Flights to Asia booked! About This Page:

[Silvercat]

Well, we went into a travel agent called Flight Centre last week and booked our flights to Tokyo, (including Disneyland!), Hong Kong, (including Disneyland!), and Singapore, (including Universal!) for the end of this year!

I was really pleased with the final price, as I had done some internet searching myself, (including Kayak), and Flight Centre got all 4 flights for me for about a third of what I was expecting to pay - yay, result!

Another good thing is that we are flying from Birmingham airport, close to where we live in the UK, as I had thought we would have to go from London. I don't mind going from London, but the added cost of getting there and staying overnight the night before our flight was something else I was worrying a bit about.

So - here's to our next adventure!

[Disneybine]

Sounds like you have an amazing trip ahead of you!!!

[chezp]

Congrats on getting that sorted and the deal on the flights! I've never used Flight Centre before, but maybe I should look into them in the future.

[Silvercat]

Hi Cheryl - yes, I had never used them before either, but was surprised at how good they were and how cheaply they managed to get our flights for! We had to pay in full for the flights at the time of booking, but that's what credit cards are for!

We were lucky to go in there to just 'check on prices' on the day that the return flights at the end of November were released, so we got first dibbs on seats too, which is great.

I loved the way they were able to book all 4 flights, with two different airlines, as one booking too. We are doing the long-haul flights with Quatar, and the shorter ones with Cathay Pacific. We may need to add extra luggage at a later date, but with Quatar our luggage allowance is 30kg each! Much more than we normally get with Virgin Atlantic.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Silvercat

I loved the way they were able to book all 4 flights, with two different airlines, as one booking too. We are doing the long-haul flights with Quatar, and the shorter ones with Emirates. We may need to add extra luggage at a later date, but with Quatar our luggage allowance is 30kg each! Much more than we normally get with Virgin Atlantic.

That is an impressive luggage allowance.

[dwonderz]

Congrats on booking the flights - sounds like a really exciting trip you've got planned!

[KimmyAnn1147]

Congrats!!!

[Huntermom]

I just read some of your WDW trip report. For some reason I thought you were doing this long voyage with young children. Congrats on booking your flights and many pixies that there are not too many youngsters on board.

[Silvercat]

Aargh, no small children allowed on MY trips!! Maybe because in my trip report I talked about taking my son? He is 34 so is no small child!

Ooh, please don't make me think about other folks' youngsters on board the 14-hour flight to Japan - I may have to think up ways of discreetly sticking them in the overhead lockers for the flight .......

[Huntermom]

Silvercat,

I often imagine I have a cattle prod and can decretely stun misbehaving people. NOt sure I could do a 14 hour flight but I truly hope no one thinks children should do one. And if there are children on your flight may they be as far from you as possible and sleep mucch of the way.

[KimmyAnn1147]

Bwah ha ha ha ha!!! We've booked our Flight to HK from San Fran (direct) for June. With our 7 yo. If you are considering flying, please avoid the June 20th on Singapore, cause we're gonna be on there, reeking havoc.


All joking aside, you are going to have an amazing trip. Too bad our dates don't match.

Have you considered adding Shanghai? That's what we are looking at next.

[Silvercat]

Oh, 7 year olds aren't too bad, they don't usually shriek for hours or kick the back of my seat constantly!

I do think we are going to have fun, we have already started booking hotels in Tokyo and looking at a 2 day trip to Hiroshima, before we get to Hong Kong. Yes, it is a shame we aren't going to be there at the same time! Have a wonderful time though, and let me know if you have any tips from your trip that I could use.

We are saving Shanghai for a bigger trip in a couple of years time, I think. That is somewhere that we want to spend a decent amount of time at, rather than trying to fit it in with a trip to other places at the same time. So I think we will look at a week there, followed (or preceded!) by a week seeing some of China's other great attractions such as the Great Wall, the panda nursery, the Terracotta Warriors, etc.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Silvercat

I do think we are going to have fun, we have already started booking hotels in Tokyo and looking at a 2 day trip to Hiroshima, before we get to Hong Kong. Yes, it is a shame we aren't going to be there at the same time! Have a wonderful time though, and let me know if you have any tips from your trip that I could use.

Definitely do Hiroshima - Mark wasn't 100% sure about going there, I was the one who wanted to do it and he absolutely loved it there. It was just so peaceful and beautiful, amazing given the terrible events which happened there, but I would recommend it to anyone.

We are saving Shanghai for a bigger trip in a couple of years time, I think. That is somewhere that we want to spend a decent amount of time at, rather than trying to fit it in with a trip to other places at the same time. So I think we will look at a week there, followed (or preceded!) by a week seeing some of China's other great attractions such as the Great Wall, the panda nursery, the Terracotta Warriors, etc.

I'm half pencilling in a China trip in late 2018. Have you looked at some of the guided tours? Virgin Holidays do one that takes in all those places and it starts in Shanghai and finishes in Hong Kong. It's a two week trip, so I figure add a couple of days before for and after for both parks... maybe you should look into something like that?

[Silvercat]

I did have a quick look, but they seemed to be shockingly expensive! I'll take another look next year, as at the moment I am now knee-deep in planning this year and next! I'm thinking definitely China in late 2018 though ....

So last night I booked this : 2 nights at a hotel near the train station in Tokyo, followed by a package that included a bullet-train journey to Hiroshima and a night in a hotel there, then a train back the next afternoon, followed by another night at the first hotel, before we fly to Hong Kong. That way we can leave the majority of our luggage with bell services as we will have an upcoming reservation with them, and just take overnight bags to Hiroshima. It's a very early train, so we should get plenty of time to explore the peace garden and also do a ferry trip to the island with the Tori gate.

That just leaves the Disney bit at the beginning of the week (before Hiroshima), and we are looking at 4 days for that.

Today I went onto the Disneyland Hong Kong website and booked us 3 nights at the Disney Hollywood Hotel, and 2 day park tickets. This will then leave us with another 3 days in Hong Kong, so I will need to find a hotel for those days.

Then this weekend we are having one of our infamous 'breakfast meetings' where we go out for breakfast and spend a couple of hours discussing important stuff. We have some house renovation/remodelling details to sort out, plus I haven't told DH yet about all the plans for this year's holiday so far, and I want to start tackling next year as well as I understand the 2017 itineraries for the Disney Cruise Line come out in March, so we need to pin down when and where we are going next year.

I'm getting there!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Silvercat

I did have a quick look, but they seemed to be shockingly expensive! I'll take another look next year, as at the moment I am now knee-deep in planning this year and next! I'm thinking definitely China in late 2018 though ....

It is a lot of money, but it does include economy flights (and we know how much those can cost alone ), some meals and a full itinerary. Looking at some other sites, they're pretty cheap - I've seen much higher prices just for the tour and no flights out there...

So last night I booked this : 2 nights at a hotel near the train station in Tokyo, followed by a package that included a bullet-train journey to Hiroshima and a night in a hotel there, then a train back the next afternoon, followed by another night at the first hotel, before we fly to Hong Kong. That way we can leave the majority of our luggage with bell services as we will have an upcoming reservation with them, and just take overnight bags to Hiroshima. It's a very early train, so we should get plenty of time to explore the peace garden and also do a ferry trip to the island with the Tori gate.

That sounds like a great plan and you will love Miyajima (the Torii gate place) - we absolutely adored it.

That just leaves the Disney bit at the beginning of the week (before Hiroshima), and we are looking at 4 days for that.

That sounds about right - we did three days and could easily have done four.

Today I went onto the Disneyland Hong Kong website and booked us 3 nights at the Disney Hollywood Hotel, and 2 day park tickets. This will then leave us with another 3 days in Hong Kong, so I will need to find a hotel for those days.

I'd be interested to see if you feel that's enough time at Hong Kong Disneyland, given I'd like to go back there on the back end of our China trip and we were last there in 2008, when it was a lot smaller. With the hotel for the rest of your Hong Kong stay, your first decision will be whether to go for Kowloon or Hong Kong Island. We were on Hong Kong Island, although to be honest, I don't think it makes that much difference, provided you're near a subway station.

Then this weekend we are having one of our infamous 'breakfast meetings' where we go out for breakfast and spend a couple of hours discussing important stuff. We have some house renovation/remodelling details to sort out, plus I haven't told DH yet about all the plans for this year's holiday so far, and I want to start tackling next year as well as I understand the 2017 itineraries for the Disney Cruise Line come out in March, so we need to pin down when and where we are going next year.

Oh yes, I hear you about that. I'm intrigued to know what they're planning for next year, but I hope it doesn't interfere with my plans for a Scotland road trip... I know, I could do it any time, but I can tie it in with a visit to my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary and hopefully we'll have American friends joining us for that...