Breakfast length at Crystal Palace

[kanw]

we have an 8:10ADR on a 9am open day. I see people posting all the time about how long breakfast takes here. I'm a little confused how it takes so long if you don't care about the characters and ask for a bill as soon as you sit down. I've noticed people still comment it takes at least an hour even if you ask for the bill first and don't care about characters, isn't it a buffet?

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

If you aren't interested in the characters, and ask for the bill as soon as you were seated, I would say you could be in & out in 30 mins. Now, when you get seated will play a part in the as well. Hopefully being there early means a quick seating, but that isn't always the case.

FWIW, you're paying a lot for a character meal, so I wouldn't rush through it. If all you care about is early entry in MK I would try for Be Our Guest, especially since it puts you in Fantasy Land once you're done eating.

 

[Robo]

even if you ask for the bill first and don't care about characters...

15-20 minutes.

(Don't trip over kids at the buffet.)

 

[PrincessJo]

We eat breakfast at the Crystal Palace every time we go and it never takes us that long. We even usually have our pictures taken with a couple of characters just cuz we paid for it. We're usually in and out in 30 - 45 minutes tops.

 

[GillianP1301]

If you didn't want to see characters, then you could definitely be out in 20 minutes, but I'm not sure the point of booking a character meal? Any time we have done an ADR right around 8am, we are always done and out about 8:45 and that's with all the characters and not rushing (we do ask for the bill after drinks are ordered and that can save you a few minutes at the end). Try to check in as close to 8am as you can because if you get in with that first wave of tables, only one portion of one half of the restaurant will be seated when the characters start and you will very likely see them all pretty much in a row before the restaurant fills up, that's been our experience with all 8am character meals, not just CP. Now same restaurant with a 9:00ish ADR and it's a totally different experience, the wait to be seated is a bit longer and you will most likely need the full hour to see all characters, so the 30 - 45 minute meal turns into 60 - 75 mins.

 

[smiths02]

We did a pre-park opening ADR once and we cared about the characters. We had 8:05 ADR, we were at the park 7:30 or so, we waited to get in the park, took pictures on main street, checked in and were quickly seated. we asked for our check immediately. Even with seeing the characters and with a small child (5 years old) AND a bathroom break, we were done right as the park was opening

 

[smiths02]

If you aren't interested in the characters, and ask for the bill as soon as you were seated, I would say you could be in & out in 30 mins. Now, when you get seated will play a part in the as well. Hopefully being there early means a quick seating, but that isn't always the case.

FWIW, you're paying a lot for a character meal, so I wouldn't rush through it. If all you care about is early entry in MK I would try for Be Our Guest, especially since it puts you in Fantasy Land once you're done eating.

Although we had a good experience in 2011, I'm not doing anymore character meals for early entry. It's just too expensive to not enjoy the food and characters, and you don't get that great of a "jump" in front of others. If you get to the park well before rope drop and get in the front of that pack, you fare about as good for wait times. As far as the empty main street pictures...I guess that's nice but so is seeing the opening show.

 

[kanw]

Truly I care more about getting some great photos with downtown and the castle and having the kids first experience with the castle being more intimate. I loved Tigger as a kid so if I see him I'll get a photo but my kids won't care. I say that now but they probably will care when we are there. We really aren't in a huge rush since we plan just to head over to adventureland when done.

 

[Crystal824]

Why would you book CP if you don't care about the characters? The food just isn't that good. With that being said, yes you could probably be out in 30 min. if you didn't want to do pics.

We do care about the characters. I have two children under 5 last trip so seeing all the characters was a priority. It took us about an hour and a half to see everyone, eat, and use the potty. We had an 815 reservation. We were finished eating in probably 45 min. Then waited for another half an hour or so to see Tigger. It took forever for Tigger to come around that day.

 

[Dan Murphy]

If all you care about is early entry in MK I would try for Be Our Guest, especially since it puts you in Fantasy Land once you're done eating.

I agree. Plus $5-10 less per meal, depending on the pricing season.

 

[pcdesmond]

I have read on here that MK typically opens 15 minutes early so if you're doing the breakfast just to get a head start, be prepared to eat in 30 minutes or less.

 

[brockash]

we have an 8:10ADR on a 9am open day. I see people posting all the time about how long breakfast takes here. I'm a little confused how it takes so long if you don't care about the characters and ask for a bill as soon as you sit down. I've noticed people still comment it takes at least an hour even if you ask for the bill first and don't care about characters, isn't it a buffet?

We go every year...first once you're let in to MK have someone go check-in at the restaurant podium. - At this point, it really doesn't matter what time your ADR is for, it depends on when you check-in. Once you're checked in and seated ask for the bill and then you should have no problem being out of there in time for rope drop. - We do have a need for the characters and we're still almost always out of there for rope drop, even now that they've made rope drop earlier. If you don't care about characters you'll be fine.

 

[Ensusieasm]

we have an 8:10ADR on a 9am open day. I see people posting all the time about how long breakfast takes here. I'm a little confused how it takes so long if you don't care about the characters and ask for a bill as soon as you sit down. I've noticed people still comment it takes at least an hour even if you ask for the bill first and don't care about characters, isn't it a buffet?

Switch to Be Our Guest. You'll be able to ride 7DwarfsMT at least twice before the park even opens!

 

[Tomh]

If you are first seating, ask for your bill when you are seated, and don't care about the characters, you can certainly be out in under 30 minutes. Wait to see all the characters, and you can still be out in 45 to 50 minutes, just in time for park opening. Linger a bit, and take a bathroom break while you are there, you will finish up around 9:00 to 9:10. This is usually us. We plan our first FP+ accordingly.

 

[kanw]

Thanks for all the comments! I don't care about getting to any big headliners after breakfast either, we are just going to head to adventureland and enjoy more tranquility while we can.

 

[SaintsManiac]

It took us 45 minutes and we saw all the characters and ate plenty of food

 

[jim o'reilly]

only reason why i would ever go back to CP is the characters. if i didn't care about the characters, i would eat somewhere else, where you $ goes much further. And the quality of the food is much better

 

[whitney250]

It has never taken us very long to eat there, 45 minutes tops. We did miss Eeyore once because we had just missed him as we sat down, but from my experience it hasn't taken a long time.

 

[walker0829]

We were told plan an hour for all the characters. After about 45min we were getting close to park opening and told the server we needed to go. She asked if DS saw all the characters and when we said not Eeyore(similar to the previous post we had just missed him) she took us over to him and claimed we were skipped. Eeyore's handler didn't look happy or like she believe it but didn't fight it. It was a rare instance where a cast member went out of the way to sprinkle some pixie dust. She was tipped very well.

 

[starsweeper]

I'm really surprised people are telling you that. We've eaten at CP several times (couple lunches & 3-4 pre-park breakfasts) and it's never taken more than 45 minutes to eat, see characters and pay our bill (and that included having everyone use the restroom inside). We've had 8:20am-8:30am ressies that had us seated by 8:00am-8:10am and had 10-15 minutes to spare waiting for the castle to open.