Hilton Tokyo Bay: Bottom Line Review

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 ran 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

Image Gallery

The “Happy Magic” floors are entirely themed with a sort of kid-friendly fantasy theme.

My kids enjoyed playing on the bunk beds.

This room was set up for 5 people — as you can see, there are 3 beds here + 2 bunk beds. I think you can probably put a sixth person in this room and they’ll just add another single. We only had 4 people in the room. On the far well, you might be able to make out a string. There was a large key hanging to the left and when you put it in the lock (which is dark, so you can’t really see it here) and turn the key, something lights up green on the wall. It’s just kind of a fun setup for kids like that.

They had a sort of kids version of yukata for each kid and if you look in the mirror, you can see Tatiana, a fictional character who “left them a note” (we got it at check-in, otherwise it’s probably in your room) and told them that she’d be hiding in the magic mirror. A button made her light up with some music for a second.

The lobby / ground floor of the hotel has some Disney imagery around. It is an official “Disney Resort”.

Also in the lobby was a fun photo op. Like I said, I like to feel like I’m sleeping on a cloud. My kids feel the same way.

You can buy Mickey Mouse ears and other assorted Disney souvenirs inside a gift shop on the ground floor of the hotel. Prices matched those at the park exactly (prices for most things are very reasonable at Tokyo Disney).

At breakfast, they put one of these on our table every morning so that everyone would know that “I’m a Diamond guest.” Anyone who has ever seen that video will understand how entertained I was with this each day.

If you, too, are a Diamond Guest (or a Gold one), you can enjoy a flavoured iced tea, a matcha latte, or a hot or cold chocolate at breakfast, unlike everyone else who is left fighting over which type of juice they have left that day (they were almost always out of either apple or orange, but not usually the same one from day to day).

They had some small sandwiches and pastries like these from 5pm-7pm in the lounge. It wasn’t enough to serve as a substitute for dinner.

These were the pool sessions. As you can see, they closed between sessions, so you had to pay $20 each and reserve Part 1, Part 2, or Night. I *might* understand this if this were a city-center hotel with an independently operated fitness center that also admits locals by selling memberships…..but this is a relatively isolated resort.

The hotel is right on the Disney monorail. I’m a little surprised that they charge a fee to ride the monorail (I’d think Disney would bake the cost of this into admission tickets / hotel rates), but it was cheap enough and they did a good job with the theme between the Mickey-shaped windows and hand rings.

Pro tip: get in the front car and you get a cool view out of the front of the monorail.

Overall, this was a good place to stay if you want to visit the Disney parks.

The post Hilton Tokyo Bay: Bottom Line Review appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Hilton Tokyo Bay: Bottom Line Review