I no longer works for DL either unfortunately. 
Thankfully it’s not as cutthroat as WDW so booking quickly is less essential. It’s just sad to miss out on the slick interface of BG1.
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Ah sad day! It was amazing for our WDW trip. That and some other hacks I learned that I’m told don’t work now.
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No not to book it but it still tells you the priority to get them. So you can look over there and see what they say is next priority and then go to Disney App to book it. It also still tells you if there is a predicted drop coming so you can set a timer for that.
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You’ve got some great advice so far, but really honestly with DL you only need to plan your first few hours each day & then follow the LL priorities/shows/ambiance you want to see.
The DL Christmas parade usually has 2 showings one in the afternoon, one in the evening when it’s busier. Going mid-week early December they may only do one showing, but definitely stalk the calendar for the entertainment schedule to find out (can come out as soon as 45 days in advance but it may take until closer to 30 days for it to really start populating entertainment).
My favorite Christmas activity for all the resort is Viva Navidad in DCA. It’s a street performance with a few small floats along with dancers, drummers, mariachi’s and lots of vibrant color & music reflecting the holiday celebration for several countries in South America. Donald and his two other Caballeros pals appear on the main float plus Mickey & Minnie also fly along the sides of the performance in 2 standing pedicab type floats. It’s amazing.
DCA’s atmosphere is especially festive with entertainment/bands reflecting holiday traditions from all over the world and it just makes the whole place alive. Plenty of Christmas of course, but other less-recognized celebrations get to leave their mark.
And then there is the tree-lighting in both parks, the castle lighting in DL and then a Small World Lighting that replays on the big beautiful facade every 15 minutes once it’s lit up. All are fun & wonderful but if you have to limit what you do, I’d pick Small World first and then the castle & tree-lighting just if you have time.
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I agree, TP is not very helpful for maximizing LL use. And the problem with the “cookie cutter” premade plans is they don’t make recommendations for getting Lightning Lanes. Plus, some LL get long return times very early in the day, whereas others can have returns in the next one to two hours. I’ve spent hours making up my own plans and testing using the Evaluate feature for a two day plan (Sunday/Monday) with the first half day being DCA and second half in DL, and then the next day rope dropping DL and maybe going back to DCA later that day for WoC. Had to build in a lot of buffer time using added rests for timing using/obtaining LL’s and I hope it works. I would be happy if Touring Plans would have an “optimal order for LL” plan, without the specific times, that would at least tell me the best pattern for obtaining and using LL during the day, while intermixing SB only attractions and maximizing the rope drop “golden hour.” Their software, whenever I use optimize, comes up with bizarre recommendations that will put in me in an attraction line for 45 minutes instead of recommending LL. I think their software definitely hasn’t kept up with LL implementation.
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There is a DL LL priority list at the top of the below thread, if that helps…
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I also love rope dropping FL. Don’t be discouraged by it being open 30 minutes early for on-site guests. They are the minority here.
The one caveat is to hold off on Peter Pan. The line builds prior to rope drop and stays pretty steady throughout the day. It’s better to just pick a time when the line looks reasonable, and get in it.
Focus on the other FL rides that don’t have LL, which is most of them. Dumbo, Alice, Casey Jr, Storybook, Mr Toad, Snow White, Pinocchio, and Tea Party can all be easily knocked out with short waits.
It sounds like you’ll be there during a low crowd level time, so the LLs will go even slower than usual. Book the first one (Matterhorn?) when you first tap into the park and check later to modify to a return time around 2 hours after opening when you’ll be done with the other FL rides.
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Some more thoughts…
For the arrival day, I wouldn’t buy G+. Keep in mind that unlike WDW you cannot book until tapping into a park. Instead I would go to DCA and buy ILL for RSR. I don’t know where you’re traveling from, but we usually prefer an easy start with no significant lines.
For DCA that includes - Little Mermaid, the Viva Navidad parade lolabear mentioned, Redwood Creek, Avenger campus, Turtle Talk, PhilharMagic, food and drinks, and possibly other minor attractions if the lines are short (swings, zephyr, etc). These are all things you may not have time for on the full days if you’re stacking LLs.
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Arrive early, leave early, arrive late, leave late. Noon-6PM is the busiest, hottest, and overall suckiest part of the day. Spent it in the hotel or in a mall; leave the mornings and evenings for mouse time.
Disneyland is not like Florida; lightning lane times will usually go down in the evening if they haven’t sold out (40/60 chance on e-tix). Also, mobile order like your life depends on it.
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She’s going weekdays in early December though. It won’t be hot and shouldn’t be crowded. It’s likely the biggest crowds will be 4pm-9pm.
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Good points. Probably not the best advice
Always mobile order though. 
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Thanks. I do remember the drop info was super helpful. I will need to use BG1 for our DL trip. I wish it worked like it used to haha 
I’m hearing that it’s working again. At least it did this week.
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Thank you so much for that detailed reply. Viva Navidad is definitely on our list to check out. It looks amazing.
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I do agree TP recommends some weird LL’s and then has me waiting for top LL rides in the stanby lines with 45 min waits. It recommended I get It’s a small world first thing in the morning but had me waiting in another ride standby. It just did not make sense. I am with you…now I am spending hours making all of my own personal plans with using info from thrill data but it just takes so long It will be worth it.
Thanks so much
Thanks so much for all that info. That is now our game plan
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I completely overlooked redwood creek not thinking twice of it and now I just looked up a video on it based off your recommendation. It looks amazing! I know my 5 year old would love this. Thanks for the ideas. I do love Mickey’s Philharmagic from WDW.
That’s good to know. I didn’t figure it would be hot…more like chilly at night though haha. Maybe we will take a break towards the end of the day. It depends on how much we get done and how long my 5 year old can push. We want to do as much as possible in our short time there