The Hilton Tokyo Bay is a great place to stay if you want to visit Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea. I would not recommend this as a base from which to explore Tokyo because of its location, but it is great for Disney fans since it is on the Disney monorail and part of the “Disney Resort” complex. The hotel itself leans into the family-friendly atmosphere in many ways, but perplexingly charges a hefty fee to use its swimming pool. Overall, I’d stay again for 2-3 nights to go to the Disney parks, but not longer.
Hilton Tokyo Bay: Bottom Line Review
The Hilton Tokyo Bay is clean and comfortable and easily accommodates a family — even a large one — with rooms that can accommodate even a family of five or six. It’s a perfect place for visiting the Disney parks as it is on the Disney Monorail (the stop is directly across the street), just 1 stop away from DisneySea. This is not a good location for exploring the rest of Tokyo as you’ll be an hour to an hour and a half via public transit from most touristy stuff in Tokyo (or a ~$60+ taxi ride!). Even stuff that looked close on the map wasn’t or wasn’t easy to reach thanks to the isolated location of the Disney hotels.
This property has an executive lounge with some food items in the evening, but not much along the way of daytime snacks. Diamond members can get the full restaurant buffet, which had a wide enough assortment to appease just about anyone for breakfast.
One thing that really put me off is the way that this “resort” charges a fee to use the swimming pool. And it’s not small: they charge 3,000 yen (about $20) per person, per session. They have a three separate 3-4hr “sessions” per day, with the pool closed for a little while between each (presumably to clear everyone out and charge again for entrance). It seemed absolutely ludicrous to me that a hotel billing itself as a resort at a vacation destination like Disney would charge a fee to use their swimming pool and limit access to just a few hours. A friend tells me that this is relatively common practice in Japan, though I’ve not noticed it before.
In fairness, there is also an indoor pool and Diamond members can get complimentary access to it, but you need to book a time in advance to use it. Perhaps I should be happy that I got a cheap rate and only the people who wanted to use the pool had to pay for it, but it seemed off-putting nonetheless for a “family resort” to charge most people a fee per person to its swimming pools.
On a positive note, the hotel has two Lawson convenience stores inside the building, one of which is open 24hrs per day, which is incredibly convenient. They also have a Disney gift shop with some of the same items you’ll find in the park (at the same reasonable prices — and yes, I do mean reasonable as Tokyo Disney is generally very reasonably priced).
Finally, if you don’t have elite status (Gold or Diamond), consider either staying somewhere that you have “free breakfast” status (there’s a Sheraton two doors down) or book a rate that includes breakfast. I wouldn’t want to pay the rack rate for breakfast and you don’t have any walkable options, so unless you’re going to grab breakfast in the lobby convenience store, you’re probably going to want it included.
- Price: About $220 per night all-in during our dates or 60,000 Hilton Honors points per night for a standard room. We opted to pay cash since this is a Hilton Resort and thus it triggered the Hilton Aspire card’s semi-annual $200 resort credit, making our net cost around $460.
- Value: We went through a shopping portal for 9% back, though it isn’t yet clear if or when we’ll get that. If it works, we expect to get more than $50 back from the portal. We also earned 18,640 Hilton Honors points on the paid stay and will earn earn about 6,400 from paying our folio with the Amex Hilton Aspire card (14x) for a grand total of just over 25,000 Hilton points. Based on our Reasonable Redemption Value, that’s about $120 worth of Hilton points, making this a good net value for 3 nights spent right by the Disney parks.
- Location: Fantastic for visiting the Disney parks, awful for visiting the rest of Tokyo. This is an official “Disney Resort” property that is on the Disney monorail, one stop before DisneySea or one stop after Disneyland. Note that you do pay for the monorail, but a 3-day pass cost just over $4 for an adult, so it wasn’t unreasonable. If your aim is to visit other things in Tokyo, it’s either going to cost you either 1hr+ each way in transit time or $60-$70 each way in taxi fares, so I’d only recommend using this as a base for visiting the Disney parks.
- Room: We booked a “Celebrio Twin Ocean” based on reviews I’d read of the room types. However, that room type wasn’t available when we arrived (early, ahead of normal check-in time), so we were offered an “upgrade” to a “Happy Magic” room. The “Happy Magic” room was only a tiny bit more expensive than the Celebrio room at the time of booking, so it wasn’t a huge “upgrade”. Rather than the sort of cool/futuristic vibe of the Celebrio rooms, we had a more “kid-friendly” room with bunk beds, trees painted on the walls, and a “magic mirror” with an animated character that appeared at the push of a button. My kids liked it and the room was spacious for a room that wasn’t a suite. The bathroom was very simple / standard hotel room bathroom style. Mattresses were very plush/comfortable compared to most Japanese hotels (I think there is a preference for firmer mattresses in much of Asia, whereas I would rather sleep on a cloud).
- Parking: 3,100 yen per day (a little over $20 a day), but we didn’t have a car.
- Resort/Destination Fee: None, but note that you must pay a fee to use the swimming pools. Diamond members get complimentary access to the indoor pool, but you must reserve a time in advance. The outdoor pool is subject to a fee of 3,000 yen (about $20) per person per session. Sessions are about 3-4 hours, with 3 sessions per day (the pool closes in between). No discount for Diamond members. We did look at the pool and it was just a normal pool — nothing I’d remotely consider paying $20 per person to access.
- Internet: Speedy and reliable around the resort.
- Service: Good. Front desk workers were cheerful and helpful (I needed change for the laundry a few times and it was no problem to get it at the front desk). Breakfast servers were friendly, as were lounge attendants. This is a busy resort, so nothing stood out, but it was all perfectly good.
- Turndown service: None
- Dining:
- Breakfast: The main restaurant hosts a breakfast buffet in the mornings. It is not the highest quality buffet, but it has such a wide assortment of stuff that you’ll find something to fit every pallet. It seemed perfectly geared toward the international draw of Disney and particularly leaning toward simple crowd-pleasers that would keep the kids happy. Think canned peaches, pancakes, hash browns in the shape of smiley faces, and that sort of thing (there are also some Asian breakfast options). Breakfast was crowded, so presentation often looked a little messy. Note that there is a separate line for Gold & Diamond members to skip to the front, which I’ve read can be a huge time-saver at peak times (and we did indeed skip past a line waiting to get in one day).
- Executive lounge: I didn’t visit the lounge for breakfast as we knew we’d prefer the full buffet and didn’t have to wait. We did pop in during the early afternoon one day — they just had M&Ms and some small chocolate chip cookies along with coffee and water. We also made it in one evening during the happy hour time. My wife had a glass of white wine and I had a glass of red (I don’t recall which type either was). We didn’t enjoy (or finish) either glass. There were a few food options, which included very small ham and cheese sandwiches and some small slices of cake/pastries. We ended up getting pizza delivered to the room one night (there’s a QR code to order in the room between 5pm and 11pm and you can charge it to the room) and taking the monorail to the shopping center at the train station the other night (there is an Ippudo location there, which I really enjoyed). I also ordered Uber Eats one night, so that’s an option.
- Spa: There is one, but we didn’t use it.
- Fitness Room: Again, there is one and access is complimentary, but we didn’t use it.
- Hilton Diamond Elite Benefits:
- Room Upgrade: We did get an “upgrade” to a “Happy Magic” room. This is still just a regular-sized room but with a more “kiddie” theme. It ordinarily costs a few bucks more than the Celebrio room we booked, but it’s debatable as to which room type is actually “better” (if either is better than the other). This upgrade was given because we arrived early and a Celebrio room was not yet available.
- Free Breakfast: Diamond members can choose breakfast in the lounge or the main restaurant buffet. We went with the main restaurant buffet, which was complimentary for all four of us. In addition to the coffee and juice on the buffet, they hand Gold and Diamond members a card noting that as an elite member benefit, you can get your choice of hot or cold chocolate, flavored iced tea or a matcha latte. My kids got hot chocolate each morning. Most hotel breakfast buffets I saw on this trip had a coffee machine that is also capable of making hot chocolate, so this seemed like a sort of odd elite member benefit, but I guess they’re trying to do something!
- Club Lounge: It exists and it was fine. It closes early (I think at 8pm), but the seating area outside the lounge is open all night (there are some tables just outside the lounge). The food and drink in the lounge was fine (though not better than fine). If the Grand Hyatt Tokyo was a step or two below the average hotel lounge in Asia, the lounge at the Hilton Tokyo Bay was a step or two below the Grand Hyatt Tokyo.
- Late Checkout: When we mentioned having a late flight out, they offered to extend us a 2pm late checkout.
- Welcome Amenity: We checked in early, but a bag was brought to the room later that included disposable slippers (the room had plenty of reusable slippers, but I guess Diamond members get disposable ones, too?) and a small box of chocolates. The chocolates were quite good. I looked them up online and the company that makes them sells a similar-sized box for about $35, so this was a nice welcome amenity.
- Would I stay again? If I were going to Tokyo Disney and I had Hilton elite status, yes, I probably would. I should note that the Sheraton is basically right next door (there’s a smaller “Toy Story” themed hotel in between). I picked the Hilton because reviews of the Sheraton didn’t look great. We met another family that we randomly ran into in a couple of places in Tokyo (what are the chances?) and they were staying at the Sheraton, but ironically said that they had started coming to the Hilton for breakfast because it was less expensive than the Sheraton breakfast buffet. After hearing that they were spending 2 weeks there and paying for breakfast each day, I was glad not to have to do that!
Hilton Tokyo Bay Pros
- One monorail stop before Tokyo DisneySea or one monorail stop after Tokyo Disneyland, so you can’t get a much better location for visiting the parks.
- Complimentary buffet breakfast for elite members makes for a big savings, particularly considering the fact that you’re not in a “neighborhood” with other businesses / places to walk (though note that the breakfast buffet isn’t high quality, just easy and broad enough).
- Complimentary executive lounge access for Diamond members
- Very clean, good service
- Themed rooms are fun for the kids
- Disney movies play all day in the lobby. Our kids sat and watched a few even though the sound was low and in Japanese
- Full laundry room in the basement with enough washers & dryers to accommodate demand
- Lawson Convenience stores inside the hotel on the ground floor are very, well, convenient
Hilton Tokyo Bay Cons
- Isolated location makes it unideal for exploring anything other than Tokyo Disney
- They charge separately for the pool (and it’s not cheap!)
- Feels like a family resort factory, which fits our current stage but might not be desirable for those without kids
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Nick you mentioned you were given complimentary breakfast for 4 at their main restaurant. We were there twice this year, spring and summer. My wife and I had free access to the main restaurant with me being a Diamond member but they were charging my 8 year old son to eat there. Thats a stark contrast from what you said unless they changed their policy. Theres not really much choices at the lounge for breakfast compared to the main restaurant. I would take note that during our summer visit, we ate at the “Square” which is on the far left side of the hotel, upon entering from the main entrance. It had a Diamond sort of line.
Since so much of the talk here has been about pool fees and since the Sheraton is mentioned several times, just wanted to point out that the pool at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay also requires reservations and additional fees
“It is not the highest quality buffet, but it has such a wide assortment of stuff that you’ll find something to fit every pallet.”
You want to use palate, not pallet or pallete. 🙂
Your oldest son looks just like you!
Can you let us know the dates that you went, as it seems a good prices.
Also for Hilton status, did one diamond status get all four of you in for complementary breakfast or was it you + 1 guest and the kids are young enough to auto get free.
As a TDR “official” hotel, they used to transfer your bags to/from actual TDR hotels for free. Of course this changed right before our trip in July. Carrying our luggage on the monorail wasn’t bad though. The free shuttle to Maihama also made things a bit easier when we checked out.
“I didn’t visit the lounge for breakfast as we knew we’d prefer the full buffet and didn’t have to wait.”
Always worth checking the lounge for breakfast, as they often serve the exact same full breakfast as the main dining room, but few people both 1) know this and 2) have status to get in, so it’s a much less crowded, more peaceful breakfast experience with the exact same food.
I’d read several reviews of the property saying that the lounge breakfast was much more limited, so I didn’t even bother — and seeing how massive the room with the full buffet was versus the tiny one in the lounge, it would be physically impossible for them to be the same in this case. I often do check out the lounge also and I’ve rarely ever found a lounge breakfast that had the exact same full breakfast as the main dining room. How many places have you seen that?
My comment was not in general but about this specific property. When I was there in April of this year, the lounge had the exact same food selection as the main dining room “Dynasty” several days of our stay. (On other days, the Lounge was closed for breakfast as it was being used by a large children’s group that was visiting.) Perhaps we mean different things by “the lounge,” but I’m referring to Lounge O in the central lobby area; which easily has enough room for the full breakfast selection. If there is a smaller executive lounge that couldn’t accommodate the full buffet, I must have missed that one.
That’s not “the lounge” in the context of award travel, the place that is called “Lounge O” is the main breakfast buffet. The “Dynasty” Chinese food restaurant you’re talking about isn’t even open for breakfast — that place doesn’t open until 11:30am daily. They serve lunch and dinner, not breakfast. Lounge O is the main dining room for breakfast.
You don’t need status to get into Lounge O (status just helps you cut the line) and nearly every table was full every day we were there since that was (to my knowledge) the only place for most guests to eat breakfast — it was absolutely not a “less crowded, more peaceful” experience during our dates (and one day there was a decent line of people who didn’t have any status waiting to get in). We have young kids, so I’m not bothered by the noise that kids make, but after spending 5 mornings in the (very quiet) club lounge at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, that “Lounge O” buffet felt like the noise level of a school cafeteria. Again, that doesn’t bother me, but it wasn’t what I’d describe as quiet & peaceful.
Yes, there is a separate executive lounge at this property where you do need Diamond status to get in (or to have paid for a room with executive lounge access). The entrance to it was on the left side as you were walking toward the Lawson / gift shop area (there was a giant gold ring in front of it that probably stood out?). There was a single buffet line in there, so they couldn’t have physically put a fraction of the stuff from the main buffet in there.
Well, ok, a fraction yes. A small fraction.
My mistake. I meant “The Square;” not Dynasty.
It’s entirely possible that they have reconfigured everything about this hotel in the last few months, but I’ve been visiting Hilton Tokyo Bay at least once a year every year since/including 2017 (sans covid closure years), and the main dining room for breakfast on all of my visits has always been The Square; with Lounge O *sometimes* hosting breakfast and sometimes not. At least pre-covid, Lounge O did require status to get into outside of special events.
In any case, it appears I was not familiar with the real executive lounge at the hotel – my mistake on that as well. Thank you for the tip – I’ll have to look for that next year!
Well I stand corrected as well. I see that this place called “The Square” is indeed open for breakfast. Where was that? I didn’t even see it. The Internet says that Lounge O isn’t open during the week and is only open 12-5pm on the weekends, but that was definitely full breakfast buffet when we were there and I thought it was where we were directed for “restaurant” breakfast, but now you have me seeing that I missed something!
The Square is enormous – so much so that when the hotel is busy they have the entire buffet spread in The Square *twice* (one spread is on the Accendo side and one is on the Forest Garden side) plus an island for kids food and drinks. It almost makes Lounge O look tiny by comparison.
To get to The Square, when you walk into the hotel through the main entrance, turn immediately left and walk as far down as you can – past the front desk and the kids TV area – and you’ll eventually come to The Square.
I was also confused about the lounge location. We ended up eating breakfast in the big central buffet area as well. It was pretty good.
Very thorough review! We stayed at the Hilton Odaiba and they charged a fee for their pool but gave it to us for free as diamonds. It was actually a pretty spectacular pool with amazing views of the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo skyline.
Too bad you didn’t stay at the Hotel Mira Costa…obviously no way to stay there using points but it is a truly magical place to stay, literally part of the DisneySea park. Plus the “happy 15” minutes you get in to the parks early each morning gives you a surprisingly huge advantage.
Looking forward to your review of the parks, assuming they’re coming.
Our kids will never be ready fast enough / early enough to get to a park at entrance time, never mind 15 minutes early. I think we got to Disney Sea around 11am :-).
Yikes, 11am! I hope you were able to ride some things. Unlike you, I am the vacation nazi, particularly if we’re visiting amusement parks. If we’re not there for rope drop, we might as well not go. But we just booked a TDR vacation package that gives us fast pass access to all rides all day in both parks, so we can sleep in (a little). Do not ask me how much we are paying for this privilege, because it’s way too much. Like Maldives-level too much. Funny how justifying expenses as “once-in-a-lifetime” works even when you’re doing something for the third or fourth time…
We did a night at Disneyland Hotel, one night at MiraCosta (harbor terrace), then a night at Hilton. Definitely a step down but the price difference is gargantuan.
Two things:
– It is indeed not uncommon for Japan hotels to charge for pool access.
– The Sheraton is great, and in particular has a fairly superior lounge to the Hilton. I recommend checking it out.
I agree! We always stay at the Sheraton which has a really great lounge for breakfast and evening with full western and Japanese breakfast, lots of great nibblies in the evening, decent self-serve bar including champagne and great views of the park to watch the evening fireworks! My daughter loves the arcade!
I was surprised to read that Nick saw bad reviews as the service on property, room size and amenities merit return visits in our opinions.
We plan on doing Tokyo Sea just 1 day as part of our Tokyo trip but have 6 nights at GH Tokyo currently. Does it make sense to change hotel for one night? Leaning no, but I do have Hilton Diamond from CC and points but we move onto Kyoto afterwards.
You don’t want to move (pack and unpack) your bags to this hotel only for 1 night.
I understand why Maverikbc says no, but I think it depends on your family dynamics. With young kids, I wouldn’t want to either have to wake everyone up early for an hourlong trek to the park nor to have the hourlong commute back to the hotel when everyone is tired after a long day at the park. But if my kids were like 12 or 14, that would probably be fine. I was happy to be 6 or 7 minutes to the park gate and then ~10 minutes to get back at the end of the day. Would I pack everything up and move hotels for that? Hard to say. We said that if we went back again, we’d probably do 2 nights in either the Hilton or Sheraton — we’d get there the night before so we can wake up and already “be there” so to speak and have a short ride back to the hotel at the end of the night, but then we’d otherwise rather be in Tokyo.
You make good points (!) about ‘being already there in the morning’, and ‘don’t need to go back to central Tokyo at the end of the day’, but to enjoy both advantages, don’t we need to stay there for 2 nights, not 1 night? I don’t know at what time the park opens, but Google Maps tell me you can leave GH TYO as early as 5, be at DisneySea a little past 6, if they wanted.
Ekrem wrote they’re heading to Kyoto afterwords. I’m almost certain there’s a long distance bus line between Disney and Kyoto (it could be that’s what they’re taking), but not many foreign visitors would take it, even if it’s more convenient and economical than Shinkansen (direct service, probably overnight, too). If they were typical foreign visitors (sorry!), they’d want to go back to Tokyo or Shinagawa station to catch Shinkansen just to experience.
I’d take trains outside rush hour moving between hotels, but not many people are comfortable with that (just look at amount of people taking cab or Uber from the airport), but of course it means ¥¥¥.
It depends on what kind of park goer you are. Do you go from open to close? Do you want to take a break in the middle of the day? Personally, I’d want to stay in the area the morning before and the evening after the park day.
I booked there for $100 (JPY 15k) a night for September, 2022 as prepay and save, but I didn’t get to stay due to a schedule change. I’m pretty sure the executive lounge wasn’t even listed, but maybe it was due to COVID. I did get to stay at Conrad Osaka for 60-70k pts a night. Surely the COVID bargain is over.
Crowne Plaza Kobe also charged a similar amount of fee for pool use, but for someone who never use the pool, I’d much prefer that system to resort fees many of them charge in the US. Because of the fairly hefty (especially for Japan) fee, the pool wasn’t overcrowded?
Thanks for the review as always, this is definitely not the one I’d enjoy, because I like exploring on the foot around the hotel, including dining. I’ve read you tried Too Good To Go in NYC. Did it work in Japan?
Another family staying at Sheraton for 2 weeks, coming to Hilton for breakfast? How strange? Why stay at a Marriott property when they don’t get free breakfast, and for such a long stay, domestic chains or independents are much better value than international chains in Japan.
I didn’t even think to try Too Good to Go!
Definitely nowhere to explore on foot from the Hilton (unless you take the monorail to the shopping center / JR station, then maybe you can get out there and walk somewhere, but I don’t really know).
The pool seemed busy enough when I went to see it, but correct that it wasn’t “overcrowded”. I’m sure that’s a piece of the justification — it probably reduces complaints of people leaving their stuff on a chair at 6am and not coming back all day. I guess that’s the trade. And maybe the pool is too small to accommodate the size of the hotel. It wasn’t tiny, but it also wasn’t as big as I might have expected.
As to the other family at the Sheraton, they were Canadian and obviously not miles and points people. I didn’t get a chance to ask why they picked it, but I’m guessing they probably just picked a hotel near Tokyo Disney and figured that it’s in Tokyo so they’d just keep the same home base for 2 weeks. They did (unsurprisingly) remark about how they were out all day long most days because of the transit time. It made me appreciate the games we play all the more.
I often had good experiences with Too Good To Go in 2 regions of Spain. It was rather strange no places were shown in Mexico City.
I’ve noticed you haven’t complained about 2 things yet. The age of the hotel and the summer heat.
I think this hotel was built along with Disneyland or not long after it opening in 1983(!). I’m pretty sure it was this hotel where they shot TV drama series in 80s about the hotel team at this hotel. So I guess they take good care of the building since you didn’t complain.
Then the summer heat and humidity. I can’t imagine myself going to Tokyo in summer (I was surprised they hosted the summer games literally during summer), let alone being out all day at Disneyland.
The Roku Kyoto (a Hilton LXR property) also charges to use the pool. Looking at my bill from last year, it looks like we paid 300 yen, so a lot less than this hotel charges, though at the Roku it was limited to 1 hour of access. They made us make reservations, but we did not even realize there was a charge until we checked out.
A $2 fee at such an expensive (the most expensive Hilton property in JP IIRC) hotel? That’s nickle and diming. Not disclosing the price in advance isn’t cool. I heard they give a free access to Shozan Resort nearby?
It was such a small price we did not complain. And maybe the pool fee is so common in Japan that we should have known to ask when making a reservation? Roku definitely seemed very much aimed at a domestic clientele. One of the odd things about the whole situation is that they sell pool-side terrace rooms. So you get a room with direct access to the pool, but every time you walk out there you need to pay $2 and have a reservation? BTW they also say no kids under the age of 4, so I do not think that Nick would be able to bring his youngest.
It is on the Shozan Resort complex. You do get complimentary access to the Shozan Garden (normally costs around 500 yen), which was a pleasant small garden. I am not aware of other pools that one can access on the resort grounds. Overall we did love our stay there, and want to go back.
A fee to use the outdoor pool and a fee to ride the monorail? This would never fly in the US by the Disney parks.
I would happily pay a modest fee for the monorail at WDW if it was anywhere even remotely close to the reliability, cleanliness, and efficiency of the TDR monorails.
It’s a form of transportation so they are required to charge for it.
Great review, Nick. Are you going to write up a review of the DisneySea by any chance? I wonder how you optimized your payments at/in the park. Also it’s been 8 years since we visited there. I’m wondering what’s new.
Everything at TDR codes as travel regardless of what you are purchasing. If it’s inside a park – be it food or merchandise – it will code as travel, so use a card with no international fees that bonuses travel spending.
Almost everything
In my experience it’s been everything in the parks (Ikspiari excepted). What have you purchased at TDR that didn’t code as travel?
I figured out that it was Pan Galactic Pizza Port. On Venture X, it coded as “other,” possibly because we ordered from a kiosk. Everything else on Venture X is “lodging.”
Strangely, my vacation package coded as “merchandise and supplies” on AmEx.
Interesting. With Chase, everything – including Pan Galactic Pizza Port – has always coded as travel for us. Upon review, it seems like AmEx does code most things as “Other,” so I guess it varies by issuer? We’ve always stayed at the Hilton though so can’t speak to vacation packages.
A whole new port (Fantasy Springs) just opened in June.
Plus Soaring in DisneySea and Beauty and the Beast in Disneyland. Lots of new stuff since 2016.
Beauty and the Beast is my favorite ride at the entire resort. (Frozen is fantastic, but if I had to pick one).