Mathmagicland
Disneyland - the original since 1955
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2014
Hi all, or should I say Konnichiwa, and welcome along to my trip report for the Inaugural AbD adventure to Japan! Traveling with me on this Adventure is my adult-age DS.
I am going to try to post daily as we go, a la @calypso726, while things are fresh and to help ensure I get this finished before the May departure group leaves. Thus I may not be able to promptly respond to all questions or comments but will do my best.
This post is to get the report started before I leave for the airport & also include some of the planning tips that were helpful to me as a first time visitor to Japan, from the extended threads several of us have been in since the Japan adventures were first announced and booked last year.
If you are interested in how to get and use miles for flights, please see the “I Love Credit Cards So Much” thread that @calypso726 mentioned. There is a lot of good info and great resources on that board. It is a long thread - Calypso726 said to ask your questions there & someone will respond with current info rather than reading the entire thread.
Speaking of airfares, one thing to keep in mind is to research several cities and airports, not just the one closest to you. Consider a repositioning flight to another city, or driving to a farther away airport. We are both in California, DS is in San Francisco and I am in the Los Angeles area. I was going to fly up to SF to meet him there, but we found that flights are almost twice as expensive to fly out of SFO compared to LAX. So, he is driving down to LA and we are flying from LA to Japan.
Also research options for both Narita and Haneda airports in Tokyo. Narita has some flight restrictions as it does not allow operations overnight, between approximately 11pm to 5am, thus we had fewer flight time options. Haneda does not have any such restrictions and is open 24x7. Flying direct to Osaka, our arrival options put us on the ground in Osaka around 3-4pm. Narita flights & transfer to Osaka still put us on the ground in Osaka in the afternoon or evening & we still have travel time to the hotel. By going thru Tokyo Haneda we are flying late overnight and with transfers are arriving in Osaka Kansai around 8:30 a.m. thus having more time in Kyoto on our arrival day. This option was important to us as we were somewhat restricted in our arrival day due to DS work schedule.
If you do plan to connect thru Tokyo to Osaka, @sayhello notes to be sure your connecting flight departs from the same airport as your first arrival. Some flight options will come up arriving at Narita and the next one departing Haneda, and that would be quite a trek across the city to switch airports.
Departures out of Narita for the flights home were mostly in the 6:30pm-7:30pm range for us, allowing basically half a day in Tokyo Disney resort (TDR) on our last day before transfers to the airport. By leaving out of Haneda, we have a midnight departure so can have a full day in TDR on our last day, getting the most of our add-on package without the need to book another night of hotel stay. (We were not disappointed at all when our airline pushed our return flight time out by 90 minutes as it meant more time in TDR!).
As this is my first trip to Japan, I am not the resource on TDR and whether to book the AbD post trip extension vs booking a TDR package on your own either before or after the AbD Adventure. We booked the AbD TDR extension for the convenience. Others are booking separate TDR packages on their own, which seems to be an adventure in itself - smile - from what I’ve read about how to book the Disney hotels there. Booking yourself can be a cheaper option or allow for a longer stay if time permits, as well as hitting TDR before rather than after. There are other threads and resources on that process.
@RSM mentioned something about caution & awareness regarding medications including over the counter stuff as Japan has stricter rules than the US and some things cannot be brought in or need a form and documentation to bring in. Here is a link to information from the US state department and the US embassy in Japan regarding Japan immigration and medications with additional information and Japan resources. https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/doctors/importing-medication/ This was not something we had even considered so is good to know if needed.
And away we go - next posts will be our travel and arrival experience as well as our first afternoon in Kyoto. Japan, here we come!
I am going to try to post daily as we go, a la @calypso726, while things are fresh and to help ensure I get this finished before the May departure group leaves. Thus I may not be able to promptly respond to all questions or comments but will do my best.
This post is to get the report started before I leave for the airport & also include some of the planning tips that were helpful to me as a first time visitor to Japan, from the extended threads several of us have been in since the Japan adventures were first announced and booked last year.
If you are interested in how to get and use miles for flights, please see the “I Love Credit Cards So Much” thread that @calypso726 mentioned. There is a lot of good info and great resources on that board. It is a long thread - Calypso726 said to ask your questions there & someone will respond with current info rather than reading the entire thread.
Speaking of airfares, one thing to keep in mind is to research several cities and airports, not just the one closest to you. Consider a repositioning flight to another city, or driving to a farther away airport. We are both in California, DS is in San Francisco and I am in the Los Angeles area. I was going to fly up to SF to meet him there, but we found that flights are almost twice as expensive to fly out of SFO compared to LAX. So, he is driving down to LA and we are flying from LA to Japan.
Also research options for both Narita and Haneda airports in Tokyo. Narita has some flight restrictions as it does not allow operations overnight, between approximately 11pm to 5am, thus we had fewer flight time options. Haneda does not have any such restrictions and is open 24x7. Flying direct to Osaka, our arrival options put us on the ground in Osaka around 3-4pm. Narita flights & transfer to Osaka still put us on the ground in Osaka in the afternoon or evening & we still have travel time to the hotel. By going thru Tokyo Haneda we are flying late overnight and with transfers are arriving in Osaka Kansai around 8:30 a.m. thus having more time in Kyoto on our arrival day. This option was important to us as we were somewhat restricted in our arrival day due to DS work schedule.
If you do plan to connect thru Tokyo to Osaka, @sayhello notes to be sure your connecting flight departs from the same airport as your first arrival. Some flight options will come up arriving at Narita and the next one departing Haneda, and that would be quite a trek across the city to switch airports.
Departures out of Narita for the flights home were mostly in the 6:30pm-7:30pm range for us, allowing basically half a day in Tokyo Disney resort (TDR) on our last day before transfers to the airport. By leaving out of Haneda, we have a midnight departure so can have a full day in TDR on our last day, getting the most of our add-on package without the need to book another night of hotel stay. (We were not disappointed at all when our airline pushed our return flight time out by 90 minutes as it meant more time in TDR!).
As this is my first trip to Japan, I am not the resource on TDR and whether to book the AbD post trip extension vs booking a TDR package on your own either before or after the AbD Adventure. We booked the AbD TDR extension for the convenience. Others are booking separate TDR packages on their own, which seems to be an adventure in itself - smile - from what I’ve read about how to book the Disney hotels there. Booking yourself can be a cheaper option or allow for a longer stay if time permits, as well as hitting TDR before rather than after. There are other threads and resources on that process.
@RSM mentioned something about caution & awareness regarding medications including over the counter stuff as Japan has stricter rules than the US and some things cannot be brought in or need a form and documentation to bring in. Here is a link to information from the US state department and the US embassy in Japan regarding Japan immigration and medications with additional information and Japan resources. https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/doctors/importing-medication/ This was not something we had even considered so is good to know if needed.
And away we go - next posts will be our travel and arrival experience as well as our first afternoon in Kyoto. Japan, here we come!