arriving early to eat breakfast before park opens

[old lady]

Is that a good idea and which place is the best in the parks?

 

[Laura's Dad]

We love to eat at the Crystal Palace before the MK opens. It is a little family tradition at WDW. They will have your name and ADR on a clipboard. We got a picture with Mickey, Minnnie, and my daughter in front of the castle with NO ONE else in the picture before we got to the breakfast. My wife was extactic. We like the food and the Pooh characters. We ususually get an 8:00 to 8:10 seating and finish breakfast in time for the rope drop. Hope this helps.

 

[~Fisharefriends~]

CP at the MK before it opens is great. You can get some really amazing pictures of main street and the castle with almost nobody in the shot.

Its a great buffet (probably our favourite of them all) the characters are fun.

 

[MickeyNicki]

It is an excellent idea and we do that alot. When we take our 2 nieces in January I have CP, TH and Princess Breakfast all booked before the park opens. That way we see the characters, we eat and we are not wasting any valuable park time

 

[Marla Hellwig]

be sure to have your Advanced Dining Reservation confirmation number for entrance at the gate if your dining time is before the park opening time

 

[blugill13]

This is a great idea, you get to have photos in the park with hardly anyone else in them, get a great early start to your day and finally if you eat quick are in the park before everybody else.

We've done it at MK with the CP 8.05 is the earliest and got some great pics before anyone else was in the park and they have photopass people out that early. I believe you can get in before park opening also at CRT.

At Epcot you can get into epcot early with a adr at the norwegian fairytale princess breakfast too.

At AK tusker house has a donald themed breakfast buffet that takes adrs before the park opens.

At HS hollywood and vine with the playhouse disney characters have a breakfast buffet too that will let you get into that park early. Although we have never done this - we're not huge playhouse fans.

Make sure you have your adr# with you as they sometimes check that and plan so that you dont get an early breakfast on emh mornings as it will defeat the purpose.

Sorry for the essay but hope it helps.

 

[tink fan]

If you finish early, what do you do? Where do they have you wait? Do they let you just walk around??

 

[distherapy]

They have ropes set up at stations throughout the park (at least in MK). For example, we plan to finish breakfast at CP at MK by 8:45 and stroll over through the castle to the rope by Fantasyland. At 9:00, the rope drops and we run (ahem, walk quickly) to Dumbo.

 

[HappyCamper87]

I don't think you will finish too, too early. You may have time after breakfast to walk down main street and head to say Fantasy Land but they will have it roped off until official park opening.

If I'm wrong, someone jump in here...

It's a great time to be there and CP is a great character meal and buffet.

Have a great trip.

 

[akersten]

I have an 8:05 at CRT. Thanks for the tip on Dumbo.

 

[Lisacope]

We have an 8:00am adr at TH on a morning when AKL opens at 9:00am. If you finish before the parks opens, where do they have you wait?

 

[dazednconfused]

We too have a reservation at Tusker House at 8:00a.m. Park opens at 9.00a.m. My question is... What time will the buses start running for Character Breakfasts? We would like to get to Animal Kingdom from our resort earliest possible so we can make full use of our day!

 

[FormrCastMbr]

Crystal Palace is good for MK...we really enjoyed going to Kona on our MK day.

I hear Cape May is good for EPCOT days.

 

[dazednconfused]

Bumping this up. Does anyone know when Disney starts bus service to the Character Breakfasts? This is for a day when the park in question opens at 9a.m. Breakfast begins at 8a.m. Will the buses for Character Breakfasts start running at 7a.m.???
HELP!!

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

be sure to have your Advanced Dining Reservation confirmation number for entrance at the gate if your dining time is before the park opening time

We had reservations @ Crystal Palace on Wednesday morning before park opening & the CM's waving us through didn't ask for anything other than what time & where our reservations were.

 

[newtodis]

We've got an early (8:00) ADR at TH in AK when the park opens at 9 and were told to allow an hour for transportation and that we would need to drive ourselves or rent a taxi as they wouldn't garuntee the buses would be running at that point. It didn't much matter to us as we are driving ourselves so we're not waiting on a bus anyways.

Now I'm off to stalk Disney for an opening at CP so mommy can get some cool MK pictures and we'll see some characters.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Bumping this up. Does anyone know when Disney starts bus service to the Character Breakfasts? This is for a day when the park in question opens at 9a.m. Breakfast begins at 8a.m. Will the buses for Character Breakfasts start running at 7a.m.???
HELP!!

Buses to the Magic Kingdom start around 6:30 AM; buses to the other three parks start around 7 AM.

They don't run quite as frequently that early in the day as they do when the parks are open; figure about every half hour, and don't forget to allow for travel time.

 

[mommyoftwinfants]

We also have an 8:00 am ADR at TH in AK but I was wondering if we would have any trouble getting in the parking area if the park opens at 9:00 am or should we just use the breakfast bus? We will be staying at VWL

 

[Miss Hunnybee]

The Animal Kingdom parking lots will be open and you will be allowed to enter. The bus will start picking guests up around 7 am, and should drop you off from VWL at AK in about fifteen minutes.

 

[suedaisy]

We do an early breakfast in the parks almost every day as my nephew is 2 and wakes up very early and very hungry.

We always check with the front desk the night before each breakfast (that requires a bus or boat) to see what time the buses (boats) run for the particular park (and then show up few minutes early). It seems that the buses do no wait around and we tend to eat around 8-8:15, so we make sure that we are present and readyto board. This has been successful for us at Wilderness, Yacht Club, Grand Floridian, and Animal Kingdom Lodge.


Lisacope -
You asked about where you have to stand if you finish your breakfast early.

at Animal Kingdom.
You stand outside near the restaurant in front of another rope. At about 9:03 AM, when you look behind you, you will see a huge group of people coming towards you. Everyone is heading to the Safari ride which is in front of you, but several yards away. It is somewhat funny/unnerving. The rope in front of you will be dropped eventually so that no trampling of you occurs. A recommendation would be to go to the Safari ride as well. You will be one of the first on it and the animals will be more active as it is morning. It is a wonderful perk with the Tusker House breakfast. By the way, we almost always forget that this is one ride where you get in line WITH the stroller and then drop it off later in line.

at Hollywood Studios
You stand near the restaurant or you can join the people in the "street" as they do a park opening ceremony thing. We joined the MASS of people heading to Toy Story after breakfast- this was the most chaotic to us, but not bad. A lady in another group did fall, so it slowed the crowd a little. The restaurant is not that close to this ride, but we still arrived at Toy Story with less than a 5 minute wait and we had slower walkers in our group

at Magic Kingdom-
After Crystal Palace you stand somewhat near the restaurant, but you have more space than the others- great pictures of castle, etc..

I don't remember EPCOT keeping us near the restaurant, but we stayed in the World section for a little while after breakfast..

There will be workers (castmembers) outside of the restuarant areas who will let you/not let you go...