Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort is a Tokyo Disney Official Hotel, on the resort’s monorail loop. Tucked between Tokyo Disneyland and Bayside Station, the hotel is one of the cheapest in the area but also has the smallest rooms of the bunch. Maihama First Resort is also heavily themed, with a number of different room ideas. In this post, we’ll review the hotel and discuss whether it is a good place to stay during a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort.

Sometimes you check into a hotel, find a perfectly adequate room that you’ll sleep between 6-9 hours per night and forget about within a month. Other times you check into a hotel in Tokyo Bay at midnight, find your hotel room has a very nautical, cruise ship theme and embrace the strangeness of it all. Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort (what a mouthful!) is one of the weirdest hotels I’ve ever stayed at but has a place among the Tokyo Disney Resort options!

Starting with a little breakdown of Tokyo Disney, Miahama First Resort is an Official Hotel. That is a step below ‘Disney Hotels’ which are operated by Oriental Land Company and Disney. But it’s also a step above the Disney Partner Hotels, which are operated by 3rd parties and not on the monorail loop. The categories are a little confusing but the Official Hotels essentially amount to be 3rd party hotels that are on the internal (4 stops) monorail loop. This map (the left side of it) will show you the location more succinctly than I can type it!

Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort is number 1 on the key above. As you can see, the hotel is nearly as close to Tokyo Disneyland’s entrance as it is to Bay Side Station. The walk is far less confusing from Bay Side Station though and isn’t more than 10 minutes. In other words, the location is excellent. We recommend walking but there is a complimentary bus service to the station and to a few other spots. Once at the monorail, tickets cost less than $2 for a ride and there are multiple day passes, as well. Like the rest of the monorail loop, getting to Tokyo Station from here will take 30-45 minutes.

The hotel is sandwiched between Tokyo Disney Resort and Tokyo Bay. Maihama First Resort doesn’t have as good of views of the bay or the parks as some of the other Official Hotels but, if you get the right room, then you’ll have a pretty view of something or other. Finding this hotel just over $100/night at different times in the year is a steal simply because of that location.

Speaking of, the rooms in this hotel are what make it strange. By and large, the lobby and common spaces look like what you’d find at most Japanese (or American) hotels. But walking into the room is a little shocking for a couple of reasons. The first reason makes this hotel divisive – the size.

There’s no beating around the bush, these rooms are small! Granted, Melissa and I stayed in an economy room so that’s the smallest (but also most available) option. These rooms are 209 square feet. The average hotel room in the United States is about 325 square feet. So this is less than 2/3 of that. Even though the space is used well, it’s impossible to not notice how small this room is.

You know what else is impossible to notice? An extreme nautical theme! The idea behind these rooms is that you’re on a cruise ship, which is maybe a brilliant way to explain the miniscule size? But these rooms are themed much better than cruise ship rooms, or most hotel rooms for that matter. There are plenty of details, lighting, and other designs to show off the idea. I’m not sure which feature is more noticeable but they fit hand-in-hand. As soon as you step out of the elevator onto the floor both are apparent. Let’s take a closer look at the room!

The room has two twin beds and a couch that’s about the same size. There isn’t much space in between them all but it worked well enough. I liked the lighting throughout, including these bed lamps. We had a view of the hotel’s grounds out the window!

Here’s the couch with a little table beside it. Considering the space, I’m not sure the small table was necessary. We hardly sat on the couch, using it as more of a storage space instead. On the wall there’s a cool map with a fake window attached that added to the ship stateroom feel.

Across from the couch was a small desk and TV. The thought of sitting down to watch a show or movie in this room is laughable, but it’s there in case you need to!

Finally, here’s the bathroom. There wasn’t a separate shower room like most Japanese hotels but the water pressure was strong in the shower/bath combo. The room was so small that they warned of leaving the bathroom door open and letting too much steam out. This did the job though.

I should say that there are bigger hotel rooms at Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort. You can view them on their website here. They are more expensive and the standard room is still under 300 square feet but they would be feasible for more than 2 people.

Outside of the rooms, the hotel had a decent list of amenities that includes a restaurant, Disney gift shop, convenience store and a nice outdoor area with a water feature. Free wifi is also offered along with the bus transportation that I previously mentioned. On a similar note, there are airport limousine buses (that’s just what they’re called, they aren’t limousines) that run directly to the area from both Narita and Haneda airports. That’s the quickest and cheapest way to go from either airport.

The amenities aren’t as nice as several other Official Hotels but I do like the common areas. Contrasting the rooms, the lobby is spacious and beautiful. Having a convenience store in the hotel is a nice perk as is the Disney gift shop. They aren’t a reason to stay here but they are a nice perk.

All of that amounts to a decent hotel if you’re staying by yourself or with just one other person. For the rooms I reviewed, I definitely wouldn’t recommend 3 people staying there and I probably wouldn’t recommend 2 people if you’re there for more than 3 nights. The space just becomes too tight after a while.

But there’s a place for Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort thanks to the price and theme. The rooms I reviewed were more than $50 cheaper per night than anything else in the area when we stayed there. That won’t always be the case, as the Hilton, Sheraton and Toy Story Hotel often have good rates. But when things get busy, Maihama First Resort could be a good budget option with a superior location. From my research, the larger rooms here aren’t that different (price wise) from the hotels I just mentioned and I would recommend those over this place.

Once you consider the location though, this ends up being a decent place to stay. Honestly, I really enjoyed the commitment to the theme in this space. Not many hotels are trying to do that anymore, especially to this extent. Even Disney hotels have dumbed down their theming. Whether it’s the cruise ship theme or one of the other rooms, these are fun, a little silly and interesting to look around.

All of this comes down to a lack of space that’s holding the hotel back from rating higher. But if you’re doing a solo trip for a couple of days or just need a place to sleep for you and a friend during a busy park trip then this will do the trick! With the price and location, this would be a steal of spot in the states. Relative to other Tokyo Disney hotel options, Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort doesn’t rate quite as highly.

Overall Rating – 7.5/10

Do you have any questions about Tokyo Bay Maihama First Resort. Let us know in the comments below! If you are planning a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort, check out our Trip Planning Guide. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!