A Disney Parks Around the World Journey: Day 14 – Tokyo Disneysea

“Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional.” – Walt Disney

I was up at 4:15AM today. Given I went to bed about 10:00PM that tells me I’m getting back to a more normal schedule as I traditionally only sleep about 5-6 hours at home. I decide since I’m up, I might as well do some of laundry as I missed some of the laundry yesterday.

I’m continuing to enjoy the beauty and simplicity of this laundromat. To be honest, though, I’m not sure if I’m just so traumatized by my last laundromat relationship that this might have become my rebound laundromat. It could be lust, or it could be love, but for now I’m just living in the moment.

Unfortunately, my love affair with the laundromat died faster than a snowflake in August. I thought yesterday it was me overloading the dryer as the reason it was taking so long to dry. I thought I was the problem, it’s me. Well today I had no more than a handful of pieces and I divided them up into two dryers. After 60 minutes it was still damp. Apparently, I was NOT the problem in this relationship, and it was actually the dryers. This was definitely a rebound laundromat, and the magic I felt between us quickly evaporated. Sadly the water on our clothes did not evaporate as fast as our relationship did. It was so sad but we always knew it was a one night stand at best anyway.

I head back to the room after another round of drying finally got the clothes to at least be in packable condition. The sun is now up and it’s a beautiful day.

We have till 11:00AM to check out so for that reason we decided to put off packing for now as we have an exclusive early entry which I am going to dub “Happy Happy Entry.” Just regular Happy Entry is being allowed to enter into Tokyo Disneysea 15 minutes before the general population. This is available to guests staying at the Fantasy Springs Fantasy Chateau and the Hotel Miracosta. Since we are staying at Fantasy Springs Grand Chateau, we are allowed to be in the park 15 minutes before Happy Entry for a total of 30 minutes before any other guests. Today that time is 8:00AM. There are only 56 rooms eligible for this benefit making it very exclusive.

So we head to the elevators right around the corner from our room at 7:45AM where they instructed us to meet for the Happy Happy Entry yesterday. Not surprisingly we are nowhere near the first in line and there are at least 40 people already ahead of us. They slowly ferry us all via the elevator down to the private entrance to the park and we wait in line at the entrance a floor down.

I honestly think we are in the 2nd closest room to a park gate in the ENTIRE world, as I honestly don’t see how a hotel room could be much closer, and we’ve stayed in nearly every Disney hotel that is attached to a park except the Hotel Miracosta, which we will stay at in two nights, and the Grand Californian. The layout for those hotels does not have any rooms as close our current room. We get in shortly after 8:00 AM. Not surprisingly there is absolutely no one around till about 8:15AM. We take some pics as there is nothing else you can do right now as the rides do not open till 8:30AM.

Once Happy Entry starts at 8:15AM Fantasy Springs starts to get a little more crowded, but still minimal crowd, as most are entering the park from the front entrance which is about a 20 minute walk away.

Our first priority was to do Tinker Bells Busy Buggies. This may seem like an odd pick for our first ride given it’s a kiddie ride, but we picked it because today we had the Fantasy Springs Passport ticket. This is a ticket only available to those with either a Vacation Package or staying at Fantasy Springd Hotel. This ticket allows you unlimited access to Fantasy Springs and unlimited use of the Premiere Access lines for three out of four Fantasy Springs rides.

The only one that is not included is Tinker Bell Busy Buggies. For that reason we wanted to do it before a line formed. We got in line about 8:20AM and were the first in line.

They opened the ride right at 8:30AM and we walked quickly through the queue. I wish we had more time to look at it as it was a very cute queue.

We walk right onto the ride. It’s a short cute ride, and actually better than expected which isn’t saying much as our expectations are pretty low. It’s kinda like a Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride but outdoors.

It’s nothing spectacular and not very long, but if we still had younger children it would be very enjoyable ride for the younger crowd. I definitely wouldn’t devote any time to do it again though. They did have a nice animatronic at the end which was cute.

Today is one of the few days we actually have a scheduled sit down breakfast and it is at 8:40AM at La Libellule so the moment we get off the ride we head back to the hotel to make our reservation. From the Grand Chateau entrance to the restaurant is a 2 minute walk at most, so we make it to the restaurant right on time.

La Libellule is the Grand Chateau’s exclusive restaurant. In order to eat here you must be staying at the Grand Chateau. This is only our 4th sit down meal this whole vacation, so it’s kinda nice to take a moment to just relax, eat, and be served.

We initially had not planned on eating breakfast here, as it is very hard to get a reservation and I didn’t feel like stalking down a reservation. Interestingly enough, 10 days prior the concierge contacted me asking some questions about our stay, and they said they’d made a reservation for us at the restaurant for breakfast. It was kinda random, as I never asked for a breakfast reservation and they are hard to come by, but they made me one anyway.

We were kinda curious about the restaurant so figured we’d just keep the reservation.

The restaurant was very nice and was very spacious. I’m used to the restaurants in Disney World that pack as many tables as possible into a small amount of space. The space between tables here is pretty immense and gives it a very luxurious feel. Felt more like a setting for a super fancy tea, then a breakfast in Disneyland.

The breakfast was composed of some pastries and charcuterie on a buffet and an a la carte selection from the menu.

Kendall and I chose the Pancakes with Cream Cheese with Vanilla served with Three Types of Condiments and Lucy ordered some eggs and bacon from the kids menu. While we waited and snacked on the buffet we also were served some croissants. They were very large and fluffy. We really enjoyed them.

It was super duper fancy and definitely the fanciest breakfast we’ve ever had. They also brought out a salad which I definitely did not touch. For those that do not know me personally, I am a meatatarian. I avoid vegetables pretty much at all costs unless it’s a potato or corn.

The pancake was kinda interesting in appearance, but actually tasted pretty good. It was definitely not the kind of pancake you get at IHOP.

Most food was not to our taste to be honest but the presentation and service were top notch. They even made eggs and bacon look good.

Since I did zero research for this restaurant I had no idea it came with a meet and greet. Apparently, we get to meet Mickey as part of the breakfast. Unlike a typical character breakfast where the characters walk around from table to table, here you just sit at your table and when it’s your turn they come get you and escort you to a small separate room where you meet Mickey.

This was much less hectic than having a character walk around the room taking pictures and a pleasant surprise. Also of note, here they are very eager to take your camera and take pictures for you. There is no asking required. They literally ask you to hand them your camera the moment you walk in the room. This is nice so you can focus on the character and not your camera. This was the way it was in Paris as well. It’s definitely a contrast to the US where you need to proactively ask them to take your camera for a picture.

After the meet and greet, we finish up our breakfast and pay our check. It was just 16,000 yen which is just over $100 USD. For the fanciness of the meal and an included meet and greet this felt like an absolute bargain compared to US pricing. We go back to the room and pack it up. At Tokyo Disney Resort you can just leave your bags in the room, and they will transport them to your next hotel for you while you are at the park, which is a huge convenience as it is EXTREMELY common to have to bounce around hotels in Tokyo Disney.

To be continued here.

Read about the previous day here.