Okay, we’ve all seen the headline by this point, but I haven’t see any actual numbers to back it up. Can anyone use data to support or debunk this viral headline with similar trips?
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I have no data, but I have a hard time believing it.
Len did the math.
Let’s do the math!
For Tokyo Disneyland:
Economy flights from Atlanta to Tokyo are around $1,000 pp for a 4-day weekend (Thu-Mon) late January, 2025, assuming Thursday’s an overnight flight. (Google Flights).
Two one-day tickets are around $130 total for one adult (they’re not selling 2-day tix right now), so $260 for two adults for two days. (TDL website)
Three nights at the Tokyo Disney Celebration Hotel is $675 for two people. (TDL website)
So TDL is $2,000 + $260 + $675 = $2,930 (excluding food and local transport)
For Walt Disney World:
The average domestic airfare to Orlando is currently $385 per person (US Bureau of Transportation Statistics), or $770 for two people.
Two two-day WDW base tickets in late January are $754 (Disneyworld.com)
Three nights at the cheapest WDW resort available (POR, no discounted rooms available, and no Value resort rooms currently available) is $1,229.
So WDW is $770 + $754 + $1,229 = $2,753
The difference between Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland is … $177???!?
That is A LOT closer than I expected, given the domestic transportation costs.
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He also expounded on this on this week’s Disney Dish.
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Len ran the numbers and discusses it on the Disney Dish podcast released today. Starts at about 25:50
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If you are just talking price of tickets, merch, and food…it is cheaper. But travel costs are going to send the prices up considerably
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Awesome. Knew there would be answers here!
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If you live in the eastern half of the US at least!
For me, airfare for Japan or WDW can be roughly equivalent depending on deals. But Japan is usually more expensive. I imagine for someone in Seattle or the Bay Area, Japan could be more lucrative.
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I have to wonder how jet lag would play into this. Would I only be awake when the park was closed… What I have as much fun if I was beyond exhausted… I’m not saying I would never try it. But how many hours are actually spent traveling and how does that affect the return on my investment.
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By the way, a friend of mine from my hometown, Sam Jarman, has a social media page (I follow him on Instagram but I’m sure he has a TikTok or whatever the kids are doing these days) where he shares financial advice and it has gotten pretty big. He was talking about this months ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if his channel popularized this idea and then it got picked up in whatever publication this is in.
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You also can’t go to Japan for 4 days. With the time change and 16 hour flight you’re going to want to stay for a much longer time so more hotel, food etc adds up. Plus factor in your time (PTO, lost wages etc).
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And actually I haven’t seen the headline.
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So if you live on the west coast it could actually be cheaper. I bet there are some LA or San Fran flights or even Seattle that would be cheaper than Atlanta.
It makes sense. The park tickets, the merch, all cheaper by a lot. Like get your mouse ear headbands there.
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In Len’s discussion on the Disney Dish, he stated that the park tickets and hotel are cheaper at TDL than it is at WDW. However, the airfare is more expensive. He also mentioned that if you have rewards that you can use for airfare, that will drive the cost down.
It also means that if you make the trip longer, the daily cost will be much lower at TDL.
Listened to the first half of the episode last night. With current exchange rates, everything Disney in Japan is much cheaper now, even if Japan is not selling multiday tickets. I think if there were value resorts in Orlando available for the 4-day stretch that Len checked, the gap could have been wider at the cost of lesser service than what you would get in Japan for the same price.
My experience with trips to Asia is that jet lag is not an issue going there. Coming home is miserable, but I have no trouble with jet lag going over. And I’ve been to China 9 or 10 times. Coming home, the adjustment usually takes me a week. That is not sleeping at the right times, it’s just feeling back to normal. Jet lag is hard to explain. A coworker recently went to Tokyo and she told me afterwards that she kind of discounted what I told her about jetlag, but found I was right.
We are going to Hong Kong in April because DD26 (by then) has a conference there, so why not join her? The round trip tickets for DD23 and I were $683 each. We could have gotten them about $50 cheaper if we didn’t want to choose our own seats and have some flexibility for changing if we needed it. I think this is a great price for Asia, but I would never pay $683 to fly to Orlando. I might not even pay $400. I’m a cheapskate and a bargain hunter though. 
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These days that’s usually what it costs me. I used to budget $500/person but nowadays I’m lucky if I can get them for under $600. But then I always get direct flights and I get the time I want, not the cheapest one.
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I can tolerate an economy seat for our 2+ hour trip from DTW to MCO…but I don’t know how well I’d do on a flight across the Pacific in the same seats!
My only international travel experience on a flight was last year on my trip to India. A total of about 22 hours across two separate flights…but work paid, and so I was able to be in first class. Are the economy seats on international flights better than those typically found on domestic flights? I know first class seats on domestic flights are NOTHING like the ones I was on for the international flight.
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Pricing flights for the same dates Len used in his research, and definitely wouldn’t be cheaper for me to do Japan! No direct flights from my nearby and supposedly international airport in the Midwest with round trip prices in the $1200-$1400 range (and I didn’t even look at the return times).
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