Which is preferable?

[danceintherain]

Tickets - Do tickets have to be used on consecutive days, or can we do Thursday-Friday, then Monday-Tuesday with a 4 day passport? Do we have to make this decision in advance, or is it just time stamped for the first day and we have to use them by the end of a certain time frame (ie within 14 days etc)?
Do the tickets have reentry privileges? If not, is there a hand stamp available?

Also, I'm looking at a few scenarios right now. It will be myself, DH, and our 23 month old son. We're military stationed in South Korea, so we have the option of getting a basically free flight from here to Tokyo and/or utilizing very inexpensive hotel rooms once we're there.
Right now, I have 5 nights booked at Hardy Barracks near Roppongi station (probably an hour of travel time to Disney Gateway). All the date options in June are Sunday to Friday (weekends book fast at military hotels). The only reason I've been able to convince DH to agree to a trip at all is because we can do it inexpensively (under $2500), meaning we pretty much have to stay at a military hotel for part of the time. Obviously, this is not as convenient to Disney as it could be, but I had to compromise, since Tokyo is so expensive and we'll be leaving this area by the end of the summer. I hate jet lag, especially with a baby, so this increases the appeal of going now when we'd be in the same time zone as we're used to with a short flight.

DH likes to take breaks in the middle of the day at Disney, which will be all the more important during the summer.
The military flight leaves here on Thursday and returns the following Wednesday.

Option 1:
Military Flight
Thursday: Check in to Disney convenient hotel
Friday: Disney
Saturday: Tokyo
Sunday: Tokyo - Check into Hardy Barracks
Monday: Disney
Tuesday: Disney
Wednesday: Check out and return home
Cost: $750
Cons:
- No guarantee of getting on military flights which could result in expensive last minute airfare.
- If consecutive tickets are required, Disney on the weekend would be inevitable
Pros:
- Less expensive
- Longer time in non-military hotel (closer to Disney)

Option 2:
Purchased Flight
Sunday: Check in to Hardy Barracks
Monday: Disney
Tuesday: Disney
Wednesday: Tokyo
Thursday: Disney
Friday: Check into alternative hotel
Saturday: Return Home
Cost: $830
Cons:
- More expensive
- Long distance to travel to parks
Pros:
- Middle of the week touring time
- hotel room is a suite - baby can sleep in separate space
- possibility of convincing DH to stay longer in Japan, since we have control over flight dates

Anyways, any relevant comments will be helpful.

 

[corgi_monster]

There are some awesome hotel deals near TDR right now, so you might be able to pick your exact flights AND stay near Disney. Unfortunately, I can't post the link because it contains Japanese characters and it doesn't copy and paste correctly.

Anyhow, the hotel is Hotel Okura on Tokyo Bay which is very close to TDR. They have rates starting at 6500y a night throughout June. That's about $82/night. The Sheraton was running a special last week for about the same price, but I think it might be over.

If you need help locating a travel agency, you might want to start by looking for one that promotes drama tours or idol (celebrity) tours. There are throngs of Japanese visitors who visit Korea just to see where dramas like Winter Sonata were filmed.

Also, TDR does close due to capacity during the summer. It's been over a year since I last purchased tickets online, but I'm pretty sure you have to select the dates that you will be visiting. If you can't get on a military flight to Tokyo, this might be a problem. If you wait to get to the parks to buy your tickets, they may be sold out and closed. If your sole purpose of going to Tokyo is to visit Disneyland, I'd go with the confirmed flight.

 

[danceintherain]

$80/night would be nice, but the lowest I've found in that area is 13500Y/night. We're only paying $50/night for a 2 room suite right now though, so it's a tough call. The classic space vs. price Disney debate. I'll keep looking.

Do the Disney hotel seasons not correlate as closely to crowd levels in the parks as they do at WDW?
The week days are all low season during June according to the hotel calendars. I realize that Tokyo has a much higher population than Orlando, but from what I've read the school holidays aren't until the middle of July.
Either way, we would probably arrive at Rope Drop, leave a little after noon, and not return until after 5pm anyways - if we return at all.
I suppose another factor that just occurred to me is that we'd be trying to get to Disney during Tokyo rush hour. We'd manage, we deal with packed trains around here on a regular basis, but it might be better to convince my DH to spend a little more.

 

[BelleBway]

Just to answer the ticket question... I am pretty sure they need to be consecutive days. And you need to decide when you purchase which days will be TDL/TDS of the first 2. And yes, you can leave the park and come back with your ticket and a hand stamp.

 

[corgi_monster]

Here's the link to the $80/night deal:

http://www.travelzoo.com/jp/

It's the 9th one down for 6,500 yen. Once I click on that link, the url turns to Japanese and I can't copy and paste it. Sorry, it's not much help, but at least is gives you somewhere to start.

Yes, schools are in session in June so it won't be too crowded. If you go towards the end of June, students might be prepping for exams, so even Saturdays might not be too bad. Also, you won't see as many 50+ school groups in Disneyland. I would say the crowd calendar correlates pretty closely to Japanese vacations/holidays.

 

[danceintherain]

I'm still getting around 13000Y, because it seems to be 6500Y/person/night.

 

[danceintherain]

I finally got DH to focus and talk about the trip. I mentioned rush hour in Tokyo and how we'll have to wake up before 6am to miss it and he agreed that it's a struggle we don't really want to have to deal with, so we can stay on Tokyo Bay somewhere. I'm sure he has his midday breaks in mind, since 40 minutes on a public train isn't appealing even when it isn't crowded.

I went ahead and booked 6 nights at the Sunroute Plaza for around 12000Y/night, since the cancellation policy is good (I didn't even have to supply credit card information) I'll keep looking for a better deal.