Websites for booking hotels & Limo bus

ryankski

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 30, 2016
We will be in Tokyo in mid-October for two full days before heading to Sydney for nearly a week and then back to Tokyo Disneyland for a couple days. I've booked the flights and have started looking at hotels. In the U.S. I always book hotels right through the website so I can deal directly with the hotel if there is an issue and not some third party. However, in Japan is there any preferred websites to compare prices to the hotels site. Japan may be different and I'm curious if it's fine to use a third party site. Thanks for the insight here.

Also is limo bus a brand name (like kleenex) or is it just the style of bus? I know there is one company called Friendly Airport Limousine (https://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/) and I'm just a little confuse if they are what I keep seeing referred to as the "limo bus" or if it's the service and there are other providers.

Thanks for the help.
 
As far as I'm aware, LimousineBus is the company and you buy your ticket at the LimousineBus branded desk at the Airport on arrival or through an automated machine. Unfortunately we arrived too late to use it yourself.

If you're talking about Tokyo Disney hotels you book them using their website from 5 months out, the later you leave it the less choice you'll have. There is no other site you can book on.

If you're talking about Tokyo hotels in general, I ended up using Airbnb but Booking.com is available out there and I did some research/price comparison using that. They also have Trivago
 
I booked my Tokyo Disneyland Hotel stay directly with Tokyo Disneyland, but I have also booked stays in Japan with Booking.com, Rakuten, other hotels directly, and Japanican. Generally, I pick whoever has the best offer/will let me book the room I want/best cancellation policies/ etc. So for my upcoming trip, Rakuten has a rate at least $30 less for the same room at the Takayama Associa vs. Booking and the hotel website was not offering any discounts. Japanican did offer rooms at nearly the same price as Tokyo Disney Resort prices. The Royal Park had the best prices on their website, but Booking had better prices for than the Royal Park Kyoto website even though it's the same chain!

I personally don't trust AirBnB. I know a lot of people love it, but I had a place in SoCal cancel on me 3 days before I was due to arrive and I am not willing to risk that with International Travel. It's just not worth it.

As for buses, yes, that is the main bus brand that runs all the airport limos. I think there are a fewer other brands that run very cheap buses to near Tokyo Station, but Friendly Airport Limo is the only one that runs buses directly to hotels. If your schedule lines up with their schedule it can be faster and it can be more convenient than taking the train into Tokyo. I don't know as much about the Haneda routes, but I had a friend who use to always use the bus to and from her hotel in Tokyo and I've used it from my hotel in Tokyo to go back to the airport. Our upcoming trip I expect we won't be in a rush so we will take the NEX and then transfer to the Maihama line because we will have a rail pass so it is already covered. :)
 


Does anyone have experience with the Tokyo Disneyland Resort Packages? It states we need to pick up documents at the Tokyo Disney Resort Welcome Center but they close at 7 PM. Our flight lands at Narita at 4PM and I am concerned we won't get there in time.
Also can anyone recommend the best way to get from Narita Airport to the Resort? Less concerned about cost then speed. Thanks!
 
I would assume the fastest way there is a hired car/taxi since they can leave as soon as you need to, but I've no idea how insanely expensive that would be.

If the bus is leaving within 15 minutes of when you get through Customs and get your luggage, I am pretty sure the bus is fastest. The bus will take you directly to the hotel though and not to Maihama Station. If not the fastest train route according to Hyperdia involves taking the Keisi and making a transfer. You'd have to put the info into Hyperdia.

Can you call or contact the Amabassador to ask? I am expecting with our 3:00 flight we are going to get in after 7 and I won't be able to pick up my monorail pass. But I want to turn in my pass voucher and book some trains ahead of time since post Tokyo Disney we are heading West. :)
 
Fastest way is definitely a taxi, takes 50 mins. Thats what we're going to be do and I've been told to expect to pay £200-300 ($260-$385) but as our flight lands at 7, and we'll have been travelling for 17 hours I'd rather spend the money.
 


Assuming you don't want to spend $200+ and since technically you will be traveling during rush hour and the buses/taxis may get caught in traffic (I've only taken a bus to Narita in the morning. I have had some traffic taking rush hour buses from KIX to Namba though, that is one plus of trains...)

OP, assuming you are out of Customs and have your bags and are ready to go by 5:30 going by Hyperdia you can:

Take the 5:30 Keisi to Keisi Funabashi.
walk from Keisi Funabashi to JR Funabashi and take the 6:21 JR Chuo towards Mitaka to Nishi Funbashi.
Take the 6:27 Musashino line from Nishi Funbashi to Maihama

Going by google maps, the walk between Keisi Funabashi and JR Funabashi is 300 meters and looks rather straightforward.

You should arrive at Maihama at 6:38 and all the fares together should cost you 960 yen. :) I would still call the hotel and ask them what happens if you are late to get your package.
 
I'll look at those sites mentioned and compare them to booking directly and AirBnB's prices. We've used Airbnb in Hawaii, San Diego, Stockholm, and Helsinki with no issues so I'm going to compare, but I'm thinking with needing to be near a Limo bus drop off hotel and subway/train station it may not work for Tokyo as well


Assuming you don't want to spend $200+ and since technically you will be traveling during rush hour and the buses/taxis may get caught in traffic (I've only taken a bus to Narita in the morning. I have had some traffic taking rush hour buses from KIX to Namba though, that is one plus of trains...)

OP, assuming you are out of Customs and have your bags and are ready to go by 5:30 going by Hyperdia you can:

Take the 5:30 Keisi to Keisi Funabashi.
walk from Keisi Funabashi to JR Funabashi and take the 6:21 JR Chuo towards Mitaka to Nishi Funbashi.

That wasn't my question and was someone else who probably should have started their own thread, but thanks for the insight. Help from those with experience is much appreciated.
 
Ah sorry! I lost track of who asked the question. The person posted to a thread I started about their package as well.

I had a problem with an AirBnB in Irvine, CA where they canceled 3 days out. After that experience and the limited help we received from AirBnB it was a huge turn off from using them again. They did help us eventually find someplace new, but the cost was 50% more per night and had I booked somewhere else earlier, I would have had a much lower rate. I think it depends on if an area is cracking down/trying to regulate AirBnBs since the ones that rent whole apartments tend to take housing stock away from locals. A lot of AirBnBs also don't pay accommodation taxes and such, which municipalities don't like.

You can get near a train/subway station with an AirBnB, but you won't get near a limo bus, since those specifically go to hotels. I think there is a discount one that goes near Tokyo Station, but I'm not sure how many AirBnBs are near Tokyo Station, since it's less residential. If you book an AirBnB, just put the location in hyperdia to make sure the subway/train line has a fair amount of trains. I once stayed in Higashi Nakano at a horrible cheap place and the subway to Higashi Nakano only ran once every 15-20 minutes. It was not ideal.

Personally, if you're willing to splurge, I'm a huge fan of the Tokyo Station Hotel. They'll meet you at your NEX/shinkansen and will help you get to your NEX/shinkansen when leaving. I also had a really good experience at the Royal Park near Shiodome/Shimbashi.
 
agoda.com for hotels throughout Asia. laterooms.com someitmes works for bargain places in Asia.
 
You star! How has this not popped up in any of my research?

(Also sorry to hijack your thread OP).

Some of the TDRExplorer.com posts mention using Klook to buy Tokyo Disney tickets (although the prices don't seem lower), so I gambled that the site was reputable for other vendors as well.

The only tricky part about the private transfer is scheduling the pick-up time. I wasn't sure how much time to allow for customs and picking up the pocket Wi-Fi devices. It turns out we breezed through customs and were ready much earlier than I anticipated, so then it was a little bit confusing trying to contact the shuttle driver for an earlier pickup. (It would have been better if I had signed up with Line, WhatsApp, etc. before booking through Klook so that the shuttle people had our messaging contact info from the beginning.) With a taxi, you can walk right out of the airport whenever you're ready.

OP - my apologies also for hijacking this thread. Hope you have a great trip! We used the limo bus on the way back to Narita, and it was fine but definitely made quite a few stops around TDR before finally heading to the airport.
 
Some of the TDRExplorer.com posts mention using Klook to buy Tokyo Disney tickets (although the prices don't seem lower), so I gambled that the site was reputable for other vendors as well.

The only tricky part about the private transfer is scheduling the pick-up time. I wasn't sure how much time to allow for customs and picking up the pocket Wi-Fi devices. It turns out we breezed through customs and were ready much earlier than I anticipated, so then it was a little bit confusing trying to contact the shuttle driver for an earlier pickup. (It would have been better if I had signed up with Line, WhatsApp, etc. before booking through Klook so that the shuttle people had our messaging contact info from the beginning.) With a taxi, you can walk right out of the airport whenever you're ready.

OP - my apologies also for hijacking this thread. Hope you have a great trip! We used the limo bus on the way back to Narita, and it was fine but definitely made quite a few stops around TDR before finally heading to the airport.

Has anyone used Tokyoairporter.com? Its 18000 yen (about 180?).
 

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