Thinking about Japan or HK or any other Disney

[Blue nose]

My DH is keen to travel East and I want to do Disney for the kids plus some site seeing but don't know where to start.

We're stuck on school holidays and only chance of two weeks in 2019 is August - will this be too hot?

Potentially might get two weeks at Easter 2020 but waiting until October for schools to release dates.

Questions - how and where do we book? Is it possible to get a package (easier) or do I have to do DIY (more questions for you lot &#129300

Any idea on costs for a family of 4? There was another post that indicated in wasn't as bad as I'd expected.

I just dont know where to start, even with flights - assuming indirect is only thing possible. I'm in North West so flying from Manchester. Is it worth flying somewhere and having a few days before flying on?

[Rac20]

We are traveling this summer to Tokyo and have booked DIY.
We booked with Emirates and are flying from Newcastle as we saved about £700 over flying from Manchester. For flights for 4 plus a four night stay in Dubai it came to £3600. But I was finding flights on sky scanner for about £700 for reputable companies. My advice is to book as soon as possible when it comes to the flights as they only ever got dearer. You could fly with Turkish airlines or Aeroflot for about £550/£600 but I wasn’t comfortable with the reviews of Aeroflot and I don’t know about Turkish airlines either! SAS were coming up quite reasonable.

We’ve booked accommodation through Airbnb but if you read my thread on New Japanese Law you will see how well that has turned out.

Weather wise it is supposed to be drier than June/July. Hopefully this will be the case. I’ve read it’s more humid than Florida but I don’t know how true this will be.

If you are planning on traveling around Japan you might need a rail pass... I’m still crying over the cost! £1100 for the four of us. My eldest 12 is now classed as an adult so it would be slightly cheaper for 2 children younger than this but not much.

I am planning on doing a trip report so hopefully if will be of use to you! ☺️

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Blue nose

My DH is keen to travel East and I want to do Disney for the kids plus some site seeing but don't know where to start.

We're stuck on school holidays and only chance of two weeks in 2019 is August - will this be too hot?

Potentially might get two weeks at Easter 2020 but waiting until October for schools to release dates.

Questions - how and where do we book? Is it possible to get a package (easier) or do I have to do DIY (more questions for you lot &#129300

Any idea on costs for a family of 4? There was another post that indicated in wasn't as bad as I'd expected.

I just dont know where to start, even with flights - assuming indirect is only thing possible. I'm in North West so flying from Manchester. Is it worth flying somewhere and having a few days before flying on?

See more...

I have travelled quite a lot to Asia but I wouldn’t go in August myself, I generally stick to September to April (exception this year as I am heading east in four days time but this is very much an experiment)!

That said, if you are happy to go to Florida in August (something I also would not do) then you can probably cope with Asia.

I would try to DIY it, it is not at all hard. The first thing I would do about flights is use a consolidator like Expedia.co.uk to see which airlines are flying to your destination and get an idea about who is coming out cheapest. This will obviously change from day to day, so I regularly do this. But then I would go directly to the airline website to make the booking.

I do similar thing with my hotels, look at options on Expedia (or similar), but then I always book directly with the hotel. I also utilise trip advisor a lot in assessing the hotels. Of course there will be rogue reviews, however if a hotel has had a couple of thousand and it has 75% excellent and 15% very good then, I have found, it is a pretty safe bet.

The first time we went to Japan, we had quite an extensive itinerary but had not booked the trains, we told the hotel where we needed to be and they sorted all the trains for us the next day.

[Rac20]

Originally Posted by Claudette

I have travelled quite a lot to Asia but I wouldn’t go in August myself, I generally stick to September to April (exception this year as I am heading east in four days time but this is very much an experiment)!

That said, if you are happy to go to Florida in August (something I also would not do) then you can probably cope with Asia.

I would try to DIY it, it is not at all hard. The first thing I would do about flights is use a consolidator like Expedia.co.uk to see which airlines are flying to your destination and get an idea about who is coming out cheapest. This will obviously change from day to day, so I regularly do this. But then I would go directly to the airline website to make the booking.

I do similar thing with my hotels, look at options on Expedia (or similar), but then I always book directly with the hotel. I also utilise trip advisor a lot in assessing the hotels. Of course there will be rogue reviews, however if a hotel has had a couple of thousand and it has 75% excellent and 15% very good then, I have found, it is a pretty safe bet.

The first time we went to Japan, we had quite an extensive itinerary but had not booked the trains, we told the hotel where we needed to be and they sorted all the trains for us the next day.

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Why would you avoid August? The weather? Or because of crowds?
Unfortunately we have no choice but to travel in August due to holidays unless I wanted to go for only a week as both DH and I work in education.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Rac20

Why would you avoid August? The weather? Or because of crowds?
Unfortunately we have no choice but to travel in August due to holidays unless I wanted to go for only a week as both DH and I work in education.

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For me, the weather as there are better times of year to go east. As I say though, if you are happy with Florida in August then you are more tolerant than I.

I have no idea about crowd levels in August.

[Rac20]

Originally Posted by Claudette

For me, the weather as there are better times of year to go east. As I say though, if you are happy with Florida in August then you are more tolerant than I.

I have no idea about crowd levels in August.

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I think after spending 4 days in Dubai Tokyo is going to feel practically Arctic...❄️❄️ 😂😂

I’ve been several times to Florida in August and the heat doesn’t bother me so hopefully will be ok.

I have heard the crowd levels are bad though.😩

[Blue nose]

Thanks everyone for replies.

We've only done Florida at Easter or the Med in June do not sure about really hot places. This August we're off to Barbados so might get warm there 🤔 I'm freckley so don't do the sun well but ok with heat just need sunscreen.

So in Sept 2018 I can check & book flights for Aug 2019 like anywhere else?

Daft question - where do I fly to?

Any idea roughly how much flights will be? DS will be 13 and DD 10.

Any idea on prices of Disney tickets? When can I book these? Is it a lot later?

Also idea for price of hotels for however many nights we'd nee to do.disney and a big of the sites? Can I book these in September? I thought I'd read something about things being available only few months out.

I like idea of Dubai on way out. We could look at 3/4 days there before traveling on. But then how many in Japan?

We've never done sightseeing before with kids so they may get bored. Plus we all hate shopping.

Could we maybe go somewhere else or is that just adding costs?

Thanks in advance 👍

[Rac20]

OP check out apps such as Skyscanner, kayak or momondo where you can put your flight preferences in. You can set up alerts where they inform you of price changes but as I mentioned earlier it seemed to me that prices always went up.

There is a website called Klook where you can buy Disney tickets. Think it’s about £90 for a two day pass.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Blue nose

Thanks everyone for replies.

We've only done Florida at Easter or the Med in June do not sure about really hot places. This August we're off to Barbados so might get warm there 🤔 I'm freckley so don't do the sun well but ok with heat just need sunscreen.

So in Sept 2018 I can check & book flights for Aug 2019 like anywhere else?

Daft question - where do I fly to?

Any idea roughly how much flights will be? DS will be 13 and DD 10.

Any idea on prices of Disney tickets? When can I book these? Is it a lot later?

Also idea for price of hotels for however many nights we'd nee to do.disney and a big of the sites? Can I book these in September? I thought I'd read something about things being available only few months out.

I like idea of Dubai on way out. We could look at 3/4 days there before traveling on. But then how many in Japan?

We've never done sightseeing before with kids so they may get bored. Plus we all hate shopping.

Could we maybe go somewhere else or is that just adding costs?

Thanks in advance 👍

See more...

Some comments, although I think you need to get onto the internet and start to look things up as well.

Yes, flights at approx 11 months, same as anywhere else. Prices are going to vary as well, also same as anywhere else. I often use the general “TYO” for Tokyo when searching but in reality you are likely to be flying into Narita from UK. In a less busy time, I would hope economy flights to be maybe £500 but in school holidays, well I expect this could double, again a bit like Florida say. Think about your transfer from airport (nearer the time), it isn’t a case of getting into a taxi.

There is a Tokyo Disney website to check out the hotels. We are going 2020 but don’t recall prices from when I took a look.

It would never occur to me to stopover in Dubai on way to Japan. I would if I were going to Australia, but when there are direct flights anyway to Japan this sounds like an added complication I could do without. Mind you, I do hate airports. But I especially would not consider Dubai in August. It could be 45 degrees!

I don’t go on holiday to shop either. Japan is a very interesting country and no reason why children should not enjoy the sightseeing. I don’t think there is any need to fit another destination in outside the country. Next time we go, we are planning to add on a trip to Okinawa.


lonelyplanet/japan/o...thwest-islands

[Blue nose]

Originally Posted by Claudette

Some comments, although I think you need to get onto the internet and start to look things up as well.

Yes, flights at approx 11 months, same as anywhere else. Prices are going to vary as well, also same as anywhere else. I often use the general “TYO” for Tokyo when searching but in reality you are likely to be flying into Narita from UK. In a less busy time, I would hope economy flights to be maybe £500 but in school holidays, well I expect this could double, again a bit like Florida say. Think about your transfer from airport (nearer the time), it isn’t a case of getting into a taxi.

There is a Tokyo Disney website to check out the hotels. We are going 2020 but don’t recall prices from when I took a look.

It would never occur to me to stopover in Dubai on way to Japan. I would if I were going to Australia, but when there are direct flights anyway to Japan this sounds like an added complication I could do without. Mind you, I do hate airports. But I especially would not consider Dubai in August. It could be 45 degrees!

I don’t go on holiday to shop either. Japan is a very interesting country and no reason why children should not enjoy the sightseeing. I don’t think there is any need to fit another destination in outside the country. Next time we go, we are planning to add on a trip to Okinawa.


lonelyplanet/japan/o...thwest-islands

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Thank you I've been using Skyscanner and searching Japan but wasn't sure how to narrow it done.

From Manchester it looks like I have to change and most were showing Dubai. Good shout about the weather there, I wasn't thinking 🙄

I will keep searching and reading trip reports and pop back when I have a more specific question.