A Disney Parks Around the World Journey: Day 13 – The Land of the Rising Sun Part II

We then arrived at Fantasy Springs Hotel.

The exterior of the hotel leaves much to be desired to be honest and looks a little like it’s out of a Dr. Seuss novel.

The hotel is brand new, just opening this June and it looks it. The interior is immaculate and in areas still has that new hotel smell. Fantasy Springs Hotel is divided into two parts, Fantasy Chateau and Grand Chateau. We are staying at the Fantasy Springs Grand Chateau. Grand Chateau is part of the newer “hotel within a hotel” concept and only has 56 rooms versus 419 of the Fantasy Chateau section. It also comes with several perks such as 15 minutes earlier entry to the park than anyone else. This is even earlier than those with Happy Entry that grants 15 minutes earlier entry to Disney Resort Guests than the regular admission. Also included is an exclusive park entrance, 8 attraction tickets which are basically anytime Lightning Lane passes with the ability to purchase more, an exclusive restaurant, and more.

While the exterior leaves much to be desired the inside is absolutely stunning. Most bloggers have been saying it Fantasy Springs is pretty underwhelming, bland, and lacked personality, but I found it pretty elaborate.

The Grand Chateau is accessible only via keycard access, and on arrival they escort you to the lounge where you check-in as it is completely separate from the regular hotel.

You wait in the lounge until it’s your turn to check in and they take you to their desk where you also sit down and check in which was nice. The cast member checking us in spoke excellent English. It was really the best English I’ve encountered since we left Hong Kong. She then went over our stay and offered us the chance to buy our park tickets and additional attraction passes. We also had a chance to make reservations for our included reserved show time and any dining we might have be interested in. Prior to arrival the concierge had made us a reservation for the hotel exclusive restaurant, La Libellule, for breakfast tomorrow at 8:40AM.

It felt more like checking into an all inclusive resort than it did a hotel.

The lounge is very pretty and ornate. The windows overlook Fantasy Springs, the brand new land in Tokyo DisneySea. It was our first view of a Tokyo Disney park so we were definitely getting pretty excited.

After we finish checking in, they give us all the tickets, passes, room keys, etc. They also bring out the wheelchair that we had prebooked prior to our arrival. It is quite a bit to keep track off and makes me realize how much I appreciate the paperless system all the other parks have gone too.

The cast member starts to walk us to our room. On the way they stop and tell us the story of Fantasy Springs and how the area and hotel came to fruition.

We then walk down a very long and absolutely stunning hallway.

The hallway is lined with these gorgeous princess dresses.

There is also artwork based on various Disney films lining the walls.

It feels more like a walk in Versaille or other European palace than a Disney Hotel to be honest. Conveniently enough our room is very close to the hallway. It was the 2nd room after we passed the hallway and elevator. We enter the room and it is absolutely gorgeous.

She gives us a tour of the room showing us all the features. Unlike the Murphy beds we’ve had in previous rooms, Lucy get’s her own little alcove here to sleep in.

It comes with the standard robes, slippers, amenity kits, and complimentary mini bar.

The room also came with a free memory book that you could put your room key in, and other moments of your stay, a felt lined card thanking you for your stay, and 4 coins exclusive for staying for New Year’s Eve.

The room really exceeded expectations in all aspects except for the bathroom. The bathroom adhere’s to the typical Japanese design in which the bath and shower are all one room with a water tight door. It did come with a half bath near the entrance of the room though so that was nice. The bathtub has a typical fiberglass bathtub and lacked a luxury feel as did the shower, but aside from that the rest of the room had excellent lighting and very nice furnishings.

After we finished our room tour she showed us the balcony and she offered to take our picture from the balcony overlooking the park.

The view from our room is great.

As we look around we see Ariel doing a meet and greet from our room.

It was truly top notch service to be honest and some of the best service I’ve had of any hotel ever. After she leaves another cast member then arrives to offer us drink service and serve us a snack.

Despite it being December 31st, today is a scheduled rest day, and we have no plans today or tonight. We basically haven’t stopped moving since we landed in Hong Kong the night of the 28th, have had minimal sleep and have been pretty jet lagged, so we plan to just enjoy the room and take it easy. We haven’t done laundry since we were in Paris, so we are definitely due as we are basically out of clothes.

There is no laundry in Grand Chateau, but thankfully I do not have to walk 18 minutes like in Paris to get to a laundromat. Fantasy Chateau is just on the opposite side of the building and it has a laundromat so I walk over there to start some laundry. On the way to do laundry I get a little distracted and start taking some pictures of the hotel

I briefly walk outside and take some pics from the balcony overlooking the park.

It’s starting to get a little dark. There is a small garden with a fountain and some sculptures based on Beauty and the Beast. It looked gorgeous at night.

I eventually finally get to the laundromat.

The laundry experience here was totally different from the archaic coin system at Disneyland Paris. Here, I scan a QR code to pay via a link. Once I make a payment the machine will then start.

I scan the QR code, and it brings up the site. I don’t know any Japanese.

Thankfully Google Translate bails me out here.

Not exactly perfect as I’m not sure how “driving time” and “course content” relates to the laundry, but it’s good enough for me to pay.

For those that remember my tragic laundry experience in Disneyland Paris at the end of our second day with having to buy tokens at the general store, this is a complete and total 180 on that. It was incredibly fast and efficient once I got past the language barrier. There was no inserting the same coin for three straight minutes desperately trying to get the machine to start. No drama of losing a coin after the general store had closed or trying to get to the general store before it closed just to buy a token. It was beautifully in its simplicity. You just scan and pay! That was it! It was laundry the way it was meant to be. And as an added bonus when you pay they have the most adorably cute graphics that make you smile. I love kawaii culture! Who wouldn’t love doing laundry here???

I start two loads and head back to our room. We plan to just order room service but we can’t find anything appealing on the menu. Instead we decide to get DoorDash some KFC. I know what you’re thinking, but in Japan their tradition is to have KFC as a Christmas meal. So much so that if you don’t put your order in at least several days in advance you will not be able to get KFC for Christmas. Since KFC is the traditional Japanese Christmas meal we figured we’d extend that to New Years Eve as well. Random fun fact, but I used to do a fair amount of moonlighting in Corbin, KY which is the home of the very first KFC.

After making our DoorDash order I go back to the laundromat and move over the laundry. The dryers are huge, and we don’t really have that much laundry so I throw all our clothes into one dryer and start it up for an hour. For our dryer at home this would be ample time for that amount of clothes and go back to the room to wait for our food.

Our DoorDash arrives and we all enjoy a taste of home. Two interesting things about our KFC order. One, there is no ketchup as an option to add when I made our DoorDash order. The Japanese traditionally do not really do order modifications or substitutions, but I figured for an American fast food franchise, ketchup would be a condiment that could be added. Two, the biscuit has a hole in it like a donut.

There is nothing going on at the resort for New Year’s Eve which we thought was interesting. The parks close at 9AM and there is no party, no decorations or anything in the hotel to signify it was New Year’s Eve. We figured there would be SOMETHING, or at minimum some New Year’s Eve decorations and maybe some balloons.

Prior to leaving for our trip, I did some investigating into New Year’s Eve activities at Tokyo Disney Resort and was shocked to see absolutely none. From my understanding, the parks can never close late as all the Cast Members overwhelmingly use the train to get home, and it stops running pretty early from my understanding. So for them to get home, they have to close the parks at 9PM at the latest every night in order for the Cast Members to be able to use the train to get home. Upon planning this trip the park hours do not ever seem to ever waiver unlike at Disney World where they adjust the hours based on the crowd. Tokyo Disney has the exact same hours everyday regardless of the crowd except in a rare situation where it closes even earlier, likely due to a private event. 9:00PM hits and that is closing time for the park and it empties out.

I go back to the laundry room, and the laundry still isn’t dry so I add on some more time. It ends up taking about 2 hours for what amounts to barely even one load of laundry. I’m not sure if I over loaded the dryer, so maybe it was my fault. I bring it back to room and we fold it real quick. We try to stay up till midnight given it’s New Year’s Eve, but it’s been a crazy busy couple days so we decide to hit the hay at about 10:00PM. Tonight we fall asleep to the sounds of muffled theme park music outside our window and Elsa’s castle overlooking our room.

Day 13, December 31th, 2024 Step Count – 13,264 Steps

Total Step Count – 208,339

Continue to the next day here.

Read the first part of the day here.