EMH and FP strategy
 

I'm hoping to be able to pick your brains on all things DLP. The first and last time I went was in 2000, we only did one day and I'm sure a lot has changed since then. Rather than ask too many questions in one post I will keep this one to just two topics, EMH and FP.

I'm not sure if the timing of our trip makes a difference, but here is a little backfground info. I've booked up 4 nights in February half term for myself and my daughter (aged 11). We are staying at Cheyenne and so we will be able to make use of EMH. DD is tall enough for all rides at WDW and universal and will do them all happily (more so than me :confused2 but I will force myself!). So, she will be keen to try out all her wdw favourites in DLP and to try out rides like Crush's Coaster that will be new to her.

I would love to know which rides we should prioritise in EMH. At WDW we tend to do the thrill rides in EMH as they have the longest wait times later in the day, so should we go for those during EMH in DLP? We will have 4 EMH so should we do 3 at Disneyland park as this is larger or should we do an even split of 2 mornings at each park?

Also, I'm worrying about the paper fast pass system, for this trip there will be no logging into MDE 60 days in advance and then getting cross when stitch eats the page. So, are there attractions that tend to run out of fast passes, or will we be able to get fast passes all day long? Again, which attractions should we prioritise for FP? Are there attractions where the fast pass is not worth it?

I'm getting quite excited about the trip. Kate doesn't even know about it yet! I'm trying to think of how to surprise her. DH nearly spoiled it yesterday during dinner, but fortunately she was oblivious.

Anyway, thank you for sharing your hints and tips. I'll get thinking on other areas where my knowledge is sorely lacking!

Hi,

I'm not an expert by any means, but based on DLP Guide, the following rides will be open for EMH (subject to change) and I will add a * to the rides I would personally be aiming to do during EMH based on personal favourites and queue times:

Disneyland Park
Peter Pan's Flight* (queue times can get very long)
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Mad Hatter's Tea Cups
Le Carrousel de Lancelot
Princess Pavilion
Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast*
Orbitron - Machines Volantes
Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain*

Walt Disney Studios Park
Crush's Coaster*
Ratatouille: L'Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy*
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith*(since you mentioned thrill rides)

For fastpasses, you can only hold 1 active fastpass at any given time, so you can use a fastpass and then go get another. Generally the bigger rides (big thunder mountain, hyperspace mountain etc) tend to go quickly.

I'm not sure if the fastpass systems are online during EMH so that you can get on a ride fastpass as soon as the park fully opens or not - perhaps somebody else can verify this

For EMT in the main park I would concentrate on:

Peter Pan
Dumbo Elephants
Buzz Lightyear*
Hyperspace Mountain

These all get really big queues later on. You could also use the time to do some character meets although the queues for this tend to be quite long even first thing.

*Depending on when your half term in you may find that Buzz Lightyear is closed for your dates - I am looking at going back with my 11 year old Daughter from 18-22 February and it's closed the entire time.

For WDS it seems to vary from day to day what's open for EMT, when we went a couple of weeks ago we had:

Crushes Coaster
Ratatouille
Parachute Drop
RC Racer
Slinky Dog
Cars Ride

I've also known ToT and RnR to be open during WDS EMT. Out of all of these Crush and Ratatouille are the most popular. Although as your Daughter is over 8 you and her could do single rider on Ratatouille which will save you so much time.

The fastpass machines do not open until 10am and as the PP said you can get genreally only get one fastpass slot at a time, the exception to this is when your slot is really far away and then it will have a note at the bottom confirming the time when you can get another.

The Fastpasses for BTM and Peter Pan tend to go the quickest, they're normally all gone by Midday. Other rides such as Star Tours and Indiana Jones tend to be avaliable much longer.

Other people have summarised well. One thing I would add is go straight to Crush's coaster on EMH for the Studios, it's the only ride open in EMH that has no Fastpass option and the queues get LONG.

We were there at the weekend and we went straight for Crush in EMH, waited about 20 mins and planned to get a FP for Ratatouille but it was actually only a 15 min wait so we just went on instead. When we came off the offsite guests had come in and RT was 55 min and Crush was 75 min!

Thanks for this it's a really comprehensive reply. I've looked at the ride closures list and it seems that Buzz is going to be closed for our trip...I'm not sure either if us will be that fussed as we tend to find both of our lasers are broken in wdw as we never seem to get very high scores ;)

I think we will prioritise space mountain and crush in their parks and then go on from there.

I hadn't realised that the attractions open may change each day in EMH, so this is interesting.

Also thanks for letting me know about the FP machines not opening until 10 am. This is good to know as we can just get on with stuff until then and sort out FP tickets later. I'm going to make sure we grab BTM and Peter Pan early if they run out. Thanks so much for letting me know.

Thanks, it feels like I'm getting a plan together, Well stealing all these helpful ideas... Crush is going straight to the top of the list, then Ratatouille.

Do any of you know if once the window for your FP is open you can then grab another before doing the ride...so if I get a FP for BTM when it's our time slot before we go to btm ride can we pick up a FP for another attraction...or do we actually have to use the FP before we can get another for a different attraction? I hope this makes sense...I'm hopeful that if it is open then we can get another before riding the open FP.

You can get another fastpass after the start time of your current one, so it's definitely possible to grab another fastpass for a ride whilst you make your way to your original one.

Thanks for replying. This is great to know. I think we are at 75 days to go now so I'm going to start thinking about ADRs to try and fit them into the planning.

The attractions open during EMT rarely change in my experience, although sometimes if one is in refurb they open another.

Last week we got on everything open in Disneyland Park within half an hour, and everything open in Studios in about 20 minutes!

Peter Pan is always our first as it gets crazy later.

We didn't do Crush but there was no queue at 8.30 am - never seen that any other time! We did repeat rides on Ratatouille instead.

Both meals we had last week were delicious. Billy Bobs in the Village and Plaza Gardens in the main park (ambience in here top notch - we went at 4:30 before it got really busy). We were on the standard meal plan. We exchanged our breakfast voucher both days for the Annette's breakfast (you have to pay a €2 top up) which was great and even with the top up, better value IMO than the 'free' breakfast option.

Annette’s opens late though. Best option we found for the free breakfast was New York Style Sandwiches in the Village. Opened just before 8, quiet and pleasanf place. We used our voucher and got coffee, juice, a pastry and a full size baguette with butter and jam (not the little hard rolls you get elsewhere).