Character breakfast on departure day?

[disneybliss2]

I posted a similar thread on the restaurant forum but didn't get a lot of feedback, so I thought I'd try here as well (because my question isn't really about the restaurant but rather how to use our time on the last day). Do you like having a character breakfast on your last day, or does it make you feel cramped for time? After seeing several threads w/ great praises for CP's breakfast, I'm curious to try it. The only real day we can add it to our trip is the last day. In the past we've had a breakfast on the last day and it made us feel cramped w/ our time. However, this year our flight leaves out later, so we'll have a couple of more hours in the park. Also, we're staying a couple of days longer on this trip, so the last day will just be icing on the cake, not really another day where it's crucial to hit something we haven't...just revisiting favorites. I'd also like to get into MK before the park opens (truly magical). If we have a reservation for 8:25, we'll only miss about 30 min. of park time. Not a make or break I don't think. However, I'm concerned about getting our bags checked into the hotel for ME before we leave that morning. Just one more thing to slow my already turtle paced family down. Will we feel too rushed by having a character breakfast on the last day? Our reservations in the past on the last day have been around 8:45, so we had a little more time to deal w/ checking bags w/ ME at hotel. Will we be better off ditching the reservation so we can have a little more time and take advantage of park opening? Or will it be like a magical ending to our vacation? Opinions? Your experience from the past? Thanks everyone!

 

[AirGoofy]

We drive to Disney (13 hours) so we don't quite have the time schedule like you for flying. We do a character meal on the last day and then leave from there. The children get some character time, play time, and then back in the car for the long drive home.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Our last two trips we were headed for a Disney cruise after the parks, so on our last morning we had plenty of time to enjoy a meal. Both times we ate at Ohana with Lilo and Stitch. This year we are also going to the beach from WDW and are going to have a breakfast at Cape May. We also did not go to a park on that last day. So it was a nice way to say see ya next time to WDW. So that last day wasn't depressing!

If you have a flight after noon, you will definitely have time. Plan on at least an hour for a character meal and then include travel time to the airport. I know ME takes you fairly early before your flight.
You can get CP breakfast reservations before park opening. We had an 8:05 ADR and were out right about the time the park opened. You don't see the Rope Drop show, but you're that much further into the park ahead of everyone else!

Good luck!

 

[flipflopmom]

Or..... last year we did Chef Mickey's breakfast on departure day. At 11. Since we were driving, we didn't have quite the same schedule concerns, but, we knew we had to pack the car, check out etc. We didn't do a park, but we checked out, drove to CR, and ate. Telling Mickey goodbye was emotional. but we said "see you real soon". It was a great way to end the trip. We did go over to DTD to Goofy's afterwards to use up snack credits.

You could try for one of the later breakfasts???

 

[creativeamanda]

We have an 8-hour drive. We usually sleep in a bit, eat a character breakfast, and then drive home.

 

[korie]

On our last day the Magical Express bus wasn't picking us up until 1:30 - a little early for us to try and squeeze in lunch, but plenty of time for a late-ish breakfast. We headed down to Beach Club to the Cape May breakfast and it was nice. I thought scheduling a character meal the night we arrived and then one the day we left would be fun for the kids. We even had time to browse around the resorts that were down that way, which was neat. After that we took the boat to HS, then hopped a bus to the TTC, transferred to the monorail to MK and finally hopped on yet another boat back to the Wilderness Lodge so we could check out of the hotel. It sounds silly, but it was a great morning and our 5 year olds really enjoyed it!