Help! Planning snafus

[heybets30]

So, I've mentioned in previous responses that we (family of 4) are looking at celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary, and my big 5-0 November bday by hopefully going to Japan from Thursday, November 5th - Sunday, November 15th. Joking to hubby that maybe we just go on an ABC island cruise on Royal Caribbean - less than $4000 total with airfare in/out of San Juan.

Hotels & even Airbnbs/VRBO around Japan seem to be low supply, and airfare is running around $1200-2500 - some $2500+ ... I was expecting closer to $1200 across the board for airfare, I guess. I just checked ANA, they were pricing out around $2500/pp. We have about 180,000 miles on American, but definitely not enough for free flights - AND, they don't fly nonstop.

I'm wondering if there's something going on in Japan during that time that it seems so "busy" or expensive?? Hotels that seem to show "$125" on every website for most dates, all of a sudden seem to be $350+ (or showing NOT AVAILABLE) ... and, many of the hotels, we would need 2 rooms given our daughter is 13 ... that seems to put her above the "child" age, and that for a family of 4 we need to have 2 rooms. Son will be 11 at travel time.

Airbnbs about 4 months ago when I was looking on a whim seemed plentiful, now I get messages that "only 25% of these types of accommodations are still available" - something to that effect.

Just wondering if I'm missing something. So many people have said that Japan is VERY affordable for hotels/rooms, etc. Am I just being unrealistic? Or, is something going on driving up the prices early November?? Airfare, for instance, if we fly back on the 15th - doubles. On the 14th? less expensive. We knew we'd have to fork out around $4500-ish for airfare, but also trying not to make this an $8000 trip! Ironically, DisneySea seems like the deal of the century per person! Wow is that cheap (compared to DLR of course!).

And - please help me think this through - we would spend the first part of our trip in Tyoko, then spend a day at DisneySea in the middle, then bullet train to Kyoto. Is it insane to stay in our Tokyo hotel/airbnb, go to DisneySea one morning, then come back to place late at night, to check out the next morning for bullet train? Thinking it would be a pain to change locations/accommodations to spend at DisneySea since we're only spending 1 day at a park.

Thoughts? I don't want to sound cheap, but we also didn't think we'd be spending a small fortune for a 10-day trip! Thanks!

 

[heybets30]

On my 4th try on American's website, I do get a nonstop option. How bizarre. Kept wanting me to stop in Dallas instead of an ORD-Tokyo nonstop!

 

[kbmartin]

I would think that many hotels aren't booking out that far yet. I am traveling to Japan in April with my DH and really wanted to book everything over the summer when I had extensive time to research (I'm a teacher), but the hotels often only book 3-6 months in advance. I was not able to book the Tokyo hotel I wanted until October (for April). Another thing I did not realize until I researched is that many hotels charge per person, not per room. So, sometimes it would look like a hotel room would be $150 per night, when it would really be $300 per night. You can find out if a hotel does this by going through the process of booking a room (without actually booking).

And yes, I'm also finding that the Tokyo Disney part of our trip is MUCH cheaper!

I see you're from IL. I'm right over the border in WI, so I would assume you're probably going out of ORD as well. We are flying ANA non-stop and booked RT for about $1700 (economy). That is the total price for both my DH and me. I booked this as soon as it became available in May (so, I booked about a year in advance). Just wanted to give you some perspective.

If you are doing Disney for just one day, maybe look into picking a TDR Good Neighbor hotel in Tokyo that has a bus to the parks every day (like Keio Plaza Hotel). That would make getting there so much easier and more comfortable, especially if only for one day. Personally, I wouldn't want to deal with the hassle of trying to get to TDR from the heart of Tokyo through the subway system. A day at Disney on my feet is already exhausting - I wouldn't want to be standing on the subway for another hour or so, trying to navigate back to our hotel. (Don't do a taxi - they are ridiculously expensive in Tokyo.)

Well, good luck!

 

[LovesTimone]

We are in the planning stages for November 2020... from what I am seeing... lots of the hotels are not booking that far out... Right now we are waiting for approval for DH's time off... and I am shopping.... really stalking airfare right now... We want to go business class... so alot to sift through....

 

[nono]

All airfare this far out is what they *hope* to get. We just returned and even during New Year's, we didn't have to pay $2500 a ticket from the East Coast of US. There are a LOT of new flights coming online for 2020 both from ANA and United (probably others too), that will continue post-Olympics, so prices may soften up in a bit as the supply goes way up.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I don't know why your prices are so expensive.

Where are you flying from? If you're flexible with your travel date +/- 2 days, you should be able to find a flight to Tokyo from any major US hub for $1,000 or less this far out.
I often stay at the Courtyard in Tokyo Station which is usually less than $200 per room. If you are looking for a standard chain hotel, you'll be hard pressed to find something less than $125 but if you're a bit flexible with the exact property, there's no reason to be paying $350 per night per room unless you're at a more luxurious property.

In terms of if switching hotels is necessary, it depends on how you plan to get to TDR. If there's a direct bus or if you're along the Keiyo subway line, the travel to the park is not too bad. Do note that some of the buses don't arrive till after park open though. This is one of the reasons I sometimes stay near Yokohama station for TDR trips. It seems very far but it's possible to sleep on the bus and the first buses arrive at the resort early enough for me.

 

[heybets30]

gelatoni fan - we're flying out of Chicago O'Hare. All the aifare was minimum $1200 ... BUT, we managed to finnagle 3 free JAL flights wiping out literally every single American Airlines mile we had! Between 4 of us, we're left with a whopping 836 miles. My will be 11-year old son qualifies for JAL's "reduced" airfare, so he cost us $836 out-of-pocket.

It cost $1400 for 4 of us, after the fees for transferring mileage across 3 people, and then my son's ticket price. We were VERY pleased with that final price for 4 of us to fly nonstop to Japan! We wanted to book something NOW, rather than wait for prices to fluctuate - AND, we hear from Chicago, it's really only going to dip to about $960-ish for ANA or JAL. Not many deals to fly nonstop! We have a few friends who fly to Japan regularly, and said we should expect to pay around $1000-$1200. So, all good now, panic over!