(Completed 9/27) How Many Times Can We Switch Hotels? - Tokyo Disney TR May 2025

[Araminta18]

From Under the Sea to Mysterious Island to the Lost River Delta to Fantasy Springs - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 8)​

The photographer even had a sign!


I really should have held my side higher. Oh well!

It was 1:10 pm at this point - Journey, sausage buns, and Raging Spirits, all by 1:50 pm...could we do it?

Lied, stopped for one more picture:

Triton's Kingdom is really fun; I do recommend it.

Ok, over to Journey!

It was about 5 minutes to the merge point, and then another 10 min or so, but soon enough we were being ushered onto the front row!

Journey is so much fun - we love it. And it is best in the front row.

We got off at 1:34, and ran over to get our sausage buns - thank heavens for mobile order with immediate availability!

We'd learned by now - one bun for each of us! No more sharing.

We ate while we walked, and by 1:45, we were in line for Raging Spirits! Didn't even need to use the grace period (if one exists ;D). This time they didn't take me to the shed of shame! I guess it's cause we'd ridden it once already today. So we got to go through the fastpass line:

The fastpass line did take longer than going through the exit but I couldn't complain too much, since we'd skipped the line several other times. But! Every CM we ran into was came up to me and all discretely whispered something like "did you try the test seat?" It got old after a while, though I understand why. And I realize that many people may be embarrassed but it did get old after a while being made to feel like my size was shameful. I guess that's why they run you through the exit - so the CMs know you tried the test seat and they don't have to ask!

It had started raining again, but we had a great time.

Next up, we were going to head into Fantasy Springs and use our multi-experience pass for Frozen! Though on the way we passed the ice cream stand with a short wait so I absolutely got my Minnie Peach/Raspberry ice bar. Then over to Frozen.

The line was still crazy long so we were glad we had the fastpass. Once inside we were moving pretty good until we got basically to the merge point and then they held us for like 10 minutes, weirdly enough. But it gave us some time to look at the theming on this side:

Southern Isles Apples...and notice next to it?

Golden Flower flour! Shout out to Rapunzel!

 

[Araminta18]

Last Ride on Frozen - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 9)​

One more theming picture:

Carrots, to Sven!

Thankfully we started moving again - I was getting a bit nervous that maybe the ride had gone down. But by 2:30 we were on the ride!

Front row again. It is such a fun ride, and I'm glad we got to ride it one last time.

Off the ride we were hungry again - a sausage bun could only hold us for so long! And since we were in Fantasy Springs, we decided to go back to LookOut Cookout. But, kind of slowly, to enjoy Fantasy Springs a bit more.

Cindy!

And I just love this Snow White area -

I'm sure I pointed it out before but can you see Snow White?

We did look around a bit more in Arendelle, mostly cause I had to use the ladies room.

I realize it's kind of creepy to take pics of the bathroom stall doors but honestly, how cute are these?

We found more sheet music in one of the shop windows:



Also, Wandering Oaken!


We placed our mobile order for LookOut Cookout and headed that way -

There's a door as the back for one of these benches! Love it.


Lookout Cookout!

 

[Araminta18]

Best Restaurant in Fantasy Springs - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 10)​

Again, grateful for immediate availability in mobile order! We learned again from yesterday and got two of each of the chicken for each of us.


The hot drink - it comes with the marshmallow star on the side so you put it in the hot drink when you're ready:


Then the cold kiwi drink:


And two brownies to end with:

Delicious, just like yesterday. We took our time eating, since we didn't really have any plans for the rest of the day besides riding the gondolas. But once done, I took some more theming pictures before we left:



the ghost costumes!



I can't pick a favorite but man how cute is this little food fight?

 

[Araminta18]

Gondola Ride, Maybe? - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 11)​

We got teased by the weather at lunch - the rain stopped and the sun even peaked out! But as we left and started walking towards the Electric Railway to go back to the gondolas, it started sprinkling again. Oh well! We did run into a monkey as we were walking though -

Hello!

The railway had a bit of line, but not too bad (we ended up waiting about 10 minutes). But a cool mural!


I'd gotten cold so I'd put my hood up:

The hood has ears! Anyways.

The ride back was fun - again, some views you don't really see or notice from the ground, like this ship figurehead on the house!


We got off right by the Tower of Terror so I had to take a picture:

So pretty!

Anyways, as we headed over to the gondolas it was a bit windy, and we noticed that we didn't really see any gondolas going...


A cool area, but yea - the gondolas were closed. Womp womp! It was 4:15 and we had plenty of time - the only thing we wanted to do was to see the Dreamlights parade at Disneyland (since it got canceled yesterday) but we had time. So we decided to sit on one of the benches there and just wait. We kept seeing Cast Members moving around so we kept getting our hopes up. We thought initially that they were closed for the Duffy boat but that was like 30 minutes ago and they still weren't open so...

After 15 minutes one of the CMs said they thought they'd open in another 30 minutes, if the wind died down. So I ducked into one of the nearby shops to get some of the treats to bring back home, and noticed yet more theming on the way:

Merchants only! Not CMs, but Merchants.


In-Progress Mona Lisa!

However that 30 min came and went and the gondolas still weren't open. We were enjoying just sitting and and people-watching and listening to the music, but at 5:30 a CM asked us what we were waiting for and when we confirmed it was the gondolas, he said that it was too windy and getting to be too close to the time for Believe Sea of Dreams, so it likely wouldn't open for a while. So we decided to bail, go check in at our new hotel, and then go to Disneyland to watch the DreamLights, and then maaaaaaybe come back to see if the gondolas were open.

 

[Araminta18]

Toy Story Hotel Courtyard - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 12)​

We hopped on the monorail (it was a bit after 5:30), and around we went to the BaySide Station, where the Toy Story Hotel was. We got a good view of the Disneyland Hotel from the monorail:

So pretty!

Once off the monorail, it's a short walk across the street and up the path to the hotel. From here on out, it's going to be theming pictures - this hotel is ADORABLE.

The parking garage looks like cardboard!



This is the path, as you're about past the parking garage and heading into the courtyard in front of the hotel.

How cute!


It's like a giant board game.



Even game cards!

 

[Araminta18]

More Toy Story Hotel - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 13)​

Still don't know what the cardboard-looking tower thing is, but it's cool!


The hotel itself - it looks like it's been put together with blocks!


The Green Army Men have Zurg as a balloon!


The view of the garage from the front of the hotel.

The underside of the overhang at the entrance:

Definitely giving me Slinky Dog vibes - it's the board for the game. Also notice the price tag!

Inside the hotel, the ceiling is the rest of the game board!

Over the reception desk is a race car track!



And behind the checkin:

A light brite!!

 

[Araminta18]

Checking in at Toy Story Hotel - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 14)​

The front of the desk was super cute too:


Each hotel had an tablet of sorts to do the checkin (you fill out a form on the tablet) but how cute is this wallpaper?


We got all checked in, and after 10 minutes, we were heading to our room! We went by way of the Woody elevators but we were passing the Buzz Lightyear elevator bank so I took a picture:



The gift shop!


Another view of the lobby - you can see the race track there, and the Woody bank of elevators over there, and the pillar keeping the ceiling up.

There's a courtyard out back that if you go up the stairs there's more theming, etc - but in the stairwell area, the aliens are working together!


We didn't go out there quite yet; we wanted to get to the room.

Show posters!

And finally, the Woody bank of elevators.

 

[Araminta18]

Heading to Our Room - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 15)​

Again, just impeccably themed and super cute:


The doors inside the elevators!

At our floor there was a mirror right as we got off the elevator:

Howdy!



The carpet had various toy footprints:

Buzz and Woody and Rex!

Then we were at our room!

We got a Superior room, cause that's basically all that was available - no particular view or anything. But still, promising!




And our luggage was in the room! We weren't necessarily expecting that 'cause I thought I'd read online that they didn't do that kind of luggage delivery at Toy Story or the Ambassador hotel, so pleasant surprise!

Also the TV is an etch-a-sketch:

How cute is that?

 

[Araminta18]

More Room Pictures - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 16)​

More Room pics -

The shelf under the tv folds out to be another bed:

How cute is that?


And look at these cute bed skirts:

It's like Woody's outfit!



Adorable wallpaper.

So overall, super cute room. We were on the ground floor though, so basically no view:


We were about to head over to Disneyland when we saw that they'd canceled the Dreamlights parade again. Bummer! Our last chance to see it, sadly - but at least we did get to see it once! And it being canceled meant we didn't have to buy a ticket for Disneyland, so that's something? We decided to go check out the toy courtyard and then go back to DisneySea and hope the gondolas were back.

We made our way to the courtyard, passing this adorable painting/mural/whatever:

It's the hotel!

 

[Araminta18]

Toy Story Courtyard - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 17)​

This courtyard is just as cute as the rest of the hotel, and the lights were starting to come on!



Woody's Roundup Card Game is the roof on this little canopy thing.




This is me pretending I love Zurg, in case that didn't come through.


1. cute lincoln logs and 2. Our room is that ground floor window behind the bushes. Riiiiiiiiiight there.



Hi Trevor!

 

[Araminta18]

Yet More Courtyard Pictures - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 18)​

I love that the sheep have stickers on them.


the view!


This list of songs made me laugh.

 

[Araminta18]

Would We Be Able to Ride the Gondolas? - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 19)​

A bit before 7 we were done looking around so we decided to head out and over to the monorail to head back to DisneySea (we couldn't use the Fantasy Springs entrance because that was restricted to Fantasy Springs guests until TOMORROW). But it worked out since the gondolas are near the front of the park anyways.

But first, some more theming photos:




Trevor is so small next to the large Luxo ball!


Pretty sign for Fantasy Springs.

We made our way up to the platform:

That's our hotel!

And even better - the gondolas were back open! Yay!! And it must just have reopened cause the wait time was only 5 minutes. But of course we had to wait 5 min for the monorail - hopefully the line would stay short (and they would stay open!) til we got there.

At 7:15 (10 minutes later) we were walking into the park -


I'd missed these attraction posters before - I like them!

We booked it over to the gondolas -they were indeed still open! The wait time was 15 minutes now but at least the line had seats, so we were happy campers. 10 minutes later, our gondola was pulling up:

 

[Araminta18]

Mission Accomplished! - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 20)​

A nighttime ride was gorgeous:



So pretty! (and the view isn't bad either. ) Those poor gondoliers though - they must get so tired!

It was a bit windy, but it was a lovely ride, and so unique for a Disney park (obviously not unique to the real world, where you could just ride a real gondola in Venice, or a fake one in Vegas). It's a decent ride length though - about 10/11 minutes.

We got off at 7:40 and the line had gotten waaaaaaay longer - it spilled out of the queue and onto the bridge!

Everyone there on the right (I realize it's blurry) is in line. I didn't note down how long the wait was but it was probably a pretty good wait. Thankfully we only had a short wait!

Gondolas successfully ridden, we were done with the park, so back to the monorail we went to go back to the room. But since we had to ride the monorail ALL the way around, we got off at Ikspiari again and got some more snacks at the convenience store. I realize I may have a problem, with all the egg salad sandwiches I consumed.

As we rode the monorail back (after our convenience store), I finally remembered to take a video of the cool magic/pixie dust effect on the doors:

Such a cute monorail.

We were back at the hotel by 8:30, and this time we took the Buzz Lightyear elevators - the Woody ones were so well-themed we wanted to see the other ones!



That's the elevator doors - isn't that ridiculous!


Inside the elevator


The interior doors. Tokyo you don't have to go this hard but you do and I'm grateful.

 

[Araminta18]

Buzz Lightyear Evening - Saturday May 31, 2025 (part 21)​

Once off the elevators:


I want a jetpack! Or a jetpack alien, either one.

Back in the room, I took a couple more pictures:


The curtains are Woody's sheriff stars!

Then it was time for bed. I did take a bath in the Wheezy tub but it was more circle shaped than long oval, so it felt a bit like being in a large sink or something? it was odd. Trevor did try on the Buzz Lightyear pajamas:

Isn't he cute?

We were planning to watch Bluey or something while we were eating and getting ready for bed, but we realized that while the other hotels (the deluxe hotels) had a couple English tv channels, including Disney and Disney jr, this hotel did not have Disney in English, so no Bluey for us. There were a couple other little things that made us realize this is not considered a deluxe resort like the others - the bathtub being smaller, and just some other small, slightly worse quality things. If we were to stay here again, or if you're planning on hopping around resorts, stay here first and then move up to the deluxe hotels like MiraCosta or Disneyland or Fantasy Springs. We still liked this hotel a lot - and it is SUPER adorable - but we'd gotten accustomed to things in the other hotels. #bougie

Tomorrow, our flights home. We were on different flights, but Trevor's left earlier (at 3:45 pm) from Haneda, so we were planning on catching the bus at 11:37 from the hotel to arrive at 12:45 at the airport. I'd just hang out at the airport then until my flight from Tokyo to Seoul.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 17550 (6.7 miles)
Ride Count: 13 (Electric Railway, Indiana Jones, Raging Spirits x2, Jasmine's Flying Carpets, Sindbad's Storybook Voyage, Caravan Carousel, Jumpin' Jellyfish, Blowfish Balloon Race, The Whirlpool, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Frozen, Gondolas)

 

[Araminta18]

Tiffany Does Dumb Things in Pursuit of Merch - Sunday June 1, 2025 (part 1) ​

We woke up bright and early to pack up. But first, breakfast!

Snow White milk!


Trevor had this which was basically a strawberry jam sandwich - pretty good.

See? Basically just jam on the inside.

Afterwards, time to pack up! I thought it was gonna take us a while to get all settled and packed up for flights, but we were all done by 8:30 am, which was surprisingly fast. Though I realized something: I thought I'd bought the little tin of treats that looked like the Fantasy Springs book and I couldn't find it. So I sent Trevor to the gift shop at the hotel while I finished packing, to buy it. Sadly, they didn't have it, so since we had time and weren't planning to go into the parks, we decided to go to Bon Voyage and buy it there (the gift shop between Ikspiari and the Disneyland hotel that had a lot of park stuff but was outside the park so you didn't need a park ticket).

As we headed to the monorail, we realized we didn't have any cash, but we kept going 'cause we thought that at the Bayside Station we could buy tickets with a credit card (the station at Disneyland was cash only). But when we got there, no dice. The nearest ATM was the Hilton hotel next door to the Toy Story hotel, so we went back up the hill to the Hilton where we got cash from the ATM but also got distracted cause they had a Disney gift shop with some things we hadn't seen before...we definitely bought some things.

Then back to the monorail station to actually get on the monorail this time! We broke into the melon float soda we had too -

This was interesting - weirdly sweet but also good despite the kind of odd flavor? Japanese sodas are interesting.

Look at that line to get into DisneySea! I feel like yesterday's was longer but still - woof.


Of course the weather was gorgeous - a bit hot in the sun but clear and blue skies and just gorgeous. I bet they ran the Dreamlights tonight! Oh well - we had a fantastic trip, so I couldn't really complain about some of the weather we'd had.

At Bon Voyage - to my surprise - they didn't have the little book tin! I thought for sure they'd have it, but no. And now we were committed, so we decided to check the gift shop at Tokyo Disneyland, since they had a pretty good selection.

Gorgeous!

At the gift shop they didn't have it either, but the CM was SUPER helpful and looked it up and told us that the tin I wanted is only sold in the Fantasy Springs gift shop. So one, that's helpful to know and two, I felt like an idiot making us run all around in vain. At that point, it was a little bit before 10 am and I decided to heck with it and we bought me a ticket for Fantasy Springs so I could run in and get it (since you had to have a park ticket to go to the Fantasy Springs gift shop). Trevor was ok with not coming in, so it was just me. And in a nice silver lining, Toy Story hotel guests (as of today) could enter using the Fantasy Springs entrance, so I bought the ticket online and we hopped on the monorail over to the Bayside Station. We got the Duffy monorail!



There was basically no wait to get in at the Fantasy Springs entrance, which was nice.

I headed right for the gift shop and got my tin (yay!), and then I still had like an hour til we had to be back at the hotel, so I decided to just hang out and enjoy the atmosphere for one last time.


Hi Alice!

 

[Araminta18]

Fantasy Springs Rock Springs - Sunday June 1, 2025 (part 2)​

I know I've put in these pics before but it was such a gorgeous day and they're so pretty...sorry!

Cindy's mice!


Sleeping Beauty

Maleficent


The fairies!

I had to take a selfie with Sleeping Beauty - she's my favorite


Scuttle and Sebastian!


I took a little bit of time to try and get the picture with the water splashing up over her.


Caterpillar!


Then I noticed a crowd nearby, and I turned to see Ariel!

She was heading backstage, so I decided to hang around and see if another character would come out, since they seemed to be rotating.

 

[Araminta18]

Best Ending Ever!! - Sunday June 1, 2025 (part 3)​

My patience paid off - it was Anna and Elsa coming out!

I thought they were just going to wander, but I noticed folks booking it over to the other side of the area and forming a line, so I wandered that way and got in line 'cause why not.

A bunch of people got in line behind me but the CM came over and cut the line off right after me! I was last in line - crazy luck. It actually was one of the few times I saw Tokyo Disney kind of suck at logistics - it really was a bit of a free for all, and definitely must have been disappointing for the folks behind me. But I was excited.
In the meantime, Trevor was looking around at some of the other hotels right there by the Toy Story hotel. He also got a fun pic of the Toy Story hotel sign!

Adorbs.

I ended up 25 minutes to meet Anna and Elsa, but at least it was mostly in the shade. And how cute is this tree on the side?

Such a nice touch.

Then it was time to meet Anna and Elsa! I think this may be the first time I've ever met them, since I'm never willing to wait in the long lines.

We talked about Elsa's dress and if Olaf would melt in the weather.

Such fun! Though i tried to set my bag down off to the side and the CM wouldn't let me, which was a bit odd. but whatever. It was a fantastic way to end my park day and the whole trip.

I finished the meet and greet at 11 am, so I headed back to the hotel to meet up with Trevor and grab our bags.

Look at the elevator indicator light - it's a lantern!

And an outside sunny day picture of the courtyard:

And the view!

How cool is that?

We left the room a bit before 11:30 to head to the lobby to wait for the bus:

We had to move our own luggage -- crazy!

 

[Araminta18]

Off to the Airport - Sunday June 1, 2025 (part 4)​

The bus was supposed to come at 11:37 so we were about 10 minutes early. Which meant I took more pictures of theming!


Forky in the Pizza Planet rocket! Love it.

I also ducked in the gift shop and looked around a bit. But at 11:37 we were waiting outside for the bus. I was getting a bit nervous that we were in the wrong spot or something (cause the website made it sound like they'd be leaving exactly on time) but it pulled up at 11:43. Only 6 min late but I was worrying a lot (like we'd missed it or were in the wrong spot or something).

Goodbye Toy Story Hotel!


Goodbye DisneySea!

The bus did like two other stops before heading off to the airport. We got there at 12:40 - plenty of time. We dropped off Trevor's bags (I couldn't check in yet cause my flight wasn't til 8 pm), and then looked around the airport a bit - there was this cool little area that looked like an old-time Japanese village, and we found lots of shops that were fun to look in. We ended up buying a bunch of different flavors of kitkats - peach, banana, Mt Fuji which was like blueberry cheesecake...it was fun.

Trevor finally left to go through security and I camped out in some chairs to watch shows on my iPad while I waited.


Trevor's flight got off ok - he even got to spend some time in the lounge!

Faaaancy.

By the time he took off I could check in and drop my bags, so I did that and headed on through to the inside-security area. They had 7-11 INSIDE SECURITY! 7-11 culture is amazing in Japan - so cool. I also found a fun Nuimo DIsney vending machine:

Didn't end up buying anything, but fun to look at.

My flight from Tokyo to Seoul was only like 2 hours, but we got a meal:

Not gonna lie, it wasn't super appetizing, but nice that we got one.


I landed in Seoul a bit after 10, and hopped in an uber to my hotel for the night. The driver was kind of scary - alternately driving crazy fast and crazy slow, as if he had no idea what where he was going. But by 11:30 pm I was at the hotel, thankfully. I was only staying here for the night - my flight back home left the next morning at 10:30, so I needed to be at the airport at 7:30/8am. So really just for sleeping. They had chocolates on the bed though, which was nice.

 

[Araminta18]

Goodbye Seoul! - Monday June 2, 2025​

The next morning, I woke up to a very foggy view:

Must have been beautiful when it was sunny or you could see the water.

I hopped on the hotel shuttle and made it over to the airport in plenty of time. Check in and everything went smoothly, and I ended up being in a row with an empty middle seat - yay! And this was a long flight so we got 3 meals -

Sorry, I find airplane meals weirdly fascinating, so I'm going to share.

The snack was a corn dog!

This was actually pretty good!

And our last meal:

The flight was 13 hours, so definitely long, but it was nice having an empty middle seat next to me - the extra space made it way more pleasant.

And then, by noon on June 2nd, I made it home! About 24 hours after Trevor did. Yay! It was definitely good to be home.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 12613 (5 miles)

 

[Araminta18]

Wrap Up and Haul (part 1)​

First up, let's do the haul! We definitely bought a LOT of things - the Tokyo Disney merch is top tier.

This is the stuff we bought that last day (except for little Baymax) - the bag is from the MiraCosta, and then the book tin we traipsed all over creation for is that Fantasy Springs tin there. The Toy Story and Rapunzel things are candies to take back to your office (the Rapunzel gummies were fantastic) and then the little bag next to Rapunzel is hand sanitizer in a case that looks like the Tokyo Disney shopping bags. Then a Baymax nail clipper and then a portable mirror is above it.


I got the Fantasy Springs hotel bag, and then Rapunzel hand towels, Beauty and the Beast cookie/treat tins, and then a tray from Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall!


The Lost Boys hat, Snuggly Duckling hat, the Beauty and the Beast footrest pillow. The vacation package suitcase thing was some of the merch from the vacation package, and then little tins next to it are sticker tins. In front, a Beauty and the Beast treat tin, and canister, and then a alien mochi plastic container. So cute!


I'm like one of the few folks who still buy cds - had to buy cds of the shows and things we saw, and of course the Happy Ride with Baymax soundtrack!


Books and postcards, as well as a rose hair clip and the Winnie the Pooh madeleines. Also the little pouch underneath Winnie the Pooh is a pencil case/pouch, but it looks like some of the theming from the Tinker Bell ride!


My Monsters Inc popcorn bucket, and the little ride vehicle cars, as well as a Beauty and the Beast towel, a winnie the pooh pajama set for a friend's kid, and the Baymax retractable usb cord.


All the gachapon toys we got!


Oh I forgot - Trevor beat me to Japan by two days, and so on his one full day without me he found this shop selling Star Wars things (I think leftover from Star Wars Celebration). Pretty neat!


Peter Pan popcorn bucket, Flynn Rider shirt, and some other stickers.


All sorts of Fantasy Springs thing! The lunch mat, the peter pan wipes case, the book on the left is a postcard holder, then peter pan stickers, then a Fantasy Springs treat tin (that doesn't look like a book) and a small tin for stickers.