Between the pandemic and becoming parents, we had not traveled abroad for nearly four years. My wife and I both missed Japan badly. By then our daughter was already two and had received her COVID shots, so we decided it was finally time to plan a trip. Tokyo was the destination my wife wanted most, and once Tokyo was on the table, a day at Tokyo Disneyland was non-negotiable. Since we were traveling with a small child, we decided to stay at a Disney hotel to make the back-and-forth easier. My wife had researched the reservation process well in advance and even set Google Calendar reminders for me. On booking day, I hesitated for only a moment, and the rooms with one large bed were gone. The cheaper room categories disappeared almost instantly too. In the end I decided to splurge and book a park-facing room. We ended up with a Superior Alcove Room (Park Grand View) at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. The total for two nights was 151,000 yen.
We flew China Airlines flight CI220, departing from Terminal 1 at Taipei Songshan Airport at 9:00 a.m. Since we had booked airport transportation in advance, we got to the airport nice and early.
There was a children’s play area near the gate, bright, clean, and thoughtfully designed, a good place for little kids to burn off some energy before boarding. Then I saw a group of older travelers walk in and sit down without taking off their shoes, which honestly irritated me.
We had been worried for a long time that our daughter might cry on the plane, so we started preparing her well in advance. We bought a pile of picture books about flying and kept telling her, “No cuddles during takeoff. You can have cuddles once we’re up in the air.” On the plane we pulled out Noriko Kudo’s Penguin Brothers: A Trip Through the Sky for one more review. Thankfully everything went smoothly. She followed the “cuddles only after takeoff” rule surprisingly well, and later happily watched a Mickey cartoon.
After clearing immigration, we ran into one small problem: we had not checked the timetable for the airport bus to Disney ahead of time. Fortunately, luck was on our side, and we did not have to wait long. Our daughter was in a great mood and sang on the bus the whole way.
The moment the bus pulled up at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, hotel staff were already there to receive us. It was our first time staying at a Disney hotel, and I was absurdly nervous, following the staff inside as if I were afraid of doing something wrong. The entrance itself is wonderfully grand, with an impressive porte-cochere, but I never ended up walking back that way later, so I did not get any photos of it. Google Street View will have to do.
Once we had finished check-in, the front desk staff explained Happy Entry in English and settled the balance on the room. After that, we were finally handed our room cards and could head upstairs. Our room was on the fifth floor, and the elevator had Mickey counting the floors. Our daughter even recognized Mickey’s voice. Sadly, we forgot to record it.
The room itself was just as full of Disney touches, and every little detail felt carefully done. For my wife, it really was a dream come true.
Our daughter insisted on hiding in the closet, perhaps because she aspires to live like Harry Potter.
👶🏻: Daddy, try to find me.
👨🏻: (opens the door) Stinky, did you poop?
👶🏻: I pooped in here, but the poop isn’t in here.
Our room looked straight toward Tokyo Disneyland, and we could also see the Disney Resort Line trains coming and going. It seemed likely we would be able to see the fireworks that night too. Our daughter insisted that I lift her up so she could look out from the windowsill.
There was a handy shop on the first floor, but for dinner we decided to try our luck near Shin-Urayasu Station instead. Our daughter kept saying she wanted to stay and watch the fireworks and did not want to go out. The fireworks were still hours away.
We took the train to Shin-Urayasu Station and eventually decided to buy bentos from the supermarket on the ground floor of AEON STYLE Shin-Urayasu. Our daughter has little interest in most restaurant food, so taking her out to eat can be more trouble than it is worth. Halfway through shopping, she got sleepy, so I had to carry her all the way back to the hotel. By the end, my arms felt like they were about to fall off.
Once we got back, we laid her on the bed and let her keep sleeping. Around eight, we woke her up to watch the fireworks, but she said they were scary and insisted that I was not allowed to watch either. We had to close the curtains, so I ended up hiding behind them and taking photos through a narrow gap.
One of the beds had a trundle bed underneath that could be pulled out, so we used it in case our daughter rolled off the bed during the night. At some point in the middle of the night, we found her kneeling on the trundle bed and sleeping with her upper body sprawled across the main bed. It was quite a sight.
When I got up to use the bathroom a little after four in the morning, I saw that people were already lining up outside the hotel. Happy Entry did not even start until 8:15 a.m., so I could not imagine what they thought they were accomplishing. Was it really that competitive? Still, with a small child, all we could do was go back to sleep and get up again at seven.
She was full of energy when she headed out with Daddy in the morning, but the moment we got inside the park, the crowds completely overwhelmed her. She looked dazed, lost interest in everything, and only wanted to go back to the room.
The only time she really perked up was when we ate at Crystal Palace Restaurant. I had booked a time slot that happened to line up with part of a parade, and she sat there at the table, utterly absorbed, watching it through the window. We still left a bit early because we did not want to overstay and inconvenience the next group of diners. I carried her on my shoulders so she could keep watching outside, but once we got into the crowd, she became nervous again and decided she was done. So we went back to the hotel and slept until three before heading out once more. That, really, is one of the biggest advantages of staying at a Disney hotel: you can retreat for a proper break and still have enough energy to enjoy the park again later in the day.
That night, our daughter finally found one attraction she truly loved: “it’s a small world”. Nighttime was also when the glowing souvenirs finally got their chance to shine. She was especially taken with the Tokyo Disneyland 40th Anniversary popcorn bucket, which could project an image onto the ground.
On the third morning, we got up at seven to pack. We were using Airpoter to send our luggage to the next hotel, and according to the instructions, the bags had to be dropped off at the baggage service counter before nine. A staff member kindly gave our daughter a sticker, but she was far too shy to look them in the eye. Once the luggage was taken care of, we were finally able to appreciate the grand lobby of Tokyo Disneyland Hotel at a leisurely pace for the first time.
And then it was time to say goodbye to Disney.
Note: This article is translated from Traditional Chinese.
