Fancy Grand Chateau Room - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 19)
Couple more room pictures:
Lovely little vanity.
Candle details on the doors!
They branded the toilet paper!
We were looking out our balcony and saw princesses out meeting and greeting:
We also got a welcome drink and treats:
Yum! I don't actually remember what the drink was - juice of some sort? but yum.
It was about 4 pm, and we had a dinner reservation at the hotel at 5:20, so I decided to take advantage of that lovely tub and take a bath! The room amenities included bath salts - it was delightful.
A little after 5, we were ready and headed downstairs to go to La Libellule for dinner! I noticed as we were passing the princess dresses they had the princess symbols behind them:
My Tiana one didn't turn out, sadly.
While we were heading to the restaurant, I noticed the chandelier was a dragonfly!
Dinner at La Libellule - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 20)
More hotel theming - a peacock!
We were waiting in the lounge for a little bit to be seated:
Lovely view of Frozen but also the Sleeping Beauty rockwork!
All the flowers!
We got seated and while I was hoping we'd be seated at a window, we were unfortunately not at a window. I probably should have asked to be moved but I didn't think of it til literally just now:
Still nice, but would have been nicer at the window.
The restaurant was pretty quiet at the moment:
This is the restaurant that only guests at the Grand Chateau can eat at - either for breakfast or dinner. I was kind of hoping for a brunch reservation but this was the time I could get.
There were two menu options: one that was four courses (La Libellule) that came with a Mickey meet and greet, and one with three courses (La Fleur). They said to allow at least 3.5 hours for the four course one, and since the food didn't look all that much better and we did actually want to get into DisneySea that night to see the nighttime show at 7:30, we figured we'd go with the three course one.
We started with drinks: I got the Peach Nectar -
This was good but I like peach.
Trevor got the So Jennie non-alcoholic wine:
I had this on my flight out and really liked it, so I recommended it to Trevor. He seemed to like it!
First up, the amuse bouche!
That's an oyster on top, a mushroom pie thing, and then a fried fish there at the bottom.
I've never had oysters, and I don't like seafood, but I figured I should at least try it since we were here. Trevor filmed me:
Honestly, the taste wasn't bad - it had caviar and herbs on top and apparently I like caviar and herbs. It was just the texture with it being all slimy and ick. But the taste wasn't bad.
The tart was a bacon mushroom tart with cheese and truffle. This was pretty good - a bit mushroom forward but the mushrooms were all blended up so you didn't have to deal with the texture of the mushroom. So we liked that one.
La Libellule Dinner Continued - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 21)
Final amusebouche - a whole fried fish with the eyes and everything!
We weren't sure if we ate it by popping the whole thing in our mouths or what - we had to ask the waiter. I made Trevor try it first cause I had to work up the courage!
Trevor said it wasn't super fishy and didn't make a weird face, so I worked up my courage to try it.
I honestly didn't like touching it - it had a weird heft. I think I was expecting it to be light cause it was so clearly fried. It was veeery crispy, but not my favorite thing. I wouldn't eat it again but it was definitely an experience.
Ok, appetizers! We both got the Pate en Croute with Marinated French Asparagus served with Violet Mustard:
This was good! It reminded me of the pates we had at Disneyland Paris but way better. Though it could have been better 'cause the atmosphere was better. Trevor also liked it - and we both liked the violet mustard a lot too.
We also got bread!
Baguette with the little crispy bit, and a brioche, I think. Both of these were good, but the star was the monogrammed butter.
The taste was good but mostly for the monogram.
Entrees! I got the Roasted Enju beef with cafe de paris butter served with pommes anna and mushroom fricassee:
This was really good - it had mushrooms but they were big chunks of mushrooms so i just pushed them to the side.
Trevor got the scallop, blue lobster and tsaki bouillabaisse served with broad bean a la francaise and artichoke laque
He liked this too - I didn't try it. Cause fish. It smelled really fishy too.
We got another serving of bread:
Yum.
Then for dessert, it was Foret Noir scented with Madeira Ginja served with roasted pistachio ice cream, though they subbed the pistachio ice cream for vanilla ice cream cause the pistachio ice cream apparently had alcohol in it and we don't drink, so that was nice of them.
Basically a deconstructed black forest cake. We liked it!
And then a final goodbye treat:
These were good, except for the jelly. The taste of the jelly thing was fine but the texture was GROSS. I didn't like it at all.
At this point it was about 6:40 - perfect timing for us to leave and head down to the lagoon for the show! But first a bathroom break, where I saw more artwork that I took pictures of:
Finally Reuniting! - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 10)
Still no luck with getting Trevor on the phone, and I'd moved into the cafeteria/serving room though it did do several switchbacks so I had time to keep calling: View attachment 1004126
Again, awesome theming: View attachment 1004127
Such a great way to display the food.
Finally Trevor answered - turns out something was going on with our phones, where Trevor's phone wasn't ringing at all, despite me calling over and over. But finally whatever it was stopped borking up the reception and Trevor answered and came to meet me in the line with the popcorn. Phew! View attachment 1004134
The popcorn was definitely interesting - you think it'd be good cause it's corn but man it was GROSS. Zero out of ten, do not recommend at all.
Anyways, we wended our way through the line: View attachment 1004129 View attachment 1004130
The restaurant is set up like a cafeteria, where you have trays and point to the dishes you want.
I got the patty with cheese: View attachment 1004131
This was surprisingly good! I really liked it - hamburger with cheese on top, and good veggies on the side. And a Mickey roll! View attachment 1004133
Then we got the Raspberry and Lemon Mousse cake: View attachment 1004132
This was also really moist and delicious.
And then Heart-Shaped Strawberry Mousse with souvenir plate: View attachment 1004135
I didn't really want the souvenir plate but I did want to try the mousse and the cute little playing card (which was white chocolate). This was also good - honestly, all the food was a hit here. I didn't think I'd like it that much and mostly wanted to eat here for the theming but I ended up really liking it!
Dinner WrapUp and Princesses - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 22)
More artwork!
Very nice!
I think this is where they had the breakfast - just looks crazy decadent.
Overall, we enjoyed our dinner but I don't think we'd do it again. It was a fun experience, but very expensive and while the food was good it wasn't necessarily all to our taste. So glad we tried it, and I'd be interested in trying the breakfast but probably not dinner again.
But now it was time to head into DisneySea! We got to use the Grand Chateau dedicated entrance, which mean we passed the fancy dresses again and YES I'm giving you more pictures of them.
Show and Rides! - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 23)
By 7:05 we were down by the lagoon and found a decent spot to watch the show from:
No one in front of us, but the boat building blocked the right side a bit. But still, not bad!
See? not too bad!
Trevor filmed a good amount of it - I enjoyed the show. It's still no Happily Ever After but the boats and everything were pretty cool. I especially loved the Peter Pan pirate ship!
Once the show was over, we were heading back to Fantasy Springs, with a goal of riding TinkerBell's Busy Buggies since there's no fastpass and the line was always kind of long. But on the way, we passed the Little Mermaid area:
So pretty! And we noticed that the outdoor Little Mermaid rides had basically no waits! So we did a couple of those:
Scuttle's Scooters! This one was fun - we liked it a lot. But this type of ride is one of Trevor's favorites - a caterpillar style ride - so of course we had fun.
Scuttle talked to us while we were on the ride.
Next up, Flounder's coaster!
This is very much a kiddie coaster - in the vein of Gadget's Go Coaster - but gotta try them all!
We got off it at like 8:20, and kept going back to Fantasy Springs.
With a quick picture stop at Raging Spirits for Trevor worship the fire.
Back at TinkerBell's Busy Buggies, it was posting a 30 minute wait, which would have us on the ride at like 8:55.
Pixie dust on the sign!
With the park closing at 9, that should work perfectly - the only wrinkle is that while the Fantasy Springs hotel has it's own dedicated entrance to the park, according to rumors and such, it closes right at 9. And if it closes, you have to go all the way to the front of the park to exit. And the thought of being in Fantasy Springs but having to go to the front of the park and take the monorail all the way back around to the hotel seemed HORRIBLE. So I very much wanted to avoid that. But I also really wanted to ride this ride. So we hopped in line and hopped for the best!
Ok this next post is just line theming for TinkerBell's, cause it's ADORABLE. And the line was not moving quickly so I had time to take pictures of theming.
It's a needle!
The fence is paper clips and safety pins!
A bell and coin on the mushroom, as well as a drawing on the leaf!
Coin!
More drawings of the ride.
'
Harmonica!
a watch face!
A comb - belonging to James Hook!
I think that's a water drop as a magnifying glass.
Would We Make It Back in Time? - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 25)
More theming!
It's an earring!
A card as the gate to the ride vehicles!
This cast entrance/exit looking like a mouse hole.
And a ride map!
By the time we got to the point of loading onto the ride, it was 9:01. Trevor and I had already talked about bailing earlier, but because we'd already sunk time into the line, and figured it'd be close, we'd stick it out and hope that the hotel entrance didn't close right at 9. I had done some googling and there were reports of it staying open til 9:10 or even 9:15, so we were hoping for that.
The gate is a matchbook!
And how cute is this ride vehicle, with the letter as the back, etc:
We got on, and off we went, passing one more leaf drawing:
And we got to see the mouse animatronic - Cheese!
It looks kind of creepy in the picture, but it was super cute in person. The ride is all outdoors so it was interesting to see the ride in the dark and all lit up.
So overall, we waited 31 minutes, and got off the ride at 9:04, so we started BOOKING it back to the hotel. There were definitely CMs moving people towards the front but we just held up our room keys and they let us keep going, cause the hotel entrance was still open - yay!!! That was a relief for sure.
5 minutes later, we were back in our room:
We had a fireworks view!
And the view of the Frozen castle man, just gorgeous:
It really was nice just to look at the view and enjoy the music and the balcony and the whole thing. So nice!
Eventually I did turn on the tv:
Pretty!
And one more room theming picture cause I didn't notice it earlier:
a rose in the headboard!
Overall, we were super pleased - I would have wished to be a little bit more centrally located or on a higher floor, but really there's not a "bad" view or a "bad" room. We had a lovely balcony and a lovely view and it was just all gorgeous. I loved the decoration and theming of the resort, and it was just lovely.
The next day, not only did we get 30 min early entry to Fantasy Springs, but the Frozen ride was opening back up, and we had fastpasses that we could use for it! Woohoo!
Waking Up in the Grand Chateau - Thursday May 29, 2025 (part 1)
Today was the day the Frozen ride re-opened! We had 30 minute Happy Entry starting at 8:30 (one perk of the Grand Chateau - you get an extra 15 minute happy entry), and we had booked breakfast at the Fantasy Springs restaurant at 7:40 am. I wanted to get an earlier reservation but this was the earliest I could get - I wanted to make sure we would be done in plenty of time to do Happy Entry. The plan was eat breakfast, do Happy Entry and ride Frozen!
I woke up a bit early and went to the balcony to just enjoy the view and let Trevor sleep a bit - these pictures are from 6:37 am.
Good morning Fantasy Springs!
There's something neat about seeing this busy area totally empty.
This kind of shows you how far to the right our room was - the two towers there on the left of the photo are also the Grand Chateau.
Trevor came out 20 minutes later or so -
sleepy Trevor in the Fantasy Springs pajamas! Also you can see how big the balcony is
We did a little bit of packing up, but really we mostly focused on getting ready cause the plan was to come back to the room prior to 11 am checkout, after rope-dropping Fantasy Springs.
We went down to breakfast a bit early, a bit before 7:30, just to see if we could get seated. On the way, we passed some beautiful tapestries:
There was a bit of a line to checkin:
And yes, this was the line for folks with reservations. It ended up not being bad - 4 minutes later we were being brought in to be seated!
Look at the little birdies there!
Fantasy Springs Restaurant - Thursday May 29, 2025 (part 2)
More theming pictures! (Again I'd apologize but at this point you know what you're getting into )
We got sat in the Rapunzel room, and again, not at the window - it kind of felt like a running joke at this point though really there are more non-window seats than window seats so its just how it shakes out. But still, pretty!
Ok, the buffet!
This was a croque monsieur, but with Peter Pan on it!
Rapunzel sun pastries!
Ok, more theming pictures before I show you the food we got:
There's a crystal little bird there!
Themed Food at Fantasy Springs - Thursday May 29, 2025 (part 3)
Ok, food!
Trevor started with a croissant and whatever that bright green drink is - melon soda maybe? I didn't take good notes.
Had to get the Rapunzel sun pastry and the Peter Pan croque monsieur, and then a chocolate croissant. These were pretty good - I remember the croque monsieur was cold which was slightly unexpected but still good.
And a regular croissant.
Why are the eggs in Japan so liquidy? No one knows... And then on the top is a frittata and then I think a strawberry yogurt pudding thing? The frittata was good.
Fruit! And an Elsa braid pastry - yum.
Selfie! See what I mean about the window?
Also I thought the check folder was so cute:
Fantasy Springs!
Right as we were about to leave, they brought us some kind of veggie shots:
We drank them cause why not but man did it make my mouth taste like grass.
It was about 8:05 - we ate a bit quickly, cause I was having a bit of FOMO and wanting to get in line for Happy Entry. So we headed out, but a couple more pictures on the way!
We weren't sure exactly where the happy entry line would be so we just headed towards the Grand Chateau entrance and we found the line.
There's an elevator down at the end of the hall, and every so often they were bringing folks down the elevator to where the entrance was. They brought us down at 8:23 (per my picture timestamp )
Doesn't look too bad, except you can't see the whole rest of the line on the right hand side hallway.
At exactly 8:30, they started letting people in, but unlike the other happy entries, they hadn't had us go through security yet. So each group had to both go through security and scan their tickets, which took more time than we wanted - Trevor and I were definitely talking about how for the money everyone is paying for this hotel they should have done security already. BUT anyways, we made it through at 8:35, to a fairly empty Fantasy Springs.
I also turned around to take a pic of our hotel room -
We're in the little tower there in the center, the second one up from the bottom.
Anyways, we were heading towards Frozen along with everyone else.
Trevor's driving the sled, while wearing his Arendelle Ice Company shirt!
Frozen is Deserted - Thursday May 29, 2025 (part 5)
An empty Frozen land is just crazy to see -
It's definitely cool to see, if a little bit weird.
There were plenty of CMs around taking pictures too, which was nice.
At about 8:40, we'd taken all the pictures I wanted and we headed towards Frozen to get in line for the ride!
This awesome mosaic is right outside the ride entrance but you can almost never see it 'cause people! But with no one around, I got a picture of it
I'd heard that the standby line for Frozen had some cute things that the fastpass line missed, so I was excited to see it.
Snowflake chandeliers!
Again, just had to take a picture of how empty it was.
Look at the cute wooden carvings of Anna and Elsa!
Anna Left Her Cloak! - Thursday May 29, 2025 (part 6)
Frozen queue theming continued -
Isn't that a gorgeous window? Love it!
Anna's hat and cloak!!
I feel like there are so many easter eggs in this queue theming - I'd love to just hang around and look at all of them but not enough to wait in the line, since I assumed that line was gonna get CRAZY long.
