It's official...ABD is going to Japan!

[OhanaCuz]

I thought when we visited last year that we'd just be crossing off the rest of our visit every Disney park in the world list. We knew fairly quickly we'd be coming back every few years. Scotland is another country we go back to nearly every year. There are some places that I just fall in love with and want to revisit. That said, we still go check out new places each year. The bucket list doesn't ever seem to get shorter. The more I cross off the list, the more I wind up adding to it.

The Beauty and Beast ride TDR is getting looks crazy good.

 

[calypso726]

The Beauty and Beast ride TDR is getting looks crazy good.

It does! It adds to the incentive to go back again.

 

[sayhello]

We arrive late on May 31st!

So we will be ships that pass in the night! Darn! I will get to meet you guys one of these days!

I don't recall if you have one of the Chase Ultimate Reward earning cards that has an annual fee like Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve. If you do, you can use Ultimate Reward points to pay for a hotel even if they don't have award nights. You just book it through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal and use points to pay.

I do, but I used all my Ultimate Reward points to help pay for my Final payment for the ABD. So none of those to use right now! Just IHG points.

I arrive late on the 18th, and have set up a "Lunch with a Local" in Kyoto for the 19th. The woman it's with has a cooking school, and does these cooking demonstrations/lunches in her studio with a small group of people. I'm really looking forward to it!

Sayhello

 

[calypso726]

I do, but I used all my Ultimate Reward points to help pay for my Final payment for the ABD. So none of those to use right now! Just IHG points.

I arrive late on the 18th, and have set up a "Lunch with a Local" in Kyoto for the 19th. The woman it's with has a cooking school, and does these cooking demonstrations/lunches in her studio with a small group of people. I'm really looking forward to it!

Sayhello

Ah, makes sense

Oh that sounds really neat! Great idea.

 

[RhiannonGator]

Well, shoot. That's going to take some re-thinking. I'm used to using the ATM when I need cash, especially at the end, for the Adventure Guide tips. I'm not a fan of shlepping that much cash around with me anymore. I believe I read that 7-11's are all over the place, though.

Honestly all - please don't stress about the ATMs! It is absolutely true that you cannot withdraw money at just any ATM, but the convenience stores are absolutely everywhere. (And they are a legitimate place to get some food if you want something fast! They'll heat it up for you and you can eat it there.) I live 2 miles from work and pass at least 8! There are ATMs at the airport that you can use if you worried about needing yen right away. Some non-convenience store ATMs are usable, usually in popular tourist spots - they advertise "International ATM."
Many places do take card now but a lot of smaller eateries still only take yen, as well as some shops. This is definitely not a place you need to be nervous about carrying cash on you.
Something you may want to consider when deciding how much to pull out - most ATM will charge fee of 108yen for 10,000, 216yen for 20k, and maxes out at 216 if you go higher. So if you know you'll need it, you save a bit by minimizing withdrawals. Oh and some will give you a "partial change" option!! This will give you 10,000 of your withdrawal in 1000 bills, instead of getting all 10,000 bills! (This is now something my husband and I yell at each other when going to ATM - "don't forget the partial change!")

 

[Mathmagicland]

Honestly all - please don't stress about the ATMs! It is absolutely true that you cannot withdraw money at just any ATM, but the convenience stores are absolutely everywhere. (And they are a legitimate place to get some food if you want something fast! They'll heat it up for you and you can eat it there.) I live 2 miles from work and pass at least 8! There are ATMs at the airport that you can use if you worried about needing yen right away. Some non-convenience store ATMs are usable, usually in popular tourist spots - they advertise "International ATM."
Many places do take card now but a lot of smaller eateries still only take yen, as well as some shops. This is definitely not a place you need to be nervous about carrying cash on you.
Something you may want to consider when deciding how much to pull out - most ATM will charge fee of 108yen for 10,000, 216yen for 20k, and maxes out at 216 if you go higher. So if you know you'll need it, you save a bit by minimizing withdrawals. Oh and some will give you a "partial change" option!! This will give you 10,000 of your withdrawal in 1000 bills, instead of getting all 10,000 bills! (This is now something my husband and I yell at each other when going to ATM - "don't forget the partial change!")

Thanks so much for this info! One question back for you - is the withdrawal limit set by the card being used for the withdrawal or it is set by machine or Japan ATM Policy.

 

[PrincessDisneyFan]

Hi! I thought about booking room packages for the post stay but we want to try for a Harbor View Room again. My understanding is that none of the room packages come with option for a Harbor View room.

I thought when we visited last year that we'd just be crossing off the rest of our visit every Disney park in the world list. We knew fairly quickly we'd be coming back every few years. Scotland is another country we go back to nearly every year. There are some places that I just fall in love with and want to revisit. That said, we still go check out new places each year. The bucket list doesn't ever seem to get shorter. The more I cross off the list, the more I wind up adding to it.

I do think this trip will be phenomenal! The Disney parks are icing on the cake.

You can get side harbor view rooms... not the balcony ones... but from what I understand in the package we got we are on the Porto Side. They go very quickly too. I had to be on at 6 months 11 AM Japan Time.

Something to think about if you are still interested... because the ABD add on is insanely expensive. We did 2 nights with one package (many attractions) and 2 nights with the other package (entertainment) ... total was 5 grand for all 4 nights.

 

[sayhello]

Honestly all - please don't stress about the ATMs! It is absolutely true that you cannot withdraw money at just any ATM, but the convenience stores are absolutely everywhere. (And they are a legitimate place to get some food if you want something fast! They'll heat it up for you and you can eat it there.) I live 2 miles from work and pass at least 8! There are ATMs at the airport that you can use if you worried about needing yen right away. Some non-convenience store ATMs are usable, usually in popular tourist spots - they advertise "International ATM."
Many places do take card now but a lot of smaller eateries still only take yen, as well as some shops. This is definitely not a place you need to be nervous about carrying cash on you.
Something you may want to consider when deciding how much to pull out - most ATM will charge fee of 108yen for 10,000, 216yen for 20k, and maxes out at 216 if you go higher. So if you know you'll need it, you save a bit by minimizing withdrawals. Oh and some will give you a "partial change" option!! This will give you 10,000 of your withdrawal in 1000 bills, instead of getting all 10,000 bills! (This is now something my husband and I yell at each other when going to ATM - "don't forget the partial change!")

Thank you! This is very useful information!

Sayhello

 

[ChrisFL]

I will say 7-11's ATM's are usually the best to find...also apparently post offices have ATM's that are international card friendly.

 

[Mathmagicland]

I just realized I needed different adapters for Japan, and bought those!

Hi @sayhello - quick question what sort of different adapters did you get? It was my understanding that on Japan we could use our 2-prong plugs but 3 prong grounded plugs would not work.

 

[RhiannonGator]

Thanks so much for this info! One question back for you - is the withdrawal limit set by the card being used for the withdrawal or it is set by machine or Japan ATM Policy.

It varies by machine. I’ve been able to withdraw 60k yen because my atm limit is $600, but I’ve also been limited to 50k by the machine (and it was truly the atm, because I immediately withdrew another 10k because I needed it).
I find Family Mart typically given me a slightly better exchange rate than 7-11 - yes I tested the same day haha! Not enough to go out of your way, but if they are across from each other I’ll go over to Family Mart. And I’ve only seen 7-11 offer the 1000 bills for a 10k withdrawal only, where some Family Mart have the partial change.

 

[sayhello]

Hi @sayhello - quick question what sort of different adapters did you get? It was my understanding that on Japan we could use our 2-prong plugs but 3 prong grounded plugs would not work.

I've been told that some places, the outlets may not accommodate plugs that have one prong wider than the other. So the adapters I got can handle both 3-prong grounded plugs and two-prong with one prong wider and go down to 2 prongs of the same size.

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

To those heading out to the inaugural Japan ABD, safe travels and ENJOY!! So excited for you and so excited to hear about your trip!!

Sayhello

 

[Mathmagicland]

To those heading out to the inaugural Japan ABD, safe travels and ENJOY!! So excited for you and so excited to hear about your trip!!

Sayhello

Arigato! Finishing the last of the packing this morning...

 

[Mathmagicland]

For those of us who have been on this planning journey to get to today’s departure -

I said I’d do a trip report, and I am going to try to post as I go, following @calypso726. So here is the link to it with the first post, which is a summary of the helpful to me planning tools. I wanted to get it started before I left. I’m posting the link only here until it is finished, then I will share with the AbD trip report thread.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/abd-japan-april-2019-inaugural-trip.3744594/

Next post will be from Japan

 

[ChrisFL]

Don't forget, the exchange rate is good and it's easy to calculate prices of things, just add a decimal point and it will be close to what you'd see in dollar amounts, because it's nearly 100 to 1 (currently it's 90 to 1)

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Update: my niece's fiance just called me and told me that my niece called off the wedding on Saturday. Very, very sad.

I'm about to try to change our flight back to Toronto to give us a few more days in Tokyo.

I have already changed our flights -- we are leaving on Monday, June 17th. I also booked 3 nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo after Disney.

We will do 2 nights / 3 days at Disney, then leave for Tokyo for 3 more nights. This works out perfectly because I really wanted to spend more time in Tokyo. I had thought about spending another night at Disney, but I read that the parks get super busy on weekends and I am not partial to crowds, so this works out better for us.

I was able to get a park king suite using points & cash for 3 nights, so this will be a nice treat!

I do feel terrible for my brother and his family. Can't be easy. Probably why he hasn't told me.

 

[NashSmartGuy]

So . . . I’m on the inaugural trip, but you’d never know it. We’re only a couple days into the Adventure, and things are going great. I think everyone is going to be happy with this Adventure. I’m probably not going to do a trip report, but I’m posting a few pictures every day on my Instagram feed, if you want to follow along! @markaslagle I’m trying not to post anything that would be a spoiler.

 

[OhanaCuz]

So . . . I’m on the inaugural trip, but you’d never know it. We’re only a couple days into the Adventure, and things are going great. I think everyone is going to be happy with this Adventure. I’m probably not going to do a trip report, but I’m posting a few pictures every day on my Instagram feed, if you want to follow along! @markaslagle I’m trying not to post anything that would be a spoiler.

I like that pin!

 

[Mathmagicland]

Update: my niece's fiance just called me and told me that my niece called off the wedding on Saturday. Very, very sad.

I'm about to try to change our flight back to Toronto to give us a few more days in Tokyo.

I have already changed our flights -- we are leaving on Monday, June 17th. I also booked 3 nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo after Disney.

We will do 2 nights / 3 days at Disney, then leave for Tokyo for 3 more nights. This works out perfectly because I really wanted to spend more time in Tokyo. I had thought about spending another night at Disney, but I read that the parks get super busy on weekends and I am not partial to crowds, so this works out better for us.

I was able to get a park king suite using points & cash for 3 nights, so this will be a nice treat!

I do feel terrible for my brother and his family. Can't be easy. Probably why he hasn't told me.

I’m very sorry for your niece and family, but on the flip side happy for you that you are able to extend your Japan trip to do the additional things you’d like