Showing posts with label Travel Tips for the Wanderlust Parent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel Tips for the Wanderlust Parent. Show all posts

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Tokyo Prep (Part 2): Places to Visit in Tokyo

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While conducting my research for our upcoming trip and realising that we can't possibly go to all the awesome destinations in Tokyo (time is limited and we've got kids and a senior with us), I've decided to compile a list of good places to visit in Tokyo. Tokyo is such a beautiful city with so many things to do!

As I've never been to Tokyo before (not out of the airport at least), I'm relying on my friends and fellow parent bloggers to help me out (thanks guys!) =)

Most, if not all, of these places have been tried and tested by parents so you can be sure that they are kid-friendly. Without further ado, here we go...


PLACES to VISIT in TOKYO:

[1] Asakusa

Photo credit: Life's Tiny Miracles

Read the travel post/s:

[2] Harajuku & Shibuya

Photo Credit: Bumblebee Mum

Read the travel post/s:

 [3] Imperial Palace

Photo Credit: Bumblebee Mum

Read the travel post/s:

[4] Odaiba

Photo credit: Life's Tiny Miracles

Read the travel post/s:

[5] Shimokitazawa

Photo credit: J Babies

Read the travel post/s:

[6] Shinjuku

Photo Credit: Bumblebee Mum

Read the travel post/s:

 [7] Tokyo One Piece Tower

Photo Credit: Sakura Haruka

 Read the travel post/s:

[8] Tokyo Tower

Photo credit: Bumblebee Mum

Read the travel post/s:

[9] Tsukiji Market

Photo credit: Life's Tiny Miracles

 Read the travel post/s:

[10] Ueno Park

Photo Credit: Sakura Haruka

Read the travel post/s:

[11] Universal Studios Japan

Photo credit: Life's Tiny Miracles

Read the travel post/s:

[12] Yoyogi Park

Photo credit: Sakura Haruka

Read the travel post/s:


PLACES to VISIT NEAR TOKYO:

[1] Hakone & Mount Fuji

Photo Credit: Life's Tiny Miracles

Read the travel post/s:

 [2] Yokohama & Yomiuriland

Photo credit: J Babies

Read the travel post/s:

[Do also check out this list of kid-friendly attractions compiled by Bumblebee Mum!]

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Finally, how can I not dedicate a whole section to my beloved Disneyland? *grin*

TOKYO DISNEYLAND & DISNEYSEA:

Photo credit: Life's Tiny Miracles

Tips and Tricks:


Additional Information:

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Hopefully I can visit at least half of what's in the above list! *cross fingers*

P.S: If you've got a blog post you think I should add to this list, feel free to leave me a comment (and I'll try to add it in)! =)


<< Back to Tokyo Prep (Part 1): Booking a Character Room in Tokyo Disneyland


This post is part of my series on Travel Tips for the Wanderlust Parent.
Follow me as I share my tips for planning your next family vacation


Head on over to My Travel Page for a whole list of our travel itineraries!
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Thursday, 10 December 2015

Tokyo Prep (Part 1): Booking a Character Room in Tokyo Disneyland

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I'm thrilled to say that although we spent a fortune in doing so, I managed to book the Beauty and the Beast character room at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel on Christmas Eve for our upcoming trip to Tokyo this year! Believe me it wasn't easy at all, as most of the character rooms are usually fully booked months in advance.

Character rooms are reeaaallly expensive but they provide you with an awesome experience (at least I hope so)!

Here's a list of the different character/themed rooms available in all three of the Disney Hotels:

(1) Mickey / Minnie / Donald Character Rooms @ Disney Ambassador Hotel

Mickey Mouse / Minnie Mouse / Donald Duck Character rooms
(click here for more information)

(2) Disney's Classic Character Rooms @ Tokyo Disneyland Hotel

Clockwise from top left: Beauty and the Beast character room (the one we booked!);
Cinderella character room;
Tinkerbell character room;
Alice in the Wonderland character room;
(click here for more information)

(3) Italian-Themed Rooms @ Tokyo Disneysea Hotel Miracosta

This Italian-themed hotel is almost always fully booked because it is the only hotel in Tokyo Disneyland that is located within the park itself.

The different Italian-themed rooms
(click here for more information)

Most people don't manage to book the character rooms because they are almost always fully booked (especially the more popular hotels like Miracosta and Tokyo Disneyland Hotel). Hence, here's sharing my tips on how to ensure you can book a character room in one of the Disney Hotels =)

STEPS to BOOKING A CHARACTER ROOM in TOKYO DISNEY HOTELS:

Step 1: Set Your Alarm to Book a Room 6 Months Before Your Stay

Book a room via Tokyo Disney Resort Online Reservation and Tickets

Tokyo Disney Resort Online Reservation is open for booking at 9am (Japan time) on the same date 6 months before your stay. For example, if you are like me and want to book a room on 24th December, you should be logging into the system to book on 24th June, 8am (Singapore time).

Make sure that you don't delay, especially for super peak periods (e.g. in December), because the popular rooms can be fully booked just 1-2 hours after rooms are opened for booking! True story.

Step 2: Create an Account

You will need to create an account in order to book. To aid your booking process, you may want to create an account days before you are due to book so that it's easier on the day that you are booking.

Step 3: Choose Your Room

As you can see, most of the rooms are usually occupied if you book too late
We clicked on our preferred Beauty and the Beast Character room to reserve!
We chose the one that could accommodate 4 adults (as shown in the picture above)
Photo Credit: Tokyo Disneyland Hotel
Beautiful living area
Photo Credit: Tokyo Disneyland Hotel
Study table decked out to look just like the enchanted castle!
Photo Credit: Tokyo Disneyland Hotel

TIP: You may want to read up on the different rooms, their capacities, views, amenities, prices, etc before the actual day of booking because you may not have time to think about it once the system is open for reservation (yup, it can be that crazy for super peak periods).

Step 4: Book!

That's it! You don't have to pay for it until closer to the date so you can still cancel your reservation (not later than 14 days before your stay) if you:
  1. Realised that the price is simply too high (like I did but its too late for us now!)
  2. Found a better alternative (although I find that quite hard to believe).
For bookings made after 1 April 2016, all guests will have to pay a deposit of 30,000 yen, which is chargeable during your reservation (more information on deposits here). The deposits will be used to offset your room charges or cancellation fees if any.

And there you have it!

If character rooms are not your thing and you can afford it, the suites of all three Disney Hotels are usually still available because it is simply waaay out of budget. The ordinary rooms of the Disney Ambassador Hotel are also usually still available.

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Some Common FAQs on Disney Hotels:

How are the Disney Hotels (i.e. Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, Disney Ambassador Hotel and Tokyo Disneysea Hotel Miracosta) different from the Tokyo Disney Resort Official Hotels (e.g. Sheraton Grand Tokyo Bay Hotel, Hilton Tokyo Bay, etc)?
  1. From what I understand, Disney Hotels are managed directly by Tokyo Disney Resorts while the Tokyo Disney Resort Official Hotels are their partners.
  2. Disney Hotels are the only hotels that bear the Disney name.
  3. Disney Hotels are located either within or right next to Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo Disneysea while the Official Disneyland Hotels are usually farther away (though still easily accessible by monorail).
Why book a Disney Hotel when the Tokyo Disney Resort Official Hotels are more affordable?
  1. Disney Hotels are located within or right next to Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo Disneysea. Because it is so nearby, you can go back to your hotel to rest anytime you feel tired or if for example you need to bathe your child because he spilled milk all over his clothes (with kids, you know that is very likely!).
  2. You do not have to prebook your tickets to Disneyland if you do not want to. Tickets are guaranteed for all Disney Hotel guests.
  3. There are special entrances for Disney Hotel guests depending on which hotel that you stay. For example, there is a special entrance to Tokyo Disneysea for guests staying at Tokyo Disneysea Hotel Miracosta. 
  4. Guests of Disney Hotels are allowed to enter Disneyland or Disneysea 15 minutes before the park opens! That means you have some time to rush and grab fast passes!
  5. Because there is nothing like staying in a Disney Character Room in my big-fat-Disney-fan opinion *grin*
These are just a few of the many benefits of the Disney Hotels. You can read up on the full benefits of Disney Hotels for more information.

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I'm soooo looking forward to our epic trip where I will finally set foot in Disneyland for the first time (I know, it's incredible that I have never been to Disneyland before despite being a big Disney fan)! Mickey and Minnie, here I come!!! *super grin*
UPDATE: Read our full experience with the Beauty & The Beast Character Room here


Continue to >> Tokyo Prep (Part 2): Places to Visit in Tokyo


This post is part of my series on Travel Tips for the Wanderlust Parent.
Follow me as I share my tips for planning your next family vacation


Head on over to My Travel Page for a whole list of our travel itineraries!
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Thursday, 11 December 2014

Travel Tips 8: Fully Utilising Your Hotel Room Amenities

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If you've stayed in a hotel before, you'll know that while having an iron, a hair dryer or even a weighing machine in the room is awesome, you don't really utilise them about 90% of the time (especially not the weighing machine after you had just eaten a large meal!).

I thought to myself, why spend so much money if I can't make full use of my room's amenities?

So here's sharing 10 ways to ensure that you use all the amenities in your hotel room to the fullest capacity! =)



1) Shower Cap + Shoes = Clean Luggage

Great for packing odd-shaped shoes like the hubby's Crocs!

Fast and easy to pack your dirty shoes in your luggage and even reuses the shower cap so that you save the environment! =)


3) Iron + Fabric Paint = DIY T-shirt

Back of a shirt that my bff and I painted for another bff when we were all younger, single and carefree. Each T-shirt had our unique personalities. I still keep mine! =)

If you have bored kids in the hotel room and don't know what to do, why not buy some fabric paint and decorate an old T-shirt any way that they like? After that, all you need to do is turn the shirt inside out and iron on it (with the iron in your room of course!) and you've got yourself a masterpiece! =)


3) Iron + Bread = Toast

Bread and aluminium
Wrap the bread in the aluminium foil as shown before applying a hot iron directly on it

I learnt this trick from this blog. A friend said she has made toast this way many times in her college hostel. I thought it was genius!


4) Ironing Board + Your Stuff = Additional Table


Brought so many stuff that you can't find a place to put it? You can consider putting light-weight items on the ironing board! It's especially nifty when you've got kids (we all know how much stuff they have!). Just make sure that they don't knock it down!


5) Weighing Machine + Luggage = Luggage Weighing Scale

Trying to see if my luggage is overweight..
(It wasn't!)
Might work better for smaller luggages rather than my huge one

This idea came to me by chance when my hand-held luggage weighing scale couldn't weigh my heavy luggage after we filled it with all our shopping loot in Bangkok. The weighing machine is not terribly accurate though. Plus another 3-5kg and it's about right.


6) Disposable Razor + Clothes = Frizz Remover

Using a disposable razor to remove the frizz on my girl's dress

I can tell you from experience that this really works! It's definitely better than trying to pluck the frizz out yourself using your fingertips.


7) Mini Sewing Kit + Pouch = Emergency Bag

My pouch that I bring everyday to work

Add other essentials like plasters, nail clipper, pills such as Panadol and charcoal, and a mini Swiss army knife and you've got yourself a handy emergency kit to bring with you everywhere! Don't ever underestimate the importance of an emergency kit. You don't know how many times my kit has saved someone who needed it desperately =)


8) Toothbrush + Lipstick = Perfect Red Lips

Disposable toothbrush and my lipstick
Using the toothbrush to prep the lips for the lipstick

Prepping your lips before applying your lipstick ensures that you get longer lasting lip colour. I had no idea till I googled for alternative uses of toothbrush =)


9) Toothpaste + Dull Jewellery = Shiny Jewellery

Disposable toothpaste that comes with the disposable toothbrush
My dull silver jewellery that required polishing

All you need to do is rub the toothpaste onto the metal and viola! It's polished like new!

The photo can't really capture it but you can already see a difference in the shininess of the chain

Here're 10 other uses of toothpaste, if you don't have jewellery to polish (remember that toothpaste cannot be used on pearls!).


10) Shampoo + Dirty Clothes = Clean Laundry

Shampoo is available in almost all hotel bathrooms

Google for alternative uses for shampoo and you will find a whole list of them! One of my favourites has to be for hand-washing dirty laundry or getting rid of stains on your clothes. When you're overseas and don't have any laundry detergent with you, this is one handy tip! =)

And there you have it! Technically, you can also follow most of these tips in your own home but why pay when all of it comes free in a hotel room? So now you know what to do when you're staying in a hotel next =)


<< Back to Travel Tips 7: Kids Nutrition

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This post is part of my series on Travel Tips for the Wanderlust Parent.
Follow me as I share my tips for planning your next family vacation


Head on over to My Travel Page for a whole list of our travel itineraries!
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Thursday, 27 November 2014

Travel Tips 7: Kids Nutrition while Travelling

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I share about how I keep my kids fed on our trips here and there in my travel posts but I thought it would be apt to put them altogether into one post.

Food for Kids on the Travel:

1) Breast Milk

My favourite photo of me breastfeeding Baby Boy in London
(so pardon me for posting it again and again! =P)

Nothing beats drinking mummy's milk straight out of the tap. Need I say more? *grin*

Here're some tips to ensure that you succeed in nursing on the travel! =)

2) Formula Milk

For formula-feeding mums, I'm sure you would know what to do/bring better than me. Till now, I have no idea how much milk powder goes with how much water. Lucky for me, the mum-in-law is in charge of that! She usually measures the milk powder properly into the containers and all I needed to do was mix it with warm water in the bottle for my girl! *laughs*

3) Baby Food

A bottle of baby food we bought for my then baby girl in Shenzhen 3 years ago

In the beginning, we brought along bottled baby food as we thought it would be easier to feed that to the baby. Case in point, we bought a few bottles of baby food to feed Baby Boy when we were in London.

However, we found that packets of baby food were lighter to pack than bottles.

Heating up a packet of Pigeon Baby Food before feeding Baby Boy in Malacca
(He loves it!)

All you need is a container which you can fill with hot water (that you can boil in your hotel room or request from most cafes or restaurants), soak the packet in it for 10 minutes and it is ready to be fed! =)

4) Porridge

Porridge and chee cheong fun at Fa Yuen Street Market in Hong Kong
Girl enjoying her porridge

Smooth and tasty porridge are in abundance in Hong Kong and Shenzhen so that was our must-order food at almost every eatery.

Most hotels in Asia also serve porridge in the morning for breakfast so that was usually what I would get for my babies.

Baby Boy eating the porridge at Hatten hotel in Malacca

If you're in a Western country though, this may not be readily available so you may need to prepare your own food or find other alternatives such as bread (see next point).

5) Buns or Bread

Baby Girl eating her favourite bao in Shenzhen 3 years ago

When my girl was around 6-12 months and the range of food that she can eat is quite limited, we love to feed her bao (Chinese buns), which are soft and one of my girl's favourite food.

When bao is not readily available, such as in London, we will get bread for my boy and he loves it (especially croissant)!

6) Pancakes

Pancake-making machine making one of our favourite pancakes at Park Plaza Bangkok
Pancakes in the morning at Hatten hotel, Malacca

My girl and I also love pancakes! There's nothing better than fresh pancakes in the morning =)

7) Baby Snacks

Baby Girl eating baby snacks in Shenzhen 3 years ago

We love to bring baby snacks, such as those from Pigeon, on our trips because it helps my baby (who's also teething) to chew on something in between meals. It's also a good way to distract/entertain your baby on long journeys (read more about it and other ways to entertain your kids by air or road).

8) Special Treats

Eating a McDonald's Happy Meal in Sydney
Our favourite waffles at A&W in Bangkok

We usually don't bring the kids to eat fast food because the food nazi hubby hates fast food (especially McDonald's, but I won't go there). That's ok because his girl doesn't like fast food either.

However, the both of them make it an exception when we overseas. Maybe Ronald looks a bit different or whatever. Anyway, since we probably won't get a chance to eat A&W in Singapore, we usually let the girl eat whatever she wants on vacation.

I mean, healthy diet can wait till tomorrow right? *laughs*

9) Whatever We can Find

Eating whatever I think is suitable and that she is willing to eat from the buffet line

Nutrition? What nutrition?

My girl is a food critic and needs to eat the freshest and best tasting food otherwise she would rather not eat. But sometimes that's just not possible when you're travelling. Hence, as long as my girl eats and does not starve, I'm good. I was never a food nazi anyway =)

You know, I'm probably not the best person to share about this since I was never in charge of the food department (only the boob department). For mums in charge of the food department, what are your tips? Do share =)


Continue to >> Travel Tips 8: How to Fully Utilise Your Hotel Room Amenities
<< Back to Travel Tips 6: Saving Money

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This post is part of my series on Travel Tips for the Wanderlust Parent.
Follow me as I share my tips for planning your next family vacation


Head on over to My Travel Page for a whole list of our travel itineraries!
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