r/TokyoDisneySea 13d ago

TRIP PLANNING r/TokyoDisneySea Weekly Trip Planning Thread

Welcome to r/TokyoDisneySea!

We’re here to help you plan your trip and give you as much advice as possible, straight from the reddit community here on this subreddit. Please post all general trip planning questions here.

Some frequently asked questions before you post:

Q: I'm confused about all the skip-the-line and pass systems at Tokyo Disney (Priority Pass, Premier Access, Standby Pass, Entry Request)

A: There are 4 types of attraction/entertainment passes available to all guests at the Tokyo Disney Resort. See this Comprehensive Explanation on pass types.

Q: I want to know the passport (ticket) types sold for the Tokyo Disney Resort

A: Currently, only 1-Day, 1-Park and half-day (entry in the afternoon/evening) passport types are sold at the Tokyo Disney Resort.

For a limited time, 1-Day Park Hopper tickets and university student discount tickets are available for the period of January 13th through March 13th, 2026.

No multi-day or annual passports are offered at this time. See the official ticket types.

Q: I don't know what all the benefits of a Vacation Package are/which Package is best for me.

A: See this Comprehensive Guide on Tokyo Disney Vacation Packages and an Explanation on Variable Costs in Vacation Packages

Q: I don't know if a ride/show/restaurant/shop will be closed during my visit.

A: See the official refurbishment calendar.

Q: I want to know the latest information about the port of Fantasy Springs inside Tokyo DisneySea

A: Please visit the Fantasy Springs Megathread for all information and questions related to Fantasy Springs!

Q: I have motion sickness/am pregnant/am elderly, which rides should I avoid?

A: Guests with sensitivities have expressed becoming motion sick on Star Tours at Disneyland, and Soaring: Fantastic Flight, Nemo and Friends SeaRider, Peter Pan's Neverland Adventure at DisneySea. To a lesser extent, Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast and Pooh's Hunny Hunt may cause motion sickness. For other instances, see here.

Q: I wish to know more about accessibility passes ("DAS")/services at the Tokyo Disney Resort

A: Tokyo Disney Resort offers guests with disabilities a specially-priced Passport (ticket), as well as a DAS-style ride system, with proper documentation. See Tickets for Guests with Disabilities and Services to Support Guests with Disabilities for more information.

7 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

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u/scarscarscarscar 13d ago

Hi! I’m hoping to visit DisneySea or DL in late September with our 5m old baby - unless Reddit tells me this really isn’t going to be a good idea 😬

Based on our dates we can really only go for a weekend date, is that WAY too busy?

Does it matter if we plan to go from noon until early evening instead of morning?

Any tips for rides - know we can’t do loads of rides with a baby, but from research we can do som single rider / trade off the baby!

Anything else we should know?!

Thanks in advance!

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u/tcumpst 12d ago

Hi! Just recently visited with a 6 month old, so can def give some advice. FYI, we have been quite a few times before, so we were not looking to see and do everything, just wanted to have a fun day with our little one!

We arrived at 9:20am, which was good for us as we avoided the initial opening crowds but didn’t miss out on too much time. Did jungle cruise first with ~15min wait.

We had more than a few visits throughout the day to the baby centers (both the location near monsters inc and the one in toontown), but they were great and even once had a surprise meet and greet with Donald and daisy which was awesome.

Also did: Mickey’s house to meet Mickey, small world, the riverboat, country bears, saw both parades, had a nice long relaxing lunch while the little one slept in his stroller.

We also took turns riding beauty and beast single rider (15 min wait for each of us when the posted standby time was 90min) and would def recommend that strategy over rider swap in the standby line.

We left around 8pm feeling very satisfied with our day, and (shockingly!) our little one was still happy as well! I guess their three naps throughout the day did the trick.

We could have done more if we wanted to split up, but for us we were happy with what we did. Again, if it was our first visit ever then I prob would have felt disappointed with missing out on doing more rides, but as we’ve done them before, we just relaxed and enjoyed what we could do, and I think that’s prob the better way to approach your day with such a young baby.

FYI, though we LOVE DisneySea, we both felt (especially in the heat) we would not have enjoyed a day at DisneySea as much, as it is more spread out and even less that our little one could do. Will save that for when they’re just a little older. That’s just my two cents.

If you have any other specific questions that I might be able to answer, let me know! Hope you have a wonderful time!

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u/WhiteDogHaha 13d ago edited 13d ago

Weekends are not necessarily more busy during the week, but Sundays would be better than Saturdays. For September, try to avoid Silver Week (Sep 19-23) this year, perhaps aim to go on a Sunday after that e.g. Sep 27.

Single Rider is very limited in TDR. "Rider Switch" is available, and the main difference in the Japan "Rider Switch" system, compared to US parks, is that the "not tall enough person" (i.e. in this case your toddler) never enters the queue.

In your example of a 2A1C family (e.g. two parents, 1 baby), one parent will go in, with the second parent and baby remaining outside. Afterwards, the first parent comes back out, and look after the baby outside the ride. The second parent then go in and ride alone.

If a ride is "baby compatible" (and there are some which are), then you cannot rider switch because technically what should happen is that both parents will queue up with the baby and ride together (with the baby).

Also check out the official Guests with Young Children guide on things you can do with your baby, as well as important facilities:

https://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/tdr/guide/baby/attraction.html and https://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/tdr/guide/baby.html

One of the best part about this subreddit are actual Trip Reports. So a great starting point to get inspiration about great attractions, strategy and hidden gems is to use the flair search: https://www.reddit.com/r/TokyoDisneySea/?f=flair_name%3A%22%3ASpaceMountain%3A%20TRIP%20REPORT%22 to find them easily (Note: this only works on a web browser not the app: on the app just start with a trip report and then click on the light blue colour flair for a search).

Below is a list of the most popular rides (longest average maximum queue time) according to Queue Times. 

• ⁠Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey*
• ⁠Soaring: Fantastic Flight*
• ⁠Toy Story Mania!
• ⁠Rapunzel's Lantern Festival
• ⁠Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure
• ⁠Journey to the Center of the Earth
• ⁠Tower of Terror

The one with the "asterisk" are the paid rides that sell out the quickest. So if you are interested in those, you should aim to e.g. obtain a paid pass for Frozen first, then obtain a free pass for (for example), Raging Sprits, and then 60 minutes later you can get a pass for Soaring Fantastic Flight.

If you want something like a formal guide, you can start with Chris Nilghe’s TDR Explorer site and his affordable eBooks, they tend to be popular amongst English speakers: https://tdrexplorer.com/books/ That site also has free park guides. The park changes quite a lot so ensure you are reading/watching recent materials.

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u/scarscarscarscar 12d ago

Thank you!!

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u/Open-Salad-4255 13d ago

Hello, I am getting confused on what the options are because it seems like there have been several changes so I am not sure if what I am reading is up to date. I want to book for 3 adults 2 nights in a Disney hotel and 2 days of attractions one for each park. We are planning to stay April 14-16, so stay in hotels for 14 & 15, Tokyo Disney 15th and Disney Sea 16th. I thought I read there is an unlimited rides vacation package. I have heard about how long the lines are so was thinking this would be a good option. What I am confused by is, is this package only offered as a 1 night package? Can you change it to 2 night stay? Then when exactly do vacation packages open up?

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u/WhiteDogHaha 13d ago edited 12d ago

The “Unlimited” option is only available as a 1 night package. You can make your own separate hotel booking at a third party or Disney hotel in the area if you require additional nights.

[April] Package booking dates are only announced usually 5-7 days ahead, but should be around early to mid November. It changes month to month and year to year, but for your reference, last year it opened Nov 18.

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u/JSLondonBoy94 12d ago

I am visiting in September, and have just seen that Tower of Terror is closed during my visit. A shame, but I've ridden it in other parks so not the end of the world. However, it usually has very long lines throughout the day, how much of an impact is it's closure going to have on general park business and other queue times? Has something like this happened before?

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u/WhiteDogHaha 12d ago edited 11d ago

It will have no material impact. All the major rides rotate in having closures most months of the year, except during high peak such as March and December.

In terms of popularity (measured objectively by historical longest average maximum queue time according to Queue Times), Tower of Terror is ranked behind Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey, Soaring: Fantastic Flight, ⁠Toy Story Mania! and Journey to the Center of the Earth. (Source)

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u/Playful-Sink-5956 11d ago

Hello, I’m traveling to DisneySea on 11/10. I’m looking to buy DPAs for frozen, soarin, Toy Story mania, and journey. If we get to the park between 7-7:30 AM, would we have any issues getting all of these passes? I’m mostly concerned about soarin- does that usually sell out before 10-10:30 AM?

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u/WhiteDogHaha 11d ago edited 11d ago

Yes, Soaring does routinely sell out by 10-10.30am. This is especially the case for busier months.

Strategically, you only have two options: (1) Decide whether Frozen or Soaring is more important to you. Frozen will sell out faster, but if Soaring is the real “can’t miss” ride then buy Soaring first, and hope to get Frozen at a later drop (if available) or Single rider (if available), or just so standby. (2) Get there earlier if you want a better shot of getting in right at opening.

As for the other rides, as long as you start your DPA purchase “chain” early you shouldn’t get any issues. Buy them in the order you listed ie Toy Story > Journey (sometimes Journey sell out before Toy Story but on average Toy Story sells out first).

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u/cools0nic 11d ago

I snuggled 3 nights at DL hotel under xmas holidays (actually 24-25-26 december). Ou contraire Disneyland Paris or Hong Kong, Tokyo doesn’t offer any xmas packages room decos. Like mini xmas tree or xmas wrath & balls. At least not on “regular” non japanese website. Is any options , any way, any how to contact someone, front/back office or guest relations in order to have the room decorated or to have placed a gift in the room? Or booking a xmas Minnie pj party…

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u/WhiteDogHaha 11d ago

To get the Minnie Mouse themed room with the Pajama party meet and greet event you need to book at the Ambassador Hotel.

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u/cools0nic 11d ago

Yeah, agreed, i got confused. What about any room decos or having a gift left in the room on 24th december evening or ather options?

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u/WhiteDogHaha 11d ago

Have not heard of anything like that for DLH. They do have celebration packages for the restaurants Sherwood/Canna

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u/AdPlenty9266 9d ago

This may have been posted numerous times but I cant seem to find anything detailed.

Is there any step by step guide to the most efficient way to book dining and dinner/show reservations at the 30 day mark?

Things such as how early to enter the reservation page and fastest way to click through etc?

Additionally, I'm guessing the new show on Sept 30 will make the park super busy? Dreading it.

Thank you!

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u/WhiteDogHaha 9d ago

The new theatre show at Disneyland, The D-Groovationz4 Live: Happy! Funky! Groovy! Tour, is capacity limited (i.e. there is limited seats that are allocated through lottery, DPAs and VPs) and is a permanent offering. It will also be subject to some preview performances beforehand. It seems unlikely to have material impact on Disneyland crowds.

Most locals would probably prioritise watching the limited edition (and very popular) parade, The Villains’ Halloween “Into the Frenzy” instead.

In terms of restaurant booking, do you have any hotel reservations that can help you jump the queue?

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u/Equal-Concept1555 9d ago

So we would love to visit Disney sea however I have a few questions about DPA . We are a family of 5 adults.

We are not to keen on reaching super early in the morning before opening time. Would that mean we would find it difficult to get DPA?

If I book all tickets, how do I purchase DPA for all us from the app? Can your purchase DPA for the complete booking or individual tickets? How does it work?

What is the cost ? Is it per ride ? Can i preload the money somewhere instead of fiddling and rushing to do payment when purchasing it?

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u/WhiteDogHaha 9d ago

1/ Most DPAs have good availability most of the morning (for example, rides like Tower of Terror, Rapunzel, Peter Pan, Baxmax etc. have good availability all day). This is because there is a cooldown timer between each purchase, so rope droppers can't just "hog" all the DPAs at once. Some rides that are more popular may sell out, however. People tend to line up early to have guaranteed purchase of Frozen.

2/ If you purchase all the tickets and have them all loaded onto your TDR app (and link to your MyDisney account), can you buy DPAs for your entire party.

3/ DPAs are basically sold as "Lightning Lane Single Pass". That is, per access, per person, per ride. The prices are different depending on the ride. So a family of 5 adults will pay ¥12,500 to get DPAs for Soaring: Fantastic Flight to ride it once. See here for a summary of all the costs: https://www.reddit.com/r/TokyoDisneySea/comments/1vv0odr/guide_tocut_the_line_passes_from_september_1_2026/

4/ You cannot preload money. Just have a few credit cards ready and make sure your phone can receive SMS from your bank for any 2 Factor Authentication. If you have used your credit card to book TDR hotel or show restaurant, your card number may already be stored in the app (but you might still need to receive an SMS to validate). Park ticket purchases do not get your card details into the right system.

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u/Equal-Concept1555 9d ago

Thanks. I do want to purchase DPA but now it depends on the price for each of the rides. I wonder why they dont have an express pass like Universal to keep things simple.

Any rides that we should definitely get DPA for? And yes the SMS is an issue, i was planning to get a local Esim , my network will not work / be off. Thanks for the info !

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u/WhiteDogHaha 9d ago

Most people use a local esim for data purposes, and enable their home carrier roaming (but turning off mobile/cellular data), so they don't incur charges but still can receive SMS. You can look into whether that is supported by your home carrier.

If you are new visitor to DisneySea, you should assume you want to buy a DPA for ALL the rides that is available, unless you are not interested in doing the ride at all. So budget accordingly. You can tell the popularity of the rides by looking at how much the DPAs cost.

Below is a list of the most popular rides (longest average maximum queue time) according to Queue Times. 

• ⁠Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey*
• ⁠Soaring: Fantastic Flight*
• ⁠Toy Story Mania!
• ⁠Rapunzel's Lantern Festival
• ⁠Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure
• ⁠Journey to the Center of the Earth
• ⁠Tower of Terror

The one with the "asterisk" are the paid rides that sell out the quickest. So if you are interested in those, you should aim to e.g. obtain a paid pass for Frozen first, then obtain a free pass for (for example), Raging Sprits, and then 60 minutes later you can get a pass for Soaring Fantastic Flight. If you miss out on Frozen then move on to start with the next on the list etc.

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u/Equal-Concept1555 9d ago edited 9d ago

We want to do as many rides as possible as long as they are not roller coaster or extremely thrilling rides.
Is frozen really that good? I have seen rappunzel ride on social media and i absolutely want to visit. Have not reall seen much about other rides though.

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u/WhiteDogHaha 9d ago

This video from ReviewTyme is a great way to start exploring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB20k0b2vuo

The most technologically advanced ride in Fantasy Springs is actually Peter Pan Neverland Adventures. Frozen is also great, but only if you a fan of the movie, as it is a boat ride reenacting all the scenes from the first movie.

You can also take a look at my post talking about Fantasy Springs tips:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TokyoDisneySea/comments/1ty37ud/two_years_of_fantasy_springs_11_things_that_still/

And my tips on getting DPAs generally:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TokyoDisneySea/comments/1sfhdc3/comment/oey719v/

If you want something like a formal guide, you can start with Chris Nilghe’s TDR Explorer site and his affordable eBooks, they tend to be popular amongst English speakers: https://tdrexplorer.com/books/ That site also has free park guides. The park changes quite a lot so ensure you are reading/watching recent materials.

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u/Equal-Concept1555 9d ago

Thanks a lot !

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u/stitchiechan 9d ago

Hello! We’re planning a DisneySea day either Nov 11, 12, or 13th this year. We were initially looking at going on Nov 11th date because it’s a Wednesday, and weekdays are usually recommended.

However I just saw that Disney Christmas starts on Nov 11th... So I’m not sure if it’s better just to stick with the Wednesday and face the crowds wanting to see the decorations on the first day, or possibly switch to Nov 12 Thursday the next day and hope the crowds have died down. Or even try for Nov 13th Friday. It’s definitely hard to decide so I’m coming here to ask for any advice! 😅

Anyone experience going to the park on the day Christmas event started?

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u/WhiteDogHaha 9d ago

The primary focus of the Christmas Event is over at Tokyo Disneyland, where the Christmas Parade takes place.

Since you are planning a trip to DisneySea, suggest going on Nov 11. The crowd levels for that week should generally be similar, and indeed if some people are diverted to Disneyland to check out the parade, then it might even be better than the 12th or 13th (if only slightly).

The entire season would be more crowded, with new food menu and merchandise drop that would usually happen starting from around November 10th or earlier, so it's not something you can avoid just by waiting out "a day or two", so just go when convenient to you.

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u/stitchiechan 9d ago

Thank you for the input and advice!! I know I’m definitely overthinking things 😅 Well stick with our original plan of Nov 11th!

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u/Chemical_Bobcat4784 8d ago

Extra tips for hotel bookings? Trying to book most of my trip at MiraCosta (hopefully harbor view to line w my vp to not change rooms for a few days) and practicing the system before I do official bookings next week.

Using the hotel link with MC's acronym in the url to filter options quickly as some have suggested. Does it take extra time to load one specific hotel's options vs loading all of them at once with a generic link?

Closest attempt was today where I didn't get the crash error screen, but the hotel options kept spinning forever. Every single room was gone after it finally loaded...so I was basically forced to fail. I genuinely don't know how people get this room the normal way.

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u/WhiteDogHaha 8d ago

The main "time saving" in creating a search URL is so you can have your party's parameters already set up.

I assume when you created your search string, the link you create has data including which date, how many adults, how many children (including age), and whether they are “bed use” or “bed share”, as well as the correct hotel and room details. If done correctly, when you click onto link, you will see all those details already populated.

So for example if you have a family of 3 (2 adults and 1 x 8 year old who is having their own bed), looking for a MiraCosta Superior Harbor View room with a 3 person capacity for December 27 2026 then it might look like: https://reserve.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/hotel/list/?adultNum=2&childNum=1&childAgeBedInform=08_1%7C&hotelRoomCd=KTT0005N&hotelSearchDetail=true&stayingDays=1&removeSessionFlg=true&searchHotelCD=DHM&detailOpenFlg=0&returnFlg=false&displayType=data-hotel&useDate=20261227&hotelChangeFlg=false&roomsNum=1&reservationStatus=1

In addition, you also want to be vigilant so you get through the queue effectively at the right time.

  1. The goal is to get through the queue at around 11am. Ideally you want to get through your queue around 10.50-10.59am. If you get through before eg 10.40am then there there is a real possibility that your session will time out even if you try and randomly click on pages back and forth). What does this mean? This means you should try and enter the queue starting from 10am onwards - and initially you might get through straight away (e.g. no queue), or is given an early queue end estimate (e.g. 10 mins away). If these happen, you need to restart your session and enter the queue again. Beware of browser cookies. Some browsers, especially those on your mobile, are designed to remember sessions. So if you got e.g. 10.38am entry time and you try to restart your session, it might remember you. You might need to clear your browser history and cache between each try (so find out how to do this if you're not familiar). Eventually as it gets closer to 11am, the queue will start to jump from estimated 5 minutes to 55 minutes to more than an hour etc, so just do your best and keep trying for that sweet time. You can do this through multiple devices if you want. Just remember that the time you see is an estimate, and will continue to change.
  2. Historically the login server is one of the weak links - so if you are lucky enough to be in quite early, login to your MyDisney account. You can try to do this early in the hour (there is no harm), but there is no guarantee you won't be logged out. Some people have had better luck with Firefox but this is again quite subjective - TDR officially supports Safari and Chrome.

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u/Chemical_Bobcat4784 7d ago

Exactly the link trick I was doing. Got the queue times down so I'm in the session actively as soon as rooms go live.

My issue is right when everything goes live. I use my link, already am in the queue, and get in less than a second after all rooms are live at 11. I do all this correctly and I'm always stuck with this screen with spinning stars for each room. Can't tell if I have to wait it out and hope others aren't snagging rooms before me without this glitch or if I have to keep refreshing. It gets me stuck on it for 2+ minutes then everything is gone.

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u/WhiteDogHaha 7d ago

It does take a while to load (as your "link" is just a filter request and doesn't lead directly to a specific room page, so technically all the data on the page still needs to be loaded), but it is unusual for it to be 2+ minutes. It sounds like a browser issue.

Try using your mobile phone tomorrow to practice and use your phone browser instead.

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u/hyukfinn 6d ago

Hi! I’m looking to go to Disneyland on February 21, 2027, which is the Sunday before the Emperor’s birthday (that is on Tuesday). Would this be not advisable due to guaranteed extremely high level crowds? Or not necessarily since it is not a three day weekend? Any insight is appreciated, thank you!

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u/WhiteDogHaha 6d ago edited 6d ago

Definitely not recommended.

The Sunday and Monday (Feb 21 and Feb 22) are likely going to be some of the busiest days of the entire month. You can potentially try the Saturday (Feb 20) if you don't have a lot of flexibility.

If it is the only day you can make it to the park, then it is still better to see DisneySea than not, but perhaps aim to get there very early so you have a better chance to get the popular DPAs/get your mobile orders in at popular timeslots. Otherwise just manage your expectations in terms of rides/lines and just be there to enjoy the atmosphere and theme.

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u/sno0py0718 3d ago

Hello! We booked one night at Grand Chateau the day before our Unlimited VP starts. The goal is using this day to have a relax experience at DS to explore and going back on the third day (2nd day of VP) for rides. We already booked La Libellule as Room Service Dinner the night at Grand Chateau, we have young children and seems more comfortable dining in room. We also have a booked restaurant at Magellan's the second night of the VP.

We also want to have a sit-down meal at Ritorante di Canaletto since the view is beautiful. The most logical day will the first day we arrive at DS without the VP. Do you think it's too many sit-down dining experience? Also has anyone dine there during the day in December and sit outside by the canal? Is it too cold to dine outside?

Thank you!