We’re finally here!
We’re HERE!
We are thrilled to have been invited to check out Tokyo DisneySea‘s new land, Fantasy Springs! There are three new sections to this new land, and one of them is called the Frozen Kingdom! This Frozen Land features a NEW ride we’ve never seen in any other Disney park, and y’all, it’s AMAZING. You need to come with us to see just how fantastic this new ride is. We can’t stop thinking about it and talking about it, and you’ll see why.
Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey is a boat ride that tells the story of the sisters, including popular songs from the original film and iconic memories the two share. The minute you step into the queue, you are transported to Arendelle Castle, which is packed with so many details and incredible effects that it’s almost overwhelming. It’s one of the most immersive Disney queues we’ve seen.
It really feels like you’re inside Arendelle Castle
There are a lot of nods to the Frozen movies, including several portraits and paintings…
Portraits
…Anna and Elsa’s dolls…
The dolls!
…Anna’s travel cloak, and Anna’s travel cloak and hat.
It’s like she’ll be by any minute to put these on.
The way it’s all put together, it feels like the castle is truly lived in — like Anna and Elsa were just there, and we JUST missed them.
So many incredible details
There’s one room with a glass ceiling and huge windows — you can see the aurora borealis outside the windows. Occasionally, Olaf will walk across the glass ceiling. One of the details that impressed us was this gardening corner with shelves and a trowel with dirt on it. Not a single detail was missed.
Gardening nook
The queue music is also great. It is specially arranged songs from both Frozen movies. It all just works so well together, like you’re basically just taking this tour through the Arendelle Castle while Anna and Elsa are out for a bit.
Then, it was finally time to board! The ride vehicle is a boat, similar to the one you ride in EPCOT‘s Frozen Ever After, but that’s pretty much where the similarities stop.
Ride vehicle
Why? Because this ride is a MILLION times more technologically advanced than its counterpart in EPCOT. Our jaws dropped right at the beginning of the ride, and they were still on the floor by the end of the ride — literally, we were floored. The characters move and sing and dance exactly like they do in the movie. We have never seen anything like it before, and we’ve been on pretty much every Disney ride to ever exist.
For the first time in forever…
The ride starts with these incredible projection effects, but these projections are SO much better than what we’ve previously seen. The trolls’ faces were projections, but unlike the EPCOT ride, the faces are seamless and don’t really even look like projections at all. It is like a real, live troll is in front of you, and if you look closely, the troll’s faces even light up with magic during a special scene.
The trolls
The effects and projections also carry through the ride to create a story that feels very cohesive. It’s not just like one scene followed by another scene; it’s like we’re immersed in a seamless movie with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Even the background characters have a story and a purpose within the attraction.
Every scene is so emotional
The details are completely marvelous. Everything is so carefully thought out to convey emotion and mood beautifully. From the lighting (pay attention to Anna’s frozen heart!) to the subtle movements and transitions between scenes, every part of the ride was a delight.
We are LIVING in the movie
Now, we have to talk about the animatronics because they are unmatched. These are the best, most fluid animatronics we’ve ever seen. As the viewer, you move in your boat right along with the characters. As Anna sings Love is an Open Door, for example, you feel like you’re dancing right along with Anna. The subtle movements and timing are SO on point.
The BEST animatronics
The characters are so fluid and are doing things we’ve never seen animatronics do before. For example, the last scene features Elsa ice skating and pulling Anna along…and we can’t even tell you how amazing that looked. They were actually SKATING. The animatronics were also designed to portray emotion in a way we’ve never seen before. Elsa’s face in the coronation scene, for instance, is so emotionally arresting that you can feel her pained emotions as you ride through the scene.
Final scene
Also, one of our favorite animatronics was the Duke of Weselton. He looks EXACTLY like he looked in the animated movie, and his movement and expression were just SPOT ON. This ride doesn’t just focus on the main characters — there are TONS of animatronic characters, and it truly feels like no expense was spared.
The Duke of Weselton
We have to tell y’all that even in scenes with background characters, those background character animatronics were JUST as good as the main characters. Every single character just seems so realistic.
Here’s a peek from inside Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey in Fantasy Springs! #mediaevent#TokyoDisneyResort #TokyoDisneySea#FantasySprings pic.twitter.com/7OTIdm6GY6
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) May 8, 2024
Overall, we think this ride is the best attraction Disney has created to date. We hope to see this level of technology brought to other Disney parks around the world. Fantasy Springs officially opens on June 6th, 2024!
We’re exploring all of Fantasy Springs and everything it has to bring to guests, so be sure to stay tuned to DFB for all the latest Disney news!
Here’s everything you need to know about Fantasy Springs!
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What do you think of the new ride? Tell us in the comments!
Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Tokyo Disney to attend their media preview of Fantasy Springs. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ