Hello! My husband and I are thinking about going to DL for our first wedding anniversary (yay!) and doing the Halloween party while we are there. However, we are unfamiliar with DL overall...we are experts at WDW, but this is completely new territory for us.
As a WDW Vet, I would recommend looking at
HydroGuy's A DLR Guide for WDW Vets as a good starting point. It'll help give you a sense of the similarities and differences between the two resorts.
Our biggest question is - do you need park hopper to do the Halloween party if you've visited a park during the day? We usually do the park hopper at WDW because we go for a week at a time, but we'll only be going for 3 days on this trip, so we are just going to take things easy.
In this way, MHP and
MNSSHP are very similar. MHP is separate hard-ticket event, so it doesn't matter which park you visit during the day. Like MNSSHP, you do have to buy the specific MHP ticket; you cannot use a day from your regular park tickets to gain entrance to MHP. MHP is very popular at DL and tickets do generally sell out in advance (all but one party sold out in advance last year). MHP dates are usually announced in mid-summer (late-June to early-July) and tickets go one sale soon thereafter (you can see the dates along with when each party sold out in the
2015 Calendar thread and I plan to track the same information in the
2016 Calendar thread).
Any other DL tips are appreciated as well
As mentioned park hopping in general is much easier at DLR than WDW. Think of DL like's Epcot FW, DCA like Epcot's WS and the Esplanade (the area between the two parks) like the bridge between WS and FW. The two parks are about 110 yards apart (you can see the ticket gates of one park from the ticket gates at the other park). Likewise, DTD is immediately adjacent to the parks, so it's really easy to visit DTD and the hotels. Basically, all of DLR (the parks, DTD, and hotels) are all within walking distance of each other.
DLR's timeline is a lot shorter than WDW. Dining reservations open up about 60-days in advance, the operating calendar (hours) is usually announced about 45-days/6-week in advance, and entertainment and other details may not be added until about 30-days or less. In terms of dining, that is one of the biggest differences. Dining reservations are much less difficult to come by at DLR. There is no equivalent to the "180+10", so each day's reservations open up one day at a time. If you get online right on the 60-day mark and something is showing as unavailable, it's more likely that they haven't loaded it into the system yet (opposed to it already being fully booked). In most cases, it's pretty common to get prime dining reservations pretty close to the day. We know the system rolls somewhere between midnight and 6:00 am, but because it's not critical to be online right when the system rolls, we haven't pinned down the time (or whether it's consistent).
In terms of FPs, at this point, DLR is still using the "Legacy" FP system. DLR is not using Magic Bands or FP+, so you cannot "reserve" your FPs in advance, but for the most part, the FP system at DLR is similar to the FP system that WDW was using
before they went to FP+. You'll insert your ticket into the FP machine to get the FP; they do post the current return time so you'll know if it works for you or not before getting the FP. You can also check the official
Disneyland App, which will give you the current return time. Unlike WDW, there is no official grace period (either early or late), so plan on returning during the time window printed on the ticket.
Once you've obtained a FP, you can collect your next FP two hours later or when the FP window opens, whichever comes first. Let's say it's 9:00 am and you obtained a FP with a return time of 10:15 am to 11:15 am. You'll be able to get your next FP at 10:15 am (when the time window for the most recent FP opens). On the other hand, let's say it's 9:00 am and you obtain a FP with a return time of 2:15 pm to 3:15 pm. You'll be able to get your next FP at 11:00 am (two hours after you pulled your most recent FP). (Caveat: You cannot hold two FPs for the same attraction, so if you already have a FP for an attraction, but it's time window has not yet opened, you cannot get another FP for that attraction even if you're eligible to get more FPs.) A few other notes:
- There are a handful of "disconnect" FPs. You can obtain these FPs and they do not limit/impact your ability to get another FP immediately. The only "disconnected" attraction FP is for Buzz Lightyear. WoC, Frozen at the Royal Theater (a show - may no longer be used), and the A&E M&G (may no longer be using this) are also "disconnected" FPs. In other words, you could go get a WoC FP and then immediately go get a RSR FP. F!, when it was being presented also used the FP system, but it is likely dark for the rest of 2016.
- The two parks are "disconnected" from each other. Meaning you can collect a FP in DL and then immediately hop over to DCA and collect a FP there. For example, if you are in DL and pull a FP for Space Mtn, you can immediately go over to DCA (assuming you have park hopper tickets) and get a FP for RSR.
- Once a park ticket has been used to enter a park, you can obtain FPs in either park. So let's say your party all enters DL in the morning. You can then have one person (aka "the runner") hop over to DCA to get FPs in that park. (It's worth noting, I've only ever done this with park hopper tickets, so I don't know if works if someone had a one-park-per-day ticket). This is one of the biggest differences from WDW when it was still using the Legacy FP system.
- There aren't a huge number of attractions at DLR that use the FP system. Mostly they are the thrill rides and a few of the more popular non-thrill rides. Disneyland.com has a list of the attractions that currently use the FP system: https://disneyland.disney.go.com/attractions/#/fastpass/
