nono
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2005
Hey all, Loves Timone is expecting a trip report. I'm not really good at doing them anymore, but I'll give it a go here, if you'll accept summary form.
We are a family of 4, parents in mid-50s, kids in early teens. We got a killer airfare deal that involved a crazy run from PHL thru ORD thru LAX to HND. Yeah. Thank goodness we saved thousands. It was a little crazy, and I likely wouldn't do it again. We normally fly out of EWR, but this thing dropped in our laps Memorial Weekend for a travel date of Dec. 17, and we jumped on it. It became everyone's birthday and Christmas gift.
So, we landed in Haneda on Dec. 19 at 5:30 a.m. We did all our chores (wifi pick up, visit the fun areas of the airport, ship luggage ahead) and visited the Cafe Expasa on the 5th floor with a view to the runways. The 8:40 bus was either sold out or not running, so we took a cab. For the record, at 9 a.m. on a Thursday morning, it was ¥5100 from Haneda International Terminal to the Odaiba Hilton.
We enjoyed our 3 day stay in Odaiba. Our room slept the 4 of us, overlooked the Rainbow Bridge and the FujiTV building. Over the 3 days, we enjoyed shopping in Decks and AquaCity (we don't have malls near us), but found Diver City and the Venus Fort not for us. Totally loved MegaWeb and the History Garage and Team Lab Borderless. Went for a couple of runs through the area, and wished every park wasn't closed for reconstruction (dern!). One night we went into Tokyo to enjoy a couple of the Christmas light "Illuminations." Liked the ease of the Seagull err Yurikamome Line.
We transferred via cab to the Ambassador Hotel for 5 nights. It was ¥4500 for the cab ride, around 8 a.m. We did 6 days of park tickets, because it was Christmas/approaching New Years, and we aren't park open to close type people. We made rope drop everyday, but after lunch we were usually back for a nap. We went back to the park every night, but sometimes early, sometimes near closing, and a couple times zipped into the city proper to do something in between. The express train from Maihama is just great! My favorite part of TDL/DL? No one walks into a boat ride by putting their stinking feet on the seats of the boats! Yea! I have reached civilization finally. Seriously, I was delighted every time I got on a ride. It was really crowded as we expected, and wait times for the E ticket rides grew to 3-4 hours a couple times that week, which is why we got in and out by lunch. I really enjoyed both parks tremendously, both day and night.
Our last 4 nights were at the Hilton Tokyo Bay, which is a fine place. Very international feel, not necessarily Japanese feel. We stayed there because it was easy to get a room for 4 and I had points to burn. We found the commute to all our Tokyo spots fine and would do the same again. However, we are former NYC residents, so navigating trains and buses is pretty routine for us, and we liked retiring to the quiet of the TDL area at the end of the night (with our teens that's like 9 - 10 pm...) During these 4 days, we went to Shibuya for blue ramen, visited Temple University Japan for photos, went to Tokyo Tower at night for its Christmas Illumination, visited Ginza and did the "walk down the next block" and had a wonderful Saturday afternoon just a block away from the crowd. Also another day did Mitsukoshi's flagship store and food basement for a "picnic" back at the hotel, ran along the seawall, and other Tokyo stuff around/in Tokyo station which I can't recall in detail now. We also saw Star Wars with Japanese subtitles at the Cinema Ikspiari. I think that's it.
My older child is seriously considering Temple University Japan, so this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
We are a family of 4, parents in mid-50s, kids in early teens. We got a killer airfare deal that involved a crazy run from PHL thru ORD thru LAX to HND. Yeah. Thank goodness we saved thousands. It was a little crazy, and I likely wouldn't do it again. We normally fly out of EWR, but this thing dropped in our laps Memorial Weekend for a travel date of Dec. 17, and we jumped on it. It became everyone's birthday and Christmas gift.
So, we landed in Haneda on Dec. 19 at 5:30 a.m. We did all our chores (wifi pick up, visit the fun areas of the airport, ship luggage ahead) and visited the Cafe Expasa on the 5th floor with a view to the runways. The 8:40 bus was either sold out or not running, so we took a cab. For the record, at 9 a.m. on a Thursday morning, it was ¥5100 from Haneda International Terminal to the Odaiba Hilton.
We enjoyed our 3 day stay in Odaiba. Our room slept the 4 of us, overlooked the Rainbow Bridge and the FujiTV building. Over the 3 days, we enjoyed shopping in Decks and AquaCity (we don't have malls near us), but found Diver City and the Venus Fort not for us. Totally loved MegaWeb and the History Garage and Team Lab Borderless. Went for a couple of runs through the area, and wished every park wasn't closed for reconstruction (dern!). One night we went into Tokyo to enjoy a couple of the Christmas light "Illuminations." Liked the ease of the Seagull err Yurikamome Line.
We transferred via cab to the Ambassador Hotel for 5 nights. It was ¥4500 for the cab ride, around 8 a.m. We did 6 days of park tickets, because it was Christmas/approaching New Years, and we aren't park open to close type people. We made rope drop everyday, but after lunch we were usually back for a nap. We went back to the park every night, but sometimes early, sometimes near closing, and a couple times zipped into the city proper to do something in between. The express train from Maihama is just great! My favorite part of TDL/DL? No one walks into a boat ride by putting their stinking feet on the seats of the boats! Yea! I have reached civilization finally. Seriously, I was delighted every time I got on a ride. It was really crowded as we expected, and wait times for the E ticket rides grew to 3-4 hours a couple times that week, which is why we got in and out by lunch. I really enjoyed both parks tremendously, both day and night.
Our last 4 nights were at the Hilton Tokyo Bay, which is a fine place. Very international feel, not necessarily Japanese feel. We stayed there because it was easy to get a room for 4 and I had points to burn. We found the commute to all our Tokyo spots fine and would do the same again. However, we are former NYC residents, so navigating trains and buses is pretty routine for us, and we liked retiring to the quiet of the TDL area at the end of the night (with our teens that's like 9 - 10 pm...) During these 4 days, we went to Shibuya for blue ramen, visited Temple University Japan for photos, went to Tokyo Tower at night for its Christmas Illumination, visited Ginza and did the "walk down the next block" and had a wonderful Saturday afternoon just a block away from the crowd. Also another day did Mitsukoshi's flagship store and food basement for a "picnic" back at the hotel, ran along the seawall, and other Tokyo stuff around/in Tokyo station which I can't recall in detail now. We also saw Star Wars with Japanese subtitles at the Cinema Ikspiari. I think that's it.
My older child is seriously considering Temple University Japan, so this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
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