Breakfast ADR before rope drop

[kathleendsm]

We have a pre-rope drop ADR at the Crystal Palace. How does that work, do you just go to the main entrance and they let you go in? I know obviously there's a way, I just want to make sure we understand.

Also, how early do the buses run? We're staying at BWV, will we even be able to get a bus to the Magic Kingdom for an ADR at 8 when the park doesn't open until 9? If not, how would we get there?

 

[maxiesmom]

There is usually a seperate line at the entrance to the parks, where they let all of the early ADR people in. They will check your name and reservation number off of a list, and then let you in.

The busses do run early in order to get people with ADRs to the parks. But they do not come as frequently as they do during the rest of the day, so give yourselves plenty of travel time. I beleive that now Disney recommends and hour and a half. It may seem excessive, but if you just miss one bus it could be a half hour or so before another one comes along.

 

[tfoster]

Definitely check with your hotel about early morning transportation. We just got back from Fort Wilderness. We had an 8:15 ADR at Crystal Palace and assumed we'd be able to get there only to find out the MK transportation from FW didn't start until 8:30. We ended up taking the boat to the Contemporary (which started running at 6:30 AM for some reason) and walking to MK. We were late but fortunately didn't have a problem getting a table.

I was kicking myself for making an assumption about when the transportation ran instead of actually checking.

On a different day, we had a 7:55 AM ADR at Cape May Cafe. The night before, we arranged for a van taxi to pick us up and it was great - totally stress-free and quick.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Transport is hit and miss. We always aim to be there for 7.30am for a 8.05am booking and then if we have seen no bus by 7.30 we go for a taxi which are very easy to get from the resorts.

At the magic kingdom the entrance is generally the three turnstiles at the far right and for the last three years they have opened the gates at 7.45am for an 8.05 or later reservation.

In theory you need your reservation number to enter but we have done this six times now and never been asked for the number.

When you enter the park you have two choices, either take the bus up main street which is a treat in iteself or walk and see how many photos you can take while still in an 'empty' park.

 

[jmartinez1895]

Be sure to have your reservation number with you. One time they had our name spelled very wrong and could not find us and unless we had the number we could not come in. Thankful I had it with us and we had no problem after that, but you never can tell what will happen so always have your numbers handy.

 

[shawnh199]

Buses start running for character breakfasts @:
appx 6:30am for Magic Kingdom
appx 7:00am for all other parks
You can ask a transportation CM for exact times. Some people on these forums say they start around 6-6:15am for Magic Kingdom.

We caught our bus at SSR at about 7am to get to our Crystal Palace ADR of 8:15am. We stood in line at the breakfast entrance (far right side) for quite a while because they don't let you in until 7:45am. If you can get checked in at Crystal Palace before they open the doors, try to get yourself a picture in front of the castle because it's relatively empty at that point. We checked in a little before 8am (we had to buy autograph books for DD2 and DD6) and got seated with the first group at 8:05am. Even though we hoped to get done with the breakfast by 9am, it didn't happen. We got out about 10 minutes after rope drop, headed straight to Dumbo and had about a 10-15 minute wait already. That was our shortest wait time for the 8-9 times we rode it over 2 days, so if it's on your to do list, do it early. (A few other tips, if you plan to do Goofy's Barn Stormer, get there around rope drop time and you can ride and ride and ride until about 11am when the lines start to form. If you are interested in seeing the Fairies, get to Toon Town Rope Drop before 10am to get in line. We were about 6 families out of being first in line, waited appx 10 minutes to see Tink and friends, spent about 7 minutes with them, and by the time we got out, the wait line was already at 60 minutes. Princesses had a short wait time both days we were there.)

We loved the breakfast. It was our first time there and will be a must do for future trips. You can't beat already being in the park before it opens. Hope you have a great time.

 

[X and G's mom]

Last week we had 3 8 AM ADR's. They were at AK, MK, and E. We always caught the bus. We were at the bus stop by 7. We told each other that if we didn't catch a bus by 7:30 we would catch a cab, but we always got a bus.

At AK, and E they checked to see that we did have a reservation. They didn't check at MK.

AK, and MK's line is to the right of the entrance. E is to the left of the entrance.