Originally Posted By Mr X ***Really X - what about rooms that accommodate 4, that was where I was struggling in planning. They seemed hard to come by, and when you did, they were pricy*** This is true. I was thinking along the lines of a solo traveller (and the fact that it doesn't HAVE to cost "thousands and thousands" of bucks to do it). You certainly can't get anything in the $70-$100 range for a family. I would say you can certainly do it for less than $200 a night though. I've seen good sized rooms in the Palm/Terrace, and the Oriental Hotel to name a couple of moderate places with reasonably sized accommodations (Palm/Terrace even had a small balcony).
Originally Posted By Malin Mr X is certainly right in saying a trip to Japan doesn't have to cost the earth. Just take a look on sites like Expedia for the best flight and hotel rates. If your one of these people that insist on staying in one of the more expensive Disney hotel's than really you have no right to complain about how much it cost for a holiday to Japan. Since you are choosing to pay these extra cost.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I would say you can certainly do it for less than $200 a night though. I've seen good sized rooms in the Palm/Terrace, and the Oriental Hotel to name a couple of moderate places with reasonably sized accommodations (Palm/Terrace even had a small balcony). >>> Even the Official Disney hotels offer reasonable rates during certain times of the year. Checking the on-site Sheraton, they have rooms for US$175 per night in June that actually have 4 beds (2 doubles and 2 singles) and would easily accommodate a family of 4. And that's for an on-property hotel on the monorail loop.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< @Spokker, there are plenty of ways for you to freeload your way to the Far East. You don't necessarily have to "drop three or four grand", if you know how to accumulate miles and points. >>> Mr X beat me to the punch - freeloading is definitely the way to go If you've not done the miles/points thing before, and have okay-or-better credit, you're in a particularly good situation, as you'd be eligible for a lot of "one time only" signing bonuses for various programs.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Checking the on-site Sheraton, they have rooms for US$175 per night in June that actually have 4 beds*** Given that there always has to be a trade off, I'm assuming this price is right because it's smack in the middle of the rainy season.
Originally Posted By SuperDry ^^^ Yep - supply and demand. You could probably get the same price in January and February, which are even quieter at the park, and much less likely to have bad weather - as long as it isn't snowing, it's likely to just be very cold and crisp. Actually, Jan-Feb is probably a good time to visit Japan if you don't mind the cold: crowds will be at a minimum and lodging will be inexpensive. The same room at the Sheraton in mid-July is $245, which I still think is a reasonable price for a room with 4 beds that's at the resort and on the monorail loop. You can certainly do it for less off-site, but other than the Palm & Fountain Terrace, I doubt you'll find rooms nearly that large that could accommodate 4 people easily - you'd probably end up getting two rooms in most other places.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Thanks guys, I wasn't really talking about the TDL element so much, but Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto. If I were solo, I could do it cheap. But with a family of 4, any advice outside of TDL is welcome. WE are determined to make a TDL meet (and spend some quality time with good friends) as well as do culture. But having spent a week in DLP last week and still not doing everything, I want to make sure we do it right. Between crowds, pricing, budgets and school calendars, I want to try to get it right. Unless I can get a sweet little contract in Tokyo as a part of my professional development ;-)
Originally Posted By The Goddess Mara As you'll note by looking at the names of all the folks posting in this thread, they are all familiar from many earlier posts. New blood is what keeps a Forum going--the regular gang is great, but new questions from new people tend to create discussions. We've all had many of the same discussions over and over again both here and on Miceage, under whatever name we use.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "We've all had many of the same discussions over and over again both here and on Miceage, under whatever name we use." More so at MiceAge, eh?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo This section still gets far more action than at the ghost town of a DLP area.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones I would condense the forums and maybe upgrade to better software. The most limiting factor is that you can't embed photographs here.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo For me, that's a good thing. It makes LP far easier to use from a smart phone, and also, it is always annoying when reading updates when there more banners or photos to sift through. Before the LP store, this site was even better. But I am glad of the layout.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Thank God for that "limiting factor." It's easy enough to link to Flickr for photos
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones I think the biggest thing keeping people from this forum is the lack of organized information. I'm not big on heavy handed moderation that limits speech or protects egos, but moderation is great for quality control. Threads should be organized and merged as needed. Frivolous threads, though not inherently bad, should be moved to the appropriate frivolous sub-forums. For example, there should be a general World of Color thread. Maybe you want to split it up into spoilers and non-spoilers, whatever it takes. New threads about World of Color should be merged into the general thread. "HONK, HONK I LOVE WORLD OF COLOR" is fun, but those posts don't offer anything substantive and should probably be moved to Community. There are great discussions going on but they are in complete disarray most of the time. Low-traffic forums breed more low traffic. Forums that have nothing going on may discourage new threads if the poster believes it won't be read anyway. That's why poorly performing forums should be merged. Perhaps it could be, Disneyland, Disney World and International Disney Parks. There's really no need to separate trip planning and trip reports at this point. Just tell people to tag their post with "Trip Report: blah blah blah" and post it in the appropriate forum. This forum has the Disney discussion and playfulness parts down, but the information aspect is a mess. I've seen forums like this reorganize before and it has done wonders. One thing I like about this forum is that moderators are not labeled as moderators, which is faceless moderation. Lack of avatars and sigs is nice as well. You tend to focus more on the post and not the poster under such a system.
Originally Posted By Mr X I like your idea about merging the international sections, have you suggested it to Doobie? If that were the case, I'm fairly sure I'll read more about interesting goings on in Paris and Hong Kong, as since those sections are so sparse I've found myself not even checking in (though obviously I check in to the Tokyo section since I live here), though I'm sure I'd enjoy reading a thing or two if it were in front of my face. They could certainly "un-merge" them if one or more sections became overly dominant, but at this point I think "international Disney" would be a more interesting forum overall. As for the other stuff, I dunno. I kind of like the spontaneity of LP, and the fact that you can, generally speaking, post what's on your mind and if others don't care it simply sinks to the bottom.
Originally Posted By TokyoSweets I like that LP doesn't use embedded photo's too. I always check this site on the ipod touch and photo's would slow it down.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Hey X - come on over to the DLP forum, there are a few interesting posts in there at the mo.
Originally Posted By Mr X I have lurked a bit, Dave. Though since I've never been there I don't really feel as though I have anything useful to offer, in terms of chiming in. Thanks for the invite, though!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Always worth having a perspective (unless you guys want me to shut up in the Tokyo and HK sections too - do I really want an answer to that one?) Also (shameless plug), thought you might have an interest in our last trip report.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "have you suggested it to Doobie?" Well, I don't care *that* much. I would get a cut of the profits if my ideas work, right?
