: Tokyo Disney Resort Line
• All Posts from Today

• Tokyo Disney Resort Pictures
• Geek's Blog Tokyo Pictures
• Geek's Blog Tokyo News/Posts