Dining Reservations and EMH at Disneyland

[freshstart19]

Hello. Tomorrow I am able to start making dining reservations for our trip in late August. I've been researching the Touring Plans to figure out when we have time for full service dining. We want to do a couple of character dining meals; Ariel's Grotto for sure and undecided about the other one. I'm still trying to decide between The Blue Bayou, Wine Country Trattoria and Carthay Circle and Napa Rose. We've had free dining at WWD which was great and we ate very well!! There are 4 of us with DD11 and DD24.

Is it smarter to avoid the park with EMH and go to the other one that day? Thinking it will be hard to make a character breakfast before EMH. We are staying at the Grand Californian. We will be there for 4 days starting Monday. I know to do an early lunch or early dinner to avoid crowds and to maximize times at the attractions. My DH will definitely prefer sitting down for a nice dinner though without running out to an attraction one night. I do want to go to WOC one night and was thinking of doing one of those packages. But then, maybe that won't be necessary because the crowds won't be as bad when we go. Thanks for your help.

 

[gerilyne]

You may want to call and double check, but when I tried to make reservations for Napa Rose for Aug, I was told it was closed Aug 2 through early September so that may eliminate that from your list.

We are going to try Steakhouse 55 in its place. I also really do like Blue Bayou not just for the atmosphere though, I do like the food too. Can't help with the others as we haven't tried there yet but I'm hoping for a chance at Cathay Circle.

 

[luulu1999]

Hello. Tomorrow I am able to start making dining reservations for our trip in late August. I've been researching the Touring Plans to figure out when we have time for full service dining. We want to do a couple of character dining meals; Ariel's Grotto for sure and undecided about the other one. I'm still trying to decide between The Blue Bayou, Wine Country Trattoria and Carthay Circle and Napa Rose. We've had free dining at WWD which was great and we ate very well!! There are 4 of us with DD11 and DD24.

Is it smarter to avoid the park with EMH and go to the other one that day? Thinking it will be hard to make a character breakfast before EMH. We are staying at the Grand Californian. We will be there for 4 days starting Monday. I know to do an early lunch or early dinner to avoid crowds and to maximize times at the attractions. My DH will definitely prefer sitting down for a nice dinner though without running out to an attraction one night. I do want to go to WOC one night and was thinking of doing one of those packages. But then, maybe that won't be necessary because the crowds won't be as bad when we go. Thanks for your help.

I am a little confused by the bolded print...you will have EMH everyday because you are staying on site, I think that it is not really necessary to get the WOC dining package because you can just get fastpasses and have just as good seats. I have never ate at any of the places all though Wine Country was considered for our trip and of course everyone suggest Blue Bayou

 

[jeaneg]

I'd take advantage of staying onsite and go to the park with EE each day. We found it especially valuable for DCA.

We really enjoyed the atmosphere at Blue Bayou. We checked in early and asked to wait for a waterside table.

Hello. Tomorrow I am able to start making dining reservations for our trip in late August. I've been researching the Touring Plans to figure out when we have time for full service dining. We want to do a couple of character dining meals; Ariel's Grotto for sure and undecided about the other one. I'm still trying to decide between The Blue Bayou, Wine Country Trattoria and Carthay Circle and Napa Rose. We've had free dining at WWD which was great and we ate very well!! There are 4 of us with DD11 and DD24. Is it smarter to avoid the park with EMH and go to the other one that day? Thinking it will be hard to make a character breakfast before EMH. We are staying at the Grand Californian. We will be there for 4 days starting Monday. I know to do an early lunch or early dinner to avoid crowds and to maximize times at the attractions. My DH will definitely prefer sitting down for a nice dinner though without running out to an attraction one night. I do want to go to WOC one night and was thinking of doing one of those packages. But then, maybe that won't be necessary because the crowds won't be as bad when we go. Thanks for your help.

 

[LongTimeFan]

I guess I’m confused (not an usual event) as I have not stayed onsite before. We have reservations for the Grand Californian, also, but we have not bought park tickets yet, though. (did not purchase a vacation package).
Is buying a package deal with an onsite hotel the way one gets EMH every day ? Or how does that work staying onsite and getting daily early entry?

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

I guess I’m confused (not an usual event) as I have not stayed onsite before. We have reservations for the Grand Californian, also, but we have not bought park tickets yet, though. (did not purchase a vacation package).
Is buying a package deal with an onsite hotel the way one gets EMH every day ? Or how does that work staying onsite and getting daily early entry?

One of the perks of staying onsite is that you get EMH every day it is offered, even if you have park tickets that don't include an early entry. Even better, onsite hotel guests are the only ones with access to early entry to DCA. Currently early entry is offered at DL on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and at DCA on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. You just have to be staying at the DLH, PP, or GCH to take advantage of this daily early entry perk; it doesn't matter whether you booked a package or booked everything separately.

 

[basketballmom]

If you stay onsite, you get EMH every day it is offered, no matter what your ticket media is.
Offsite guests may enter Disneyland park early one day only with a 3 or more day parkhopper. Offsite guests do not get to enter DCA early at all.

At the Disneyland resort, you want to go the the park that has an early entry of some sort.

 

[HydroGuy]

I guess I’m confused (not an usual event) as I have not stayed onsite before. We have reservations for the Grand Californian, also, but we have not bought park tickets yet, though. (did not purchase a vacation package).
Is buying a package deal with an onsite hotel the way one gets EMH every day ? Or how does that work staying onsite and getting daily early entry?

You get EMH every day if you stay at a DLR hotel.

See "Early Admission (MM/EMH/APEE) Super Thread" by DLR29 www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1675403

 

[LongTimeFan]

Wow, excellent!!! Thank you everyone. We will just need our tickets and our room key for early entry on each park's special day, from what I think I just read.

Where is the best place to buy the tickets? Online at Disney or somewhere else?

 

[HydroGuy]

Wow, excellent!!! Thank you everyone. We will just need our tickets and our room key for early entry on each park's special day, from what I think I just read.

Where is the best place to buy the tickets? Online at Disney or somewhere else?

If you sign up for the MouseSavers newsletter you can get links to discounted tickets from Ares Travel.

 

[freshstart19]

Thanks for your replies. I'll count on the fastpasses for World of Color so we're not limited by that menu. I'll do some searching for which 2 character meals are the best. I have to do Ariel for the princesses. The others are a toss up for me!

 

[luulu1999]

Thanks for your replies. I'll count on the fastpasses for World of Color so we're not limited by that menu. I'll do some searching for which 2 character meals are the best. I have to do Ariel for the princesses. The others are a toss up for me!

We are not big breakfast people so we did goofy's kitchen our first trip and again this trip because they have Character Meal's at Dinner, we are also doing Ariel's Grotto for the first time for a late lunch, and I am still debating on doing Surf's up on our departure morning because I have heard it is a lot of fun and its apparently the only place you get to see Stitch!!

 

[freshstart19]

I'm going to try for an early lunch for Ariel's Grotto on our first day. Surf's up on departure day sounds like a nice idea!! I can start booking meals tomorrow. I'm still thinking it makes sense to go to the opposite park that has Early Entry. According to Touring Plans, Disneyland is less crowded everyday than DCA. On Wed the 27th for example, DL is a 2 out of 10 for crowds while DCA is 7 out of 10. Wouldn't it make sense to go to DL that day instead? Or, maybe we take advantage or Early Entry but then hop over to the other park after lunch. Still need a strategy for fitting in characters. The Frozen characters are going to be a problem!!

 

[dedesmith32]

We purchased our 5 day park hoppers from way.com and got a good deal!