Booking Tokyo Disney Hotels

[DisneyaholicRaquel]

Hello,

where and how do you book the Disney hotels? They have the dates out until 10/3 and I was trying to do a mock booking. Not sure I’m doing it correctly or am I on the wrong site because it’s not showing availability. my dates are 10/10-10/13 (3 nights) which should be released next week maybe? Don’t wanna miss out! I’ve been having quite a bit of trouble planning this trip and I have traveled quite a bit internationally. Not sure why this Japan trip is so challenging but,I am so looking forward to going. Any tips or tricks for planning would greatly be appreciated

 

[Disney Mickey&Minnie Fan]

Hello,

where and how do you book the Disney hotels? They have the dates out until 10/3 and I was trying to do a mock booking. Not sure I’m doing it correctly or am I on the wrong site because it’s not showing availability. my dates are 10/10-10/13 (3 nights) which should be released next week maybe? Don’t wanna miss out! I’ve been having quite a bit of trouble planning this trip and I have traveled quite a bit internationally. Not sure why this Japan trip is so challenging but,I am so looking forward to going. Any tips or tricks for planning would greatly be appreciated

Is visiting Japan and Tokyo Disney a once in a lifetime trip for you?

We visited Tokyo Disney a few years ago and it was challenging to plan, get information, and make the reservation.
The website was hard to understand with the possible options and details.

I believe we ended up calling and booking our reservation over the telephone.
It was expensive. We did the package two nights in the Disney Hotel /3 days of park tickets.

Our thoughts if we visit Tokyo Disney again:
1) Book earlier to get a better deal -- we booked on short notice and room selection was limited, we had a larger room than we needed. Purchase a package for hotel and park tickets - included the breakfast buffet, which was awesome!
2) Pay for an extra night or two, if the package is only two nights hotel -- if you have never been to Tokyo Disney, plan for 4 days - two days in each park (Tokyo Disneyland + Tokyo Disney Sea) in order to see every thing at a relaxed pace.
(Our package was two nights at the Disneyland Hotel and three days of park tickets, with two breakfast buffets/person - plus fast pass ride tickets.)
3) Stay in one of the two hotel next to the parks - Tokyo Disneyland Hotel or the Tokyo Disney Sea Hotel -- worth the extra the cost. (We stayed in the Disneyland Hotel two nights and the Ambassador one night. The bus ride from the Ambassador Hotel is long-ish. You could consider staying at one of the off site hotels the day prior to your theme park tickets starting.)
4) Book dining reservation at their special restaurants in advance. It was impossible to get a reservation on short notice.
5) See all of the stage shows! the Shows were amazing! Read about and ask questions about the lottery system to get day of show reserved tickets for the stage shows. You can wait in line to see a show, but need to arrive one hour in advance. Well worth the wait to be able to see the shows. (Part of why you need four days to see everything in the two parks.)
6) The Tokyo Metro takes to right to Tokyo Disney, then you pay to ride the Disney monorail /train to the Disney Parks.

Enjoy your trip to Tokyo Disney - you will have a wonderful vacation!

 

[DisneyaholicRaquel]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all that helpful information. I would have to say yes it’s once in a lifetime as of now. Our goal is to hit every country so, trying not to repeat any right now. We are in Japan for 13 days but, only allocating 3 to Disney in order to see the actual Japan.

I would love to book as early as possibly but, I’m having a hard time. The website is not cooperating. I know my dates are not released yet but, I was trying to get a feel for booking by doing a mock booking for 3 days that are released. Every time every hotel says unavailable which doesn’t seem likely? I already have the Sheraton Tokyo Bay booked just in case I can’t get a Disney hotel. The price including breakfast is around 95000 yen. Is this typical pricing?

 

[sophy1996]

Get the TDR Explorer guide to TDR. It has all kinds of info.

I think booking is 90 days out (Tokyo time). You need to know exactly what you want and be ready to book immediately. Rooms go within minutes. When we booked packages still were not available but they since have resumed.

Yes, rooms showing as unavailable is true and common.

 

[Nala83]

Get the TDR Explorer guide to TDR. It has all kinds of info.

I think booking is 90 days out (Tokyo time). You need to know exactly what you want and be ready to book immediately. Rooms go within minutes. When we booked packages still were not available but they since have resumed.

Yes, rooms showing as unavailable is true and common.

This...booking is at 11:00am Tokyo time, 3 months in advance. I don't know about October, but for May dates the Toy Story Hotel was snatched up in minutes.

 

[emchen]

When I researched pre covid, i saw there was a dvc pointchart. I wonder if that can be a backdoor to Tokyo Disney Resort Hotels?

 

[gelatoni fan]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all that helpful information. I would have to say yes it’s once in a lifetime as of now. Our goal is to hit every country so, trying not to repeat any right now. We are in Japan for 13 days but, only allocating 3 to Disney in order to see the actual Japan.

I would love to book as early as possibly but, I’m having a hard time. The website is not cooperating. I know my dates are not released yet but, I was trying to get a feel for booking by doing a mock booking for 3 days that are released. Every time every hotel says unavailable which doesn’t seem likely? I already have the Sheraton Tokyo Bay booked just in case I can’t get a Disney hotel. The price including breakfast is around 95000 yen. Is this typical pricing?

It's pretty common for the Disney hotels to be booked up in minutes.

That price for the Sheraton is typical for this year. Starting late last year, the price increased dramatically so it's quite a bit more expensive than pre-pandemic. According to official statistics, travel within Japan is on average at least 20% more expensive when compared to similar months in 2019.

 

[Kwami]

It's pretty common for the Disney hotels to be booked up in minutes.

That price for the Sheraton is typical for this year. Starting late last year, the price increased dramatically so it's quite a bit more expensive than pre-pandemic. According to official statistics, travel within Japan is on average at least 20% more expensive when compared to similar months in 2019.

On the plus side, the yen is very weak against the US dollar, which makes everything in Japan cheaper. Today, the exchange rate is just about 145 JPY to 1 USD. That's kind of insane.

 

[shaycamp21]

It's pretty common for the Disney hotels to be booked up in minutes.

That price for the Sheraton is typical for this year. Starting late last year, the price increased dramatically so it's quite a bit more expensive than pre-pandemic. According to official statistics, travel within Japan is on average at least 20% more expensive when compared to similar months in 2019.

When we made our booking (in May for Aug) I was already logged in with our info ready to go (dates, party info) and the moment it was 11 am (Tokyo time) I clicked to book I managed to snag one of the least expensive rooms at the Ambassador Hotel--Toy Story didn't even show up as being available-- it went that fast seconds after opening. I am not sure how popular October is and if it would be easier to get a booking at Toy Story then,

I was surprised at how pricey the Sheraton was, I had initially had it booked as a back up which I cancelled once we made our TDR booking. It was $200 more for the 3 nights than the Ambassador Hotel (which is where we really wanted to stay) mind you I think the room at the Sheraton was larger.

 

[DisneyaholicRaquel]

When we made our booking (in May for Aug) I was already logged in with our info ready to go (dates, party info) and the moment it was 11 am (Tokyo time) I clicked to book I managed to snag one of the least expensive rooms at the Ambassador Hotel--Toy Story didn't even show up as being available-- it went that fast seconds after opening. I am not sure how popular October is and if it would be easier to get a booking at Toy Story then,

I was surprised at how pricey the Sheraton was, I had initially had it booked as a back up which I cancelled once we made our TDR booking. It was $200 more for the 3 nights than the Ambassador Hotel (which is where we really wanted to stay) mind you I think the room at the Sheraton was larger.

Wow!

 

[QueenofPrideRock]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all that helpful information. I would have to say yes it’s once in a lifetime as of now. Our goal is to hit every country so, trying not to repeat any right now. We are in Japan for 13 days but, only allocating 3 to Disney in order to see the actual Japan.

I would love to book as early as possibly but, I’m having a hard time. The website is not cooperating. I know my dates are not released yet but, I was trying to get a feel for booking by doing a mock booking for 3 days that are released. Every time every hotel says unavailable which doesn’t seem likely? I already have the Sheraton Tokyo Bay booked just in case I can’t get a Disney hotel. The price including breakfast is around 95000 yen. Is this typical pricing?

Is that 95000 yen per night or total? I'm thinking per night based on this thread but you know what they say when you assume

 

[DisneyaholicRaquel]

Is that 95000 yen per night or total? I'm thinking per night based on this thread but you know what they say when you assume

It’s actually total for 3 nights…

 

[gelatoni fan]

When we made our booking (in May for Aug) I was already logged in with our info ready to go (dates, party info) and the moment it was 11 am (Tokyo time) I clicked to book I managed to snag one of the least expensive rooms at the Ambassador Hotel--Toy Story didn't even show up as being available-- it went that fast seconds after opening. I am not sure how popular October is and if it would be easier to get a booking at Toy Story then,

I was surprised at how pricey the Sheraton was, I had initially had it booked as a back up which I cancelled once we made our TDR booking. It was $200 more for the 3 nights than the Ambassador Hotel (which is where we really wanted to stay) mind you I think the room at the Sheraton was larger.

Looking back over my reservation emails, I stayed at the Sheraton 4 times in 2019 at 18,000ish JPY per night and once at 21,000ish JPY. My upcoming stay there is 27,000 JPY per night. I'm usually a bit flexible with dates so these tend to be the cheapest rates on the month I'm traveling. Pre-pandemic, I don't think I ever saw Ambassador cheaper than the Sheraton and it would be rare to find Celebration cheaper than the Sheraton.

My guess is that the Sheraton pays its fees to Marriott corporate in US dollars so the room rate will go up with the exchange rate. Since OLC runs the Disney hotels and the accounting books are in yen, they feel less pressure to adjust prices based on what the USD/yen rate is doing.

 

[QueenofPrideRock]

It’s actually total for 3 nights…
View attachment 774592

WDW Deluxe prices have fully broken my brain. I was like "95000k seems like a full three nights .... mmm but it's on the monorail there so maybe not?"

TY for the reply!

 

[Kwami]

Looking back over my reservation emails, I stayed at the Sheraton 4 times in 2019 at 18,000ish JPY per night and once at 21,000ish JPY. My upcoming stay there is 27,000 JPY per night. I'm usually a bit flexible with dates so these tend to be the cheapest rates on the month I'm traveling. Pre-pandemic, I don't think I ever saw Ambassador cheaper than the Sheraton and it would be rare to find Celebration cheaper than the Sheraton.

My guess is that the Sheraton pays its fees to Marriott corporate in US dollars so the room rate will go up with the exchange rate. Since OLC runs the Disney hotels and the accounting books are in yen, they feel less pressure to adjust prices based on what the USD/yen rate is doing.

And the Yen is much, much weaker now than it was back then.

 

[helenk]

I having been stalking the Tokyo Disney site since September just to get an idea of costs and how to book. I arrive on 10/8 and want to stay until 10/12 . September looked great, rooms were available for most of the resorts for days at a time. October is not looking so good. Right now booking can start for arrivals on 10/7 and only the Mira Costa was available and only a suite was available for 2 Million Yen. I did book the Hilton Tokyo Bay as my back up hotel and it looks like I may be staying there.

 

[Mle8308]

I was watching a Provost Park Pass video on YouTube, he (Chris and family) are at Tokyo Disney now. He was mentioning the challenges of booking a Disney hotel there. He said the secret, if wanting to book multiple nights, is not to buy tickets at the same time because it will limit the number of nights you can book. He said do room only and then buy your tickets at check in, that you are guaranteed to get tickets because you are in a Disney owned hotel. He booked 5 nights at the Ambassador and did not get tickets until he arrived. Not sure if this helps!

 

[Kwami]

I was watching a Provost Park Pass video on YouTube, he (Chris and family) are at Tokyo Disney now. He was mentioning the challenges of booking a Disney hotel there. He said the secret, if wanting to book multiple nights, is not to buy tickets at the same time because it will limit the number of nights you can book. He said do room only and then buy your tickets at check in, that you are guaranteed to get tickets because you are in a Disney owned hotel. He booked 5 nights at the Ambassador and did not get tickets until he arrived. Not sure if this helps!

The only downside with that plan is that you can't purchase a vacation package that way, so you'll miss out on the free fast passes, show tickets, and souvenirs. It's certainly an easier way to book, though.

 

[Mle8308]

The only downside with that plan is that you can't purchase a vacation package that way, so you'll miss out on the free fast passes, show tickets, and souvenirs. It's certainly an easier way to book, though.

Good to know! Not that I plan on going to Tokyo anytime soon - unfortunately! He did say he bought their version of FP's.

 

[Kwami]

Good to know! Not that I plan on going to Tokyo anytime soon - unfortunately! He did say he bought their version of FP's.

It's been a while since I've looked at prices. It might even be cheaper to just buy the passes now.