ADR before park opens?

[nikkimc]

I'm in the process of planning our character dining for our Feb 2011 WDW vaca. The day we want to do breakfast at Crystal Palace MK opens at 9am, but there are ADR's available at 8:20 and 8:40. Will we be able to get into the park before it opens to go to breakfast if I choose one of these times?

 

[rapunzels]

Yes, there is a breakfast line to go through. Bring your ADR confirmation #. Don't pass those ressies up! That is prime time for a castle picture without tons of people milling around!!!

 

[AirGoofy]

I'm not a morning person, but we have done these occasionally. It is really one of the perks if you are a morning person. Find the entrance (you can only get in thru one), and as previous post responded, give them your name. They may ask for confirmation #, but usually just your name. You get in the park early. The ropes will be up so you can walk to the restaurant (you won't get to ride space mountain or anything). Also, try the 8:20 ADR. If you family gets enough character time and you finish your breakfast, you can walk out of CP at 9:00 AM into the park, ahead of main street and the run to your ride of choice. Or, you may try the FP strategy - leave everyone there to eat and you go at 9 when the park opens and get FP to the ride of you choice as you'll be one of the 1st in line. Good luck and have a great trip

 

[PoohsFan1]

One of our favorite things to do when going to a character breakfast in a park is to get it as early as we can, meaning before the park opens. The best part about that is that you get some really great family pictures without lots of people walking behind you. I just booked my ADRs for our May trip and I have a Crystal Palace breakfast for 8:05am and a Akershus Breakfast for 8:15am. Our family are morning risers, well only in Disney , so we prefer to get to the parks really early to have our breakfast and then by early afternoon head to our resort for some pool/R&R time .

 

[DISdreamin']

My family also loved the early-morning ADRs we had before the park opened last time! We did CRT and CP with 8:05 reservations and we really enjoyed walking down a VERY quiet Main Street in the Magic Kingdom and getting some lovely pictures of the castle!

I wouldn't hesitate to book the earlier ADR, and I'd probably even be checking to see if an earlier one opened up at some point. With the 8:05 reservations we had, we were out right at park opening, and loved having the head start and getting to watch the wave of people coming down Main Street.

In our family, we have some morning people and some night owls, but as long as we are careful when choosing our days (no late nights the night before) we all were up and ready without any drama for those early mornings. That said, we also didn't stay in the MK all day after that either. We tended to have lunch, then a few more rides, and then back to the resort or to DTD for some wandering around (it was January, so not a lot of pool time happenin').

 

[JacksGirlz]

These early ADR's are very nice to have if, as the other posters have mentioned, your group doesn't mind getting up then. The line at MK to get in before opening for breakfast ressies has been to the far right in my experience and there is always a sign to direct you to this entrance.