Returned from Japan (gone almost 3 weeks) on Monday, returned to work on Tuesday and for some reason jetlag is hitting me a bit harder than I anticipated. Japan was AWESOME -- dd and I spent 3 days in Kyoto on our own (LOVED Kyoto) before joining our ABD tour. The ABD tour was beyond amazing -- this is 1 trip that I'd actually consider doing again, which is something I've never said before (it was our 8th trip with them).
As some may recall we did 3 nights (after our 2 nights / 3 days at Tokyo Disney booked through ABD {for the extra FPs which were lifesavers with the crowded parks -- on our last day we rode 11 rides between 10am and 4:00pm with just FPs, including my favorite, Toy Story 3 times}) Park Hyatt on points / cash combo. I wanted to give a bit of a review.
The staff at the hotel are very nice and service was great. However I wouldn't recommend this hotel. There are a few reasons: i) location is not great -- it is in the Shinjuku (business) district and a 10 minute walk from the subway, which is a huge pain ii) we had a park king one bedroom suite (on cash / points), which needed a refresh; it was very nicely done when the hotel opened (maybe 15 or so years ago), but it's showing wear, the furniture is outdated and there are mirrors everywhere (including in the commode room) was odd and definitely dated the room (though the view of Mount Fuji was amazing -- probably my favorite part of the room iii) the hotel is located on the 41st floor of an office tower; to access the guest elevators you must take an elevator to the 41st floor, then walk down and around a few corridors to access the elevators to the guest rooms; not a huge deal, but not my favorite set up either -- allow 5 - 7 minutes to get to the front of the hotel; also there were a few times when business people were attending an event on the 39th floor (which shares the hotel elevator) and we experienced a bit of a wait and iv) $50.00 per person for the breakfast buffet!!! Dd and I ordered off the menu on our first morning (thinking I could save a bit of money, but it ended up costing more); the next 2 mornings I picked up pastries / yogurt at a cafe the night before and we ate in the room.
Edited to add 1 final point about the hotel: I visited the New York Bar on my last night to see what the hype was about (while I don't normally go to bars solo I felt it was a *must do* at this particular hotel; there was a nice jazz band playing and I enjoyed the music; I ordered a drink and secured a window seat (gorgeous view), HOWEVER the bar allows smoking (I didn't even realize this was allowed) and the table of 6 next to me were all smoking. I managed a few sips of my drink, got the bill and went to leave, alas the band pulled me back in for a few more songs, but I stood closer to the exit where the smell of smoke wasn't as pervasive. I'd say the bar is riding on its reputation from Lost in Translation because it didn't do much for me (my view may have been different if it was non-smoking). Just my $0.02 of course!
With ABD we stayed at the Peninsula and it was GORGEOUS. Location was ideal -- a brief 2 or 3 minute walk to 2 subway lines and walking distance to a plethora of shops / restaurants. If we visit Tokyo again I'll stay at the Peninsula -- the location of the Park Hyatt was a huge detractor for me.
Any questions let me know.
We both LOVED Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Shirakawa-go, Odawara, Takayama and Hakone) -- it's a spectacular country with delicious food and some of the kindest people I have met while traveling. DisneySea was my favorite of the 2 Disney parks by a wide margin.
The 70k for $4000 spend offer is good. There's also a 75k for $5000, but probably not worth an extra $1000 spend for 5k miles.
Yep, slightly irrational Before we moved into current house, hired a cleaning service to do pre move in cleaning.
