Anywhere to book Tokyo DL hotels besides official site? + Mastercard question

[dollarmite]

I'll be be visiting TDL in October 2015. Is there anywhere else to book the onsite hotels aside from the official Japanese TDL site? Expedia/Webjet, etc? (Nothing came up in Expedia during my last search). The TDL site is a pain, and when I got to the checkout it stated that no debit cards can be used, and that payment won't be taken until we reach the hotel.

I want to book and pay for everything in advance before leaving Australia with my Mastercard debit card (preferably in AUD, but will pay Yen if absolutely necessary).

I've also read on various blogs, sites, etc, that Mastercard isn't widely accepted in Japan. I don't wish to have to get a Visa card just for this trip, nor am I willing to get a credit card. We've done plenty of overseas trips with just our debit Mastercards, so going to a lot of rigamarole just for the 8 day portion we'll be in Japan on this trip seems unreasonable.

Any feedback would be appreciated. TIA.

 

[bc7ate9]

I don't know anything about booking onsite hotels - we stayed off site and booked via booking.com. It was in English and allowed us to pay with our credit card.

Credit cards are not widely accepted in Japan - the vast majority of people use cash. That being said, we were able to use our Visa card at Disney and major department stores. Most places that welcomed credit cards seemed to accept MasterCard too. I wouldn't feel comfortable counting on any credit card being accepted anywhere and would carry cash to exchange for yen. It's kind of a pain, but you're going to a cash-based culture...

 

[OldSchoolReasons]

Unfortunately if you want to book the Disney hotels you need to use their frustrating site and a credit card.

I'm in the same boat (UK visa debit card) and will be getting a credit card purely for booking which I'll cancel when I get home. It's a real pain, especially as the rooms go live at midnight here so I'll be up late on the slim chance I can get a room.

If you want to stay close to Disney but the actual hotels aren't the be all and end all, you can book the Hilton using a debit card via their website or Booking.com and the like.

Sorry I can't be more useful.

 

[nyck]

I actually got my DEBIT card visa to work on the site to book a room. I tried it last week and booked a dummy reservation and it worked. They charged 0.01 to the card to make sure it was active I guess. I cancelled it after. So I plan to use it to book my real April reservation in October and pay in yen when I get there. The website says you can pay in cash or major credit card when you get there so I am just bringing enough yen to pay for it. The website does say they don't take non jcb mastercards (nor AMEX right now due to some problem) so a visa is definitely a must. I just ordered a visa credit card just in case to take over there but I plan to pay in yen for everything

 

[OldSchoolReasons]

Oooh I may test it then before I get a credit card. You can just cancel straight away with no charges right?

 

[nyck]

Oooh I may test it then before I get a credit card. You can just cancel straight away with no charges right?

Yes that is what I did. I made a reservation for 1 night in a character room at Tokyo Disney hotel, got the email confirmation, looked at my account online and they had a pending charge of $0.01 USD (I am in the US and it is a US debit visa and a lot of hotels do a 1 cent charge when making reservations to make sure the card is valid) then I went an cancelled it. The pending 0.01 charge fell off my account 3 days later. I received the cancellation notice in my email a minute later.

Also I did set up a setup a separate Disney account under a different email address just to use for the Tokyo Disney website because my other one it kept wanting me to change my password or something goofy and that one is linked to my DVC account and I didn't want that messed up. When you cancel the reservation you will need to log into what ever Disney account you used, so set up a new one when you make the reservation with a different email if your current one doesn't work right on their site

 

[BagOLaughs]

I'm in the same boat (UK visa debit card) and will be getting a credit card purely for booking which I'll cancel when I get home

When I booked my hotel my UK Mastercard Credit card wouldn't work with the site however my UKvVisa Debit card did work. I had to pay at the hotel when we checked out.

• There is no way to pre-pay for the hotel
• It seems only Mastercards don't work on the website. For me Visa debit card did work!
• You pay upon checking out with the same card you reserved your room with (so don't forget it!)
• Can only get TDL hotels through TDL website.

 

[OldSchoolReasons]

This Is great news! Thanks x