Originally Posted By FerretAfros From what I remember of our trip ~15 years ago, we spent 2 nights in Kyoto and that was plenty of time to see everything at a relaxed pace. Depending on the train schedules you could probably do it with just one night spent there, but it would be very tough to do as a day trip (at least from what I vaguely remember of it)
Originally Posted By leemac <<Could we get up on a Friday or Saturday morning, check out of our hotel, and catch a train to Kyoto and still see things that day? I am wondering if we could stay one night, see stuff the next day and then take the train back to Tokyo. Or is Kyoto a two night minimum to see a decent amount of stuff?>> You can probably tick of the main highlights of Kyoto in a day. I love Nara - prefer it to Kyoto and that is a short train ride away. It also depends if you want to throw in Osaka too.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Oh and my daughter said the Ghibli Museum definitely has to be on the list. She is willing to skip the Hello Kitty Park though (Sanrio Puroland?). Would children who grew up going to Disneyland be bored by it? And would my 19 son enjoy the Pokemon Supercenter? Sounds like it is just a store.>> You must prebook Ghibli - it is an absolute must. You can get tickets from approved Japanese tourist bureaus in the US. It really depends whether you are a big Hello Kity fan - Puroland is your usual indoor entertainment center - definitely nothing special at all. It is all geared around meet 'n' greets and shows. I'd wager your son is why too old for Supercenter. Definitely skip it.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Hopefully it won't be too bad then, and we have enough experience with Disney to avoid as many long lines as possible.>> I can promise you that nothing can prepare you for TDR in the summer. Most days are even worse than even July 17 at Disneyland on a major milestone. I kid you not. You can easily queue for a couple of hours just to get a FP for Midway Mania or Pooh. It is crazy busy. Almost to the point of being unpleasant.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I was just poking around on the TDR website, looking at the dates I'd likely visit, and saw that it was the beginning of the "Disney Natsu Matsuri" (Disney Summer Festival) in both parks. Is it typically busy on the first day of the promotions? Would this be a good time to avoid the parks as a (more or less) once-in-a-lifetime visitor, and come a few days later, or does it not get that bad? The hotel rates during the week are the lowest price level, which makes me think it won't be too bad, but we're still pretty flexible at this point
Originally Posted By Mr X What are the dates Dabob? Is that the Tanabata "star festival"? If so, it's a fairly minor affair, I don't think it affects the park crowd levels too much, and it's a fairly interesting special event as these things go (you get to see the rare "Mickey in a Kimono" if you're lucky).
Originally Posted By FerretAfros It runs July 8-August 31. We're probably going to arrive in Japan on July 4 or 5, and were planning to do some Tokyo highlights before heading out to Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima (and then a few more days in Tokyo at the end), so July 7-8 was what we were tentatively looking at for our TDR visit. We can slide the 'out of town' days back, or visit TDR later in the trip, but I was hoping to avoid the big crazy crowds that they're notorious for
Originally Posted By SuperDry No Mr X, I think you have things confused. The Tanabata is what runs the first week of July, *between* the longer spring and summer special events. This year, the summer event for July-August is also Japanese themed, like the Tanabata, and that's what FerretAfros is referring to.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Do you think that will be more crowded than a weekend? I wonder if we could do Sunday/Monday instead of Monday/Tuesday. And the event is scheduled for both parks, but do you think they'd both be bad that day? Could we do TDS the day of the event debut and avoid the crowds? Or would the crowds just be looking for the new entertainment, without really doing much of the 'regular' stuff? I know when new stuff debuts at DLR, the crowds can be heavier for a few days, but it seems like most of the locals are only interested in the seasonal stuff so the queues for attractions aren't much longer
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://tdrnavi.jp/forecast/disneyland?lang=en">http://tdrnavi.jp/forecast/dis...?lang=en</a> According to this crowd calendar, the weekdays are still better than the weekend, even with the festival starting.
Originally Posted By SuperDry DouglasDubh, I don't know if you noticed or not, but since you posted in November, the official special events schedule for 2014 has been published on the TDR website. It more or less follows the pattern of recent years, with one interesting exception: The spring event has been shortened by a week, and Tanabata extended from one week to two weeks.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros That's a really handy website, thanks! I didn't realize there was something like that in English (I assumed there must have been some sort of Japanese version floating around)
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh I hadn't noticed SuperDry, thanks for pointing it out. I don't think it will affect our trip. We plan on arriving on July 13th and being at the parks the 14th to 17th. Then we will head down to Kyoto for the weekend and spend the next week in Tokyo while the kids go through orientation. You are welcome FerretAfros! I just hope for our sakes it is accurate and the really bad crowds are on the weekends and after we leave. I tried using my DVC points to book a Disney hotel for my week last month, and was told no rooms were available to book using points. Ended up at the Sheraton - rates for the Disney hotels were just too high.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>We plan on arriving on July 13th and being at the parks the 14th to 17th. Then we will head down to Kyoto for the weekend...<< For what it's worth, if you can make it to Kyoto on the 17th, they have a big traditional festival (Gion Matsuri), highlighted by a parade featuring 'portable shrines' (which look like ornate wooden parade floats to a simpleton like me) and people in traditional outfits. It would be a shame to miss TDR entirely or deal with huge crowds, but the parade is a real treat! I got to see it many years ago (1998?), and we're planning to do it again this time!
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh Yeah, think we will miss that unfortunately. We check out of the Sheraton Friday morning the 18th.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh So we just booked our flights. We get in the evening of Saturday the 12th and don't check into our room at Tokyo Bay until Sunday night. Are there places by the airport that are fairly cheap where we can stay Saturday night? Maybe within walking distance of food? We are figuring on spending Sunday walking around Ikspari.
Originally Posted By SuperDry There's nothing within walking distance of the airport, but there are plenty of airport-oriented hotels that have free shuttles to the airport. There's a Hilton that's an obvious choice. As for things to do, the town of Narita is near the airport. Once you get checked in, you can take the shuttle back to the airport and then take the train one stop from the airport to Narita city (about $2.50). Or, you may find it's not much more expensive for four people to just take a taxi directly from the hotel to Narita city. There's an interesting temple there, plus places to eat.
