Originally Posted By Brandis I know that the need for tickets has something to do with Japanese public transport laws. But does Disney (or rather OLC) operate the Monorail or is is operated by a separate company which the TDR has to pay for each free pass they are giving out?
Originally Posted By X-san Not sure, but if so the Ambassador sure is cheaping out! That's pretty weak, if you ask me. Sure the other two are even MORE expensive, but the Ambassador sure ain't Holiday Inn price level! They should offer the danged free monorail, for Pete's sake. I hope it bites them in the butt with fewer bookings, frankly. The Ambassador is a nice place with first class accommodations, but they've already got several strikes against them in terms of choosing it over the other two. There is very little reason to book a stay at the Ambassador, and this just adds to it!
Originally Posted By X-san You missed your dalmatians opportunity Brandis, by the way. (GOD it sounds gay when you actually put it into words! lol)
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< But does Disney (or rather OLC) operate the Monorail or is is operated by a separate company which the TDR has to pay for each free pass they are giving out? >>> It's operated by a separate company, but they are both OLC subsidiaries. I would imagine that the change has more to do with the fact that the monorail is not very convenient to use from the Ambassador - by the time you get from the hotel to the station, you've walked almost half the distance of going all the way to either the TDL or TDS entrances. Although perhaps from the hotel's perspective, the passes came out of their budget, and it doesn't really matter that the money ended up in another of OLC's pockets.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Once thing I noticed was that he recommends the Disney busses over the Monorail in order to save on the ticket costs. >>> Better advice would be to buy multi-day passes for the monorail instead of single-journey tickets. A 4-day pass is JPY1400, which is less than half the price of individual tickets if you ride it only 3 times a day. To go all the way to Japan to visit TDR and then not ride the monorail in order to save $13 over four days would be very foolish in my opinion.
Originally Posted By The Goddess Mara First, you can easily walk to both parks from the Ambassador Hotel. Second, the Disney Resort Cruisers (buses) are incredibly comfortable and run constantly. It is a two or three minute ride to either park. To get to Ikspiari from the Ambassador you walk across a courtyard. So, I don't think not offering a free Resort Liner pass is a big deal. But if you want one, it's ... what ... $24 for the WEEK? Some ridiculously minimal amount, so quite griping! If you're worried about 24 bucks when visiting the Tokyo Disney Resort, then brother you are in the wrong place! I prefer the Ambassador to the MiraCosta--it's a much warmer and more relaxed place.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones The resort cruisers are also very cute. Way better looking than the generic coaches at Disney World.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris To visit a Disney resort and NOT ride a monorail, however, just seems strange. Unless you're in France or HK. Hell, you'd be used to it in Honkers because there aint much to ride anyway.
Originally Posted By X-san A Japanese friend of mine recently told me that she'd only been to TDL twice (in her life!) despite living in Chiba prefecture for a long time. That was her "reason", though. She lives here, so she can always go see it "next year". lol. So anyway, she also visited Anaheim many years ago, and her comment to me was "it seems much more like a resort compared to Tokyo Disneyland, because they had a monorail and a couple of hotels. now Tokyo has all of that too, so they're pretty much the same".
Originally Posted By KevinYee Hm, I could have sworn I ran across info when I was just back from the parks that the monorails would not be included for ANY hotels - that appears to be wrong! At least now I can stop fretting about where "the first error" would be found in the book (there are always some). Spok, I know you didn't mean any of your comments personally and I don't take them that way. So let me react to the content of your concerns: I wasn't trying to build up any "artificial hurdles" to visiting Japan. Rather, I was trying to communicate to people who HAVE such concerns that this book would be ideal for them. I agree with some of the other posters here, and with you, that the book is not ideal for EVERYONE. Those who don't want to be led around certainly shouldn't be looking at such books in the first place. My first drafts of the book were written to exclude attraction descriptions, since I *was* trying to mimic my own way of visiting new places: not giving away what's inside (this is also how I approached DCL and TDL: I read up enough to know that I wouldn't miss what's important, while at the same time not reading so much that expectations are built up). However, my many perceptive readers/reviewers argued persuasively that most buyers of the book would want those attraction descriptions, so there are there now. But by and large, there is little in this book that someone like *me* (wanting to avoid spoilers) would find objectionable.
