[Gill H]

After the parade, we decided to change our plans. It had been a long day, and we had packed a lot in. We were cold and tired, and the idea of relaxing over a meal in a nice warm restaurant was a lot more appealing than schlepping over to Studios and jostling for a decent spot to see the show. So we looked at the times guide, and figured we could manage to fit in watching the tree lighting at Disneyland Park and then the Goofy show in Studios tomorrow evening. (Remember this – it will be important later!)

So we left the park, and decided to see if we could get into La Grange at Billy Bob’s any earlier than our 7pm reservation. When we arrived there it was just coming up to 6pm and Billy Bob’s wasn’t even open, so we joined the small group of people sitting near the door and waited. A few moments later a CM came to unlock the door and was quite happy to let us eat there straight away. It’s not as if there were huge queues, and they didn’t seem to be expecting large crowds. One bonus of being in France is that the French eat at 8pm and the Spanish don’t even think about it until at least 9.30pm, so us early-bird Brits often have our pick of the tables. And sure enough, at this point everyone in the restaurant was a Brit.

We were soon sorted with drinks and shown round the buffet. It was our first time eating here, and we were pleasantly surprised by the amount and variety of food on offer. Being Tex-Mex, of course you had ribs, barbecue chicken, a make-your-own fajitas counter and so on.

But there were also plenty of cold meats and salads...

And (being in France) a good cheese selection.

Then there was a surprisingly good range of desserts!

It was definitely a step up from the buffets at Cheyenne and Santa Fe, and I would say it’s probably the best value for a standard dining plan voucher that DLP has to offer. Unfortunately we were too early for any live music, but I’m sure we’ll be back another time.

While we were eating, I found the email confirming our original 7pm reservation, and clicked on the link to cancel it. We’d used the online reservation system that DLP are trialling on the Dutch site, and it had been very easy to make the booking, and even easier to cancel it. Let’s hope they roll this system out to the other countries’ websites soon.