Fall 2019 trip?

[Sarahboo]

My husband and I are headed to Japan for 14 days in November, is anyone else going this fall?

Right now our plans are:

November 7 - Leave Portland (Direct Delta flight from PDX to Narita)
November 8 - Arrive in Tokyo about 3pm, taking the JR Narita Express to Shibuya, find our AirBNB, then we have a sake tasting around the corner, then SLEEEEEEP
November 9 - MariCar in Shibuya, Disney Store to get Disney tickets, Genki Sushi for Lunch, then off to Shinjuku where we have late afternoon tix to the Robot Restaurant
November 10 - A private wine tasting tour in Yamanashi
November 11 - Asakusa and Akihabara
November 12 - DisneySea
November 13 - Disneyland
November 14 - Imperial Palace, Fish Market, dinner at Tapas Molecular
November 15 - Digital Art Museum, Trick Art Museum, Odaiba in general, Frog is Stranger Than Fiction
November 16 - Studio Ghibli tix (if we can get them, the museum is closed in November until this date so I imagine it will be even harder than normal), if we can't get Studio Ghibli tix, we'll go to Enoshima Island
November 17 - Shinkansen to Osaka, walk to Dotonburri, check into AIRBNB, Kuroman Market, Namba Yukasa Shrine
November 18 - Kyoto (still haven't decided if we're doing an organized tour or hoofing it ourselves)
November 19 - Maybe Universal Studios, Maybe Hiroshima, Maybe more Osaka
November 20 - Osaka Castle, Flame Throwing Izakaya, VR Place, Cup Noodles Museum (maybe, if time allows)
November 21 - Shinkansen back to Tokyo, travel to Narita, fly home.



We're trying to figure out what the best plan for DisneySea is now that Soarin is open, but TDR explorer hasn't done an updated park plan yet. Any tips?

 

[gelatoni fan]

Are you staying at a Disney hotel? This makes a huge difference at Disneysea.

If you aren't staying at a Disney hotel, you will have to choose between a FP for Soaring or Toy Story Mania since the other will be gone by the time your 2 hours are up. I recommend grabbing the Soaring FP and then doing Toy Story Mania after the fireworks when the line isn't as long. Or if you have access to Midway Mania or Toy Story Mania in the US, you may elect to skip this because the differences in the ride are very minor. Journey to the Center of the Earth will still be closed during your trip. Also note that the Venetian gondolas likely have a 45 minute wait at night since everyone wants to sail past a Fantasmic sized Christmas tree and watch the Afterglow from on the water.

You'll have to check next month which shows will have lotteries. Since this is the first year that Hello New York will have a Christmas version, it may be quite popular. Song of Mirage has been having lotteries for all shows so if you don't win the lottery, you will have to decide if you want to brave the standby wait. The first show of It's Christmas Time will likely not have a lottery while the later shows will.

 

[Sarahboo]

That's super helpful! We are not staying at a Disney Hotel, but we've been to Disneyland or Disneyworld every year, so we don't mind skipping TSMM (even though I love it). I'd rather see the new Soarin.

We were thinking to get a FP for Soarin and then head to ToT.

I am super nervous about the crowds, but the crowd calendar shows the two days we're going as the lowest crowds of our whole time in Japan. (That's also why we're not staying at a Disney hotel because it's right in the middle of our time in Tokyo making it a total pain to move hotels, then move hotels again, but we wanted togo on lower crowd days rather than stay at a disney hotel since we had to choose between the two).

 

[LovesTimone]

I am planning for next year, There are several things that you have planned that I have not heard about, so I will be checking them out...
Especially the private wine tasting, would you mind sharing what company you are using? this something that DH and I would love... and the Tapas Molecular, sound super interesting...

That's the problem when you are planning a big trip like this, so much to sift through... then the amount of time you have you have to pick and choose...

DH really wants to check out Sumo wrestling... so I am working on that right now, even if we can't go to a match, maybe a exhibition, sparing, or training would be really cool... We wanted to go to a baseball game, the season ends in October, ( I think)

I hope that you will write a trip report when you guys get back...

 

[catmegs]

We just returned two weeks ago from our first trip to Tokyo DL/ DS, and my big lesson from the trip was- don't underestimate DS crowds. We planned our trip for what the crowd calendar stated was the slowest week of the year (first week of September), and I equated DisneySea crowds to be like California DL crowds Thanksgiving week... it was pretty intense. I am not sure with the new parks app (only available on Japan iTunes) if walkup fastpasses for Soaring are even logistically possibly anymore. We arrived a 45 minutes before opening to rope drop DS and the fast passes were gone as soon as we got in and walked there. The line never dipped below 3+ hours the whole day, even when we were leaving at firework time and they cut the line off. It was insane. To give you a further idea of crowds, we walked straight from rope drop to Indiana Jones, and within half an hour of park opening Indy was at 90min (thank god for single rider!). There were lines for food, popcorn carts, just about everything... I think the opening of Soaring has increased local attendance considerably from the crowd estimates). On a positive note, Disneyland was much better. Arrived half an hour after rope drop, lower crowds, a ton of characters with minimal waits. We enjoyed it so much more.

 

[gelatoni fan]

We arrived a 45 minutes before opening to rope drop DS and the fast passes were gone as soon as we got in and walked there. The line never dipped below 3+ hours the whole day, even when we were leaving at firework time and they cut the line off. It was insane.

45 minutes before park open is late for Disneysea if you're trying to do anything meaningful at rope drop. Most of the hotels near Bayside station start breakfast at 6:30 so those people are at the gates shortly after 7AM. If you aren't eating breakfast on site, it's best to arrive at Disneysea as close to 6:30 at possible to be ahead of the breakfast eaters. At least last week, the crowds didn't seem larger than normal and I felt that Soaring ate some of the lines making waits for non-Etickets and character greetings slightly lower than usual. With fewer attractions, Disneysea simply has longer lines than Disneyland most of the time.

 

[Haley R]

45 minutes before park open is late for Disneysea if you're trying to do anything meaningful at rope drop. Most of the hotels near Bayside station start breakfast at 6:30 so those people are at the gates shortly after 7AM. If you aren't eating breakfast on site, it's best to arrive at Disneysea as close to 6:30 at possible to be ahead of the breakfast eaters. At least last week, the crowds didn't seem larger than normal and I felt that Soaring ate some of the lines making waits for non-Etickets and character greetings slightly lower than usual. With fewer attractions, Disneysea simply has longer lines than Disneyland most of the time.

We went in June and arrived around an hour and 15 minutes before park open and the lines were already long. We were about 20 people or so back from the turnstile

 

[corgi_monster]

My family and I will be in Japan on almost the exact same dates, but we’ll be in Osaka first then heading up to Tokyo for the second half of our trip.

My daughter turned three this year, and we’re taking her to the shrine for her Shichigosan blessing. It’s a coming-of-age ceremony that’s supposed to take place on Nov. 15th but is usually celebrated on the surrounding weekends. If you visit one of the bigger shrines (not temple) on the 16th and 17th, you’ll see a lot of kids dressed up in formal kimonos. It’s ridiculously cute!

In Kyoto, I would try to find a private tour guide or go it alone. You want to be ahead of the tour groups, not part of one. Trying to hike up the narrow paths of Fushimi Inari with 200 people in front of you is extremely frustrating ... especially when every single one of them stops to take a picture every ten seconds. Your money is better spent taking taxis between sites.

Have a great trip

 

[Sarahboo]

I am planning for next year, There are several things that you have planned that I have not heard about, so I will be checking them out...
Especially the private wine tasting, would you mind sharing what company you are using? this something that DH and I would love... and the Tapas Molecular, sound super interesting...

That's the problem when you are planning a big trip like this, so much to sift through... then the amount of time you have you have to pick and choose...

DH really wants to check out Sumo wrestling... so I am working on that right now, even if we can't go to a match, maybe a exhibition, sparing, or training would be really cool... We wanted to go to a baseball game, the season ends in October, ( I think)

I hope that you will write a trip report when you guys get back...

I'm hoping to do a trip report when we get back, but we might do more of a video series. I REALLY wanted to see sumo wrestlers, but didn't realize that the tournament is pretty far away from anywhere we'll be while we're there. It'll give us something to look forward to for the next trip!

This is the wine tasting trip we're doing (we're just doing the one day so we meet the guide at a train station at 10am and they bring us back to the station at the end of the tour):

http://www.ecotoursjapan.com/winery-wine-tasting.html

 

[LovesTimone]

I'm hoping to do a trip report when we get back, but we might do more of a video series. I REALLY wanted to see sumo wrestlers, but didn't realize that the tournament is pretty far away from anywhere we'll be while we're there. It'll give us something to look forward to for the next trip!

This is the wine tasting trip we're doing (we're just doing the one day so we meet the guide at a train station at 10am and they bring us back to the station at the end of the tour):

http://www.ecotoursjapan.com/winery-wine-tasting.html

Thanks so much for the link... I will check it out.... I googled sumo wrestling, and there are a few spots, where the retired wrestler's have sorta a training camp, exhibitions, history, and even some offer a meal that a typical sumo wrestler might eat during a day... I did find a general times of year that they have the tournaments, I am going to keep researching...

Thanks again...