(Updated 9/3) How Many Times Can We Switch Hotels? - Tokyo Disney TR May 2025

[Araminta18]

Happy Entry - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 3)​

It took about 30 min or so to get all checked in - the CM came to us at the table with our room keys, fastpasses, show tickets, all the things.

It was really a pleasant way to do it, but not fast. But still worked out for our plan - by 8:15 we were heading back to the monorail and over to Disneyland for early entry.

Our view at 8:30:

About halfway back - not bad!

By 8:51, we'd made it in the park and had booked our Winnie the Pooh fastpass (the free one ). Our original plan was to rope drop Peter Pan, but just as I was grabbing the Winnie the Pooh fastpass, I saw that the fastpasses for Big Thunder were already at 10:30 am - originally the plan was to grab a Big Thunder pass at 9:10 am when our Pooh fastpass came due, but I got scared that by 9:10 the Big Thunder fastpasses would be super late (we were planning to leave the park fairly early), so we detoured and decided to head to Big Thunder to ropedrop. With a quick pitstop to say hi to Donald on the way.

Hi!

Over at Big Thunder, there was not a line at all:

They were letting us all in but holding us right before the boarding area until 9 am.

At 9:01 they let us board!

We got the last row - woot! Great ride, though not quite as good a Big Thunder as Disney Paris's Big Thunder.

Big Thunder having written, off we went to Fantasyland and Peter Pan!

Reminded me of Disney World's Peter Pan, though they don't have the nice new queue. We waited about 5 minutes, not too bad! Just enough time to enjoy the theming in the loading area (since the queue just wound back and forth in front of the loading area.
\
Tink!


Skull Rock!

Peter Pan was unexciting but you gotta pay respects to the originals. We were planning to do Snow White next, but it was down! Tragedy. So we decided to detour and do the teacups:

Cute ride sign! Otherwise basically the same as DisneyWorld.

Snow White was still down, so we headed for the Carousel, 'cause I love carousels.

 

[zanzibar138]

ooh fun!! when do you go? This was actually our third time at DLP - it's super fun.

We're going around this time next year (September 2026). I've been once before but it was way back in 2013 I think so I'm sure a LOT has changed! DH has never been. He's only ever been to the UK, but nowhere else in Europe.

Loving your updates. I'm a big Duffy & Friends fan - Gelatoni is my fave. Also such pretty hotels!

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

You stayed at the Grand Chateau? I can't wait to read your write-up on the room! My ds and I stayed at Fantasy Springs in February, which was okay (and check-in at the desk seemed to take forever!). I've been wanting to stay at the Grand Chateau and might when I go back in February; can't decide if I want to stay overnight or do a day visit from Tokyo (I've been to Tokyo Disney 3 times....).

 

[Araminta18]

We're going around this time next year (September 2026). I've been once before but it was way back in 2013 I think so I'm sure a LOT has changed! DH has never been. He's only ever been to the UK, but nowhere else in Europe.

Loving your updates. I'm a big Duffy & Friends fan - Gelatoni is my fave. Also such pretty hotels!

Oooh you're gonna have so much fun! I hope you love it - the nighttime shows with the drones are just fantastic.

Thanks so much for reading! I don't know much about Duffy so there's not a ton of Duffy in my posts, but it was fun seeing them around.

 

[Araminta18]

You stayed at the Grand Chateau? I can't wait to read your write-up on the room! My ds and I stayed at Fantasy Springs in February, which was okay (and check-in at the desk seemed to take forever!). I've been wanting to stay at the Grand Chateau and might when I go back in February; can't decide if I want to stay overnight or do a day visit from Tokyo (I've been to Tokyo Disney 3 times....).

Yup! I'm gonna try and finish the write up of our check in day today, so stay tuned for all the room pictures! If you can afford it, I'd recommend it - it was an experience!

 

[Araminta18]

Possibly the Weirdest Ride in Any Disney Park - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 4)​

The carousel was Cinderella-themed:



I don't know why I love carousels, but I do - especially when they play organ-ized versions of Disney songs.

Right as our carousel ride was ending, we saw that Snow White had come back up, so over there we went! It was only a 5 minute wait, not bad at all. The part of the ride we could see from the queue included the wishing well:

And the mine!

And the cottage:

Honestly, this was one of the few times I wasn't super impressed with the Tokyo Disney theming - it all seemed a bit cheap, though I did like the wishing well.

Other interesting note - you know how Disneyland has the Snow White ride and the queen looks out of the upper window? That's in the ride here in Tokyo:

The ride vehicles go through that door right underneath the queen in her window.

Ok, I don't have any memories of riding Snow White at Disneyland prior to the refurb, so this was...quite an experience. You saw the Queen like 10 times but only saw Snow White like once, and then the ending scene is the Queen trying to kill you with the boulder

And then you go through the ending door and you're done! Not even a mural of Snow White or the happy ending, just the Queen trying to kill you and then the ride ends. It was....odd. What kind of crazy ride is this! It may be the weirdest Disney ride I've ever ridden.

Anyways, we needed a good ride after that, so we decided to use our Pooh fastpass:

Isn't that cute?

7 minutes later, we were about to board:

The CMs stand at beehives!! So cute.

 

[Araminta18]

Winnie the Pooh and Cinderella WalkThrough - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 5)​

Honeypot selfie!

I love how at the end of the ride where Pooh is stuck in honey, they pipe in the smell of honey.

Pooh!

I also love that the ride ends with a giant storybook:


Next up, the Cinderella walkthrough in the castle! It opened about 10/15 minutes earlier so there wasn't really a line yet. Woot!


Isn't that cute?

You go in the main floor of the castle, and then you take an elevator up one floor, and there's all these murals/paintings and unique artwork pieces telling the story of Cinderella (fair warning - there's a BUNCH of pictures coming. )




From here is where it moved away from murals and to these more unique pieces in various styles:

 

[Araminta18]

Cinderella Art - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 6)​

More pictures from the walkthrough!

Cinderella has the invitation in her hand, watching her stepmother and stepsisters getting ready for the ball.

Honestly the whole thing was super cute -


The view into Fantasyland.


Love the little stained glass touches.

Ok more story art:
This one was kinetic:

The video isn't great with the reflection and such, but it's making the dress!


The fairy godmother!


Obviously this one didn't photograph well - you can see me and Trevor better than the art! But it's Cinderella getting ready to head to the ball in her new dress!


Arrivign at the ball.

I love paper art - this was so cool to me, Cinderella walking down the staircase.


Cinderella running away!


Trying on the slipper. This style I personally didn't like but I thought it was neat that there were so many different styles.

 

[Araminta18]

Cinderella's Castle - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 7)​

Oops got this one out of order:

This one I didn't film cause of the reflections but Cinderella and the Prince danced around! So cool.

Then it was back to murals:




Jaq and Gus-Gus!!

The walkthrough then went into the throne room, where you could sit on the throne and "try on" Cinderella's slipper.


I loved this mosaic on the floor:


There was a little bit of a line, but it moved pretty quickly:

There were fiberoptics in the chair so it lit up behind you!

 

[Araminta18]

All the Pictures! - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 8)​

Trevor took a picture too!

Easier to see the lightup fiberoptics in the chair here - it gently fades in and out.

They also had the slipper set up on the floor for a photo op as well:

Doesn't fit!

But there was a fancier one displayed elsewhere in the room:


And one last mural, with the Fairy Godmother sprinkling some magic on you:


Honestly, this was an awesome walkthrough - I loved all the art and the theming and just all of it. Fantastic cute little attraction - highly recommend.

And it dumps you out onto the castle balcony, looking down at Fantasyland!

I made Trevor take lots of pictures:



I've always wanted to walk down this staircase on the castle at Magic Kingdom, but at least I could walk down it here in Tokyo!


There's a glass/jewelry souvenir show there at the bottom of the castle so we looked around in there for a bit too (I got Beauty and the Beast rose earrings), and then it was time to go see Mickey's Magical Musical World. We now knew they let you bring food in, so I was gonna stop and get a berry cheer drink to bring in (love that drink!) but we also wanted to get the cheddar popcorn from Big Pop (one of the few flavors we'd missed, but there was a long line. I looked at mobile order but they had nothing immediately available - though after a few minutes of refreshing, I got an immediate return slot! Woot!

Two drinks, plus popcorn, on the lovely little paper to-go trays they have all over at Tokyo.

Our seats:

They were on the aisle - so good! We were planning to use the show tickets that came with our Grand Chateau stay, but the seats were way up in the balcony - I was hoping we'd get good seats via the Grand Chateau but no dice. So when we entered the park I decided on a whim to enter the lottery just to see, and not only did we win, but we got great orchestra level seats!

 

[Araminta18]

Time for Lunch - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 9)​

The show was great - it was fun seeing it up close again. And we got covered in the streamers at the end!

Souvenir!

Next up, we had a fast pass for Monster's Inc:

This is such a cute fun little ride, with great theming:

And a picture at the end, even if you can't download it or get it in higher resolution:


We got off the ride at about 11:40, and while I'd booked us a fastpass at Haunted Mansion from 11:50 to 12:50, we were hungry, so decided to head back to the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall for lunch.

Cute Donald topiary we passed on the way.

Back at the Queen of Hearts, there was a bit of a line:


We weren't sure how long the line would be, and we were right by the corn potage popcorn stand, so Trevor decided to head over to that stand to get the popcorn so we could try it, while I kept our spot in this line.

HOWEVER. The line moved faster than we thought! 7 minutes later I was inside the restaurant, though there was a bit more of a line inside too.

I was trying to call Trevor but he wasn't answering - it just rang and rang and rang and nothing. I was getting increasingly worried/irritated - why was he ignoring me when he knew that I could be calling to say that the line was moving!

I kept moving through the line with low-level panic, but had to take a picture:


Meanwhile, Trevor was getting close to the front of the line - I obviously didn't know this but the timestamp on his picture tells the story!

 

[Araminta18]

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:

Again, awesome theming:

Such a great way to display the food.

Meanwhile, Trevor was looking at ducks!


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!

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:


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:

This was surprisingly good! I really liked it - hamburger with cheese on top, and good veggies on the side. And a Mickey roll!


Then we got the Raspberry and Lemon Mousse cake:

This was also really moist and delicious.

And then Heart-Shaped Strawberry Mousse with souvenir plate:

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!

 

[Araminta18]

Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall Theming - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 11)​

Trevor got the flank steak with Japanese sauce:

He said it was good to fine - he didn't seem as excited about the food as I was. Though he did like the desserts.

Ok, now theming pictures!






Even in the bathroom! Every stall door was a playing card:




Aren't those high chairs cute?

 

[Araminta18]

Haunted Mansion and Parade and Snacks - Wednesday May 28, 2025 (part 12)​

A couple more pics of the theming from the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall:




We had just enough time to walk the few feet over to Haunted Mansion for our fastpass!

There's a bat on the clock!
I also managed to take a picture of their beating heart bride - a bit different from our DisneyWorld bride!

And which hitchhiking ghost would we get?

We got off the ride right as the parade was going, so we get to see a little bit of it:


Princesses!

This was a bit before 1:30, and the plan was to be over to the hotel at 3, cause that's when our room would be ready, so we decided to get a couple more snacks off our list, over in Adventureland. As we started walking though we saw a crow aggressively divebomb a table with some people on it - the birds want the food and they are not shy! LOL

Ok, snacks! Chip and Dale bao bun bites:


Isn't that adorable?! One of them was Tomato Chicken and one was sweet potato - we ended up liking both more than we thought we would, even the sweet potato one (Trevor really does not like sweet potato and I'll eat it but it's not my favorite). And they're just so cute!

Then we realized we were by the Squeezer's Tropical Juice Bar: we didn't want juice, we wanted ice cream! And the line was short! So we hopped in line to get those snacks off my list:

Apple Mango & Milk swirl ice cream. This was nice to have the milk cut the mango, though cause the mango was so strong we couldn't taste the apple. And the milk tasted like vanilla. But it was nice!