Anyone know whats up with the Tokyo DL reservation page...?

[AquaDame]

I know they recently made changes to when you can book packages vs hotel rooms and it seems like something fishy happened. The ONLY hotel that is available for packages in English is the Ambassador hotel. If I switch to Japanese I can magically book any of the hotels I want, but my Japanese is fairly limited and trying to click through it while using google translate has made my eyes cross. I need to book in four days and we had our hearts set on a Miracosta room... its been that way for several days now.

Is calling in easier than I think it is...? There seem to be a zillion different package options on the Japanese site and I know I need to book IMMEDIATELY if I have any hope of scoring a Miracosta Porto Paradiso room with a view. I am worried calling in will be too slow, especially since it says that English speakers are not always available but doesn't say when they ARE available.

 

[wanderlust7]

I think they only offer the Ambassador Hotel packages on the English website. Those are the only ones I saw in all the time I looked before our trip this June. I priced it out and you pay A LOT for the extras in the package.

 

[AquaDame]

Id rather not, but now you can reserve packages at 6 months out and hotels only at 5 for stays after 4/1/2017. If I want that room, I think we are going to have to bite the bullet. Is there a reason they only offer that hotel? Do they have more english speaking staff or are the beds/food there more american friendly? Since they only release it one day at a time I don't even know how anyone does a multi day stay in those rooms..! All I can think to do is go through this madness for one of the days and book a much easier place for the next two.

 

[wanderlust7]

Oh wow, I didn't know about this change. I guess they're really pushing those packages. I don't know why they only offer it for the Ambassador Hotel. The cynical part of me thinks it's because that's the least popular hotel.

Good luck! I hope you're successful.

 

[Feistygirl916]

I would call. We had a huge ordeal with booking online for a room only and the Visa wouldn't go through. There is some type of problem with Visa and overseas online bookings supposedly, and we spent an hour with them on the phone and FINALLY got the booking.

 

[AquaDame]

I would call. We had a huge ordeal with booking online for a room only and the Visa wouldn't go through. There is some type of problem with Visa and overseas online bookings supposedly, and we spent an hour with them on the phone and FINALLY got the booking.

Was it fairly easy to nab someone who spoke English...? My Japanese teacher would be so disappointed in me but its been 10 years since I was in class daily and rosetta stone isn't cutting it, lol!

 

[AquaDame]

Well, we did try calling when things fell apart online. We were told that you cannot book packages over the phone 6 months out and to call back at 5 or go online. Problem with online is that only the ambassador was showing up for English and when I tried to use the Japanese one we got caught up at registration. I even went so far as to make a Japanese account with the rental address for our stay in Tokyo but it still hung up on weird things... I had to use my last name for my husbands instead of his actual name before we got past that part and even then at the end of all of that our only option ended up being almost $3,000 for a couple nights (no, it was not a suite but the package in a harbor view standard was going to be $900pp). I'm tossing in the towel and marking Miracosta as a never in our lives instead of a once in our lifetime.

I'm pretty upset at the timing of this.. the change was made for reservations after 4/1/2017 and we were trying to check in at 4/10/2017. I get that changes have to happen sometime and its fine really, but definitely miffed enough that we'll stay offsite now since I can't get the room I wanted. May as well save as much money as possible then!

 

[wanderlust7]

Aww...I'm sorry to hear that! But given how much more expensive the package makes it, maybe there'll still be some availability at 5 months? It may be worth it to check for cancellations too if there's nothing at 5 months.

I'm not sure if you'd consider another room type, but I really loved the Venice side and looking out at the canal and an empty park at night. Otherwise, off site the Sheraton or Hilton are great choices too. I enjoyed the Ocean Dreams room at the Sheraton and getting to the parks on the monorail was super convenient.

 

[AquaDame]

I will probably look but checking the availability in March hasn't given me much hope. You are right about every room there likely being lovely - I was just being greedy with wanting to watch Fantasmic! from the room. I'm still just in awe of the way they have the English site set up - it really feels like they don't want us there. I think I might be happier at the Hilton in the end. Maybe in another ten years (last time I went to Japan was 2005) they'll have each hotel equally accessible to us.

 

[wanderlust7]

I don't think March is a good indicator due to spring break. If you look on the Japanese crowd calendar, the last 2 weeks are all brown and black (highest crowd level). April is a lot better.

http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/

TDR does seem to cater to their Japanese guests, I guess since that's the vast majority of their guests. On the English site, you need a hotel reservation to make restaurant reservations. No hotel reservation needed for the Japanese site. So it didn't totally surprise me when I saw that only the Ambassador was available for packages....

 

[HMANSION LOVER]

We are planning a trip in 2018. Should I just figure on using a travel agent. Has anybody tried a travel agent.

 

[Corbisblue]

They recently added the Ambassador Hotel as an option in English. I believe they are slowly adding all the hotels and their package options in English (no idea when they are rolling out the other hotels). As already mentioned, most of their guests are Japanese so they cater to that mostly and since the packages change so often it probably (I am totally guessing here) isn't cost effective to have it all translated into English (yet).

 

[AquaDame]

We are planning a trip in 2018. Should I just figure on using a travel agent. Has anybody tried a travel agent.

I did try contacting a couple but none of them got back to me - I may have had better luck by trying to find one that was not based in the US.