Just Booked!!! July 29-August 30

[KaylatheAggieDisnerd]

Hi everyone! My mom and I just booked our first trip to DLP for this summer! We're staying at the Disneyland Hotel (AAAHHHH!) because this will most likely be a once in a lifetime thing for the two of us. I am SO excited! I've been dreaming about going to Paris for almost my whole life, and DLP is the icing on the cake! I do have a couple questions though. First, which attractions would you recommend getting fastpasses for? We'll take advantage of EMH for sure, but I also would like to know if we need to hit fastpass stations on any certain attractions as soon as we come in. Second, do we need to make dining reservations ahead of time like WDW? I'm a planner so I would like to, but being from the US my mom is hesitant about calling long distance to France for the reservations number. We'd like to eat at Walt's and Blue Lagoon but I'm worried about being able to make reservations once we get there because I know at WDW if you don't book them in advance it's not happening! Finally, if y'all have any advice for the trip in general I'd love to hear it! I've been lurking other posts and already have learned so much. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Kitchensink]

We went in the beginning of May and truly did not even need our fastpasses that we received for staying at the Disneyland Hotel. That being said, I think summertime is different, more crowds, as kids are on break from school. We only needed to use our fast passes one time, and probably it wasn't that critical to use it then, but it was for Ratatouille in the Studios Park. The only "big" attraction that I skipped (that was open) was the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. I did take a picture of the wait times in early May, at 2 pm it was 25 minutes. Crush's Coaster did have a wait time, but I made that my first stop of the day upon entering the park, it was open immediately, and I also rode via the single rider line. The single rider line was 45 minutes by the time I got off of the ride. It is not a fast pass ride. We made no advance dining reservations. We made reservations for The Steakhouse in Disney Village the morning of the day we went, and Walt's reservation was made for lunch 1 day in advance right at the hotel concierge. Again, summertime may be a whole different situation, but it is definitely not as cut-throat as Walt Disney World. We are always amazed how laid back it is at Disneyland in California when we make reservations. I got the same feeling with Disneyland Paris.
Karen

 

[KaylatheAggieDisnerd]

Oh wow thanks for the info! What fastpasses do you get for staying at the Disneyland hotel? This is the first I've seen of that! I'm expecting bigger crowds since it will be July, but we've dealt with crowds at WDW before, so we don't mind too much. I'm hoping the reservations aren't too bad, glad it's not as bad as Florida. After doing a DCP there last spring I'm paranoid about reservations lol!