Bad timing for trip, but…

bookbabe626

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 25, 2006
Messages
2,123
Okay, Golden Week is bad, I know that. But how are the few days leading up to the start of Golden Week?

If the first official holiday day of Golden Week is a Thursday, for example, will TDR (and everywhere else) still be packed on Mon-Wed of that week?

Due to unavoidable timings, we have a week in Tokyo between two cruises, Sat to the following Mon, where Thursday is the first holiday of Golden Week. We have a cruiseline pre-stay for the second cruise that will cover the Sat-Mon where it’s the actual Golden Week. But our plan was Tokyo Disneyland for the first part of that week.

Given that I know it will be busy, we are trying to figure out options to still have a good experience. Which of these is going to give you a better chance for our party of 2 to get on every ride at least once…?

- The unlimited rides vacation package, with only those two days in the parks (and hoping to get a pre and post night in the same room type, at DLH) and buying the Fantasy Springs attraction add-ons, but we could add a third park day and additional hotel nights if needed
- a Grand Chateau room at FSH for four nights, which should result in 32 (thus 16 each) attraction tickets over three park days (and buying whatever extra attraction tickets they will let you buy)

The GC room would be about double the total cost of the package combo, but it’s way less stressful. Either option is within our budget, but hubby of course would rather spend less than more. With it being the lead-in week to Golden Week, I’m a little worried about the vacation park and hotel booking drop day madness, and being able to get the same room category for the whole stay so we could stay in the same room. The GC room would be easier to book and would guarantee getting one room for the whole stay.

We have been to TDR once before, but it was with Adventures by Disney so we didn’t have to do any of our own planning. The logistics of buying packages and hotel rooms on release day is kind of daunting, and our bank is very fraud adverse so we often have issues with purchases going through, so there’s a good chance we will have to make the reservation twice for it to work.

Am I missing any downsides to the GC rooms? Or misunderstanding how the unlimited VP works? Specific pros/cons to either that I might not be thinking of? Thoughts?
 
Golden Week starts on Wednesday April 29 next year. The first day of Golden Week is always a gamble. I've gone pre-pandemic when TDL hit capacity and there's also years when everyone is traveling on that day so crowds are lower than any other day that month.

The weekdays before Golden Week are usually OK so crowd-wise, the Monday and Tuesday would probably be the best days. If you add a third day, the Sunday before is less risky than the Wednesday of Golden Week.

I haven't tried to book the Fantasy Springs Hotel recently but at least last year, it was much harder to get a room at the Grand Chateau than a vacation package at the Disneyland Hotel. With the unlimited rides vacation package, going on everything at DisneySea in one day should be doable but Disneyland will be harder, especially if you also want to watch shows.

If you want to watch shows, then it's definitely a good idea to do 2 days at Disneyland so that you can buy DPA for Mickey's Magical Music World and Club Mouse Beat in the event that you lose the entry request show lotteries. The Grand Chateau show tickets obviously would cover shows but again, you probably wouldn't have enough time to watch all the shows and go on all the rides in one day.

Usually, vacation packages go on sale about a month before room-only reservations. I'd say the safe thing to do is book the Disneyland Hotel vacation package first and then try to get the extra night when it opens. Worst case scenario, you book a different hotel and move rooms. If you don't do that and put all your eggs in the Grand Chateau basket, you may be left with nothing in the end.
 
@gelatoni fan
Thanks, we are actually there in 2027, so Golden Week starts the Thursday. Sounds like the Mon-Wed will be fine, we’ll plan on those for our park days. Hopefully the unlimited package is still available by the time we can book, sounds like that’s going to be our best option, with maybe an extra day or two added on. And hopefully we can book the same room type for the extra nights, changing rooms is a pain. Thanks for the info.
 





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