I am finally starting to turn my attention to planning the details of our July 14th
ABD. I'm hoping someone will be able to chime in on a couple questions/issues I have.
1. In order to take advantage of First Class airline awards DH and DS are flying into Narita and DD and I are arriving at Haneda. The guys get in at about 3 pm and we get in at 7 pm. We all arrive two days early and plan to either take the train or use miles to get a cheap flight to Kyoto after staying a couple of nights in Tokyo. We haven't decided what we will do on those two days but my goal is to make travel to and from the airports and trains stations as easy as possible--especially after our long flights.
My original plan was to stay at my bucket list Tokyo hotel--the Park Hyatt--on points. But then I saw that you have to take a short shuttle after the train from Narita (an extra step like this worries me with the boys--DS is special needs and will probably be at the end of his good behavior expectations), and for DD and me, there isn't a convenient train. The hotel website recommends the shuttle bus from Haneda, which doesn't sound fun. From what I've read, you can wait quite a while for the bus.
After a little searching I found, the Tokyo Station hotel, which looks to be extremely train/airport friendly to both airports and the train station if we decide to do the bullet train to Osaka. It looks to be a nice "Grand Dame" style hotel that is often found around old train stations. I like that it's also a 20 minute train ride to Disney if we decide to do that on one of our days.
I booked it with cash, but I may change it to use URs via the Chase travel website. So my first question is whether anyone is familiar with both hotels, and whether you think I will be disappointed not staying at the Park Hyatt, despite the transportation convenience issue for that hotel.
2. Getting
from Tokyo to Osaka. I'd originally planned for us to do the bullet train to get to Osaka, but after reading about cost/hassle with luggage
, I'm revisiting the idea of a short flight using miles, which will be significantly cheaper
. Our ABD is doing the Shinkansen Train from Osaka to Hiroshima, is this enough to get the full experience? I'd read about the luggage transfer services from the airports and we could do that if we decide to take the train, especially if we stay at the Tokyo Station hotel.
3. What to do in Tokyo. Our plan is to use the two days mostly to get acclimated and be ready to start the very busy ABD, but I'd love a couple ideas of things to do that don't overlap with the tour. I'd originally planned on the Fish Market, but they've recently closed the Tuna auctions to the public. If we stay at the Station Hotel a quick day trip to DisneySea is tempting (20 minutes on the train). DS would love that. But if anyone has any great food tours that could also work. We all love Sushi, so I'm going to try to do Sukiyabashi Jiro by calling the concierge 6 months out, but I'm not overly optimistic.
4. Anyone else thinking about doing the Tokyo Disney post days on their own rather than the ABD add-on? Our 6 month window is getting close, and I'm debating. I like the perks of the ABD add-on, but the cost differential is pretty severe. As our family is also flying out of different airports, the transportation issue is a factor as ABD will do the transfers. Debating...
I'd appreciate any thoughts/opinions. It's fun to finally be thinking about all this.