First time to DL...So no fast pass or urgent need to pre-plan???

[k5thbeatle]

Hoping someone can shed a little light on this for me. Been to WDW countless times but never DL. Now we have first ever trip planned for this Spring.

So tell me; there is no need to pre-book fast passes? What about dining? Is it crazy booked like WDW or how does that work?

Not micro-managing a Disney trip almost doesn't seem like a Disney trip to me?

 

[mom2rtk]

Relax. You'll learn to embrace it.

Not only do you not need to prebook fastpasses, but you cannot.

Right now it's paper fastpasses in the parks only. Word is they will introduce digital fastpasses sometime soon, but those are expected to be same day as well.

Dining can be booked 60 days out. But it's nothing like WDW. Very few places book up fast enough that you have to set your alarm to book.

 

[dshimel]

pre-book dining, yes. Fastpass no.

What that means is that it is double important to arrive at the parks early. Not only do you get the shortest lines, but you also get Fastpasses with short return times.

 

[VandVsmama]

Hoping someone can shed a little light on this for me. Been to WDW countless times but never DL. Now we have first ever trip planned for this Spring.

So tell me; there is no need to pre-book fast passes? What about dining? Is it crazy booked like WDW or how does that work?

Not micro-managing a Disney trip almost doesn't seem like a Disney trip to me?

You should read https://www.disboards.com/threads/a-dlr-guide-for-wdw-vets.1162599/. It's very helpful!

You can't pre-book any FP's. You have to be in the park at the FP kiosk for the ride that you want to get the FP on. Insert your ticket and it gives you a paper FP. You can get another FP for that same ride or another FP ride at the start of the FP window or 2 hours later, whichever comes first.

Dining:
You can't make dining reservations 180 days ahead of time. You have to wait until 60 days prior to the actual date that you want the reservation for. And if it's for a dining reservation that's for something like a special dining package (like MSEP or World of Color), then Disney probably won't let you book the reservation until 6 weeks beforehand. Because about 6 weeks in advance is when they update their entertainment calendar for each park.

Dining reservations are NOT as insane like at WDW. You do NOT have to be up at 12:01 am exactly 60 days prior to the date that you want to eat lunch at, let's say, Carnation Cafe. You can wait until normal waking hours. And you don't have to do it exactly 60 days in advance.

How quickly dining reservation slots get booked up at DLR depends on a few factors:

1. Is it at a really busy time of year? For example, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Independence Day
2. Is it for a dining package that's associated with something new that just debuted? For example, when the Rivers of America reopens and they start doing Fantasmic! again, I would expect Fantasmic dining packages to be really popular for a couple of months right after its reopening.
3. How many people are in your party? Sometimes large parties can be trickier, but it really depends.

Dining reservations are not nearly as much of a coveted thing at DL as compared to WDW because most of DL's visitors are locals who might have decided just that morning to go to DL for the day...so they eat mostly at CS places. As a result, there's a ton of variety with regards to CS options at DL & DCA.

 

[Chiomaca]

If you're a planner, then you can try out some of the plans listed, but I'm more of a "check the wait times and go" sort of person. (Which may be why I prefer DLR over WDW in general.) The one exception for me is dining - I like to eat at Napa Rose, Carthay Circle, and some of the other higher end places, and I'm generally there during the runDisney events, so they book up fast. Ditto if you want to do any of the dining package; World of Color (the dessert party is on my list of things to do) and the Blue Bayou package for Fantasmic are totally worth making reservations for early, or whatever they do for the parades and fireworks now.

Aside from that - I feel like having a ride plan for DLR is kind of pointless. You're not working around electronic Fast Passes, and with a Park Hopper, you can easily switch between parks to take advantages of lulls in the action. We tend to go at Rope Drop if it's not a race day, just to get onto RSR/TSMM in DCA or Space Mountain and Star Tours at DL. It's definitely more enjoyable if you go with the flow than if you try to adhere to a strict plan. YMMV on that, though.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Time to embrace a California chill way of looking at vacay planning! 60ish days out for dining. Paper FP. (Even the rumored digital same-day FP system has a rumored $10/per person/per day price tag attached so throw that out the window & embrace same day paper FPs again.) You'll be fine.

I planned 1 2-day trip to WDW & O.M.G. y'all be crazy out there! I couldn't believe the competition for everything! Blue Bayou reservations are as competitive as it gets out here & don't bother being up early, just make sure to pick them that first week of reservations being open to get the time you want (admittedly if you wait on that one till a couple weeks out you can be out of luck). ProTip: how many people are you reserving for? Quirk of the dining system out here is availability will show for big groups (4) but none for parties of 1 or 2. If you find a time you want not open for the number of people in your party add one & see what happens. You can call to drop people off it, no prob! (Adding people however is problematic.)

 

[hollyrose1313]

Last year was our first DLR trip (been to WDW many times) and it was such a shock not planning every last detail in advance. I am not a "go with the flow" kind of girl but we actually enjoyed our trip last year so much we are headed back next month.
We did make our dining reservations in advance but last year we had no problem getting a reservation for the character meal at Ariel's Grotto just a day in advance.
As far as rides we have a set ride that someone will take all the tickets for and grab fast passes at rope drop (usually Hyper Space Mountain or Radiator Springs Racers depending on the park) while the other two head to get in a line. We continue to pull fast passes as we are able and then before our midday break we stop in the other park and grab a fast pass for later.
We really loved our time at Disneyland and appreciated it as it's own thing. The one downside I found was, to me, the parks (mainly Disneyland) don't absorb crowds as well as WDW. The wait times were similar to what we have when we go to WDW but the walkways always seemed so congested and it was hard to find a spot on the side to get out of the way.
Hope you have a wonderful time!

 

[cruisehopeful]

Dining opens up 60 days before the reservation. If you want Carthay Circle or Blue Bayou, you'll want to make the reservation.
If you want to book a World of Color dessert package or a dining package for World of Color or a parade, you will want to do that in advance.

Fastpasses are just paper passes that you get out of a machine near the ride. It will have a return time. There is going to be a paid version on smart phones, but we don't know when that will come out and it sounds like the only benefit to using that is that you don't need to walk to the fast pass machine.

 

[RADOPT]

You will be shocked at the difference. There are some good restaurant at DL but not like the selection at WDW. For us, Disneyland is more like a trip to the beach and WDW ... well I did more planning for our 15 night trip to WDW than I did for our 17 day trip to Europe! LOVE WDW - but the planning is crazy! Plus WDW is a lot more of everything than Disneyland.
Besides the parks and hotel, there are a number of good restaurants near Disneyland. Just don't eat at Captian Kidds!!! Two of our favorite restaurants on site are the Blue Bayou, which is inside of the POC, and Carnation Cafe on Main street, usually do breakfast at least once here. Last trip we needed to find breakfast before driving home. We ended up at Sorytellers at the Grand California. Everything was busy so we decided to wait. We ended up being seated within 10 minutes and the food was wonderful. It was more expensive because it s a character meal but it was fun and a great end to our weekend with the mouse.

You didn't say how long you would be in the area and I know you did not ask but.... If you have a car and want a good bakery, there are 3 Porto's Bakery & Cafe (Burbank, Downey and Glendale). I haven't been to them but my daughter brought home a number of items from them. All I can say is I am REALLY glad we don't live near them - I'd be broke and weigh a lot more. Since it is not a city to itself, like WDW, you might want to check out the area before you go. We found some fun places to eat, get drinks, etc. that were not too far away by car.

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[gingerfeathers]

I'm a WDW vet, and when I went to DL the laid back atmosphere was pretty amazing to me. It was definitely a different experience compared to WDW, but I enjoyed it! I spent a lot of my time on the trip in Downtown Disney, where there were a lot of good dining options, and even ventured off property a bit.

I did not book any dining in advance, and that is one thing I regret. I really wish I had at least booked one meal (I saw the Blue Bayou from the POTC line and was super jealous about it). Oh well. Next time.

 

[k5thbeatle]

Thanks everyone for the replies, much appreciated. We have grown so weary of having to micro-manage trips to WDW that we decided to give it a break but have always wanted to visit DL at least once and an opportunity to do so has recently came our way. Glad to hear it doesn't sound like the same level of planning is necessary, which will be nice.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

One reason we prefer DL over WDW is not having to plan everything, including every meal. That was stressful but we're more go-with-the-flow type of people. Planning on what kind of food we want to eat at a precise time of day months in advance isn't fun. We liked how you switch fastpass times thru our phones at WDW but it makes more sense there due to the size of the parks. I like DL the way it is and hope they don't change

 

[anonymousegirl]

Here's a tip if you can't get a reservation for Blue Bayou or Cathay Circle. Show up about 10 minutes before the first seating (BB opens at 1130am, for example). Ask if they are taking walk ups. Many times they are, and you get seated within 15 minutes. I've done that 2 or 3 times now, since most of my trips are very last minute (as in drive down tomorrow night kind of last minute).