Japan honeymoon, TDR questions

[Katie]

Hi everyone,

I'm so excited to be planning a honeymoon to Japan, including 3 days at TDR! I've never been, but am a huge Disney fan and I can't wait to get there!! Only 13 months left... lol

I hope nobody minds a lot of questions as they pop into my head. I'll try to use search when I can, but I think I'm still figuring that one out, as I haven't found answers to these two questions.

The first is, for the official hotels (MiraCosta, Ambassador, and the new one), what size beds do the rooms come with? Since it's our honeymoon, we'd much rather share a bed. I don't want our honeymoon to feel like a slumber party!

Also, I have a question about Fast Passes.. is there a thread that lists the best strategy for them? Listing the best order to get them? Are you able to use the fast pass later in the day, long after your return time? When can you get a 2nd fast pass?

We're looking to go mid-week, the 2nd week of April in 2009. I'm hoping that will help us beat some of the crowds.

[TDR_Fan]

Standard rooms at the Disney hotels have 2 double beds (120 cm wide) and one trundle bed (100 cm wide). Some of these rooms come with one super queen bed (180 cm wide) and a trundle instead of 2 double beds.

[Katie]

Thanks for the info. We should be able to manage in a double. That's what we're expecting to sleep in when we visit other parts of Japan. A queen would be great, though. I'll try to request it when I make reservations, though I imagine it will be like requesting a King here and won't be guaranteed. I'll cross my fingers, though.

Thanks again!

[Grimezy]

For FP, try to get them for the most popular rides like Tower of Terror at Disneysea, seeing as we got there in the morning and they were already gone an hour after opening the park.

I think you can get your next FP, an hour or so after you've used your Ticket on an FP machine.

[V1213]

Although I visited in what is supposedly one of the quieter times of the year (mid February) on weekdays, queues for some rides were over 2 hours and some Fastpasses did run out within the first hour.

All standard Fastpasses allow you to get another one 2 hours after you obtained your first one or as soon as your ride time comes up, if that is less than 2 hours.
Because of the 2 hour rule we found that people grabbed Fastpasses in waves, roughly every 2 hours. So there will be times when Fastpasses go very quickly and others when there is nobody getting them.

What we found what worked best at DisneySea is getting one of the first Tower of Terror Fastpasses in the morning so that it is valid within an hour and thus you can get another one very soon. If you keep getting them for ride windows that are less than 2 hours away you can generally get more Fastpasses during your day because you are beating the surges and can get more Fastpasses more often. This is easer to do if you stay at the MiraCosta because you get into the park 15 minutes before everyone else so you can be one of the first people in the Tower of Terror Fastpass queue.

In practice we did something like Tower of Terror, Journey to the Center of the Earth, StormRider, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Indiana Jones in that order on Fastpasses in the 1 day. Another day when we didn't play our cards right we only got 3 Fastpass rides.

Disneyland is harder because you have to queue early to get into the park right when it opens and the queues there were generally longer. We only got 2 Fastpasses there each day.

[DisneySeaFan]

A honeymoon in the Miracosta. You can't really go wrong with that.

[Katie]

Thanks for the tips everyone! I really appreciate it.

The only thing I'm still confused about, and this will greatly affect how I plan each day, is whether or not you have to come back to a ride during the time frame given on the fast pass, or if you can come back later that day, even after the time frame has expired. When visiting DLR or WDW, I almost always take advantage of late fast pass return.

[KoreyL]

Thanks for the tips everyone! I really appreciate it.

The only thing I'm still confused about, and this will greatly affect how I plan each day, is whether or not you have to come back to a ride during the time frame given on the fast pass, or if you can come back later that day, even after the time frame has expired. When visiting DLR or WDW, I almost always take advantage of late fast pass return.

While my Dh and I have never tested the waters on the "whether or not you have to come back to ride during the time frame given or if you can come back later" issue...we have heard (well, DH heard) that you have to use the FP during the timeframe given. I'm not sure if anyone else out there has tried to use a FP after the timeframe, but this is the information that I have heard.

HTH!

[Katie]

Aw, shoot! That wasn't what I wanted to hear! lol

But thanks for the info, that will help me a ton with planning our days, and now I won't waste any fast passes unnecessarily.

[TDLFAN]

I only tested the late Fastpass once and WAS DENIED entrance. It was for Hunny Hunt, and the stand by wait was posted at 180 mins. Not sure if that is the norm, but since the TDR cast members are very professional and militant in the way they perform their duties... I would not be upset if they didn't allow me to ride after the window time.