8am Surprise Opening Spoil your 8am ADR??

[AngiTN]

Be Our Guest PPOs typically allow people to ride 7DMT (and then Peter Pan) with no wait. That's what would be ruined.

Point is that's not what the ADR is for. It's a bonus that may or may not happen. You book an ADR only 1 thing is guaranteed, and that's your meal. A ride on anything is not.

 

[Mikie]

Why does this spoil the 8 am breakfast for people? Is it because you wanted to get in before the main crowds? You could call Disney and see if they are opening early that day and maybe change the time to 9 a.m. -- which would still give you time to run around and take pictures?

My family aren't early risers on vacation, but if I wanted a Pre-Park Open breakfast, it's not so much that I'd want to "get one over" on anyone else. It's just that I'd want to be eating a nice breakfast, well-placed to stroll right out when (or very shortly after) the park opens to everyone. If, however, the park is actually open the whole time I'm eating, I'd be a little stressed about wasting my precious park time dining on overpriced eggs and squandering the short lines I could be in. Even though I could still begin touring at 9:00 as originally planned, the magic of rope drop is dependent on participating in the first 2 hours of so of open time, regardless of when the park opened. 9-11 touring when the park opened at 9 is not the same as 9-11 touring when the park actually opened at 8.

 

[mom2rtk]

Point is that's not what the ADR is for. It's a bonus that may or may not happen. You book an ADR only 1 thing is guaranteed, and that's your meal. A ride on anything is not.

The value of an ADR is in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure it varies a lot between different people.

 

[Shanti]

You book an ADR only 1 thing is guaranteed, and that's your meal. A ride on anything is not.

Duh.

Trying to help the OP strategize to maximize his ADR doesn't indicate a lack of awareness of what an ADR is.

 

[Tomh]

We do the early breakfast at Crystal Palace pretty often. It is wonderful to get pictures with almost no crowds in the park, and start your day of touring with a good breakfast right there, however, we have been burned by those surprise 8:00 openings too. I wouldn't say it ruined the day, but the park was certainly a lot more crowded than I would have liked to see by the time we finished breakfast and got to touring.

So, I would say, if you truly want to have breakfast in the park, go ahead and book that early ADR. If you are mostly interested in the photo op, and getting a jump start on the crowds, then it very likely isn't worth the risk.

 

[AngiTN]

The value of an ADR is in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure it varies a lot between different people.

Without a doubt. Plenty do book them for anything but the meal. Fact is though, no matter what you intend to do, Disney doesn't guarantee you anything more than the meal you booked. Their changing hours isn't done to spoil someone's ADR plans. I dare say they don't even consider those that booked their ADR before park opening when they change hours. And fact remains it is a risk you take if you book an early ADR, mostly at MK. The other parks don't seem to have opening hours change as much as MK does. At MK it isn't even always related to crowds. I've seen it change even when it's not terribly busy.

 

[AngiTN]

We do the early breakfast at Crystal Palace pretty often. It is wonderful to get pictures with almost no crowds in the park, and start your day of touring with a good breakfast right there, however, we have been burned by those surprise 8:00 openings too. I wouldn't say it ruined the day, but the park was certainly a lot more crowded than I would have liked to see by the time we finished breakfast and got to touring.

So, I would say, if you truly want to have breakfast in the park, go ahead and book that early ADR. If you are mostly interested in the photo op, and getting a jump start on the crowds, then it very likely isn't worth the risk.

Something else I noticed on our last early park entry day in June, the crowds are not so light anymore, not with as big as BOG is. There were as many people in the street for photos in front of the castle as you often find later on in the day. If you want them to be really empty you have to wait 15 min, or so, for all the early folks to get on to their destination. And then that puts you behind getting to your meal and you risk not being done by the time the ropes do drop.

 

[AngiTN]

Duh.

Trying to help the OP strategize to maximize his ADR doesn't indicate a lack of awareness of what an ADR is.

Maybe not on this specific thread I know I've sure read a lot of posts by people who seem to come across in their posts as thinking they are owed a ride on something just because they make an 8 AM ADR

 

[Shanti]

Maybe not on this specific thread I know I've sure read a lot of posts by people who seem to come across in their posts as thinking they are owed a ride on something just because they make an 8 AM ADR

People vent about all kinds of things on these boards. People will complain about the weather ruining their park plans- that doesn't mean they actually think park admission guarantees fair weather.

 

[scrapquitler]

So, I'm planning for my trip for next June (2017).....and I've been dreaming of securing an 8am ADR for BOG, strolling in early to take pics in front of castle, and then leisurely walking over to SDMT to ride it first before the crowds.

However, I feel like my hopes have been crushed when my brother just got back from his trip in early June, and told me that MK unexpectedly opened at 8am several days in June (on Non-EMH days)..so I looked it up, and it seems like this happened on most days!???? Talk about spoiling it for the 8am breakfast people! Now I don't know what to do! I don't want an 8am ADR if the park will be opening at 8! I'm not going until June 2017....but, I always look at my month of travel in the year prior for help with planning!

Anyone have the inside scoop on this?

Make your breakfast ADR for earlier than 8, then you won't have to worry.

And if they didn't do earlier than posted openings, people would be complaining "It was busy, they should have opened earlier" Disney can't win.

 

[Shanti]

Make your breakfast ADR for earlier than 8, then you won't have to worry.

8am is the earliest ADR time for Be Our Guest.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Here's thought. Go for rope drop and make a later BOG. Then you won't be disappointed.

Yep. We get the PPO ADR and then just do not care! We are on vacation and we don`t let it get us down. You can always FP 7DMT and Peter Pan.

 

[Eastern]

Something else I noticed on our last early park entry day in June, the crowds are not so light anymore, not with as big as BOG is. There were as many people in the street for photos in front of the castle as you often find later on in the day. If you want them to be really empty you have to wait 15 min, or so, for all the early folks to get on to their destination. And then that puts you behind getting to your meal and you risk not being done by the time the ropes do drop.

I agree. We arrived early for CP ADR (7:30am?) to find a huge line of people already waiting. And when they finally started letting people in around 7:50am, they only let in the first 50 or so, then closed the line. We waited for several minutes before they let more people in, so when we finally got onto Main St, it was pretty crowded.

 

[RedSox68]

My family aren't early risers on vacation, but if I wanted a Pre-Park Open breakfast, it's not so much that I'd want to "get one over" on anyone else. It's just that I'd want to be eating a nice breakfast, well-placed to stroll right out when (or very shortly after) the park opens to everyone. If, however, the park is actually open the whole time I'm eating, I'd be a little stressed about wasting my precious park time dining on overpriced eggs and squandering the short lines I could be in. Even though I could still begin touring at 9:00 as originally planned, the magic of rope drop is dependent on participating in the first 2 hours of so of open time, regardless of when the park opened. 9-11 touring when the park opened at 9 is not the same as 9-11 touring when the park actually opened at 8.

Good point.

 

[tlmadden73]

For a mere $75 per person...lol. I'll stick with the $20 - 30 per person PPO breakfasts.

I would not be surprised if Disney did away with Extra Magic Hours and eventually made every PPO breakfast a "Early Morning Magic" package.

The people that are willing to get a reservation at BOG and just pay the cancellation fee or get the cheapest thing on the menu shows that a lot of people are willing to pay to get into the park a little early EVERY day.


They could easily just expand the EMM to include more rides and more restaurants and the only way to get a PPO reservation is get the special "breakfast package"

 

[TAK]

I agree. We arrived early for CP ADR (7:30am?) to find a huge line of people already waiting. And when they finally started letting people in around 7:50am, they only let in the first 50 or so, then closed the line. We waited for several minutes before they let more people in, so when we finally got onto Main St, it was pretty crowded.

They wouldn't let you in until that after your ADR time? Was it a problem that you were late?

(curious for my own future ADRs)

 

[DisDadDVC]

We didn't have an ADR for breakfast, but while we were there last month (early June), one of our MK days had a surprise 8am opening. We already planned to meet my sister and family at the AoA shuttle stop at 8am, thinking MK would open at 9am. However, I was watching TV in our room while getting breakfast ready for my family, and saw the hours for MK changed! YIKES! When did that happen? I had to call my sister's room and let them know to meet ASAP, so that we could try to make rope drop.

I totally understand your concerns. While you can make your reservations and hope for the best, it's disappointing if you are looking forward to that particular restaurant and not be able to go on another day. Personally, I wouldn't do it, but that's just me. I would get REALLY worked up, if something like that happens. You should have seen how panicked I got when I found out about the unexpected 8am MK opening, and we didn't have an ADR ~ LOL!

FYI, none of the 8am June openings were a "surprise" per se. They were all announced in advance. It was only a week or two, but it wasn't like they changed any of them the same day.

 

[Donald - my hero]

to add an extra wrinkle to this ... when we were getting ready to do a tour on MK in early November 2015 (started at 7:45) we arrived to join a group of very upset people who were learning that while the park hadn't opened early, the Brazilian equivalent of Good Morning America was filming and everyone was getting filtered thru the stores up Main Street to allow filming of empty streets! So many very angry parents berating poor CM's who just kept repeating the same unheard apology. I on the other hand took the chance to snap some pictures of the film crew and loved watching the faces of the Make-A-Wish kids interacting with the characters in costume without having to deal with large crowds. As others have said, be careful of unannounced changes in scheduling, the ADR will still be honoured -- pre-park opening an added side bonus. (here's the poor CM with the job of keeping people out of the street and some of the film crew)

 

[Masonmj84]

We like to do table servce pre-park opening ADRs, especially at Magic Kingdom. Our next trip is over spring break (late March) and I worry that they'll switch the park opening hours from 9 am to 8 am right before our trip.

I'm still going to book the ADRs for as close to 8 am as possible. If it turns out that the park ends up opening at 8, I figure it will be easier to switch the ADR to a later time in the morning than the other way around.

The other option would be to just book the ADR for later to begin with (e.g., at 10 am) so that we're covered either way. But I really enjoy the pre-park opening experience. So I'm erring on the side of originally booking near 8 am and hoping for the best.

 

[lauris87]

I dont' consider it "spoiling" a breakfast. You still get to eat the meal that you reserved, right?

Oh .. that's right, most people use PPO meals just as a way to get ahead of the crowds.
To me .. that is a bonus.

This is why Disney created Early Morning Magic .. they know there is a demand for people to get into the park early and people are willing to pay extra for it.

I don't think my breakfast will be spoiled (it would probably taste great!), but my morning experience would be spoiled if there was a surprise opening at 8am after weeks of planning park days, meals, fast passes, etc. No one wants to be eating breakfast during the first hour of park opening. I'll be with a group of 11 people. It would be very advantageous to take advantage of the first hour the park is open, we all know that. And no, I am not trying to make a PPO ADR for the sole purpose of getting into the park early...I have never been to BOG or CP and would love to eat there....just was hoping for no surprises. I would be fine if I knew 48 hours in advance if there was an 8am opening....but it sounds like some people are saying that the change could be made the morning of.......