Tokyo Disney Resort

Panorama Suite - Disney’s Ambassador Hotel, Tokyo Disney Resort

Image: Disney

Mickey’s Penthouse Suite - Disney’s Ambassador Hotel, Tokyo Disneyland

Image: Disney

Once The Walt Disney Company had conquered the United States, the company rightfully sought to expand its brand into cultures around the world. Their films had already done this, of course, but Disney theme parks stand on their own as a globally recognized brand. Even ten thousand miles away, citizens of foreign lands recognize pictures of the Happiest Place on Earth. And they all know Mickey Mouse.

Japan claims the title of first non-American country to host a Disney theme park. Their Tokyo Disney Resort stands on its own as one of the finest theme parks in all the world. In fact, two of the five most trafficked parks on the planet reside here. The first of them, Tokyo Disneyland, opened to the public for the first time in 1983. You might not know that in 2014, this facility earned more visitors than the original Disneyland itself.

A theme park with such large annual attendance numbers needs accompanying hotel rooms to satisfy its high volume of guests. Surprisingly, the park planners at Tokyo Disney Resort, who technically don’t work for Disney but instead The Oriental Land Company, failed to anticipate this need. This theme park was earning 17.5 million guests in 1999, back when Magic Kingdom was “only” receiving 15.2 million visitors. Despite the fact that it was the world’s most trafficked theme park, no official Disney resort existed.

That odd piece of trivia came to an end in 2000 with the debut of Disney’s Ambassador Hotel. Despite the name, it too is owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company. They license the Disney brand under a complex business agreement that has proven insanely lucrative for both companies. As the first official onsite resort, the facility had to live up to the Disney name, as that is part of the negotiated terms for the deal. Disney has input and a form of creative control over anything that carries the company name.

To live up to the Disney ideal, The Oriental Land Company engaged in dialogue with their American peers, park planners and Imagineers, about how to build the ultimate Disney resort. Cast members revealed their plans for Downtown Disney, a project that wouldn’t even open in California until 2001, although the Florida version had existed in one form or another since 1975. The underlying concept was clear. Meshing shopping and fine dining with a deluxe hotel would give a business a much larger share of a tourist’s vacation money.

Not coincidentally, Disney’s Ambassador Hotel broke ground right beside Ikspiari, an entertainment complex owned by IKSPIARI Co., Ltd, which is, you guessed it, a subsidiary of The Oriental Land Company. Japan’s answer to Disney Springs opened on July 7, 2000. Thirteen days later, Disney’s Ambassador Hotel joined it as joint ventures to shake every dime out of the pockets of Disney lovers living in or visiting Japan. The company running Japan’s version of Disneyland may not be Disney, but they learned from the best.

If you want to stay at Disney’s Ambassador Hotel – and since it’s a five-star resort, you really should – the suite to target if you’re not rich enough to own a private island is the Panorama Suite. That’s roughly a thousand American dollars a night. If money is no object for you, don’t settle for anything less than Mickey’s Penthouse Suite, which costs 300,000 yen per night. That’s just under $3,000, which places it on the shortlist of most expensive Disney rooms in the world.

Whereas the Panorama Suite is primarily selling the views of the neighboring shopping district and various Disney landscapes surrounding the resort (few rooms at Disney’s Ambassador Hotel feature quality park views), Mickey’s Penthouse Suite is a luxurious celebration of all things mouse. You don’t have to bother searching for Hidden Mickeys here. There’s nothing subtle in the rooms.

The only surprise is if you see a large piece of furniture, flooring or wall space that DOESN’T feature the face of Mickey Mouse. Even the dining room table chairs are giant Mickeys. Bright colors shine throughout the suite. Red, Black, and yellow are the preferred choices, and most of the decor takes the shape of a mouse. This is true even of the bookshelves and master bedroom headboard. Even the modular seating furniture takes this shape, although you would have to look down from the ceiling to notice.

The oddity of both the Panorama Suite and Mickey’s Penthouse Suite involves house rules. For reasons passing understanding, Disney’s Ambassador Hotel enforces harsh capacity stipulations for their suites. Even though you’re paying a fortune per night, only two guests are welcome in any of the hotel’s concierge floor suites. Anybody traveling with children simply can’t stay here, which defeats the purpose of a Disney trip for many vacationers. Tourists in search of a romantic getaway, on the other hand, can splurge with some of the ample disposable income they don’t have to spend on children. By all accounts, the occupancy rates for these suites are extremely high despite the two-person limit.

Porto Paradiso Suite - Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta, Tokyo DisneySea

Image: Disney

MiraCosta Suite – Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta, Tokyo DisneySea

Image: Disney

Il Magnifico Suite - Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta, Tokyo DisneySea

Image: Disney

Unquestionably the most novel Disney resort in their entire chain, this property opened in September of 2001. It is a kindred spirit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas in that the resort is irrevocably tethered to its adjoining Disney gate. The Hotel MiraCosta goes one step farther, as it is the only resort located entirely within the confines of a Disney theme park. I appreciate that this is difficult to visualize, so please watch this video of an adorable Japanese child walking through Tokyo DisneySea to reach the hotel lobby.

The oft-discussed Disney bubble means that once a theme park tourist reaches one of their theme parks, the outside world disappears. People lay down their burdens as they reach their happy destination. The Hotel MiraCosta maximizes this philosophy as the theme park and the hotel exist in the same space, meaning that the bubble is omnipresent. Disney can’t take credit for the genius of this strategy, though. It’s The Oriental Land Company behind the initiative.

If you’re unfamiliar with DisneySea, it’s one of the five most popular theme parks in the world. The Tokyo Disney Resort is actually every bit as popular in Japan as Walt Disney World is in the United States. You can think of DisneySea as Epcot’s The Seas with Nemo & Friends expanded into an entire theme park. It’s actually based in a failed expansion plot for Disneyland known as Port Disney. Once they passed on it, they shipped the idea off to Japan for The Oriental Land Company to develop.

While your mind might equate the premise with SeaWorld, that’s a bit inaccurate. DisneySea is much grander in scale. It features areas such as Mediterranean Harbor and Mysterious Island that are equal parts recreation of Italian water cities and depictions of the imaginary inventions of Jules Verne. In terms of style and tone, Tokyo DisneySea is the most unique of all Disney theme parks.

The selling point of the suites at Hotel MiraCosta is simple. These stately rooms feature more than a wonderful night’s lodging. They also offer a singularly inimitable perspective of a Disney theme park. At Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas, guests sitting in the comfort of their rooms can watch animals interact in their natural habitats, relatively speaking. The Hotel MiraCosta beats that. Vacationers staying at one of these suites can witness an entire day’s worth of park activity.

Guests residing in the Porto Paradiso Suite enjoy unprecedented access to Mount Prometheus and the daily performances of Fantasmic. Anyone staying in the MiraCosta Suite gains an overlook of Mediterranean Harbor and Tokyo Bay. And the marvelously named Il Magnifico Suite, the one hotel brags is the finest onsite, lords over everything.

Of course, this access comes at a high price. The cheapest of the three rooms, the Porto Paradiso Suite, costs the equivalent of $1,750 per night. The MiraCosta Suite lists at $2,500 nightly. As for the Il Magnifico Suite, you might want to sit down for this. It’s almost $5,000 per night, making it the most expensive room on the list. And again, Disney enforces those arcane occupancy rules. Only two guests can stay in any of these three suites, which rules them out for family vacations. Then again, if you can afford to pay these prices, you’d likely be renting the Porto Paradiso Suite for your children, the MiraCosta Suite for your nanny, and the Il Magnifico Suite for yourself and someone who probably doesn’t love you for your personality. The Beatles did warn you that money can’t buy you love.