Some DLP advice for our December trip

[Big Belle]

DD and I have are booked into Cheyene with park tickets the weekend before Christmas. 17th to 19th December. I need advice on what to do in advance by way of restaurant bookings and fast passes etc.

I’m a WDW regular but a DLP novice so any help would be appreciated

Thanks

BB

[scottishgirl1]

I cant help but I am booked in for 19th to 23rd and in exacet same situation, no idea how to plan lol

[Big Belle]

Originally Posted by scottishgirl1

I cant help but I am booked in for 19th to 23rd and in exacet same situation, no idea how to plan lol

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I’m sure an expert will come along soon!

[Custancia]

It’s been a couple of years, but hopefully someone will correct if it’s changed. You can book restaurants 60 days before, we rang up to do this. The number was on their website, but be warned it was international call rates. I believe you can use their app now?
I found that in park restaurants sometimes had restricted hours, so it needed a bit of planning/ checking if we had particular plans ( eg the studios park often shut early, so couldn’t do an evening meal at Remys restaurant, when we went).
Fastpasses were the old paper type that WDW used to have, where you used your ticket at a machine at the ride for a return slot.

We’ve been 3 times 2015, 2017, and 2019. I miss the Florida warmth, but there is a lot of extra detailing I think. We stayed at the Cheyenne last trip, and loved the theming.

[ScoopsAhoy]

Yes as above you can book restaurants at 60 days out via the DLP app.
Not sure about fp’s as we’ve never bought them for DLP and haven’t been back since this new standby thing

[Gill H]

That's a weekend so assume it will be busy (rule 1 of DLP is 'avoid weekends', but I have broken it many times!) So probably worth reserving restaurants. Quite often we don't bother and just book something on a whim the same day, but being a weekend and so close to Christmas, probably worth making reservations.

I'm assuming you don't have a dining plan so you can eat anywhere you want. In which case, the first thing to know is, breakfast is not included with your hotel booking, and it's a set price. Which is fine if you want to eat a big buffet breakfast and skip lunch. But if not, there is Starbucks in the Cheyenne and in the Village. Also Earl of Sandwich for their egg and bacon roll, or my fave, New York Style Sandwiches who do a croissant/coffee/juice combo and are rarely busy. There's also McDonalds if you must! Or apparently Annette's do a cooked breakfast, but they don't open early and I haven't heard anything good about it.

So that's breakfast sorted.

Park hours are not released yet, but looking back at the Dibb planner, in 2019 Disneyland Park closed at 7pm on the equivalent Friday. So the last in-park booking you'd get would probably be 5pm. On Saturday it closed at 10pm so you would probably be OK booking a table service restaurant or buffet in the park about 7pm.

Studios shut at 6pm on the Friday and 8pm on the Saturday. If you wanted Remy you might be able to get a 6pm booking on the Saturday, although the in-park restaurants can close several hours before the park. Or you could book lunch, and just have a snack dinner.

Otherwise, you can eat anywhere in the Village or at any hotel restaurant.

Table service restaurants are mostly bookable through the app (last time we booked on the website but it looks like they have removed that facility). Annette's isn't bookable at all. Non Disney-owned restaurants (eg Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe, King Ludwigs etc) are not bookable.

So you won't starve, but if you want to be sure of eating somewhere specific, best to book through the app as soon as they release the dates.

I do love the theming at the Cheyenne but I find the Chuck Wagon pretty basic and usually full of over-excited children - which given it has a high ceiling to amplify all the noise, doesn't make for a relaxing evening. So I tend to go for the more upscale restaurants. Next time (November) I'm definitely planning on doing both the buffet and the table service restaurant in the New York Art of Marvel hotel - and only partly because we're staying there. We also like the Yacht Club and the Steakhouse.

Free fastpasses are gone now. They've just introduced something called Premiere Access which basically boils down to 'want to skip the line, pay big bucks'. They are available for 10 rides across the 2 parks, and you buy them individually.

Thing is, even on a weekend near to Christmas, you may not need them.

Get to the gates before the start of Extra Magic Time, and head straight for either Big Thunder, Peter Pan or Buzz Lightyear. All three will be a walk-on at that time.

If you start with Big Thunder, then the rest of Frontierland and Adventureland won't open till the park does. So move on to either Fantasyland or Discoveryland.

We tend to do Fantasyland and get Peter Pan done next, and Dumbo if there's virtually no queue, as is often the case. Then Teacups, although that rarely has a queue anyway. And then Carousel, again if it's quiet. After which we move on to Discoveryland and hit Buzz Lightyear. I don't ride Space Mountain but DH sometimes does. Again, that is really quiet during EMT. That puts us in a good place for Star Tours when the parks open.

Our other faves, Pirates and Phantom Manor, don't have Premiere Access anyway, so it's just a question of checking the ride times on the app and going when it's quiet.

As for Studios (which currently you'll do in about half a day, frankly) the only two Premiere Access rides are Ratatouille and Tower of Terror. Ratatouille is open during EMT (if that is happening at the Studios - I don't think it has been recently). If not, it does have single rider if that helps.

ToT is not open during EMT but can be quiet when the park first opens.

The big draw in Studios is Crush's Coaster, which doesn't have Premiere Access and rarely has a queue shorter than an hour. It also doesn't tend to be open during EMT, if I remember rightly. If it's a priority, go there first.

Hope that's helpful.

[Big Belle]

Originally Posted by Gill H

That's a weekend so assume it will be busy (rule 1 of DLP is 'avoid weekends', but I have broken it many times!) So probably worth reserving restaurants. Quite often we don't bother and just book something on a whim the same day, but being a weekend and so close to Christmas, probably worth making reservations.

I'm assuming you don't have a dining plan so you can eat anywhere you want. In which case, the first thing to know is, breakfast is not included with your hotel booking, and it's a set price. Which is fine if you want to eat a big buffet breakfast and skip lunch. But if not, there is Starbucks in the Cheyenne and in the Village. Also Earl of Sandwich for their egg and bacon roll, or my fave, New York Style Sandwiches who do a croissant/coffee/juice combo and are rarely busy. There's also McDonalds if you must! Or apparently Annette's do a cooked breakfast, but they don't open early and I haven't heard anything good about it.

So that's breakfast sorted.

Park hours are not released yet, but looking back at the Dibb planner, in 2019 Disneyland Park closed at 7pm on the equivalent Friday. So the last in-park booking you'd get would probably be 5pm. On Saturday it closed at 10pm so you would probably be OK booking a table service restaurant or buffet in the park about 7pm.

Studios shut at 6pm on the Friday and 8pm on the Saturday. If you wanted Remy you might be able to get a 6pm booking on the Saturday, although the in-park restaurants can close several hours before the park. Or you could book lunch, and just have a snack dinner.

Otherwise, you can eat anywhere in the Village or at any hotel restaurant.

Table service restaurants are mostly bookable through the app (last time we booked on the website but it looks like they have removed that facility). Annette's isn't bookable at all. Non Disney-owned restaurants (eg Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe, King Ludwigs etc) are not bookable.

So you won't starve, but if you want to be sure of eating somewhere specific, best to book through the app as soon as they release the dates.

I do love the theming at the Cheyenne but I find the Chuck Wagon pretty basic and usually full of over-excited children - which given it has a high ceiling to amplify all the noise, doesn't make for a relaxing evening. So I tend to go for the more upscale restaurants. Next time (November) I'm definitely planning on doing both the buffet and the table service restaurant in the New York Art of Marvel hotel - and only partly because we're staying there. We also like the Yacht Club and the Steakhouse.

Free fastpasses are gone now. They've just introduced something called Premiere Access which basically boils down to 'want to skip the line, pay big bucks'. They are available for 10 rides across the 2 parks, and you buy them individually.

Thing is, even on a weekend near to Christmas, you may not need them.

Get to the gates before the start of Extra Magic Time, and head straight for either Big Thunder, Peter Pan or Buzz Lightyear. All three will be a walk-on at that time.

If you start with Big Thunder, then the rest of Frontierland and Adventureland won't open till the park does. So move on to either Fantasyland or Discoveryland.

We tend to do Fantasyland and get Peter Pan done next, and Dumbo if there's virtually no queue, as is often the case. Then Teacups, although that rarely has a queue anyway. And then Carousel, again if it's quiet. After which we move on to Discoveryland and hit Buzz Lightyear. I don't ride Space Mountain but DH sometimes does. Again, that is really quiet during EMT. That puts us in a good place for Star Tours when the parks open.

Our other faves, Pirates and Phantom Manor, don't have Premiere Access anyway, so it's just a question of checking the ride times on the app and going when it's quiet.

As for Studios (which currently you'll do in about half a day, frankly) the only two Premiere Access rides are Ratatouille and Tower of Terror. Ratatouille is open during EMT (if that is happening at the Studios - I don't think it has been recently). If not, it does have single rider if that helps.

ToT is not open during EMT but can be quiet when the park first opens.

The big draw in Studios is Crush's Coaster, which doesn't have Premiere Access and rarely has a queue shorter than an hour. It also doesn't tend to be open during EMT, if I remember rightly. If it's a priority, go there first.

Hope that's helpful.

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Fantastic advice. Thank you so much!

[aqualiv]

Can confirm EMT has not been happening at studios

We went to Ratatouille when we arrived yesterday and it was a complete walk on ( one hour before park close)

[Big Belle]

Ooo thanks folks. My excitementometer is rising 😀😀

[Floridafan]

We went in 2018 that very weekend for DD’s hen party. We didn’t book anything in advance (there were 9 of us). It was also the 25th birthday party and there were lots of celebrities there - we had no idea btw - I thought it might be dreadful but no. We got in everywhere we wanted to. We didn’t eat in the parks though. We did the rodeo show (name escapes me, sorry) and that was the only thing we booked in advance…like 3 hours in advance! We went to Planet Hollywood and Billybob’s until around 1am. Then before we left we went to the Earl of Sandwich. Obviously it was 3 years ago but the last time we went was in March 2020 for a weekend and we didn’t book anything and got in - even a walk up to the Plaza. Of course we might have been lucky but when I go again, I don’t think I’ll pre book anything.