Changes to Japan itinerary

[jimmymc]

It sounds like one could spend years in Tokyo and not see everything. Luckily, my husband wants to run the world marathon majors, so we'll have at least one more trip there (and I'm sure more, since it sounds like most people who visit Japan love it).

It's shocking how large the city is. You can take the subway an hour away from Tokyo station and still be surrounded by 20+ story buildings.

 

[jimmymc]

It was always a stop before the sumo experience and moving on out of Kyoto. But it was not a quick stop, we spent a sizeable amount of time there. It was early in the morning to miss out on all the other tourists (which we did - we saw the hordes arriving as we left). But yes, maybe they'll just make it a later morning.

Sayhello

I forgot you've been on this trip.

The only other thing I could think of would be moving up everything and getting to Takayama earlier, but IDK if the sumo place could accommodate.

 

[Plutofan]

We are going on the July 13 Japan ABD. How far in advance did you receive the email notification on the change? Also we plan on doing a 4 night stay Tokyo Disney. For the people doing Tokyo Disney do you have any tips? Are you doing a vacation package? Just waiting on the booking window to open up.

 

[jimmymc]

We are going on the July 13 Japan ABD. How far in advance did you receive the email notification on the change? Also we plan on doing a 4 night stay Tokyo Disney. For the people doing Tokyo Disney do you have any tips? Are you doing a vacation package? Just waiting on the booking window to open up.

I didn't travel with AbD, but I did a vacation package. There are pros and cons to doing that vs a normal hotel reservation. Pros are that you get a lot of skip the line passes, everything can be booked at once rather than through the app on the day of, and hotel room availability is normally better. Cons are that it doesn't save you any money and the maximum length is 3 days/2 nights, so you'll still need to book additional room nights. I thought it was worth it because I only wanted 3 park days anyway but also wanted to maximize my time with the premier access.

Here's a link to a previous post where I rambled for a minute about the parks: https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-tokyo-june-2025.3954127/post-65844250

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I agree with Jimmymc. If you have the chance and ability to do a VP at TDR, there are so many pluses for doing it - you can book earlier than room-only, it includes many perks (depending on the package), and it just makes for a more relaxed experience.

We actually ended up doing back-to-back VPs for 4 nights, figuring we were only going to be there once and we wanted to be right there. Didn't regret it..... We had to change hotels for the second package, but the was a non-evert. The staff picked up our bags in the room we checked out of, and they were literally waiting for us later that night in our new room. It also created a 'park hopping' day in the middle where we had DS access from one package and DL access from the other!

 

[sayhello]

It sounds like one could spend years in Tokyo and not see everything. Luckily, my husband wants to run the world marathon majors, so we'll have at least one more trip there (and I'm sure more, since it sounds like most people who visit Japan love it).

I think that's one reason ABD has had so much trouble settling on activities for Tokyo. You can't do everything, so what do you focus on?

I forgot you've been on this trip.

The only other thing I could think of would be moving up everything and getting to Takayama earlier, but IDK if the sumo place could accommodate.

I did it the first year, 2019, the last season before Covid. So it sort of seems like a lifetime ago! Such an amazing trip!

And we *did* get to Takayama pretty late, but they already removed Tōdai-ji Temple with the amazing Big Buddha Hall, the walk through Nara and the mochi-making from that day, so I didn't really think they needed to remove Fushimi Inari also.

Sayhello

 

[Plutofan]

I didn't travel with AbD, but I did a vacation package. There are pros and cons to doing that vs a normal hotel reservation. Pros are that you get a lot of skip the line passes, everything can be booked at once rather than through the app on the day of, and hotel room availability is normally better. Cons are that it doesn't save you any money and the maximum length is 3 days/2 nights, so you'll still need to book additional room nights. I thought it was worth it because I only wanted 3 park days anyway but also wanted to maximize my time with the premier access.

Here's a link to a previous post where I rambled for a minute about the parks: https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-tokyo-june-2025.3954127/post-65844250

I am thinking about getting the 2 day unlimited ride package (appears to be new) and do the other two days with no package. So one day each park unlimited rides and do one no package day in each park.

 

[jimmymc]

I am thinking about getting the 2 day unlimited ride package (appears to be new) and do the other two days with no package. So one day each park unlimited rides and do one no package day in each park.

That sounds like a great plan. The unlimited ride pass will get you on everything at least once if you'd like to ride it. 3-4 days is a good length for Disney fans when combining with a longer Japan trip IMO.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

That sounds like a great plan. The unlimited ride pass will get you on everything at least once if you'd like to ride it. 3-4 days is a good length for Disney fans when combining with a longer Japan trip IMO.

We have been anxiously waiting for the packages to drop but still no sign of them. We will be traveling in July. Any idea when they will be available?

 

[jimmymc]

We have been anxiously waiting for the packages to drop but still no sign of them. We will be traveling in July. Any idea when they will be available?

I can check in 1 hour when the website comes back up if they've announced the date for July.

 

[jimmymc]

We have been anxiously waiting for the packages to drop but still no sign of them. We will be traveling in July. Any idea when they will be available?

There's no announcement yet, but you can currently book through May.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

There's no announcement yet, but you can currently book through May.

Thanks for checking.

 

[Plutofan]

We just got the email that our July 13 changed.

 

[Plutofan]

We have been anxiously waiting for the packages to drop but still no sign of them. We will be traveling in July. Any idea when they will be available?

June packages open up January 16 so I would anticipate July would be February. There is a news feed on the Tokyo disney website that I came across

 

[Plutofan]

June packages open up January 16 so I would anticipate July would be February. There is a news feed on the Tokyo disney website that I came across

I would do a test run through the booking process to get familiar before

 

[sayhello]

We just got the email that our July 13 changed.

The changes are on the ABD website itinerary for 2025, so I'm assuming it's changing for everyone.

Sayhello

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

We have been anxiously waiting for the packages to drop but still no sign of them. We will be traveling in July. Any idea when they will be available?

They open 5 months in advance. There should be a news notice about when they'll open (the notice for June packages opened late compared to the notices for April and May).

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

There's no announcement yet, but you can currently book through May.

The announcement for when June VPs will open was made on January 9, which was late compared to the announcements for April and May. I was going crazy checking for the announcement (and for VPs since I kept seeing comments that sometimes they just open the VPs for booking without announcing when it'll happen).

 

[jimmymc]

The announcement for when June VPs will open was made on January 9, which was late compared to the announcements for April and May. I was going crazy checking for the announcement (and for VPs since I kept seeing comments that sometimes they just open the VPs for booking without announcing when it'll happen).

Yeah, I found the announcement for June linked on another message board, but I couldn't find it anywhere on the official TDL site. I kept going through the news page and couldn't find the linked post.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

Yeah, I found the announcement for June linked on another message board, but I couldn't find it anywhere on the official TDL site. I kept going through the news page and couldn't find the linked post.

It was on a separate page from the other News. It only had the announcements from October and November until they added the January announcement.