If you missed part 1 of this trip report, click here to catch up!

Let’s start with where we ended in Part 1. Why exactly is Donald Duck dressed up as Ludwig van Beethoven?

For all of the people who have been waiting for the answer (that’s absolutely none of you), I’m sorry to disappoint. I don’t know. This is at a show called Club Mickey where guests are invited in to Mouse’s dance and singing party. Maybe Donald missed the memo and thought it was a costume party? Maybe he’s a classical music fan? Whatever it is, thank you Tokyo Disneyland for the visual. He’s also Elvis a few scenes later.

Club Mickey does feature other characters, but Donald is a star at Tokyo Disney Resort. I enjoy stage shows but I don’t think I’d recommend this one as a good use of your Tokyo time. This is good enough for sure, and really entertaining, but the park is very strong and there’s just better things to do if you only have 1 or 2 days to explore Tokyo Disneyland. Still, if you need a break during the afternoon then this isn’t a bad option but I prefer Mickey’s Magical Music World.

We opted for an early dinner that night at Center Street Coffeehouse, wanting to give ourselves plenty of time to get a spot for the nighttime parade. The main draw was the ridiculously cute curry above. As a whole, we came away impressed with the restaurant and it’s a good option for an affordable and quick table-service meal.

With the restaurant already in World Bazaar, we stuck around there after dinner and went through a few shops. That included the Penny Arcade, which has a few old timey arcade games. I tried my hand(s) at a baseball game in there. It’s a nice reminder that there’s always something to discover, theme parks or not. That building is also a nice throwback to Disneyland’s old Main Street.

We settled here for the parade, opting for a standing spot where we could view the castle in the background. There were surprisingly few people waiting here even with this being one of our preferred spots to watch Dreamlights. After getting the spot, we took turns saving it while the other walked around for a little bit. Of course, we kept using our unlimited drink tickets until we were water/soda/coffee/tea logged. Then we waited for the marvel to arrive, while taking photos of a beautiful sky behind World Bazaar.

I’ve spent many words on Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights in our review and rundown. I don’t need to rehash the entire parade but I will talk about the feeling it invokes. There’s a euphoria, at least for me, when I see the parade approach.

Disneyland and Disney World have become masters at giving people an over sensory experience all day. That experience is full of joy, thrills and laughter but it’s also full of exhaustion and crowds. Tokyo Disneyland, and basically any other theme park in the world, does the same. DL and WDW cap it all off with an emotional fireworks show that feels like a culmination. Most of those shows are great, but even if they aren’t people are captivated and have an emotional reaction because of the exhaustion that’s set in. Tokyo Disneyland does that but the grand finale is Dreamlights.

Watching the parade, with all of the spectacular lights, floats and costuming, pass by is beautifully overwhelming. The scale is spectacular. At some point, you just have to see it. My photos and words don’t do it justice. After about 20 minutes, the finale reaches guests and the music swells into a triumphant rendition of the it’s a small world theme. By that point, I feel like I could fly off into the night sky along with Peter Pan.

After the parade ended, we had a Priority Pass for Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek. Looking back, I’m not sure we stood in line longer than 15 minutes the whole day. With our vacation package passes for a couple of rides plus Priority Pass, we got on the majority of the Tokyo Disneyland’s best rides without much trouble. We were even more successful a few days later without the vacation package though!

Monsters Inc. is a great ride that’s overshadowed by even better attractions. Still, it’s a must-do at Tokyo Disneyland. We followed that up with a ride on Buzz. That ended up being our last time ever on that iteration, as it’s set for a Wreck-It Ralph retheme in the next few months. I’m totally fine with that change, especially with other Astro Blasters still existing.

Our time was winding down, so I headed off to take some photos in the Westernland area. They had capped a few lines already, including Splash Mountain’s, but some very nice Cast Members let me into the area to take photos. Seeing me take pictures of Splash, they came over to talk about how they have the only version of the ride now. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. It’s a tricky subject but the negative connotations we have in America with Song of the South and Splash Mountain don’t exist as much in Japan. I’m not saying that excuses the faults of the film at all. It’s more that there isn’t as much of a troubled history with the connections there.

Having the last Splash Mountain was a source of pride for a few Cast Members we talked to. Others may have got a different feeling but there was an innocence I found in them being excited about that. After a couple of minutes, one of them went and got me an attraction card for Splash Mountain as I snapped more photos. Those are my favorite type of souvenirs.

The overcast skies had broke for the night and I had a wonderful time taking photos. Here’s a few more from our slow walk out of the park.

That was a brilliant day filled with rides, parades and so many drinks. Our day at Tokyo Disneyland the previous December felt a little bit rushed, as we only had one day to experience a park that we hadn’t seen in 6 years. It was nice to get back to a slower pace soaking in the details. As you can tell from the photo above (one of my favorites of the trip), we were the last ones out of World Bazaar.

We hopped on the monorail for a short ride to Bayside Station and then checked into Toy Story Hotel. It felt like a week ago when we had dropped off our bags there that morning! If you’ve been following this trip report, then it was weeks ago when I wrote that… Sorry for the delay! There are so many photos to edit.

After a few hours sleeping, we were back up for our vacation package breakfast at Lotso Garden Café. We made it early so that we could be at DisneySea an hour before opening. That wasn’t necessary, as the unlimited entry and skipping the lines in Fantasy Springs was far more efficient than we could have imagined. More on that later. Lotso’s was surprisingly good! Here’s our review.

We dropped off our bags to be stored for the day at Toy Story Hotel and then joined the masses in waiting to get into Tokyo DisneySea. This was 4 days after Fantasy Springs had opened and everyone in line was laser focused on getting into the port. We met plenty of Americans on the trip that were confused on how to do this. Frankly, I don’t blame them! Although it was a splurge unlike any we’d done before, I’m glad we sprung for the vacation package.

The security line to get in was fairly quick, especially considering the amount of people there were. After we entered, we stopped for some coffee before walking all the way back to Fantasy Springs.

To be honest, I’ve mulled over how to write about this day in my head for quite some time. We rode all of the rides in Fantasy Springs 3+ times each. Melissa ended up riding Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure 9 times that day. It would be funny for me to just list what we did but less entertaining for you. Somewhere around the second time on Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies I might lose you! Instead, I’m going to hit on highlights in a somewhat chronological order.

Undoubtedly, one of those highlights was entering Fantasy Springs and our first ride – Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival. Melissa’s favorite Disney movie is Tangled. She literally wore out the DVD. Just thinking about the first ride through with her makes me emotional. Before I even knew what was happening, she was crying. She can tell people all about how she loves the Tangled toilets in Magic Kingdom, but this was a much bigger payoff.

The lantern finale in that attraction truly is remarkable. It may be a perfect Instagram attraction room, but it’s more breathtaking in person. That a ride can have that and still be a distant third place in a port tells you all you need to know about the strength of Fantasy Springs attractions. I’ll never forget that first ride through and I’m ready to go back to do it all over again.

We hustled over to Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure from there and experienced joy in attraction form. The ride is Melissa’s favorite in Fantasy Springs and I can’t really blame her, even if I have a different one. While it may not be as pristine or innovative as Frozen Journey, it is perfect execution of the ride it set out to be. We bounced and gasped and cheered along with the rest of the group in our flying boat that first ride through.

I have to hit my light feature quota in this trip report.

Frozen Journey was temporarily down so we went to Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies next. It’s a kiddie ride that is much better than it has any right to be. I’ll have a review of the attraction eventually but Melissa explaining the world of Tinker Bell to me was enjoyable, if not confusing. What wasn’t confusing is how much I enjoyed Cheese.

Of the four Fantasy Springs attractions, Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey is the one I remember the first ride through of the least. There’s so much to look at that I was probably trying to take it all in. In fact, I remember the second ride through more because I put the camera down and didn’t take a single photo.

I wouldn’t call the ride overwhelming though. There are theme park attractions that take so many wild turns in the course of 30 seconds that you’re left bewildered and slightly confused about the plot. Frozen Journey is the antithesis of that, the plot is clear and everything looks exceptional. After reflecting, I had less of an emotional response to the ride the first couple of times because I was so blown away by it technically.

The rest of the morning was spent going from ride to ride, walking right on. Our vacation package was so easy to redeem, we just showed them the vouchers when we got to Fantasy Springs and they immediately let us in. In our first attraction, we got wristbands for the day and that was that. From the start, we entered every attraction’s (in Fantasy Springs) Premier Access lane and never waited more than five minutes to get on a ride. It was one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had in a theme park!

We worked up an appetite and settled in at the Snuggly Duckling for lunch. The atmosphere is fantastic! The food is not. Of the three Fantasy Springs restaurants, this was easily the worst. That said, go see it! Get a drink and dessert and enjoy the Snuggly Duckling replica.

Subpar food offerings could not bring the day down! We continued our run on attractions throughout the afternoon, only stopping for a turn in the gift shop, drinks and to look around a little bit. Prior to the day, we decided to save most of our exploring for one of our later DisneySea days. When you have a skip the line pass, you use it!

There were a few times we looked around and I took photos. Melissa spent some time in the gift shop, which was crowded. After putting in a few minutes and getting a mini ride vehicle, I went and looked around the fountains by the Fantasy Springs Hotel. The sky was gray for most of the day, but the colors in the port were still gorgeous.

The best water fountain in Tokyo DisneySea now resides in Fantasy Springs. It may be a closer contest than you’d expect but this fish fountain reigns supreme with cold water and being thematically appropriate in Arendelle.

And a close second place is this!

I know you all needed some water fountain content in your lives. Here are a few more scenes from our afternoon in Fantasy Springs.

We grabbed a very early dinner at Lookout Cookout. Honestly, we were planning for that to just be a snack for the afternoon and a way for us to grab drinks from there. But we enjoyed the chicken and were too focused on rides to ever get anything else! The restaurant is a perfect snack stop in the land.

Outside of entering Fantasy Springs at the beginning of the day and exiting at the end, our only venture outside of the port was to ride Indiana Jones and Journey to the Center of the Earth. We had priority passes for both as a part of the vacation package.

It was very strange to be in my favorite theme park in the world and not really do anything else in it all day. We had the blessing of time this trip and were very focused on experiencing Fantasy Springs to the max. This was the first trip we’d ever taken that was really considered a ‘work trip’ for the website. That was exciting to me and definitely didn’t diminish the fun we had.

Journey had been down when we were there in December, so getting to experience that again was a cherry on top of a perfect sundae. The ride is so much fun, although I wish the ending was just a few seconds longer. I’ll have more thoughts on this in the next few trip reports. For now, check out the Lava Monster, also known as Hortense.

We walked back to Fantasy Springs, with a slight detour through Arabian Coast’s alleys. Sinbad was down this trip and that might be proof that you can’t quite have it all? No need for negativity though, we were on top of the world.

We walked back into Fantasy Springs and hopped from ride to ride, catching the last of the daylight before the night came in. Rapunzel was enjoying the last little bit of cloud covered sun.

At some point we rode Frozen Journey and then hopped right back in line and did it again, maybe spending a total of 5 minutes waiting for a boat between the two. By that point, the ride had cemented itself in my mind as one of the best in the world.

Rapunzel might have enjoyed the last of daylight, but my guy Cheese prefers the nighttime. Party animal!

Fantasy Springs is absolutely beautiful in both the daylight and at night. I was really impressed with the lighting package, especially in the Arendelle and Tangled forest sections. We noticed this more on different nights but caught glimpses in between rides.

Before long, the night started winding down and I went off for some photos while Melissa went wild with her last stretch of rides. My lovely wife is kind and looks out for people more than just about anyone I know. But when she has rides on her brain, there’s a fire that appears in her eyes that few have been lucky enough to see. That same fire had me giggling to myself as I was standing on Captain Hook’s boat, taking photos and watching her race from exit to entrance over and over again.

We ended up splurging on the vacation package but it resulted in the exact day we wanted. Being able to go on each Fantasy Springs ride for the entire day without any wait was so much fun. I still wouldn’t necessarily recommend the package for everyone, as DisneySea has way more to offer than this. But for us, it was perfect.

There are very few days in life where we get to be aware of just how perfect the day is. Throughout this day, and the whole trip, we knew and everything felt perfect. No cliffhanger there, no worries about having to go home a week later. Just pure bliss! Here’s a few more photos of the night.

Have you been to Tokyo DisneySea? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below! If you’re planning a trip there then check out our guide! If you enjoy what you’re reading please subscribe to the blog and like our social media pages which you can find on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!