Tippytoes925
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2024
- Messages
- 19
Wowzers Disser's!
It feels like it's been an absolute lifetime since I last wrote a Trip Report....and in someways I guess it has been. I'm a bit rusty, so please bear with me
,
I'm hoping by the end of attempting to construct this Pre-Trippy, I'll be back into the swing of things, and better prepared for my "Live" Thread Trip report in June!
So, who am I? where am I going? and how did this all come about? I hear you say.
Well.....I'm glad you asked
By way of introduction, I am Tippy and welcome to my story
Here is some history for context.....
I am a historical Disser of old and could be classed as somewhat of a WDW/Californian veteran. And by veteran, I mean I threw down at 3am and slugged it out with every other fanatical WDW Go'er, trying to snag those elusive "Breakfast in the Castle" ADR's and dinner at Le Cellier, when it only cost 1 Disney dining table service credit. You get the picture.....
Fast forward a decade and maybe a few extra laps around the sun for good measure, I now find myself living in Australia and about to embark on my first ever Solo!! Disney trip. Yey!!
Now, whilst I have done extensive solo travelling in those intervening years, I have never been back to Disney, and definitely not as a soloist.
As any true Disney fan knows, once you've experienced WDW, it's a magic that truly touches your soul and a special kind of love that never really leaves you. Major Life events may happen of course, and through circumstance or happenstance, reduce that love affair to a tiny ember, that quietly burns deep within your heart. It's a tale as old as time, a spark will forever remain.
And that dormant spark, is always just one wish away from igniting the dusty tinder box that is your heart
This spark however, is often and (inconveniently) accompanied by tears, and occasionally some ugly crying any time you hear a Disney medley being played on a piano. Say for instance, on a cruise ship. Especially after hitting the drinks package hard all day like someone determined to get their "money's worth"
So, how did I go from crying on a cruise ship listening to a pianist play "Can you feel the love tonight" to where I am right now?
Well, again, I'm glad you asked
As soon as I got off the ship and got my land legs back (aka no more drinks package) I knew there and then, I HAD to go back to WDW. My mind was made up. I was resolute in my belief and firm in my decision. Nothing was going to stop me.
And then life, as it invariably does, threw yet another massive spanner in the works that said "Ohhh yeah? We'll see about that!"
Now, as it goes, I am quite accustomed to massive spanners. Life having thrown numerous ones my way over the years. This particular spanner however, saw me having to relocate from the East coast of Australia to the West coast. And that's a REALLY long way.
mg:
Dear reader,
Even though she was DETERMINED that nothing was going to stop her from getting to WDW, this massive spanner infact, did.
After a period of time dodging spanners, I had no choice but to accept that my dream of returning to WDW, was a bust. It just wasn't feasible to travel from West to East coast Australia, then on to LAX or Dallas and finally onwards to Orlando.
Then, like any good Disney story, a miracle happened!
Somehow, a vlog on Tokyo Disney found its way into my playlist. I was completely and utterly smitten. I found myself having a quick check on the logistics of actually getting to Japan, only to discover that it was a whole lot closer and more accessible than I'd ever imagined, especially with me now being in West coast Australia! Japan had never been on my travel radar, but it sure as heck was now!
Could it be? Could me dream to go back to Disney be salvaged? That spark in my heart started to burn brightly at the possibility.
I decided to have a little check on the flight situation. Y'know, just out of curiosity
Various routing's, layovers, airlines, redeeming frequent flyer points etc.
And would you believe it? Another miracle! Life for once was throwing me miracles instead of spanners! Cathay Pacific had just released sale fares to Japan.
Frantically, not wanting to miss out on the incredible airfare sale, I jumped on the Tokyo Disney website to see what the lowdown was.
And here, Dear reader, is where the miracles once again stopped and the spanners began.
Confronted with trying to price out and rough plan Tokyo Disney, one sentence from a vlogger particularly rang true. "Take everything you know about WDW and throw it out the window. It does NOT apply here"
Now for a methodical, spreadsheet/itinerary type of trip planner like yours truly, this was indeed a spanner of massive proportions.
Trying to navigate the Tokyo Disney booking system was a battle field where the opposing General didn't fight fair. I'm a battle scared, yet victorious WDW veteran. I'd mastered.....neigh CONQUERED the deluxe dining plan. I'd breakfasted with Princesses IN THE CASTLE and fast passed my way from one rope drop to another, park hopping along the way and brandishing my itinerary like a victory flag.
I once again felt defeated before I had even started. And that has been a persistent, recurring spanner since this trip first started coming together.
The first spanner I was hit with once I had semi figured out the Tokyo website and booking system, was that Vacation packages can only be booked 5 months out. Now, I won't go into too much detail about the mechanics of booking one of these things, other than to say they keep changing and are incredibly stressful, with the whole world it seems wanting to visit, VP's being extremely limited and difficult to secure and a website that takes forever to load and then constantly crashes.
So, back to my first world spanner....I couldn't book my vacation package until 5 months out from date of visit. This was a huge problem because I needed to book the flights to take advantage of the sale fare. This in itself was a massive risk, as I was now having to book the flights WITHOUT first securing a Vacation Package, which included the on-property hotel, fast passes, park tickets, ADR's and so on.
If when release day finally came and I failed to secure a Vacation package (from here on out I'll refer to it as a VP) I'd have confirmed flights to Japan and no Disney After researching crowd levels, wait times and everything else, I had already made the decision that I simply wasn't prepared to attempt to visit Tokyo Disney without a VP (are you still with me readers? 
It's a mind melt, I know 
Every time I got a rough workable itinerary together and eagerly awaited the VP release day, the package I had selected and was waiting to book would change, sending me back to the drawing board to re-plan and wishing on the second star to the right that I could still make it work within the parameters of my now booked and non-refundable flights. All told this happened to me THREE TIMES. I need you to just believe me when I tell you it was STRESSFUL with a capital STRESS.
The flights with Cathay Pacific however were just too good to miss out on, so I went ahead, took the chance and booked. I managed to secure a Business class upgrade using frequent flyer points with an additional 2 night stop over in Hong Kong
The only logical thing for any Disney fan to do when in a Country with a Disney Park, is of course to visit!
So now I was getting 2 different Disney experiences instead of one. Yey! for miracles instead of spanners!
Let me just say that the Hong Kong portion of this trip planning has been a BREEZE. I was able to book my chosen Disney property in advance as soon as I'd confirmed my flights (2 nights at Explorer's Lodge) and tickets, character breakfast ADR's etc all in one go, directly on the website. Done and dusted. No spanners involved whatsoever.
Back to Tokyo Disney....
Eventually the booking date for June VP's was released so I was able to lock in my complete itinerary, choose my ADR's and which hotel I wanted. I had done several "dummy bookings" so I was totally and confidentially prepared for when the booking window went "live"
Dear reader, she was NOT totally and confidently prepared at all.
As luck instead of spanners would have it, I was blessed to be off work when my VP booking window opened in January. So, I was able to log on to the Tokyo Disney website with my laptop, ipad and phone around 45min prior to go live time (as recommended by every single vlog/blog/forum I'd researched in the lead up to booking)
As soon as the clock ticked over however, the entire website crashed kicking me out of the queue on every device. I finally got through on my phone but alas more spanners! the date I originally wanted for unlimited VP had already sold out.
I hastily did some itinerary re-shuffling whilst waiting for the website to finally load my place in the booking queue, and this is where prior WDW planning served me well. I had planned enough big trips previously to ALWAYS plan for disaster. Cancelled flights, sick kids, lost luggage etc. I always plan my itineraries with a few set anchor points, and plenty of wiggle room for unforeseen spanners that may come flying my way.
By the time the site was loaded and I was able to book, I'd manage to shuffle everything around enough to make it work and thankfully a miracle instead of a spanner, showed availability for an Unlimited VP on the dates I'd chosen.
But wait, Dear reader, you didn't think that was the end of the spanners, did you???
The next problem came when I had everything selected and tried to check out. I couldn't log into my previously created Disney account. I was starting to sweat it BIG TIME
I'd already missed out on my first chosen dates, now my back up plan was about to go full bag of spanners because no matter what I tried, I couldn't log into my account in order to check out.
This is where it all goes a bit wonky. Bear with me .....
I had previously created a "fictional" Disney account with an old email address, but with a made up name, phone number etc for the express purpose of playing around on the site and doing dummy bookings. I cant for the life of me remember why at the time I did that, but all I can say is, it seemed like a good idea at the time. More often that not however, when things seem "like a good idea at the time" they generally as a rule, are not.
For some reason, the website would not let me log into my "genuine" Disney account. In a moment of sheer panic and frustration (remember earlier when I said I was confidentially prepared for this moment?) I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was, and I panicked big time!
I dont know what came over me, but I wasnt prepared to lose this VP that was sitting in my basket just waiting to check out. I tried logging into my fake account and miracles! It let me log in and proceed to check out!
I knew I was making the booking in the wrong account and the details were all wrong, but I thought I'd just book it anyway and sort out the "semantics" later.
Hoooray! One VP down, One to go! Now, originally I had only planned to book one VP package, which gave me 1 day at Disneyland, 1 day at Disney sea and a 1 night hotel stay, with an express pass that gave me unlimited rides in both parks.
As I was just finishing up the first booking process, my laptop's place in the booking queue gave me access and I could see availability for a second VP right after the first. Confusing I know well done if you are managing to follow along!
I jumped in and secured a second VP and miracles or spanners, at this point they are all the same, I was somehow able to log into my CORRECT Disney account.
Booking complete. However I now had 1 booking under my correct account and 1 under my fake one.
Lets just say, that it is not a good idea to book a VP on any account other than your own genuine one. Not even Disney were able to change the details or merge the bookings.
My one saving grace was that I had the foresight to write my real name and email address in a little box that said "The following person has authorization to discuss/access this booking and check in" (or something to that effect)
Im assuming its possibly for travel agents that book packages for clients? The agent logs in their own Disney account but makes the booking on behalf of the client, and so the client can check in and has access to the booking, just not the account. Either way, It was spanners for days trying to sort it out and involved phone calls to Tokyo which had to go through a translator.....it was a legitimate nightmare.
Taking the miracles where I can get them, I now at least had secured not one but TWO VP's!
I wasnt however able to secure them at the same hotel, so I'll need to do a lot of hotel jumping around. The spanners didint end their though
Even though you can book the VP's 5 months out, You can only book stand alone hotel stays 4 months out. Could a booking system possibly be any more convoluted and difficult if it tried??!!
So then, I had to sweat it out all over again 4 weeks later when the hotel only bookings went live, following the same process of trying to secure a pre, mid and post VP hotel stay
This now left me with 2 VP's in different resorts, plus an additional 3 nights swapping and jumping hotels all over the place. Spanners!
This is how my week at tokyo Disney now looks -
Day 1 - Hotel room only at Ambassador hotel. Purchased a separate stand alone 1 day park ticket to Disney Sea
Day 2 - 1st unlimited Vacation package, inclusive night at Ambassador hotel and park entry to Disneyland with ADR booked for Crystal palace dinner
Day 3 - Inclusive park ticket to Disney sea from VP#1 with ADR booked for Oceano. Stand alone 1 night hotel booking at Disneyland Hotel
Day 4 - 2nd unlimited Vacation package, inclusive of night at Fantasy Springs hotel, 1 day park ticket to Disneyland and ADR's for Baymax curry and dinner at blue Bayou
Day 5 - Day at Disney sea inclusive from 2nd VP ADR's booked for Canelleto and dinner at Magellens. Stand alone hotel booking at Toy story hotel.
Phew! It's been spanner after spannermg:
I'd like to be able to end this section on a positive note, but unfortunately, I'll need to go through this all over again when they finally release the Express passes for Universal studios in Osaka.
I'll give you a quick rundown of the full itinerary as it currently stands -
5th - 7th June - Cathay Pacific business class from Perth to Hong Kong. 2 days at Disneyland. Staying at Explorer's Lodge with character breakfasts at Enchanted garden and Dragon wind.
7th - 9th June - Hong Kong to Tokyo. 2 nights at Shibuya, with a Izakaya tour of Shinjuku booked and tickets to Teamlab borderless
9th - 14th June - Tokyo Disney resort as per above.
14th - 17th June - Bullet train to Kyoto. Staying at the Hotel Seiryu Kizomiyudera (location of this hotel was key, it over looks the Yasaka pagoda and is walking distance to everything. My bank account after booking this hotel is in critical condition however, is still in a severe state of shock and may never recover
Have pre booked a tour of Gion and a Geisha tea ceremony. Have a reservation at Mouriya for Kobe beef teppanyaki (shhh, dont let my bank account know about that one either please
17th - 20th June - Bullet train to Osaka. Staying at Universal Park front hotel. Days at park are yet to be determined. There will be shopping in Dotonbori, a street food tour and possible a side trip to Nara deer park.
20th June - Transfer to KIX airport, stay the night at hotel Nikko, ready to fly back to Perth via Kong Kong on the morning of the 21st.
My plan is to do a single thread daily trip report, live and as it happens, as opposed to taking notes and trying to do it when I get back home. We'll see how the spanners fly with that one!
I've focused mainly on the Disney portion of the pre trip as this is a Disney forum, but when I write my actual trip report, I'll include all the other non Disney days too, incase it helps anyone in their own Japan trip planning.
Thanks for following along! Happy to answer any questions about the trip/booking process for TDR that you may have.
Hope to see you in my actual Trip report soon!
It feels like it's been an absolute lifetime since I last wrote a Trip Report....and in someways I guess it has been. I'm a bit rusty, so please bear with me
,I'm hoping by the end of attempting to construct this Pre-Trippy, I'll be back into the swing of things, and better prepared for my "Live" Thread Trip report in June!
So, who am I? where am I going? and how did this all come about? I hear you say.
Well.....I'm glad you asked
By way of introduction, I am Tippy and welcome to my story
Here is some history for context.....
I am a historical Disser of old and could be classed as somewhat of a WDW/Californian veteran. And by veteran, I mean I threw down at 3am and slugged it out with every other fanatical WDW Go'er, trying to snag those elusive "Breakfast in the Castle" ADR's and dinner at Le Cellier, when it only cost 1 Disney dining table service credit. You get the picture.....
Fast forward a decade and maybe a few extra laps around the sun for good measure, I now find myself living in Australia and about to embark on my first ever Solo!! Disney trip. Yey!!
Now, whilst I have done extensive solo travelling in those intervening years, I have never been back to Disney, and definitely not as a soloist.
As any true Disney fan knows, once you've experienced WDW, it's a magic that truly touches your soul and a special kind of love that never really leaves you. Major Life events may happen of course, and through circumstance or happenstance, reduce that love affair to a tiny ember, that quietly burns deep within your heart. It's a tale as old as time, a spark will forever remain.
And that dormant spark, is always just one wish away from igniting the dusty tinder box that is your heart
This spark however, is often and (inconveniently) accompanied by tears, and occasionally some ugly crying any time you hear a Disney medley being played on a piano. Say for instance, on a cruise ship. Especially after hitting the drinks package hard all day like someone determined to get their "money's worth"
So, how did I go from crying on a cruise ship listening to a pianist play "Can you feel the love tonight" to where I am right now?
Well, again, I'm glad you asked
As soon as I got off the ship and got my land legs back (aka no more drinks package) I knew there and then, I HAD to go back to WDW. My mind was made up. I was resolute in my belief and firm in my decision. Nothing was going to stop me.
And then life, as it invariably does, threw yet another massive spanner in the works that said "Ohhh yeah? We'll see about that!"
Now, as it goes, I am quite accustomed to massive spanners. Life having thrown numerous ones my way over the years. This particular spanner however, saw me having to relocate from the East coast of Australia to the West coast. And that's a REALLY long way.
mg: Dear reader,
Even though she was DETERMINED that nothing was going to stop her from getting to WDW, this massive spanner infact, did.
After a period of time dodging spanners, I had no choice but to accept that my dream of returning to WDW, was a bust. It just wasn't feasible to travel from West to East coast Australia, then on to LAX or Dallas and finally onwards to Orlando.
Then, like any good Disney story, a miracle happened!
Somehow, a vlog on Tokyo Disney found its way into my playlist. I was completely and utterly smitten. I found myself having a quick check on the logistics of actually getting to Japan, only to discover that it was a whole lot closer and more accessible than I'd ever imagined, especially with me now being in West coast Australia! Japan had never been on my travel radar, but it sure as heck was now!
Could it be? Could me dream to go back to Disney be salvaged? That spark in my heart started to burn brightly at the possibility.
I decided to have a little check on the flight situation. Y'know, just out of curiosity
Various routing's, layovers, airlines, redeeming frequent flyer points etc.And would you believe it? Another miracle!
Life for once was throwing me miracles instead of spanners! Cathay Pacific had just released sale fares to Japan. Frantically, not wanting to miss out on the incredible airfare sale, I jumped on the Tokyo Disney website to see what the lowdown was.
And here, Dear reader, is where the miracles once again stopped and the spanners began.
Confronted with trying to price out and rough plan Tokyo Disney, one sentence from a vlogger particularly rang true. "Take everything you know about WDW and throw it out the window. It does NOT apply here"
Now for a methodical, spreadsheet/itinerary type of trip planner like yours truly, this was indeed a spanner of massive proportions.
Trying to navigate the Tokyo Disney booking system was a battle field where the opposing General didn't fight fair. I'm a battle scared, yet victorious WDW veteran. I'd mastered.....neigh CONQUERED the deluxe dining plan. I'd breakfasted with Princesses IN THE CASTLE and fast passed my way from one rope drop to another, park hopping along the way and brandishing my itinerary like a victory flag.
I once again felt defeated before I had even started. And that has been a persistent, recurring spanner since this trip first started coming together.
The first spanner I was hit with once I had semi figured out the Tokyo website and booking system, was that Vacation packages can only be booked 5 months out. Now, I won't go into too much detail about the mechanics of booking one of these things, other than to say they keep changing and are incredibly stressful, with the whole world it seems wanting to visit, VP's being extremely limited and difficult to secure and a website that takes forever to load and then constantly crashes.
So, back to my first world spanner....I couldn't book my vacation package until 5 months out from date of visit. This was a huge problem because I needed to book the flights to take advantage of the sale fare. This in itself was a massive risk, as I was now having to book the flights WITHOUT first securing a Vacation Package, which included the on-property hotel, fast passes, park tickets, ADR's and so on.
If when release day finally came and I failed to secure a Vacation package (from here on out I'll refer to it as a VP) I'd have confirmed flights to Japan and no Disney
After researching crowd levels, wait times and everything else, I had already made the decision that I simply wasn't prepared to attempt to visit Tokyo Disney without a VP (are you still with me readers? It's a mind melt, I know Every time I got a rough workable itinerary together and eagerly awaited the VP release day, the package I had selected and was waiting to book would change, sending me back to the drawing board to re-plan and wishing on the second star to the right that I could still make it work within the parameters of my now booked and non-refundable flights. All told this happened to me THREE TIMES. I need you to just believe me when I tell you it was STRESSFUL with a capital STRESS.
The flights with Cathay Pacific however were just too good to miss out on, so I went ahead, took the chance and booked. I managed to secure a Business class upgrade using frequent flyer points with an additional 2 night stop over in Hong Kong
The only logical thing for any Disney fan to do when in a Country with a Disney Park, is of course to visit!
So now I was getting 2 different Disney experiences instead of one. Yey! for miracles instead of spanners!
Let me just say that the Hong Kong portion of this trip planning has been a BREEZE. I was able to book my chosen Disney property in advance as soon as I'd confirmed my flights (2 nights at Explorer's Lodge) and tickets, character breakfast ADR's etc all in one go, directly on the website. Done and dusted. No spanners involved whatsoever.
Back to Tokyo Disney....
Eventually the booking date for June VP's was released so I was able to lock in my complete itinerary, choose my ADR's and which hotel I wanted. I had done several "dummy bookings" so I was totally and confidentially prepared for when the booking window went "live"
Dear reader, she was NOT totally and confidently prepared at all.
As luck instead of spanners would have it, I was blessed to be off work when my VP booking window opened in January. So, I was able to log on to the Tokyo Disney website with my laptop, ipad and phone around 45min prior to go live time (as recommended by every single vlog/blog/forum I'd researched in the lead up to booking)
As soon as the clock ticked over however, the entire website crashed kicking me out of the queue on every device. I finally got through on my phone but alas more spanners! the date I originally wanted for unlimited VP had already sold out.
I hastily did some itinerary re-shuffling whilst waiting for the website to finally load my place in the booking queue, and this is where prior WDW planning served me well. I had planned enough big trips previously to ALWAYS plan for disaster. Cancelled flights, sick kids, lost luggage etc. I always plan my itineraries with a few set anchor points, and plenty of wiggle room for unforeseen spanners that may come flying my way.
By the time the site was loaded and I was able to book, I'd manage to shuffle everything around enough to make it work and thankfully a miracle instead of a spanner, showed availability for an Unlimited VP on the dates I'd chosen.
But wait, Dear reader, you didn't think that was the end of the spanners, did you???
The next problem came when I had everything selected and tried to check out. I couldn't log into my previously created Disney account. I was starting to sweat it BIG TIME
I'd already missed out on my first chosen dates, now my back up plan was about to go full bag of spanners because no matter what I tried, I couldn't log into my account in order to check out.
This is where it all goes a bit wonky. Bear with me .....
I had previously created a "fictional" Disney account with an old email address, but with a made up name, phone number etc for the express purpose of playing around on the site and doing dummy bookings. I cant for the life of me remember why at the time I did that, but all I can say is, it seemed like a good idea at the time. More often that not however, when things seem "like a good idea at the time" they generally as a rule, are not.
For some reason, the website would not let me log into my "genuine" Disney account. In a moment of sheer panic and frustration (remember earlier when I said I was confidentially prepared for this moment?) I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was, and I panicked big time!
I dont know what came over me, but I wasnt prepared to lose this VP that was sitting in my basket just waiting to check out. I tried logging into my fake account and miracles! It let me log in and proceed to check out!
I knew I was making the booking in the wrong account and the details were all wrong, but I thought I'd just book it anyway and sort out the "semantics" later.
Hoooray! One VP down, One to go! Now, originally I had only planned to book one VP package, which gave me 1 day at Disneyland, 1 day at Disney sea and a 1 night hotel stay, with an express pass that gave me unlimited rides in both parks.
As I was just finishing up the first booking process, my laptop's place in the booking queue gave me access and I could see availability for a second VP right after the first. Confusing I know
well done if you are managing to follow along!I jumped in and secured a second VP and miracles or spanners, at this point they are all the same, I was somehow able to log into my CORRECT Disney account.
Booking complete. However I now had 1 booking under my correct account and 1 under my fake one.
Lets just say, that it is not a good idea to book a VP on any account other than your own genuine one. Not even Disney were able to change the details or merge the bookings.
My one saving grace was that I had the foresight to write my real name and email address in a little box that said "The following person has authorization to discuss/access this booking and check in" (or something to that effect)
Im assuming its possibly for travel agents that book packages for clients? The agent logs in their own Disney account but makes the booking on behalf of the client, and so the client can check in and has access to the booking, just not the account. Either way, It was spanners for days trying to sort it out and involved phone calls to Tokyo which had to go through a translator.....it was a legitimate nightmare.
Taking the miracles where I can get them, I now at least had secured not one but TWO VP's!
I wasnt however able to secure them at the same hotel, so I'll need to do a lot of hotel jumping around. The spanners didint end their though
Even though you can book the VP's 5 months out, You can only book stand alone hotel stays 4 months out. Could a booking system possibly be any more convoluted and difficult if it tried??!!
So then, I had to sweat it out all over again 4 weeks later when the hotel only bookings went live, following the same process of trying to secure a pre, mid and post VP hotel stay
This now left me with 2 VP's in different resorts, plus an additional 3 nights swapping and jumping hotels all over the place. Spanners!
This is how my week at tokyo Disney now looks -
Day 1 - Hotel room only at Ambassador hotel. Purchased a separate stand alone 1 day park ticket to Disney Sea
Day 2 - 1st unlimited Vacation package, inclusive night at Ambassador hotel and park entry to Disneyland with ADR booked for Crystal palace dinner
Day 3 - Inclusive park ticket to Disney sea from VP#1 with ADR booked for Oceano. Stand alone 1 night hotel booking at Disneyland Hotel
Day 4 - 2nd unlimited Vacation package, inclusive of night at Fantasy Springs hotel, 1 day park ticket to Disneyland and ADR's for Baymax curry and dinner at blue Bayou
Day 5 - Day at Disney sea inclusive from 2nd VP ADR's booked for Canelleto and dinner at Magellens. Stand alone hotel booking at Toy story hotel.
Phew! It's been spanner after spanner
mg:I'd like to be able to end this section on a positive note, but unfortunately, I'll need to go through this all over again when they finally release the Express passes for Universal studios in Osaka.
I'll give you a quick rundown of the full itinerary as it currently stands -
5th - 7th June - Cathay Pacific business class from Perth to Hong Kong. 2 days at Disneyland. Staying at Explorer's Lodge with character breakfasts at Enchanted garden and Dragon wind.
7th - 9th June - Hong Kong to Tokyo. 2 nights at Shibuya, with a Izakaya tour of Shinjuku booked and tickets to Teamlab borderless
9th - 14th June - Tokyo Disney resort as per above.
14th - 17th June - Bullet train to Kyoto. Staying at the Hotel Seiryu Kizomiyudera (location of this hotel was key, it over looks the Yasaka pagoda and is walking distance to everything. My bank account after booking this hotel is in critical condition however, is still in a severe state of shock and may never recover
Have pre booked a tour of Gion and a Geisha tea ceremony. Have a reservation at Mouriya for Kobe beef teppanyaki (shhh, dont let my bank account know about that one either please
17th - 20th June - Bullet train to Osaka. Staying at Universal Park front hotel. Days at park are yet to be determined. There will be shopping in Dotonbori, a street food tour and possible a side trip to Nara deer park.
20th June - Transfer to KIX airport, stay the night at hotel Nikko, ready to fly back to Perth via Kong Kong on the morning of the 21st.
My plan is to do a single thread daily trip report, live and as it happens, as opposed to taking notes and trying to do it when I get back home. We'll see how the spanners fly with that one!
I've focused mainly on the Disney portion of the pre trip as this is a Disney forum, but when I write my actual trip report, I'll include all the other non Disney days too, incase it helps anyone in their own Japan trip planning.
Thanks for following along!
Happy to answer any questions about the trip/booking process for TDR that you may have. Hope to see you in my actual Trip report soon!
