Tokyo Disneyland – Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall

Apart from being Tokyo Disneyland‘s park icon and a grand gateway to Fantasyland, Cinderella Castle is home to a walk-through attraction unique to Japan. Guests can visit Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall within the castle – a lavish walk-through attraction that tells the story of Cinderella.

Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall is a replacement for an even more elaborate walk-through attraction called Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour. It takes place within and under the castle – bringing guests through dungeons and close encounters with Disney villains, including The Horned King from The Black Cauldron.

Compared to Fairy Tale Hall, this mystery tour is a very complex attraction that uses many effects and requires a lot of cast members. It was also known to be quite frightening as it takes place in dark corridors and strongly contrasts the serene image of the castle. Possibly because of this, the Mystery Tour was replaced with a simpler and more wholesome attraction about Cinderella and her story.

I think I would’ve enjoyed the Mystery Tour. I visited the park when that attraction was still open a decade ago. Alas, the queue was incredibly long.

The queue area (before an elevator) retains elements of the previous attraction, but with new colours.

The queue can extend to the castle’s grand corridor, which has an amazing mosaic art depicting Cinderella’s story. Anyway, we couldn’t even hang around here to enjoy the art, because the cast member kept inviting us into enter the attraction.

The waiting area for the elevator (to the second level of the castle) was previously used for Mystery Tour as a pre-show room.

The moment the elevator opens, a cast member welcomes us into Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall and we are presented with several framed illustrations. It’s a beautiful recap of Disney’s rendition of Cinderella.

The middle section of the Fairy Tale Hall, with windows facing Fantasyland, showcases many dioramas. Each of them were created by a different artist, hence there is unique artistic presentation for each chapter of Cinderella’s story.

This looks more like Alice in Wonderland…

The windows looking into Fantasyland is probably my favourite aspect of this attraction, because it lets you see how different parts of this themed land are weaved together.

Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Mount Prometheus (Tokyo DisneySea) in one photo!

While this isn’t the park’s most popular attraction, the queue does become quite long in the middle of the day. We avoided all that as we ran straight here after collecting Fastpass tickets for Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek. Why? We wanted to explore the Hall when there’s barely anyone inside. Sure enough it was worth it – my sister had a lot of beautiful photos taken here.

After the rooms with dioramas, the next section are more illustrations showing the Happily Ever After scenes.

Jaq and Gus (the rats) would make surprise appearances here!

The final chamber is a really grand Throne Room. Here you can pose with a glass slipper or even sit on the Throne for a royal photo op.

Lovely mosaic artwork of the famous pumpkin carriage from the film.

Even the ceiling sparkles. Literally, with tiny flashing lights embedded in the argyle pattern.

The Throne. Oh yes, this attraction does not include a Cinderella meet-and-greet. I guess any girl can be a princess here. A tip for those interested in taking a nice photo here (basically the throne and an overview of the room’s regal decor): Please visit the Hall when it’s not crowded, because during peak periods there will be a line and you won’t have adequate distance to capture everything.

Another glass slipper, protected by a pane of… glass.

There are two “magical” paintings here. Taking a photo with flash will reveal a secret.

Like so. Basically the surface of the artwork is a fine mesh with some reflective material behind. It will bounce light from the flash back, creating the magic dust effect. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!

The attraction’s exit leads to a balcony at the upper level of the castle. Beautiful view of Fantasyland again, and a beautiful photo op spot!

It’s also one of those rare places where you can look out of the park’s “magic” bubble. It’s high enough to see the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel (which we stayed during our trip).

But thankfully, not the “real” buildings of park attractions.

As this is an attraction unique to Tokyo Disneyland, give it a visit even if the whole “Disney Princess” concept doesn’t appeal to you.

An Introduction | Getting There and Around | Pocket Wi-Fi | Tips and Tricks

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Tokyo DisneySea

Mediterranean Harbor | Mediterranean Harbor at night | Fortress Explorations
Magellan's | American Waterfront | Tower of Terror | Toy Story Mania!
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Tokyo Disneyland

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