First Disneyland trip in a long time could use some help with plans

Bex258

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 10, 2012
I haven't been since 2002 and this is the first trip I'm planning myself. Since my last DLP trip I have been to DLR and WDW twice.

I'm going on 18th March until 21st and I am not sure if I've come up with a good plan or not and would appreciate any advice.

Using the app I have an idea about some of the character meets but some don't have times like Aladdin, Peter Pan and Darth Vader, do they stop meeting around 4pm like the other characters?

What has everyone's experience been with the "or friends meets" do they often meet with another character or instead of?

We are arriving by Eurostar and have the express check in so I've estimated we'll get into DL around 2:30pm (we arrive at 2pm). According to the refurbishment schedule we have a few rides that are only open on the first day so we'll be doing those.

Sunday - DL

Arrive and take a few pictures at the Castle 2:30pm
Big Thunder Mountain either ride or see if I can get a FP and ride a bit later 3:00pm
Voyage de Pinocchio 3:30pm
Mad Hatter Tea Cups 4:00pm
Lancelot Carousel 4:40pm
Parade 5:00pm
Dumbo 5:30pm
Snow White 6:00pm
Meet Darth Vader 6:30pm
Quick snack for dinner 7:00pm
Path of the Jedi film 7:30pm
Illuminations 8:00pm
Bit of shopping and grab food on the way out in the village. 8:30pm

Monday - DS with EMH

EMH Crush's Coaster 8:30am
Ratatouille 9:00am
Tower of Terror 9:30am
Meet Spider-Man at park opening 10:00am
Rock n roller coaster 10:30am
Moana 11:00am ready for 11:15am
Buzz 11:30am
Minnie 12:00pm
Pluto 12:30pm
Lunch 1:00-1:30pm
Goofy 1:30pm
Cars ride 2:00pm
Motors...action! 2:15pm
RC Racers 3:45pm
Toy Soldiers 4:00pm
Slinky 4:00pm
Stitch Live! 4:30pm
Dinner 5:00pm
First Order March 5:25pm
Star Wars far far away show 5:35pm
Studio Tram Tour 6:00pm
Art of Animation 6:30pm
Star Wars fireworks 7:00pm
Aladdin Carpets 7:45pm
ToT or Rataouille or some shopping 8:00pm

Tuesday - DL with EMH

Peter Pans Flight 8:30am
Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast 9:00am
Space Mountain 9:30am
Park opening - Princess Pavilion? May skip as there pot luck on the Princesses 10:00am
Mickey meet 10:30am
It's a small world 11:00am
Alice meet 11:30am
Mickey's castle show 11:50am
Peter Pan meet - depending on time 12:20pm
Pooh meet 12:45pm
Lunch 12:45-1:45pm
Daisy meet 2pm
Donald meet 2:30pm
Aladdin meet 3:30pm
Indiana Jones 4:00pm
Storybook ride 4:30pm
Parade 5:00pm
Star Tours 5:30pm
Casey Jr 6:00pm
Snow White 6:30pm
Star Tours or another ride we want to ride again 7:00pm
Space Mountain 7:30pm
Fireworks 8:00pm
Shopping until 8:30pm

Wednesday - DL and EMH

Space Mountain 8:30am
Star Tours 9:00am
Character Breakfast 9:45am
Alice's Labyrinth 11:00am
Pirates of the Caribbean 11:30am
Explore the Galleon, Skull rock etc 12:30pm
Baloo meet 12:45pm
Lunch 1:00-1:30pm
Nautilus 1:30pm
Railroad 2pm
Boat 2:30pm - not sure how long this takes
Street car/Trolley car 3:00pm
Leave the park 3:30pm
Panora Magique by 4pm, aiming to try and get this in before heading to the station for 5pm and then get train home at 6pm.

As you can see I'm a WDW planner, I going with someone who hasn't doesn't the Studios park so wants to do everything there and from what I can remember I was able to get through the park quickly.

I did the Characters in Flight at Disney Springs and found at night was not as good as what I think daylight would have been for seeing things.

Has anyone experience in the Panora Magique? Cost and was it nice at night? It would help if I could do this out of park time, I kind of think that as everything is closer together in Paris it might look nice at night.

Thanks for any input, I also have a standard half board dining so any advice/tips would be great too.
 
I'm not really sure if you can plan like that for DLP and I think your times for the characters are really short. Moana is ridiculously popular, so being there 15 min before won't be enough to make sure you'll only take 15 min. I also notice you won't make any use of the fast passes, only for big thunder mountain, at 3 they are most likely to be gone. And you won't be able to ride it in half an hour (including the line).

If it says or friend, it could be instead of and sometimes also (most of the time it's instead). Aladdin has a lot of friend and sometimes they alternate, so it's Aladdin for half and hour and then Jaffar for half an hour, sometimes it's just Aladdin and he takes 15 min breaks in between.


Ah thats my bad on Moana, I've been staring at all the times etc for so long I didn't realise I didn't give her enough time.

I can give Thunder Mountain more time. I plan on using FP but without knowing what time I can get I've just put the FP rides in where it would be helpful.

Hmm I was afraid of that, they may as well not list the character. I guess just show up at a time slot and hope for the best

Is there a better way to plan?
 


Just go there and see what attraction you'd like to do has a short waiting time at that moment and go with the flow. 4 days is plenty to see and do all!


Thanks for your help.

I'm just so used to planning, I enjoy doing it too. Going with the flow is going to be a challenge. :-)
 
Thanks for your help.

I'm just so used to planning, I enjoy doing it too. Going with the flow is going to be a challenge. :-)

That's why I'm enjoying planning this trip for May :) All we've done for our 5 days in DLP is figure out what parks we want to do EMH in and what day we'll do Val de Europe. The rest will all depend on how we feel, what FP's we pull and what we want to do. We aren't making any ADR's and probably won't eat table service. Now our Paris days we have a plan and order to everything.

On the flip side, my ADR date for my Nov trip isn't until May but I've already figured out where I want to eat on some of the days, which parks and what FP's I'll go for in Sept. There's advantages to both types of trips and since we'll be there with more than enough time to see all we want to see we won't go too commando and already know we should do character meets during one of the EMH's which seems nuts but necessary for these parks.
 

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