Disneyland

[lisad123]

Ok you will all be sick of me by time we go.
We are going in two weeks via eurostar. We had prebooked seats around a table. Booked for new port bay hotel.
Where do I book for breakfast and dinner. We are planning early breakfast, make use of early entry, lunch on park, possible swim and sleep in pm, dinner early and parades an fireworks in evening.
What do I need to know? Hints? Best food ect?
I have asked on main board but no reply

The park food is pretty rubbish and £££ so i'd sneak some fruit and rolls off the breakfast buffet in in your bag and just but popcorn (which is the best ever) and drinks in the park. We had dinner at the pirates restaurant one night which is within the pirate ride v. atmospheric and fun and the other night at cinderella's restaurant which was a-mazing. All the princesses come around and chat to you so you can avoid queing to meet them during the day as you'll get to see them properly later. Very £££ but well worth it if you have kids who are into the princesses.

We took DTs when they were 5 and got in early then went back to the hotel for an afternoon video/chill out or swim in the pool before going back out again for dinner and the evening parades.

Have fun! It is a really, really wonderful place to take the DCs - we went for 2 nights/3 days and they still talk about it regularly 2 years later

Sorry Lisa, I haven't been, but I hope to take DD next year when she's 6 so i'll be watching this thread with interest.

Can I ask what specific needs your DC has? I'm only asking because the people who read this that don't know you, can point you in the right direction(literally perhaps) once they know what issues your child has.

Oops yes sorry, been here too long
Both my girls have autism, and sensory issues. Dd2 uses a major sometimes due to joint problems.

Hi, we are going for the third time soon and our children just adore going!! The Newport bay is near the park and within easy walking distance, we found this easier than taking the bus in as it can get very busy and overcrowded which our daughter hated!! The only problem is there is only one small lift to go down to the bottom floor in the Newport which you will need to use to exit for the park or have breakfast, it will fit a pushchair or a wheelchair and adult but can get a bit of a queue sometimes.

We are always having breakfast at 7am slot as it can get very busy 8am onwards. I always put some croissants etc in a couple of sandwich bags for quick snacks in the park!! Between 8am and 10am the park is lovely and quiet...they are the best times but some of the rides will be closed and only open at 10am.

If you take proof of the disability...we have GP letter, you will then be able to have an exit pass which will save queue times as you will be able to enter soon after arriving for the ride or they will give you a time slot to come back!! I find this brilliant as my little one finds it impossible to queue.

Cafe mickey is a favourite with our children as a lot of the characters come around while you are eating, there are lots of different restaurants in the village and all with different £££ but most are on the expensive side. I hope you have a magical time.

Our breakfast and dinner is included
I think I will fold dd2 buggy and carry downstairs then, they hate waiting
Have letter to drop into GP this week.

Def book cafe mickey or if you can afford it the inventions restaurant in the Disneyland hotel. Neither are cheap but you get lots of characters who come to every table, chat to the kids, pose for photos and sign autograph books. My dc loved the inventions restaurant but it was £'s and I believe you get the same thing at cafe mickey for less.
A great spot is buzz lightyear's pizza planet. Think pizza hut all you can eat buffet but twice the price (but still low price by Disney standards. About 75 euros for the 4 of us. There is a lovely soft play area and if you get there early (we had lunch at 11.30) you get the place to yourself.
I would avoid the princess dinner with sen kids tbh. We took nt dd (ds and dh went to pizza planet instead) and we had to wait a long time for very fancy food that she didn't eat and she was totally overwhelmed by the close proximity of the princesses and refused to talk to them. And paid £150 for the privilege!

How old is dd1? I would consider renting a buggy for her too. When we were there there were lots of big kids ( up to about age 8) hopping in and out of them. They are big, an adult could perch on one to rest - a bit like one of those stokke high chairs on wheels. Ds is 6 and sat in dd's buggy several times as there is soon much walking but didn't feel he was too old as lots of much older kids were in the hire ones.

Hi Lisa, I've stayed at the Newport Bay the last two times.
It can be busy and I think some of the rooms are quite a trek from reception/lift, so it might be worth emailing Disney to explain about the DDs and ask them to take this into consideration when allocating the room. I think you can email through the contact section on the web-site.
There is quite a good range for breakfast, but maybe if your girls have favourite cereals/snacks or drinks/squash etc, you might want to take your own. As far as I know, it's quite difficult to get fresh milk - it all seems to be UHT. My two didn't mind drinking this, but it does taste a bit different - maybe try it out before you go if you think it might be an issue for your DDs.
I also recommend Cafe Mickey! The characters come round the tables, so you don't have to queue to see them.
I wish I was going - hoping to go next year again. I think I love it more than the DCs

Hi, We've been to disney quite a few times and stayed in the Newport. If you can its worth upgrading to the admirals floor as its in the main building, has its own lifts, the rooms are bigger and its also much quieter than the rest of the hotel, you can do this when you book in and it only costs an extra 70ish euros for 3 nights and well worth it imo.

Another plus for the admirals floor is that you get to eat breakfast in the smaller room at any time unlike the standard rooms which you eat in the big dinning room and you have to pick a time and eat at the same time every day.

The buffets are good if you have the half board vouchers as you can eat as much as you like and there is a good choice, especially if you have fussy eaters, i would recommend booking your evening meal at the hotel concierge in the morning as the restaurants can get booked really quickly (best to book cafe mickey a day or two in advance)

As far as getting easy access passes goes take your proof of disability to the town hall inside the main entrance and they will give you your passes, don't be afraid to use them for everything, rides, shows, parades, autographs, the staff are really good and will show you where to go.

When you watch the parade the disabled area at the top of main street rather than the one by the castle is less busy but you still need to be there a good 45mins before the start and only one extra person is allowed with the disabled person.

Have a lovely time.

We went at Easter Time and the DCs loved it. I can't remember the name of the place we found which had burgers etc - like McDonalds, but not - it was in the space section on the right before you reach the castle, over in the corner. We'll see if we can find the name. They showed continuous short movies and it was fairly quiet.

If your DCs get a bit overwhelmed at any point you can take them to First Aid and ask if they could have somewhere quiet to sit. We did this with DS one evening and it really helped... meant we could stay for the fireworks for DD. DS doesn't cope with fireworks, so he was at the other end of the park.

The park is quieter in the evening as well, but again not all the rides are open.

We went to Davy Crockett Ranch and did self-catering. We bought from a supermarket like Pipinjo which worked better for us. As others have said, food is £££ in the park.

Hope you have a fab time.

We think the place was called Videopolis.

You can have breakfast in the park, included in the price rather than in the hotel - if you want a change.

The pasta place opposite Small World is pretty good for lunch. When you leave the park, in the Disney Village there is a small cafe which offers panini and burgers kind of stuff - it is good and not as expensive as eating in the park.

Don't know when you arrive, but we got there about 4ish and checked into hotel then had dinner in the diner in the Disney village then went into the park just as it started to get dark - it is worth keeping the DC up one night to see the park later on (although thinking about it, we were there in Feb so it got dark earlier).

Not sure about swim and sleep - we could not get the kids out of the park to have a rest. They did fall asleep before their heads hit the pillows :)

We are going in a few months. I wasn't sure whether to book food or not as my two will eat nothing ( maybe the popcorn!) so I was going to bring stuff with me.we are only staying for 2 nights though. It's the airport on the way back that I'm dreading. Always hard work.

I know that you can also have your breakfast inside the park instead of your hotel at no extra charge. I have never done this, maybe ask at reception for more details

ilovecake
it is worth booking ahead - the first day we could not get into the park breakfast, it was sold out, and that was in Feb.

Hi Mme, sorry didn't realise you had already posted regarding breakfast in the park...thanks will try it at Christmas. How cold was it there in Feb?

It was ok. We had snow suits with us for the DC but didn't need them. Was quite a mild winter though. It can be much colder that time of year.

tbh, they were so excited, I think they could have been wearing swimming costumes and would not have felt the cold.

We aren't arriving till 1pm on first day. Have opted for meal deal of breakfast and dinner included.
I think I will ring tomorrow and try and upgrade room, if we do can have breakfast in our room, which might be better plan.
Keep all tips coming

Have you told the hotel that your DDs have SN? I think they are quite good about giving people with SN special tickets to avoid waiting times in the park, so may have other facilities. We noticed a few families who were able to avoid the long queues, which would be great for you.

Our DC loved Small World, Toy Story and the stunt show best (although there was a fair bit of noise and explosions - not sure how your DD would cope with that. Are they ok with loud bangs etc?)

Lisa it's much cheaper to upgrade at reception when you book in it can be up to 4times more if you do it before hand, we've stayed at the Newport a few times and had no problems with getting an upgrade on the day.

If you google DLP Magic, it will bring up a web-site which has a section with nearly all the menus for the restaurants.
You can make reservations for restaurants before you go - the Disney web-site has the telephone number which you ring, and it's really easy. I made reservations for some of the restaurants before we went, Cafe Mickey, Walts etc. This worked out well, because some of the restaurants get very busy. It means that you can get close to the time slot that you want. We still had to queue for Cafe Mickey even with a reservation, but the queue moved fairly quickly, and they were turning away people who didn't have reservations as it was too busy.

Hi - My DD (2) has no diagnosis, but has a strong dislike of crowds and loud noises, and socially very anxious (does not want anyone talking to her or anything). SHe's due to be assessed later in the year, just to give you a background.

We used Davy Crockett which was good for her as it was our own little 'house' and she liked it. I have heard Newport Bay Club is lovely though.

Over the week we used the magic hours most days, though be warned lots of rides you might want to go on are not open then. You can, I believe, ask for queue jumping through the fastpass entrance for all rides if you explain. Might be worth finding out in advance how to go about it. The queues on some rides were fine for DD if short but some rides had very upsetting queues for her as basically a room with barriers and people queuing up and down the room and loud background noise/people noise. She was finding that hard and threw wobblies in quite a few queues. The car stunt show spectacular (in movie studios) also upset her - very packed arena and lots of explosions. Cinemagique was ok at the start but then when there was lots of gunfire that upset her. She isn't bothered by the dark too much but if your children are then a lot of rides are in darkness. She loved small world and the "Pays de contes des fees" (Fairytale land) boat ride. On the carousel there are 2 lovely carriages which are quieter to sit in.

Mobility wise you had to leave buggies outside but you could take wheelchairs etc with you to the sides of rides. Not sure how it would work with a Major. Also the shows had spaces for wheelchairs to park (but at the front where it is noisier?).

Hope that helps. Definitely booking food in advance worked well for us - and DD loved cafe Mickey (we were at the end of a row and she could see the characters approaching for about 10 minutes in advance).

We had a lovely time, and fact that you are at NBC means you can head home quite quickly if needing a break? We did come home most days bout 2pm and out again for evening meal.

Ok rang for upgrade, they wanted £500! You can imagine my reply
Will book cafe Micky for first night and go from there. Will get letter from GP for both girls.
We are very excited but not sure how much will be a holiday for the adult