A question about breakfast before park opening...

[mshrm]

Our group has scheduled two breakfasts so far....

The first at Restaurantosaurus for the Donald breakfast at Animal Kingdom. The second is at the Crystal Palace for the Pooh breakfast at Magic Kingdom.

We have reservations at both locations for 8:05am on the days we plan to tour those parks. Both parks have listed opening hours for 9am.

Has anyone else done this before? Will we be done with breakfast and ready to be at the first ride along with all the others when the park opens at 9am? All of the guides Ive read suggest you skip breakfast so you dont waste valuable morning touring time but they didnt seem to cover the topic of scheduling breakfast for prior to park opening.

Also if you finish breakfast prior to park opening then what happens? Do they let you walk around the park or do you have to go back to the front gates?

Lori

 

[agnes!]

Our group has scheduled two breakfasts so far....

The first at Restaurantosaurus for the Donald breakfast at Animal Kingdom. The second is at the Crystal Palace for the Pooh breakfast at Magic Kingdom.

We have reservations at both locations for 8:05am on the days we plan to tour those parks. Both parks have listed opening hours for 9am.

Has anyone else done this before? Will we be done with breakfast and ready to be at the first ride along with all the others when the park opens at 9am? All of the guides Ive read suggest you skip breakfast so you dont waste valuable morning touring time but they didnt seem to cover the topic of scheduling breakfast for prior to park opening.

Also if you finish breakfast prior to park opening then what happens? Do they let you walk around the park or do you have to go back to the front gates?

Lori

Lori -
After your breakfast you are free to enjoy the open areas of the park. You might want to check and see when/where morning EMH happens during your stay. That can affect park crowds. I would suggest planning on getting to either park's main gate at least 10/15 minutes before your PS time. It's amazing how long it can take to get from your hotel/resort to the parks and then to the restaurant itself... even when you are staying on-site and only using Disney transpo.

agnes!

 

[mommytutu]

It is so awesome to get breakfast times before the park opens. When you walk in it feels like the park is open just for you. It is a great chance to get pictures without people getting in the way.

With 8:05 PS chances are you'll just be finishing up right about the time the park opens.

If I finished a little early, I would probably go back outside and take pictures. As long as you're hanging out around your breakfast site I don't think the people who work there would say anything to you. When we went in for early breakfast time at MK the only Disney CMs we saw were the ones taking pictures of families in front of the Castle. I don't think you could go wondering around Adventureland, but heck, you could try to be first in line for Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

[bleeps]

The way this works is that you are allowed into the park because you have your PS (they'll either check for your name on a list that they'll have at the front gate, or they'll allow you to walk back to the restaurant to be checked in, and CMs keep an eye out to make sure people who say they have PSs actually go into the restaurants and stay there -- for future note that you can't say you have a PS and then just wander around the park for an hour).

If you finish breakfast early and walk into the park, you'll find that only areas without rides are accessible to you -- there will be ropes up to keep you in confined areas, and those are areas without rides. So, you can take some nice pictures and line up right at the ropes to be ready when the ropes are dropped, but you cannot go and get in a line for a ride before the park itself is open. Does that make sense? They have different ways of managing it at each of the parks, but the bottom line is that you will be confined to a "ride-less" area until the park is officially open.

 

[mshrm]

Now that Ive read your responses Im excited about the early reservations. I had been concerned that it might hold us up from our touring plans.

Thanks again!

 

[sandraB]

We just did the breakfast at AK on friday, and we were finished about 15 min before park opening...it is a great time to take pictures...no people!

We were the first to ride Dinosaur, wow....what a ride!

I loved the breakfast...it was very filling...we didn't eat again until 4pm! I think the next time I go...I will do more breakfasts before park opening....it doesn't take up touring time...and is much cheaper than a lunch or dinner!

Have fun....

 

[Msslaydbug]

We did CRT two years ago and we LOVED being virtually the only ones in the park We have some of the besy pictures. We have my son in front of the castle w/ NO ONE around - in all of our other pictures there is a bazillion people on main street. There was something SO magical about walking down main street almost by ourselves.