Using TDL as a home base?

[Michael623]

Still considering the logistics of a TDL visit. We would be visiting Tokyo for 6-7 days and I definitely want to spend 4 days at TDL, the other 2-3 days would be spent visiting the city of Tokyo. The plan now is to stay at the Sheraton at TDL (I have points) and using that as my center of operation. As I understand it, the Sheraton is very convenient for vising TDL, not so much for visiting anywhere else. My theory is that we could use the Airport Express (or whatever it's called) to get to and from TDL from the airport then we'd never have to drag our bags onto a train along with a 5 year old. This would also mean that we've never have to change hotels or find a place to store our bags. Keep in mind that on our city visit days we wouldn't be pressed for time and would be going at a leisurely pace, or as leisurely as people go in Japan I guess.

Would this work? Has anyone done this?

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

It's doable but just keep in mind transportation time. It will take around 15 minutes to get from Maihama from your hotel using monorail and then another 15 minutes to Tokyo station for example. As a mom of a 5 year old myself I really recommend warning your child in advance that the train can get quite crowded because it may be frightening or uncomfortable for them if they aren't used to it. That being said, 5 years old is a pretty good age for the city. When ds turned 5 it was much easier taking him into the city for shopping and visiting relatives. If you are really tired after sightseeing in the city there is a bus that will take you back to the resort that leaves from Tokyo, Yurakucho, and Akihabara that is really convenient and will let you avoid the train. I think it's 600 yen per person but your child is still 5 so it's free for them. If you need anything or have any questions please let us know, good luck with your planning!

 

[Michael623]

I really appreciate your responses. It's great knowing that I have someone so knowledgeable in my corner. There will probably lots more questions as the potential trip nears. Such as...

So is this bus a scheduled service that runs every day? That would be convenient.

This one may be a bit of an odd question but my son learned all about the Shinkansen at preschool (I guess they had train week) and I told him we may go to Japan and that's all he's talked about since. I did some initial digging on this and what I saw was really expensive. Is there a short/inexpensive trip we can take on the Shinkansen even if we just went somewhere and came back?

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

You could take a shinkansen to Saitama which is just outside the city and there is a train museum there called The Railway Museum which he would probably really enjoy. From Maihama it would cost 2000 yen to get there, you would transfer to the shinkansen at Tokyo station. Sometimes there is a ticket package where the museum price is included. Since your child is 5 years old the shinkansen is still free too! It would be a good halfday trip.

Link to Railway Museum (English):
http://www.railway-museum.jp/en/index.html

If you just want to see the shinkansens you can buy a ticket to enter the platform which is 200 yen. At Tokyo station they recently opened a Pla-Rail store on character street which has lots of different shinkansen toys you might want to check out too!

About character street at Tokyo station (English):
http://web-japan.org/trends/08_culture/pop090227.html

Info about Pla-Rail store at Tokyo sation (English):
http://jin.jcic.or.jp/en/anime/animenews/2011_05_20_095203/

 

[battymum]

Thats what we plan on doing OP.

I figure if you stayed somewhere in the city you are still bound to be travelling to other parts. 30 minutes travel time is really not very long - we were doing that last year when we stayed "on site" at WDW.

And you wont be battling peak times on the trains to be at Disney for rope drop.

 

[Michael623]

Battymum, when are you planning to go? I'd love to hear how this works for you before I commit to this plan.

 

[battymum]

We are going April 2013 -

We are a family of five - so it was our only option, otherwise we would have to get 2 or even 3 rooms.

It will be a bonding experience for sure for our family, 2 Adults, 3 teenagers, 17, 15 & 15, but the rooms have 2double beds and 2 singles.

My only concern is that when we go into the city it will have to be all day, normally we would have a break back in the room before heading out again for dinner.

I will be sure to post a trip report on return.

 

[BecBennett]

I think if we were to go back to Tokyo we'd either stay onsite, or do a split stay. More likely a split stay as it does get hard not having anywhere to just veg out a bit in the middle of the day, and that goes for both touring around Tokyo, and touring around TDL.

OP - When you tour WDW what style do you have? Do you head out in the morning, and not get back to the hotel until after dinner? The trip from Tokyo to Mahaima isn't that bad, but if you were at the MK for example, and were staying at one of the DTD resorts, would you take the bus from MK back to your resort for a rest, and then catch the bus back to the MK again? It's sort of like that, maybe a little bit further.

 

[Michael623]

I can't really compare this trip to my WDW trips because I'd be touring in a completely different manner. I've been to WDW many times so we tend to go at a more relaxed pace not necessarily having to see and do everything knowing our next trip back is probably no longer than 6 months away. This trip to TDL may very well be the only time I ever visit there in my lifetime (although I said that about DLP after my first visit too) so I will be much more commando style where I will want to make sure I get on every ride, see every show and take pictures of everything. I would assume being there all day is very likely. I would prefer to stay at one of the 3 on-site hotels but the price won't allow for that. The Sheraton will meet my needs for 1/3 of the cost of the on-site hotels. Keep in mind airfare alone coming from the US for the 3 of us will be in the neighborhood of $3600 so I'm trying to save where I can. I'm actually still crunching the numbers to see if this trip is actually financially feasible.

Here is my tentative plan right now: Fly from Boston to LA on a Friday (6 hours) and relax for a day to prepare for the next flight on Saturday LA to Tokyo (11.5 hours). Arrive on Sunday and head to TDL on Monday-Thursday. Friday-Sunday in Tokyo, fly to LA on Monday with a day in LA to recover and back to Boston on Tuesday.

I have a couple of additional questions:

If I get the 4 day pass do they have to be used on 4 consecutive days? This is just in case we decide to make Mon-Tues and Thurs-Fri as Disney days with a Tokyo day in the middle.

This question is more for DreamSweetsLove, I am a huge baseball fan and couldn't go to Japan without seeing a game but I can't dig up much info on Japanese baseball that is in English. I don't care which team I see it would really be trying to get to the most convenient (to DL I guess) stadium where I could walk up and get tickets, if that's even possible. Any advice here? Also when does the season run? I thought I remember hearing that the Japanese season is slightly shorter than the American season.

 

[BelleBway]

If I get the 4 day pass do they have to be used on 4 consecutive days? This is just in case we decide to make Mon-Tues and Thurs-Fri as Disney days with a Tokyo day in the middle.

4 days passport must be used on consecutive days; in addition, the first 2 days do not allow park hopping. (the only exception for that is special 3-4 day tickets you can sometimes buy at the 3 official hotels)

This question is more for DreamSweetsLove, I am a huge baseball fan and couldn't go to Japan without seeing a game but I can't dig up much info on Japanese baseball that is in English. I don't care which team I see it would really be trying to get to the most convenient (to DL I guess) stadium where I could walk up and get tickets, if that's even possible. Any advice here? Also when does the season run? I thought I remember hearing that the Japanese season is slightly shorter than the American season.

I saw a baseball game in Japan last year and it was a lot of fun. I am pretty sure that I read that you can buy tickets for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants online in English. Unfortunately, they didn't have any home games when I was there so I went with a ticket service which was expensive but convenient.

 

[EvilinaDM101]

Hi Michael! We have similar itineraries! My DH and I will be using the Tokyo Bay Hilton (right next door to the Sheraton) as our home base. We too will be tackling TD and TDS "commando" style since this will be our first visit. We are doing 3 to 4 days (depending if we get everything done) in the parks and then 2 days in Tokyo.

 

[Wuzefelix]

I think using TDL as your home base does make sense if the focus of your trip is on Disney.

First time visitors who are true Disney fans will probably want to spend 4 days in the parks. That will give you enough time to experience all attractions and take it all in without feeling rushed. Plus, starting from day 3 you can park hop .

Now for an extra couple of days of sightseeing you could commute to the city quite easily. The only drawbacks are you probably wouldn't return to your hotel for an afternoon rest, and the commuting (about 30 mins each way).

But mind you, if you did a split stay you'd still have to commute once to the city (with all your bags) anyway, so that little bit of extra commuting is not a big deal in my opinion!

Now, the rooms at the Hilton Tokyo Bay and the Sheraton Tokyo Bay are much more spacious and offer far greater value than most hotels in this price range in the city. Especially for large families the value is extraordinary.

Another plus for people who don't speak Japanese (like myself) is that they know the Hilton and Sheraton inside the Disney Resort have English speaking staff with an excellent customer service guaranteed.

In short: If you spend 4 days at Disney and only 2 days in the city, I can highly recommend making Disney your home base!



Michael623, for your itinerary:

You'd arrive on Sunday and plan to visit the parks Monday-Thursday. May I recommend that after arriving in Tokyo, taking the friendly airport limosine bus (motorcoach) to the Sheraton and checking in, you take the Disney Monorail (5 Minutes) to Ikspiari? It is a shopping and entertainment area on Disney property. You could compare it to a more compact version of Downtown Disney with plenty of interesting places to see. If you feel a bit adventurous there are even a lot of good Japanese restaurants in there. You can also visit the "Bon Voyage" shop which is the largest Disney Store in Japan. They offer different merchandise than inside the parks. Parts of Ikspiari is indoors so even on a rainy day it's worth to check it out. A visit could be as short as 1-2 hours or you could almost spend an entire day there...

Because you'd arrive on a Sunday (weekend), another option is buying the Starlight Passport to visit one of the theme parks on your arrival day. It is available from 3pm and the prices are:

Adult (Ages 18 & over) ¥4,900
Junior (Ages 12-17) ¥4,300
Child (Ages 11 & under) ¥3,400

However you will most likely be tired from the long flight and you will be spending the next 4 days in the parks anyway, so my personal recommendation is just exploring Ikspiari for a bit and then returning to the Sheraton early for a good nights sleep, so that you are fresh and energetic the next day for Disney.

Oh, since you will be changin planes in LA anyways, have you already considered the possibility of sneaking in a short trip to Disneyland? If your airline ticket permits a free stopover this might be an opportunity to combine two Disney Resorts on one trip...


Best Regards,
Wuzefelix