My wife loves Tokyo Disney, so almost every trip we take to Tokyo includes a Disney day. Two years ago, we stayed at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel for the first time. It was expensive, but it really felt like a dream come true, and staying at a Disney hotel with a child makes everything much easier. This time, we also booked a Disney hotel, and not just any one, but the brand-new Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel. My wife did a lot of homework beforehand and studied all the reservation strategies, repeatedly reminding me what time I needed to book and that I had to set up the credit card in advance. According to her, this was the newest Disney hotel in Tokyo, extremely popular, and extremely hard to book. Even before reservations opened, she was checking the official site every day, but there were no rooms left at all. To make things worse, when we booked our flights, we did not realize that our intended check-in date fell on the second day of a Japanese three-day holiday weekend for Labor Thanksgiving Day, which made booking even harder.
To make my wife’s dream come true, I had already set up the credit card a few days before booking day and prepared the reservation link in advance as well. On the day reservations opened, which was exactly four months before check-in, I was already sitting nervously in front of the computer at 9:45 AM, with both Safari and Chrome open and ready. One minute before 10:00, I started refreshing like crazy. Right at 10:00, the browser still showed a queue to enter the official site, and for a moment I thought I had no chance. Fortunately, once I got in, there were still rooms available at Fantasy Springs Hotel. My wife preferred a Rose Court Side room, but I was worried that if I got picky, I would end up with nothing at all, so I just took whatever the first page offered me. I clicked the first room I saw and finished the reservation as quickly as possible. I was actually pretty proud of myself at the time, but I was also worried that my wife might still be booking and maybe would manage to get a Rose Court Side room, so I waited ten minutes before calling her. She said that by the time her page finished loading, everything was already sold out. My conclusion from this was: booking on a computer might give you a better chance. Later, I realized that staying on 11/23 cost 30,000 yen more than staying on 11/24.
During the four months before the trip, my wife and daughter watched lots of YouTubers’ videos about the hotel, so they were very excited. I, on the other hand, kept worrying that something would go wrong and ruin the trip. Thankfully, we set off smoothly on 11/23.
This time we took China Airlines flight CI220, departing from Songshan Airport at 9:00 AM and arriving at Haneda Airport Terminal 3 at around 12:30 PM. After clearing immigration, we bought Limousine Bus tickets in the terminal to go to Disney. We took the same bus two years ago, so it felt nostalgic. This route starts at Terminal 3, and when we boarded, we were the only passengers. The bus then looped through Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 before finally heading to Disney. By the time it left Terminal 1, the bus was full. That three-day weekend was no joke.
Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel is almost the last stop on the bus route, so you may get to see some of the other Disney hotels first.
As soon as we arrived at the hotel entrance, a staff member holding a tablet came over to check the name on our reservation and took our luggage away. If you do not have a reservation, can you still get off the bus here? I was honestly a little curious. The staff member handling our luggage told me that check-in would not start until 2:40 PM. I misunderstood and thought they were taking the luggage to a central storage area, so I turned around to look for my wife and child, which led to my wife having to come back and look for me. Extremely embarrassing. While we were waiting for check-in, my wife took our daughter to see the Rose Court first, which meant I completely missed it. There was also a TV in the lobby playing Disney animated films, and several children were sitting there watching.
There were flowers everywhere in the hotel, and my daughter declared that this was the “flower flower hotel.”
The corridor leading to the guest room area is lined with huge glass windows on both sides and looks very grand.
The hotel is full of floral-themed decorations, and my daughter happily walked around taking photos with her camera.
The room theme was Rapunzel.
The room came stocked with amenities for four people. At first I thought one of the foil packets was a face mask, but on the second day I realized it was actually a pain relief patch. That was an unexpectedly thoughtful touch.
This room faced the parking lot, but my daughter said she liked this view.
Disney hotel stays come with complimentary postcards, and later we bought stamps at a Tokyo Disneyland gift shop and mailed them back to Taiwan.
After dropping off our luggage, we went back to the hotel lobby to look around properly, because earlier we had been too tense to really appreciate it. The moment you enter the hotel, the magnificent Grand Paradis Lounge is right in front of you. You can simply walk in without a reservation, but since we were not sure whether there would be anything my daughter would actually eat, we decided to skip it. Outside its giant windows is the Fantasy Springs area of Tokyo DisneySea.
If you go down the staircases on both sides of the cafe, which is actually on the third floor, the next level down is Fantasy Springs Restaurant. We did not eat there either, and instead went to find the souvenir medallion machine first.
Turn left from the hotel entrance, and you can take either the elevator or the stairs to the Fantasy Springs Entrance reserved for hotel guests. Not every Disney hotel lets you enter early through the Fantasy Springs Entrance, so it is best to check the details in advance. The Disney Resort Line’s Bayside Station is directly across from this entrance. Sometimes the stairs are closed, so the elevator is the only option. At the elevator entrance, a staff member will ask for the name on your reservation, so I suppose you probably cannot pass through without one. By the way, the elevator is actually quite large, but the Japanese guests around us never seemed very eager to ride with us. I could not help wondering whether I smelled or something.
The lobby looked beautiful at night too.
It also looked gorgeous from inside the park.
We stayed at the hotel for two nights. On the second day, we used Happy Entry to get into Fantasy Springs early and only came back in the afternoon to rest. At 7:00 PM, we went out again to watch the parade, but because we remembered the time wrong, we failed to secure a good spot. When we came back after 8:00 PM, there were still many people checking in, and I could not help thinking that they were missing out on several precious hours at the hotel. There is a convenience store on the third floor open until midnight, which was extremely handy. We even picked up dinner there on the second night. On the third day, we used Happy Entry again to go to Tokyo Disneyland, which meant taking the train to Tokyo Disneyland Station. There were just too many visitors, and I even heard a Japanese guest say, “Happy Entry isn’t happy anymore.”
The highlight of this trip for my daughter was Haunted Mansion. She even drew her own map showing the route from the “flower flower hotel” to Haunted Mansion, and on the third morning she carried that map with her all the way to Tokyo Disneyland.
We used Airpoter to send our luggage to the next hotel. On the morning of the third day, we took our luggage to the baggage service counter on the third floor, which is location 6 on the hotel map. As long as you say the magic word “Airpoter,” the staff immediately know what you mean, which made the whole thing very convenient.
I really do recommend Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel. If you can afford it and manage to book it, you should absolutely try staying here at least once. That said, to be honest, I still prefer the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, because that one has an elevator where Mickey talks.
Note: This article was translated from Traditional Chinese by AI.
