An Engaging and Magical Asian Adventure (2017 trip) - New Update 09/12/2021

[Flossbolna]

If you end up doing this you should get the ingredients for an authentic dipping sauce. My friend from Taiwan showed me this back in college and I mix it up at home every time I order take out or eat my frozen pot stickers.

I mix this in a small dish similar to the size of a sushi dipping dish, but with a little higher sides. All the portions are at your own discretion you'll need the following ingredients:

Sambal Olek
Sesame Oil
Soy Sauce
White Vinegar

I spoon a small amount of sambal olek in the dish maybe a 1/4 teaspoon. A little goes a long way. Then I pour a small amount of the Sesame Oil over it, again maybe 1/4 to 1/2 tsp, it's very pungent. Then about a tsp of vinegar and mostly soy sauce. I usually stir it and taste and adjust the seasonings. If It needs more kick, I add more sambal olek, if I want more tang, I add vinegar, if it needs mellowing, more soy sauce.

My favorite Chinese restaurant which is around the corner from my University has these on the table and that's where my friend taught me about this.

This sounds great! I will certainly remember to check back with this thread or you when I get those!

 

[Flossbolna]

Yeah! Japan! ANA does look amazing. My husband is a plane nut too. He used to be an aerospace engineering major. I know that I have not flown on a 787; he might have. We did like the A380 that we flew on with Lufthansa to Nuremburg for the Christmas markets in 2015. However, the seats we had didn't have under seat storage in front of us, since we were one row back from the service area wall. The flight attendants were very cool about it though, and let us have our stuff in the floor during the flight, instead of constantly having to get into the overhead. I hope we get to fly ANA. I think my son will starve to death in Japan though. Yeah for Fujiyama too! I am hoping to spend 3 weeks in Japan to hit Tokyo, TDR, Kyoto, Osaka, and Universal Osaka. We might have time to se Fujiyama.

Michael used to say that most non-US airlines were better. We both like the Lufthansa A380 experience, too. But recently we both had some really good experiences flying Delta. But none of these can compete with Asian airlines. There is just a totally different level of customer service that is amazing.

We saw Mt Fuji again from the train to Kyoto. But often it is a draw of luck. Lots of clouds there. I was really trying to get us to Hakone, but it was just not feasible on this trip. Next time!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Part 2: A fantastic surprise!

When planning this trip, we knew that we would not be able to afford the official Disney hotels. They all look amazing and while we were sad that we could not stay there we also knew that it would seem like a waste of money if we spent so much time at the park and were not going to take advantage of the hotel itself.

I do get a laugh out of the insane souls who spend $700 a night to stay at a WDW deluxe resort and never spend any time there beyond six hours to sleep. ... Oh, I also want to apologize yet again for my wife"s incredible slowness in providing you our incredibly informative and entertaining trip report. This is truly all her fault and I do tell her she is letting y'all down on a daily basis!

Besides the Disney hotels there are a bunch of other official hotels or partner hotels, can't recall the terminology as they have both hotels around the park. This is an overview of the TDL resort:

As you can see, the two parks are directly next to each other with the official hotels close to the park entrances (and one that is further away). Around the parks is the monorail with four stops and at the one stop there is a number of official resort hotels. These are similar to the Hotel Plaza hotels next to Disney Springs: operated by third parties, but with a very close connection. These hotels largely predated the OLC having any Disney-branded resorts. They simply were not interested in the hotel business until the property went from being TDL to being TDR!

(Let's add some background info here. Tokyo Disneyland is not owned by The Walt Disney Company. It is owned by a Japanese company called the Oriental Land Company - OLC. They have a license from TWDC and buy services like the design of new attractions from Imagineering. When they built Tokyo Disneyland the OLC wanted a copy of what is in the American parks, so when they opened in 1983 it was to a large extent a copy. But since then things have developed quite differently there, especially with the addition of Tokyo Disney Sea in 2001.)

Some are run by Japanese chains, but there are Sheraton and Hilton hotels and both get very good reviews and are often recommended. We had hoped that we could stay at one of these, but when we first started looking prices were very high. We did book a refundable rate at an offsite hotel at some point,

this hotel was a very basic motel that we saw from the monorail one day, M is VERY happy we didn't wind up staying here. It was part of a small chain and in an industrial type area right off property,

but decided to wait a little. Hilton regularly has sales for their hotels in Asia and we were hoping for one of those. This came some time in the spring and we booked our five nights there for $160 (including tax). While not a cheap room, we knew that the location would be worth it and it would be a nice hotel. We continued our trip planning and at some point Michael started to complain about how many different hotels we were going to stay at and that he does not enjoy moving hotels that much.

In other words, Michael knows that changing hotels wastes time and energy and is even worse during summer.

So, we decided that we should look into staying on at the Hilton for another two nights for the two days we meant to explore Tokyo. Just a reminder since we started this trip report what seems like years ago that we intended -- and did -- return too Tokyo for multiple nights at the end of the trip and stayed in the city. We would just take the train into the city. The sale was over by then, but luckily there was another offer going on and we ended up only paying $15 more per night. I emailed the hotel and they were able to attach both reservations with each other and they ensured us that we would not have to change rooms.

So, we were looking forward to making the Hilton Tokyo Bay our home for a week!

Once we had gotten off our Airport Limousine and the driver handed us our suitcases back – only after checking that they were indeed ours with the little receipt that we had gotten – we went to check in. A lovely lady, I think she was the on-duty front desk manager, greeted us and asked for our reservation. Since I had to sign up for Hilton Honors (their loyalty program) in order to get the cheaper rates, we were escorted to the special member check-in desk. There she welcomed us again and told us that they were so happy that we decided to stay with them for such a long time and in order to make us feel more welcome, they upgraded us to their top floor which had larger rooms and which also gave us access to a small lounge SMALL?!?!??! There was nothing small about this at all. Again, this sounds like female grousing about size issues! on the ground floor which was serving breakfast and then appetizers in the afternoon/evening. The room type we got is called “Celebrio Select”. That was an amazing surprise that affected our stay there very positively!

What M is leaving out here is that we had an inkling we had been upgraded at some point in Shanghai when she either attempted online check in or just checked the reservation. She attempted to hide this fact from me, but somehow I knew. And while not a shock when we arrived, it turned into a very pleasant and cost-saving surprise. We wound up having breakfast here every morning (yes, even me ... I love Asian and European breakfasts as they consist of a lot more than watery scrambled eggs, cardboard waffles and days old bananas.) We also had coffee here every day. Plus alcohol. Plus largely used the appetizers, which were substantial as you will later see for dinners.

So, all happy about this we went to check out our room! And immediately found out about the only two not so great things at the Hilton: For whatever reason they did not have all elevators operating which resulted in some rather long waits some time. And then, maybe because we were on the top floor, the hallways were extremely hot and sticky. We were a bit concerned, but as soon as we opened the door to our room that concern vanished, the room was lovely and cool!

That’s what it looked like:

We even had a little welcome present wrapped in a little cloth. That’s common in Japan that things are not wrapped in paper, but little pieces of fabric. I think it’s a wonderful tradition and also very environmentally friendly! This lovely piece of fabric now lines our bread basket at home. The cookies were given to us at the check-in desk.

Next to the closet there was a fridge and a kettle:

The fridge was filled with soda and water that was replaced every day.

Ah, endless Cokes and Fanta Grapes. They knew I was coming.

The bathroom had three separated areas: the sink in the middle and to the left the toilet room and to the right the shower and tub.

The toilet was one of those nice Japanese ones of course:

In the shower/tub room the shower was next to the tub.

A bit uncommon, but it fits with the Japanese bathing tradition. In Japan you shower and clean up before you go and soak in the hot water. So, you could do this here as well. The Japanese tend to sit on the little stool while soaping up thoroughly. I had read about this, but got to see it when we went to the pool at the Hilton a few days later. I have to admit that I tried it and actually thought that this made for a very nice showering experience!! For your soaking time there was even a TV in the wall! However, I think it was only showing Japanese TV.

I am not a fan of Japanese bathing. Sitting on what feels like a Rubbermaid stool to soap yourself ... nah. Nope. Seems like something you would do with a hose outside in the wilds of some place like ... Delaware!

As you saw in the last update, the Hilton is a very long building, but it is very flat. So rooms view out either side. One side is out towards Tokyo Bay, so you have lovely ocean views. The other side overlooks the Tokyo Disney parking lot (some of it now actually being transformed into a large expansions for both parks). And beyond that: the parks! The ocean side is more popular in general and therefore more expensive. We much preferred the park view and that was our view:

In the last picture you can see the monorail station serving the official resorts. There was a shuttle bus available to take you there from the resort, but we only took it once in order to have tried it. It was not far at all, just out of the hotel through the hotel parking lot and across the street.

Originally our plan had been to head out to Ikspiari after checking into the hotel. Ikspiari is in a way the “Disney Springs” or “Downtown Disney” of Tokyo. It is a shopping mall at the Maihama train station, which is the train station that serves TDR. There is a Disney Store (from the Disney Store chain, not a World of Disney) in the mall and a ticket center and the monorail stops there. Otherwise there is very little Disney about it, but it is a very pretty mall and a lot of fun to explore. It also has all kind of food offerings and we though we would eat dinner there.

There are other Disney touches in that there is a Rainforest Cafe and large cinema. There used to be a Planet Hollywood. But there are traditional mall stores, Starbucks, food court, TGI Friday's (had opened just before our visit) and a GREAT music store, which sells pretty much all 6,732 TDR special CDs from events, shows, parades, attractions etc. But it certainly isn't magical in that Disney Springs Mall way.

But with the access to the lounge we decided to check that out first!

The lounge was very nice with lots of comfortable seating. We got a drink and relaxed a little. I caught up with trip notes, we read a little and were just happy to have made it to Tokyo without any issues!

It was LARGE and lovely. Outdoor area too!

I guess I do not have enough lounge experience, hence me calling it small. It also felt like a comfortable space, not something for crowds to gather.

We then decided to explore the hotel a bit more. It is quite a large hotel that has lots of services on offer. There is a little convenience store selling drinks and snacks at very reasonable prices (considering you are inside a resort hotel) and where you can also find an ATM that worked with our credit cards (getting cash can be sometimes a bit problematic in Japan, but we always found machines that worked for us without issues – Japan is still more of a cash country than the US). There was also a bakery shop that had very delicious looking pastries and sandwiches. And then they also had an official TDR souvenir shop. Of course we had to explore there and make our first purchase!

A miniature Jungle Cruise boat for a friend.

Whenever we bought something in Japan it was always packaged up very nicely in the shop. At Disney you got the seasonally designed plastic bag that was taped at the top – and they always added an additional bag inside your plastic bag, so you could then pass on the item as a gift in a brand new bag that was not damaged from carrying it around!

I can no longer recall exactly what I bought. But I did look like an OCD Disney Blogger trying to prove he is the biggest fan by buying anything and everything. ... HINT: This is a small snippet into my behavior the rest of the time there.

After we were done exploring, we returned to the lounge as they had started the appetizer service by now and we wanted to check out the food offerings. We were quite blown away by the selection! We definitely were able to make a meal out of it. In the end the lounge access definitely did save us quite a bit of money as we had breakfast there every day and most days we had a light early dinner there as well. Most of the days we stayed at the Hilton we just purchased one meal.

We each started off with a salad and some champagne:

The green stuff in the glass was a cold pea soup.

I then went and took some pictures of the offerings:

They had a nice selection of alcohol:

Besides this were several beers, wine and the aforementioned champagne.

The lounge also had a very pretty outside seating area, however, it was always far too hot to sit out there. But it had nice views over the Bay.

I was especially intrigued by this bridge:

Continued in next post

 

[Flossbolna]

After snacking through the lounge offerings, we headed to the monorail. The monorail station was very nice and had some interesting displays about monorails and Disney trains and transport. Each station had some sort of display and they were all interesting to look at.

I was pleased to see the oldest still operating monorail featured there – it is in Wuppertal in Germany:

The TDR monorail is a real public transport system and you have to pay to use it. There are day tickets and multiple day passes. At the time we were there, they were offering a special monorail pin that you could get if you traded in three day passes. So, in order to get the pin, we knew that we needed single day passes and for today a day pass did not make sense, so we got single tickets. These are very plain and white while the day passes come with fancy designs.

This was the advertisement for the monorail pin:

Unfortunately that scheme has been discontinued it seems.

The ticket machines were easy to navigate (some had English, some didn’t if I remember correctly) and we were quickly on the platform waiting for our first monorail ride!

Great, modern, clean, efficient trains that in no way would remind you of the Ghetto Rails that are running at WDW, a good 15 years after they should have been retired and replaced.

Our first stop at Ikspiari was the TDR Ticket Center. This was easy to find and we did not have to wait long at all. A lovely CM went through the different ticket options with us, even though we knew exactly what we wanted: a 4-day ticket. This is the longest multi-day ticket that you can get. It is not a park hopper. You have to designate which park you want to visit on your first and your second day, then on the third and fourth day you can hop. However, we did not hop at all, so that was OK for us. The one thing that is quite amazing is how comparable inexpensive TDR tickets are. The 4-day ticket we got is now 22.400 Yen. That’s about $ 200. A WDW 4-day non-park-hoping ticket is at least double that.

A few comments: first, the CM was extremely nice and fluent in English. This may seem like a given, but it isn't. Indeed, on my first Tokyo visit in 2010, almost no CMs could speak even basic English. Now, as part of the runup too next year's Olympics, things have changed drastically. I was shocked at how many CMs had at least basic ability. ... Second, park-hopping at TDR is about as inconvenient as WDW. It isn't like Anaheim or Paris where you basically walk out one and into the next. It takes up way too much time.

We had decided before the trip that Days 1 and 3 at TDR would be TDL days and Days 2 and 4 would be TDS days. That plan held and worked out wonderfully. Finally, if you were a FL resident now and wanted to visit the stale and poorly maintained parks at the giant tourist trap in the swamps, you could get a four day ticket for $49 a day right now (about what I think those parks are worth). The only catch is that you would actually have to spend a full day at both DHS and EPCOT.

We could have bought the tickets at the Hilton as well, but there they only take cash. We thought it would be easier to pay with the credit card and ultimately when we left the Hilton, there was a line at their ticket counter, while the Ikspiari ticket office was empty in the early evening.

Once we were done with that we started to explore a bit. I got a delicious Belgian waffle:

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Didn't I get an ice cream of some sort? That was another day. Or I did not take a picture of it...

We also met up with a friend of Michael, who used to work as a musician at WDW, in the 1990, went to Tokyo on a contract at TDL, fell in love with a Japanese CM and then moved to Tokyo and started a family. We had fun exploring Ikspiari and then two of the three official Disney resorts for a while with him.

One part of Ikspiari (the one where a lot of restaurants and the movie theater are) has some kind of “Broadway at night” theming:

See the people standing in the center on the top picture? It is quite amazing that if you say something while standing there, there is a massive echo and your voice is amplified. Michael’s friend tricked me and I got quite a scare when suddenly my voice was filling out the whole room!

We checked out one Hawaiian burger restaurant there:

And like nearly all restaurants in Japan, they also had there menu displayed in plastic:

Love the plastic food. It is a great source of fiber!

We also looked a bit at the Disney Store. The Disney Store Japan has very different merchandise from the one in the US (or Europe for that matter) and it is also very different from what you can buy at the parks. We found some really nice things there, especially some very pretty postcards for their Disney Store anniversary.

The odd thing is the stores started out owned by the OLC, but they sold them back to Disney at some point about a decade ago. So while Disney doesn't own even one percent of the TDR (parks and hotels), they own the store chain outright. You can also tell by the merchandise selection. You couldn't find one Marvel item at TDR when we were there. But the Disney Store was loaded with them. It also had so much Star Wars trash. Star Wars merchandise was available in Tomorrowland and a few other places, but it's not like WDW, where it is literally everywhere from EPCOT to DAK to Coronado Springs to Typhoon Lagoon etc. Says a bit about priorities.

We then headed to the Disney Ambassador Hotel, which is Art Deco. There was a very cute looking diner:

The lobby looked very comfortable:

This used to be the “cheapest” Disney hotel, but now they purchased another hotel a bit further away and they are building a new hotel next to the Hilton. Themed to Toy Story. The Ambassador is still definitely in the Deluxe category when it comes to prices and amenities. But it is a bit shoehorned in between the parks and Ikspiari. Kind of a bit of an afterthought. While I would not mind to stay there and though I loved the décor, I felt that there wasn’t really the value for this hotel as the Hilton or the Sheraton are nearly as convenient to the parks, but are far more affordable.

They are also building a second in park hotel at TDS in the new Fantasy Springs area.

We then proceeded to walk towards the entrance of Tokyo Disneyland and the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel which sits right in front of the entrance. On the way there we passed the large outside Disney Parks store, it is called Bon Voyage and is in a building that looks like a suitcase. It also has a bit of a Art Deco décor. It’s Tokyo’s World of Disney, but does not have nearly the same amount of merchandise.

Somehow I was rather a bit disappointed with that store. Our tiny Hilton store seemed to have a nicer selection in some regard.

We moved on to have a look at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel:

The lobby looked very stunning and I liked the décor. It reminded me of a more whimsical version of the Victorian décor of the Grand Floridian. Kind of like if the Boardwalk and the Grand Floridian had gotten together.

It was getting late and I was fading quickly since I had such a crappy night of sleep, so we said goodbye to our friend for now (we were going to meet up again on a later day) and headed out to the monorail:

Where we also saw the first attraction posters that got us excited about tomorrow!



We had big plans for the next day: rope drop at Tokyo Disneyland! I had hoped to get to bed earlier to catch up on sleep, but it was midnight by the time I got into bed and the alarm was set for 7:15 am!

I feel like I am too excited to sleep!!!

Up next: Hunting for Hunny!

 

[soniam]

Love the monorail display! I'm a bit of a monorail nerd. I grew up in Oklahoma City, and our fairgrounds had a monorail that ran around it. I would really like to ride all of the currently operating monorails someday. The hotels, and really everything, looks so amazing!

 

[Flossbolna]

Just a heads up: There was some color issues in the last update. I hope I caught it all, but somehow Michael's red text appeared in my blue. Made for a bit of confusing reading.

 

[soniam]

Just a heads up: There was some color issues in the last update. I hope I caught it all, but somehow Michael's red text appeared in my blue. Made for a bit of confusing reading.

I could definitely detect Michael's "tone"I don't think I was confused.

 

[Hannah nz]

Excitedly following along. My husband and I just got back from our Japan trip. We stayed at the Hilton too! Reliving it with your pictures!

 

[Magical_Suitcase]

Spicy nuts ... chuckle ... giggle ... teehee ... she said spicy nuts!

I am old, this is funny to me.

The bear is my bestie. If he were in a house and it was on fire and M was in another house ... to be fair, his idol is Ted. He enjoys alcohol and drugs (some legal ... some ..) and girls ... and boys too. He also isn't one to be politically correct or anything of the sort. He did have some adventures on the trip when he hit Japan. He largely stayed in the closet during our visit to Shanghai as he was convinced that the Chinese eat little plush bears. I think M put that idea in his head, so she wouldn't have to carry him around all day.

I knew there was a reason I like Michael. Tolerant, free thinking people make me feel good.

But it can seat a lot of people as there are even fold out seat for the aisle!

Oh my, is that safe? Having people sit in the aisles? Although I guess if everyone is going from point A to point B with no stops in between, it would not matter if they were sitting in the aisles.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

So, remember how excited we were that we would be able to sleep 1.5 hours longer? Well. I woke up at 5am for no reason and could not get back to sleep.

We quickly found the ANA check-in desk where there was no line. The very friendly check-in agent took our luggage and then started to explain how sorry the airline was that they were not able to transport us on time and that they hoped that we would forgive them and accept a 100 RMB food voucher each to have breakfast with. So, we got to sleep longer (or in my case got to waste the chance to sleep longer…) and then ended up with $ 15 each to spend on food at the airport. We already started to like ANA’s service!

Not too shabby!

Writing this now I am wondering if this might explain the mysterious disappearance of a bunch of Shanghai Disneyland Times Guides… You see, my husband has a love affair with ephemera. You are lucky he has room in his gigantic heart for you too. He collects mark maps, entertainment schedules etc. Anything that was printed on paper is worth keeping for him, mainly if the origin is Disney or other theme park, but he likes stuff from other attractions as well.

I know one person who appreciated the map collection...

Some of these treasures have made it to very exotic places, like ... um ... ah ... Delaware.

See? I think maps are a guy thing.

Something somehow alerted us to look closer and we suddenly realised that we were in the line to the ANA flight to Tokyo Narita airport, however, we were booked on the ANA flight to Tokyo Haneda airport!!

This feels like a test to see how well you paid attention!

The one special thing about the Dreamliner is that the windows are larger than on normal planes and instead of shades, you can dim the windows to filter out the sunlight. They just get more and more tinted until they are all black and no light is coming through. This means that much more daylight is getting into the cabin during a daytime flight and I really liked that!

Huh. Never heard of that before, but it sounds nice.

Mmmm...seaweed...

I'd be afraid I was going to activate the trap door or something.

The rail pass is only available for people living outside of Japan therefore you cannot purchase it in Japan. You must buy a voucher before you leave. They are being sold through specific travel agents in different countries.

Huh. Interesting. That's good to know.

Haneda is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH closer to the city and to TDR, than Narita. Trust me on this. For years, most international traffic was routed through Narita, which can be as much as two hours away from the city and resort. Haneda approach is literally over Tokyo Disney and Tokyo Bay. I lucked out on my first visit in 2010 in that the new international terminal had just opened (they were still putting carpeting down in parts and everything smelled new, so flying there from Hong Kong was easy. It spoiled me. You REALLY want to use this as your gateway airport.

Thanks for the tip! I would not want to spend 2 hours driving from the airport. That's what Denver airport feels like.

Too bad M has never been and never will go (?! that's new to me that I will never go to Hong Kong... Especially since we are currently planning a trip there next year.) ... so sad, so sad!

Good communication is key in any marriage.

When planning this trip, we knew that we would not be able to afford the official Disney hotels.

Well, that's a bummer of a feeling.

There she welcomed us again and told us that they were so happy that we decided to stay with them for such a long time and in order to make us feel more welcome, they upgraded us to their top floor which had larger rooms and which also gave us access to a small lounge

Hey, that's cool!

For your soaking time there was even a TV in the wall!

Wow! Why would you ever leave?

I am not a fan of Japanese bathing. Sitting on what feels like a Rubbermaid stool to soap yourself ... nah. Nope. Seems like something you would do with a hose outside in the wilds of some place like ... Delaware!

Who needs soap? Waste of time.

The green stuff in the glass was a cold pea soup.

The TDR monorail is a real public transport system and you have to pay to use it.

Aw, come on!

The one thing that is quite amazing is how comparable inexpensive TDR tickets are. The 4-day ticket we got is now 22.400 Yen. That’s about $ 200. A WDW 4-day non-park-hoping ticket is at least double that.

Wow. That really is quite a difference. I don't mind paying for the monorail ride now.

See the people standing in the center on the top picture? It is quite amazing that if you say something while standing there, there is a massive echo and your voice is amplified. Michael’s friend tricked me and I got quite a scare when suddenly my voice was filling out the whole room!

Time to pretend I'm announcing baseball lineups...

Love the plastic food. It is a great source of fiber!

But terrible for the environment!

 

[franandaj]

So your last update is so massive, I haven't been able to sit down long enough to get all the way through so I inserted the multi quotes that I already had in my computer, saved the draft, and now I'll get caught up on at least that much while it sit at the vet and wait.

Well. I woke up at 5am for no reason and could not get back to sleep. At 6.45 am I gave up, got up and started to get ready and then dragged Michael out of bed.

I hate when that happens, and it's usually on vacation.

See, this is where you can tell M was a China travel newbie. Seatbelts and AC?!?! Pish posh. Any cab ride in China where you enter the cab in one piece and exit in one piece is considered a great taxi ride. One that gets you to your destination and on time as well without driving on the sidewalks, through a hotel lobby or farmer's field is truly a blessing.

You are not making me want to travel to China anytime soon!

There was already a long line for the ANA flight to Tokyo, so we got into line and waited. Something somehow alerted us to look closer and we suddenly realised that we were in the line to the ANA flight to Tokyo Narita airport, however, we were booked on the ANA flight to Tokyo Haneda airport!!

Yikes! They should make better distinctions so that people don't get confused!

It told you all the services that were available on the plane and even explained to you how to eat Japanese noodles during your meal:

I like that!

This was the first of many more! You get them before every meal in Japan. Some casual restaurants have them on the table, you will find them on your fast food tray, nicer restaurants might bring you cloth towels. You just don’t start eating in Japan without having used a wet towel.

That's why you get hot towels before Teppan Yaki meals and other high end sushi places, I guess.

Often the seat is heated, you have built in water jets that clean you after you have done your business, hot air will then dry what you had washed, you can even play sounds in public bathrooms to cover any sounds you might create. It is all operated with a panel of buttons directly next to your seat:

We went to a presentation at the Disneyland Hotel. It was in a swanky suite. Photography wasn't allowed, but I took a picture of the toilet, cause it was one like that. I'd never seen such a thing!

And then got to our home for the next 7 nights: The Hilton Tokyo Bay:

I'll think about that one if we ever go. We've been Hilton Hhonors members for years and often get upgraded when hotels have that option. Hampton Inn does not have that option.

I do get a laugh out of the insane souls who spend $700 a night to stay at a WDW deluxe resort and never spend any time there beyond six hours to sleep. ...

Heck, the ONLY time I spent $700 a night was when we stayed Concierge at AKL, and had to get a one bedroom suite because they told me all the standard CL rooms were sold out. We wanted to do the Sunrise safari, and this was the only way to do it. We checked out after three nights. We spent the same amount at the GF after that and stayed a whole week. Silly things we do. Fran bought into DVC after that trip!

Hilton regularly has sales for their hotels in Asia and we were hoping for one of those. This came some time in the spring and we booked our five nights there for $160 (including tax). While not a cheap room, we knew that the location would be worth it and it would be a nice hotel.

That was $160 per night right? Not $160 for the whole week...

Since I had to sign up for Hilton Honors (their loyalty program) in order to get the cheaper rates, we were escorted to the special member check-in desk.

As I said, we've been members for years, we get great perks like upgrades to free breakfast at Hilton Garden Inns, don't remember what we get at Double Tree, at the Hampton they give us bottled water and a snack when we check in.

 

[iivye]

Yea! Glad to see you back and in Japan! We loved the Hilton Tokyo Bay; that's so cool that you guys were upgraded! Can't wait to read more.

 

[Flossbolna]

You are not making me want to travel to China anytime soon!

Yes, I was questioning my judgement after that fact as well when I read Michael's comment about the taxi. However, he is fine getting into those death traps, but when other people fly on a 737 Max he gets a nervous breakdown...

Yikes! They should make better distinctions so that people don't get confused!

I guess it had something to do with our delay. I think it was due to fog in Tokyo that morning so they suddenly had loads of flights to Tokyo leaving at the same time. But it was still totally strange.

That's why you get hot towels before Teppan Yaki meals and other high end sushi places, I guess.

We went to a presentation at the Disneyland Hotel. It was in a swanky suite. Photography wasn't allowed, but I took a picture of the toilet, cause it was one like that. I'd never seen such a thing!

They are amazing.

Heck, the ONLY time I spent $700 a night was when we stayed Concierge at AKL, and had to get a one bedroom suite because they told me all the standard CL rooms were sold out. We wanted to do the Sunrise safari, and this was the only way to do it. We checked out after three nights. We spent the same amount at the GF after that and stayed a whole week. Silly things we do. Fran bought into DVC after that trip!

My husband sometimes tends to be a bit hyperbolic... However, ever since I became a DVC member prices have gone up so much! And now $700 is not that far away from current prices. A room at the Contemporary on a random night in October is over $600 rack rate. Yes, lots of people are good with shopping for rooms under discounts and such. But there are people paying rack rate. The most I ever paid before buying into DVC was $230.

That was $160 per night right? Not $160 for the whole week...

Yes. At $ 160 for the week it would have been an amazing deal!!!

As I said, we've been members for years, we get great perks like upgrades to free breakfast at Hilton Garden Inns, don't remember what we get at Double Tree, at the Hampton they give us bottled water and a snack when we check in.

I signed up for a Hilton credit card here in Germany that is supposed to get me to Gold Status with Hilton. We will stay at some Hiltons in the fall and those perks will come in handy!

 

[Flossbolna]

I know one person who appreciated the map collection...

See? I think maps are a guy thing.

However, the person who gave Michael the idea that you might be interested in a map is a gal!!

This feels like a test to see how well you paid attention!

Maybe that's what it was. They only want smart people on their planes!

Huh. Never heard of that before, but it sounds nice.

The Dreamliner is a lovely plane. However, it is another plane from Boeing that had teething problems and now recently was in the news again as well.

I'd be afraid I was going to activate the trap door or something.

Yes, especially the fancier ones, you were never sure what was going to happen. It takes you quite by surprise if you suddenly have warm air coming out of the toilet (to dry your behind after it was washed with water).

Good communication is key in any marriage.

Michael and I quite obviously excel at that!

Well, that's a bummer of a feeling.

I am more ok with it there in Tokyo, just like in Disneyland. Both resorts have far less of a resort like feel to them. And offsite is not really that far away.

Wow. That really is quite a difference. I don't mind paying for the monorail ride now.

And the monorail was also of a quality that one didn't mind paying for. There are inside pictures coming up at some point. They are amazing! No doors falling off. No weird smell (to me it always smells of horse stable in the WDW one). And they have really cute overlays on them! We were there shortly after they opened a new Nemo attraction and there was a Nemo monorail.

But terrible for the environment!

At least the plastic food does not get thrown into the ocean, like the straws at WDW were!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Yea! Glad to see you back and in Japan! We loved the Hilton Tokyo Bay; that's so cool that you guys were upgraded! Can't wait to read more.

I thin k I have not heard from a single person who was unhappy with that Hilton. Next update will come soon!

 

[franandaj]

We definitely were able to make a meal out of it. In the end the lounge access definitely did save us quite a bit of money as we had breakfast there every day and most days we had a light early dinner there as well. Most of the days we stayed at the Hilton we just purchased one meal.

I'm not sure our stay at the VGC will be quite as good but there are quite a few snacks that work, but they don't provide quite enough at night for dinner.

Our first stop at Ikspiari was the TDR Ticket Center. This was easy to find and we did not have to wait long at all. A lovely CM went through the different ticket options with us, even though we knew exactly what we wanted: a 4-day ticket. This is the longest multi-day ticket that you can get. It is not a park hopper. You have to designate which park you want to visit on your first and your second day, then on the third and fourth day you can hop. However, we did not hop at all, so that was OK for us. The one thing that is quite amazing is how comparable inexpensive TDR tickets are. The 4-day ticket we got is now 22.400 Yen. That’s about $ 200. A WDW 4-day non-park-hoping ticket is at least double that.

Interesting. Good information to know.

Next update will come soon!

Uh-oh. I better get caught up soon!

 

[Lesley Wake]

I was rather sad to say goodbye to the lovely hotel and the room that was so comfortable and took a farewell picture:

Such cute slippers!

We quickly found the ANA check-in desk where there was no line. The very friendly check-in agent took our luggage and then started to explain how sorry the airline was that they were not able to transport us on time and that they hoped that we would forgive them and accept a 100 RMB food voucher each to have breakfast with. So, we got to sleep longer (or in my case got to waste the chance to sleep longer…) and then ended up with $ 15 each to spend on food at the airport. We already started to like ANA’s service!

I had always wanted to fly them. Friends who have, and friends who fly for a living, have raved about their service. When I found out we could fly on them and use a relatively tiny amount of miles, I was all for it.

That's good to hear! I'm flying ANA from Hong Kong - Tokyo and Tokyo - LAX. I was supposed to fly them from LAX-ICN-PVG, but the flight timing didn't work out the best (arriving in Shanghai around 9pm when I planned on doing the park the next morning), so I switched to Asiana, which arrives at 10am instead! But I'm flying Business all the way, so I'm not worried about any issues!

Once we were through security, we had to go through passport control. Here we had another hiccup. On the plane to China we had gotten those cards to fill out. However, when we applied, they told us that they didn’t need them as they were only for people entering on a visa and not on the 144-hours-transit deal that we used. It turned out that those cards had a small part that was for exiting the country as well (if there are any non-US readers who are familiar with the green landing cards you had to fill out for the US and which were stapled into your passport, it’s the same deal, but the cards were white) and we needed that. So, we had to get out of line and there was a place where they had cards, we filled out the exit part and got back in line. Luckily the line wasn’t long, so it was not a big deal at all. But for anyone else using the 144-hour-transit, keep those exit cards, you will need them!

Good to know!

Haneda is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH closer to the city and to TDR, than Narita. Trust me on this. For years, most international traffic was routed through Narita, which can be as much as two hours away from the city and resort. Haneda approach is literally over Tokyo Disney and Tokyo Bay. I lucked out on my first visit in 2010 in that the new international terminal had just opened (they were still putting carpeting down in parts and everything smelled new, so flying there from Hong Kong was easy. It spoiled me. You REALLY want to use this as your gateway airport. Even if you save a few hundred dollars or euros or Disney Dollars (if you know what they are/were), it isn't worth it unless you essentially don't mind giving up most of a day to transitting in from the airport.

I really wanted to fly into Haneda. Unfortunately there weren't any direct flights for the legs I was looking at, so I'm going thru Narita.

But it can seat a lot of people as there are even fold out seat for the aisle!

Wow - that is crazy! Also...doesn't seem exactly the safest, but it is Japan, so I would think it may be after all?

 

[Steppesister]

Carpet photos are catching on everywhere, and it all started in Portland!

It did not have any air-conditioning. And even worse it did not have seat belts.

Normal for Asia.

Writing this now I am wondering if this might explain the mysterious disappearance of a bunch of Shanghai Disneyland Times Guides…

Things that make you go, "Hmm....".

We also did a little shopping. They had a very nice shopping area for buying all kind of souvenirs. We ended up buying some cookies for my parents and some spicy nuts for ourselves.

Spicy nuts ... chuckle ... giggle ... teehee ... she said spicy nuts!

You guys make me laugh.

Then we headed to our gate which was changed from what it was supposed to be originally, I guess due to the delay. It was on the ground floor in a large hall with four gates. It was all rather chaotic… There was already a long line for the ANA flight to Tokyo, so we got into line and waited. Something somehow alerted us to look closer and we suddenly realised that we were in the line to the ANA flight to Tokyo Narita airport, however, we were booked on the ANA flight to Tokyo Haneda airport!! The flight numbers were very similar, 922 instead of 972. So, at the last minute they had changed our gate again and now had another flight to Tokyo departing from the gate we were supposed to have! Luckily our flight was down in the same area as well, just at the other end of the room.

EEK!

Yep, we got to board from the tarmac!

So cool!

Mount Fuji saying Welcome to Japan!

Well, hello there!

Fun update, you two. Just trying to get caught back up after my trip so less commenting than I'd normally do.

 

[Flossbolna]

I'm not sure our stay at the VGC will be quite as good but there are quite a few snacks that work, but they don't provide quite enough at night for dinner.

It wasn't really dinner as such at the Hilton, but plenty of things for a very substantial snack. We still had more food later in the evening in the park, but mainly snacks.

Uh-oh. I better get caught up soon!

Don't worry! If it takes me two years to post the report, you most definitely are allowed to read at your own speed!

 

[Flossbolna]

Such cute slippers!

Yes, they are! And we found out that they, like everything else were replaced on a daily basis. So, I might have taken a couple of souvenir slippers back home to pass on as presents to other people...

That's good to hear! I'm flying ANA from Hong Kong - Tokyo and Tokyo - LAX. I was supposed to fly them from LAX-ICN-PVG, but the flight timing didn't work out the best (arriving in Shanghai around 9pm when I planned on doing the park the next morning), so I switched to Asiana, which arrives at 10am instead! But I'm flying Business all the way, so I'm not worried about any issues!

Flying Business is quite a game changer!! Of course jet lag still is an issue, but having space will take out a lot of stress of the travel.

I really wanted to fly into Haneda. Unfortunately there weren't any direct flights for the legs I was looking at, so I'm going thru Narita.

I think Michael is exaggerating a bit. He has a friend who is a flight attendant and often travels on the Asian routes for his airline. He told Michael that Haneda is so much more superior because of less distance. And I think for him, who usually has relative short bursts of time there, it is. If you are in Japan for two weeks, 40 minutes each way are not going to be a game changer.

Wow - that is crazy! Also...doesn't seem exactly the safest, but it is Japan, so I would think it may be after all?

They had backs that would fold up and seat belts. So, the only safety issue I could see would be with evacuating the bus in case of fire or so.