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

[AdamEfimoff]

I have not. The closest I have come is going to the Ghibli museum (which was great) but there weren't any animators there or anything.

damn I really want to do this . really at at all costs.

 

[AquaDame]

damn I really want to do this . really at at all costs.

It doesn't cost much at all.. if you live in the US just use their designated sales branch/TA here: https://online.jtbusa.com/Services/GhibliMuseum.aspx to buy them ahead of time. You *can* wait until you're in Japan to try and buy them at Lawsons or elsewhere but face a very real risk of them already being sold out for the day/week/month by the time you are there.

 

[OhanaCuz]

It doesn't cost much at all.. if you live in the US just use their designated sales branch/TA here: https://online.jtbusa.com/Services/GhibliMuseum.aspx to buy them ahead of time. You *can* wait until you're in Japan to try and buy them at Lawsons or elsewhere but face a very real risk of them already being sold out for the day/week/month by the time you are there.

To add to this advice if I remember correctly I don't think you can just walk up to the ticket booth, buy tickets, and go in. You have to reserve a timeslot.

 

[lildreamer101]

Any itinerary posted or revealed yet?

 

[Travel junkie]

Woohoo!! Can’t wait! We were unable to agree for our 2019 family trip, but now with Japan we may have found our answer.

 

[Travel junkie]

Any itinerary posted or revealed yet?

Not yet. Hopefully soon. In past I think ABD posts dates around April.

 

[lildreamer101]

Not yet. Hopefully soon. In past I think ABD posts dates around April.

Oh? I can't wait! Thanks!

 

[sayhello]

Oh? I can't wait! Thanks!

Generally, it's been May. But there have been a few early announcements of new itineraries in April.

Sayhello

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

@sayhello - are you going to Japan with ABD? I am still on the fence due to timing. We can depart Toronto on June 16 but would have to back in the states around July 4. We will need a few days in Tokyo on our own to spend (extra?) time at the parks, the Ghibli museum (I don't think ABD would be able to get tickets for this due to the strict limitation on tickets for foreigners), Harajuku, the Pokemon store and the Anime area. I can't see ABD doing these things.

Now that I have started doing research on Japan I would also consider a private tour to tailor to our specific tastes. However I have a deposit with ABD that I need to put on a trip (since I will be cancelling our Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos trip in December), so I feel like we will go if we can make it work.

 

[sayhello]

@sayhello - are you going to Japan with ABD? I am still on the fence due to timing. We can depart Toronto on June 16 but would have to back in the states around July 4. We will need a few days in Tokyo on our own to spend (extra?) time at the parks, the Ghibli museum (I don't think ABD would be able to get tickets for this due to the strict limitation on tickets for foreigners), Harajuku, the Pokemon store and the Anime area. I can't see ABD doing these things.

Now that I have started doing research on Japan I would also consider a private tour to tailor to our specific tastes. However I have a deposit with ABD that I need to put on a trip (since I will be cancelling our Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos trip in December), so I feel like we will go if we can make it work.

I *am* planning on doing Japan with ABD, unless I don't like the itinerary, which I doubt will be the case . I have *no* idea of timing for this one. I need to research when the rainy season starts & ends, because I don't want to travel during that time. But when Japan was first announced, several people here put forth the idea of a bunch of us signing up for the same trip, so I also need to see if that happens or not.

I would also want extra time in Tokyo for the parks and at least the Ghibli museum. We shall see!

Sayhello

 

[RSM]

Just to give everyone a sense, advanced tickets for the Ghibli Museum, through JTB are sold out through June. They sell for the current month plus 3 months in advance. So, on April 1 you will be able to buy for July. I've been tracking and they sell out really fast. Not sure if there are more available in Tokyo, but it looks like you need to really plan if you want to go on your own. It does look like there are some day tours that include it, so that is another avenue if you want to go.

 

[OhanaCuz]

Those of you going to the Ghibli museum give yourselves time just talk walk around the surrounding neighborhood. There was a beautiful lake we walked by (it was even sakura time!) that had swan boats. I found the whole area charming.

 

[sayhello]

Just to give everyone a sense, advanced tickets for the Ghibli Museum, through JTB are sold out through June. They sell for the current month plus 3 months in advance. So, on April 1 you will be able to buy for July. I've been tracking and they sell out really fast. Not sure if there are more available in Tokyo, but it looks like you need to really plan if you want to go on your own. It does look like there are some day tours that include it, so that is another avenue if you want to go.

Those of you going to the Ghibli museum give yourselves time just talk walk around the surrounding neighborhood. There was a beautiful lake we walked by (it was even sakura time!) that had swan boats. I found the whole area charming.

I was reading about getting tickets to the Ghibli museum on Trip Advisor, and it sounds kind of nightmare-ish!

Sayhello

 

[Miss SD]

I was reading about getting tickets to the Ghibli museum on Trip Advisor, and it sounds kind of nightmare-ish!

Sayhello

We got into the Ghibli museum by booking a tour through a Japanese travel company. Participants met at one of the large subway stations, and our guide took us to and led us on a tour (in English) of the museum. We went this route because it was daunting to order the tickets ourselves, and because we went to Japan during Christmas/New Year’s.

 

[AquaDame]

I was reading about getting tickets to the Ghibli museum on Trip Advisor, and it sounds kind of nightmare-ish!

Sayhello

Its really not - as long as you know what to do and when. If you go to the right website on the right day, you'll get a ticket. If you wait or don't research it may sell out - just like with Disney or anything else. Trying to get a room for Miracosta at Tokyo Disney was WAY harder and more nerve wracking than my tickets to Ghibli! I was on the website the exact minute I needed to be and STILL couldn't get the room I wanted! I had to stalk the site and wait for a cancellation.

 

[sayhello]

Its really not - as long as you know what to do and when. If you go to the right website on the right day, you'll get a ticket. If you wait or don't research it may sell out - just like with Disney or anything else. Trying to get a room for Miracosta at Tokyo Disney was WAY harder and more nerve wracking than my tickets to Ghibli! I was on the website the exact minute I needed to be and STILL couldn't get the room I wanted! I had to stalk the site and wait for a cancellation.

So what is the right website for the Ghibli museum?

Sayhello

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Its really not - as long as you know what to do and when. If you go to the right website on the right day, you'll get a ticket. If you wait or don't research it may sell out - just like with Disney or anything else. Trying to get a room for Miracosta at Tokyo Disney was WAY harder and more nerve wracking than my tickets to Ghibli! I was on the website the exact minute I needed to be and STILL couldn't get the room I wanted! I had to stalk the site and wait for a cancellation.

I didn't realize it was tough to get a rervation at those resorts. How far out is the booking window? If I am on the website on that day will I be able to get a reservation? Any suggestions? How far is the park from the downtown area (emperor's castle or Shinjuku {sp?})?

 

[wanderlust7]

I didn't realize it was tough to get a rervation at those resorts. How far out is the booking window? If I am on the website on that day will I be able to get a reservation? Any suggestions? How far is the park from the downtown area (emperor's castle or Shinjuku {sp?})?

Reservations opens 5 months before or 6 months for packages. The packages include hotel, some meals, tickets, and extra Fastpasses (for a significant upcharge compared to booking separately).

How tough it is to get reservations depends on the hotel/type of room and if it's a busy time at TDR. The MiraCosta is very popular, the harbor view rooms are especially hard to get. To add to the angst, sometimes there are issues with foreign (non-Japanese) credit cards going through.

If you want to know if the time you're thinking of going is busy, here's the Japanese crowd calendar (use Google translate):
www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney

And if you want more details about it, here's a great article:
tdrexplorer.com/tokyo-disneyland-crowd-calendar

The Imperial Palace, you would take the train to Tokyo Station, which is less than 20 min from TDR (Maihama Station) and direct. From there, you could take another direct train (~15 min) to Shinjuku. If you plan to tour Tokyo proper for a few days though, you may want to move to a hotel in Tokyo. The two sites you mentioned are fairly convenient from TDR, but other places may not be. Here's the site I used to check train times/routing:
www.hyperdia.com

 

[AquaDame]

So what is the right website for the Ghibli museum?

Sayhello

Its this one if you live in the USA https://online.jtbusa.com/Services/GhibliMuseum.aspx but a different one for other countries. On the first of every month another month's tickets are released, so for all of July you'd be able to buy them April 1st and for all of August you could on May 1st etc etc. They do charge $14 in shipping, and a bit more than they would be if you buy them in Japan, but very much worth it to all but guarantee you get a ticket. I got ours this way and had my choice of times - we went at opening and it was perfect. Empty to start and then we were ready to line up for the cafe ahead of their opening and were seated very quickly. It got very busy as the day went on - the gift shop line was very long when we went right before we left!

 

[AquaDame]

I didn't realize it was tough to get a rervation at those resorts. How far out is the booking window? If I am on the website on that day will I be able to get a reservation? Any suggestions? How far is the park from the downtown area (emperor's castle or Shinjuku {sp?})?

Reservations opens 5 months before or 6 months for packages. The packages include hotel, some meals, tickets, and extra Fastpasses (for a significant upcharge compared to booking separately).

How tough it is to get reservations depends on the hotel/type of room and if it's a busy time at TDR. The MiraCosta is very popular, the harbor view rooms are especially hard to get. To add to the angst, sometimes there are issues with foreign (non-Japanese) credit cards going through.

If you want to know if the time you're thinking of going is busy, here's the Japanese crowd calendar (use Google translate):
www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney

And if you want more details about it, here's a great article:
tdrexplorer.com/tokyo-disneyland-crowd-calendar

The Imperial Palace, you would take the train to Tokyo Station, which is less than 20 min from TDR (Maihama Station) and direct. From there, you could take another direct train (~15 min) to Shinjuku. If you plan to tour Tokyo proper for a few days though, you may want to move to a hotel in Tokyo. The two sites you mentioned are fairly convenient from TDR, but other places may not be. Here's the site I used to check train times/routing:
www.hyperdia.com

wanderlust7 nailed it... I wanted to stay in a Harbour view room on the Portofino side. Even then, most of Venice was booked as well, as well as some of the Tuscany rooms. The ones with a double bed were very popular and seemed to book up quickly too. I was able to get a theme park view room at the Disneyland Hotel with a double easily at 5 months but they did sell out soon thereafter. When we were booking there were issues with foreign Visa cards so we had to use a master card and then there were issues when we went to book it because they blocked the charge. We had to call while booking it so they could approve the charge at that time before it would go through even though we have had no issues using the card overseas otherwise - whether stateside or in another country. It was kind of weird...! I was also told I had to call and not use the website... for the website I would have needed to wait another month for an online release (from within Japan there were no such time restraints). Luckily I know enough Japanese that I could just use their site instead of the english one and was able to book it that way. There were a LOT of problems with credit cards and foreign bookings when I needed to book last year! I think you can do it all online now though so at least that was worked out.

If you are only going to TDL for a day staying in elsewhere can make sense but the train ride is juuuuust long enough that I wouldn't want to do it more than once. Once you get to Ikspiari you still need to transfer to the monorail to get to the parks so depending you may need to transfer to get to Maihama and then again for the resorts. A lot of people like staying at the Tokyo Bay Hilton or Sheraton since you can walk to the monorail from them and they are easier to book and cheaper to stay at.