How in the world does one score a reservation at the MiraCosta?!

I'm truly baffled by this. We aren't planning to go until early next year, but I've already been doing a lot of research. I'm genuinely concerned that we may not be able to reserve a room. When I go to the official site and go to "Reservations" I see "Reserve By Phone" or "Reserve Online". So far, so good. Reservations are allowed up to six months in advance, so I have been keeping an eye on when the new days pop up as available to reserve.

When I go to "Reserve By Phone" I can see the calendar and what days still have rooms available. The newest day to show up (as of now) is August 19. Every day in August is RED, meaning no rooms available, except for the 19th which was Blue, meaning rooms ARE available. But the 19th didn't appear with a blue symbol until it was the middle of the night in Tokyo, so I would have to wait until 9 AM their time to call. So I checked "Reserve Online" and the 19th wasn't even highlighted yet as an option. I figured all of these options would become available at 9 AM Tokyo time: that's when I can call OR reserve online. Makes sense, right?

So 9 AM Tokyo time rolls around, it was maybe a few minutes after, and I took a look. Now the 19th is RED (no available rooms) on the "Reserve by Phone" calendar, and when I tried to reserve online it said, "Fully Booked". How is this possible? At the current time I have no confidence I'll be able to get a room there next year. The other hotels don't have this problem, availability is easier to get at the Ambassador and Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. Any advice?? Anyone with experience and success booking there?

I have never had an issue booking a room at the Mira costa. Perhaps my first choice room was not available, but I've always stayed there when I wanted to. I have never been in Summer time, always Fall or Winter.

We went last year, the week before Christmas, one of the more crowded times of year. And I was able to get the rooms I wanted at the MiraCosta. First of all, I say disregard what the availability on the "Make a Reservation by Phone" site. I just don't find it that accurate. I solely made our reservations using the online feature. It took me changing up and checking almost every day, and I made reservations in October for December dates, but I eventually got exactly what I was wanting. Something else to keep in mind is that you can make TDR on the website without having to actually pay for anything. They ask for a card number to keep on file -- and let me give you the heads up that what you put on file with them is what they said they must use to charge the room when you actually visit. With that in mind -- that you can make a reservation and you can cancel it with no penalty so many days out -- LOTS of people make reservations, completely book it up. But, just out of curiosity, within a week or two of our visit, I started checking availability through the website, and just about every room category was available with a few exceptions. So, what happens, IMO, is that people make reservations hoping to go and then they wind up cancelling, which opens up many rooms within a few short weeks of those days.

What I went through to get my dates goes like this. I wanted a Venice View on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night. When I first booked, only a Triple Room was available for Monday and Tuesday. So, I grabbed it. Then, within a few days, a regular Venice View opened up for Sunday and Monday, no Tuesday. I booked it and cancelled the earlier one. About a week later, Venice View popped up for the Tuesday night and booked it. And even though I had the 2 reservations, I had my Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. When I checked in, the lovely CM inquired "Stay in same room?" so I didn't have to go to the trouble of switching while there.

OMGoodness, I loved the MiraCosta. After our 3 nights there, we switched for a couple of nights to the Disneyland Hotel and I was so sad. Don't get me wrong, Disneyland Hotel is super nice too -- and almost a necessity because I had to wash some clothes (something you can't do at MiraCosta!), but it just didn't have that feeling that MiraCosta did.

Good luck with getting your ressie!

Thanks for the helpful responses. LizCatMom, you definitely give me hope. However, it's also a bit uncomfortable that I might have to wait until a month or two before the trip to get things locked in the way I like. LOL. That's just how it's gotta be though, it seems. Might be tough because we will need two rooms and we want both to be Porto Paradiso side Superior Rooms "Harbor View" and non-smoking. Haha.

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Originally Posted by Scrovegni1305

Thanks for the helpful responses. LizCatMom, you definitely give me hope. However, it's also a bit uncomfortable that I might have to wait until a month or two before the trip to get things locked in the way I like. LOL. That's just how it's gotta be though, it seems. Might be tough because we will need two rooms and we want both to be Porto Paradiso side Superior Rooms "Harbor View" and non-smoking. Haha.

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Yes, I encourage you to keep checking. Even with the popularity of the Harbor View rooms, I know that some of those were available for when I was wanting to travel. Allow me to ask, how many days are you looking to stay there? If it is more than 3, I might suggest staying the first night or two at another property and then switch to the Miracosta for your last couple of nights. I would think your chances of scoring the rooms you want for just a few nights would be better than if you were wanting to stay for 4-5 nights. I would also encourage you to have a back up plan just in case. Such as, while I was waiting to secure my rooms at Miracosta, I had reservations at the Hilton "just in case." A reservation, of course, that was refundable should I needed to cancel (which I did.)

One other thing, if you do manage to get a couple of rooms reserved through the website, my experience was that if you call and try to speak to someone about seeing if another night was available, I was told that if I made my reservation via the website, then they couldn't offer me any assistance over the telephone. They just referred me to the website. Hope this helps!

You should make a reservation at the Hilton Tokyo Bay for those dates just in case. You can cancel it with no penalty 72 hours before arrival (might even be same day, but before check-in). Make SURE you don't pick the rate that requires you to pay in full in advance--that is a non-refundable rate.

This way, you definitely have a hotel room for those dates in a great hotel that's on the monorail line.

Thanks for the advice LizCat and Fukai, I will definitely have a backup plan now. As for the current plan if all goes accordingly, we are staying two nights at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, and visiting Tokyo Disneyland for our first two full days. Then we move over to the MiraCosta, hopefully Harbor View rooms, and we'll visit Tokyo DisneySea for two days. So two nights is all I need at the MiraCosta. Unfortunately, I need two rooms.

I just thought of something else that might be turning my "panic mode" up prematurely. It's only for the past week or so I've been testing out the online reservation system well ahead of when I'm ACTUALLY booking. Online everything is booked within MINUTES of 9 AM Tokyo time, and I'm sure the phone lines are lit up as well. However, the four days I actually visit Tokyo Disney Resort will be during "Value" season (the lowest rate and presumably least busy times of year). I realized these tests I'm conducting are for booking six months from now, which is...August. Almost the entire month of August on the MiraCosta website is listed as "Top" season! The highest of the four rates, and the busiest month of all!

So it seems to me that I'm probably trying to book at the same time as every family in Japan, give or take, LOL. I'll give my online booking tests another try when it's six months out from a "Value" or "Regular" rate day.

Bingo!

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Originally Posted by Fukai

Bingo!

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Or...perhaps not. I'm convinced now that there is no human on the planet playing by the rules (in other words no computer hacking, no Disney employees held at gunpoint, etc.) who can score a Harbor View Room at the MiraCosta ONLINE the day it supposedly becomes available. It's IMPOSSIBLE. Even on a regular rate day (which Tuesday, August 27 is), not "High" or "Top". The very SECOND the 27th became a selection on the calendar my reservation request was soaring through cyberspace, and I got a big fat "Fully Occupied". I call bull****. I think the only way to get one of those rooms is to CALL or wait and pray to the MiraCosta Hotel gods that something might open up a few weeks or months out from your trip. Which, frankly, scares me since the U.S. to Japan is a trip that I, for one, would like to PLAN not "wing it". Oh well... Plan B = PHONE CALL! :thumbup: