Breakfast?

[ValarDisneyus]

Hi!

Our first trip to WDW *ever* is set for February, we've booked the Port Orleans Riverside Resort (the Royal Room, because our daughter will absolutely love the fireworks bed and my military discount is not half bad.) For the mil discount, I had to book on the phone, and the operator I spoke with (she was so nice!) told me that we'll mostly eat breakfast in our resort before heading for the park because we won't want to spend park time sitting for breakfast and dinner (a valid point, logically thinking about it.) My question is how much this aligns with everyone else's experiences: did you all mostly eat at your hotel before hitting the parks or are their breakfast stops I *need* to see? So far I missed out on the ten minutes Be Our Guest was open for reservations, but I got the Cinderella and Prince Charming dinner at the 1900 diner in the Grand Floridian for Valentine's Day dinner, our first night will be at Akershus in Epcot, I booked the Fantasia dinner (the buffet one, for my husband), I have one unreserved night, and before we fly out again we'll go to T-Rex for lunch in Downtown Disney.

I'd love input/advice/tips regarding the best eating plan. I did buy the dining package that includes 1 counter, 1 sit-down, 1 snack, and a refillable mug.

 

[jsal318]

I usually book one TS breakfast. I do Tusker a House in AK and make it as early as possible so we're in the park before it opens.

 

[GoofyJen]

The Tusker breakfast was amazing and the characters were awesome. We ate breakfast in the parks. I would use your snack credits for breakfast

 

[ValarDisneyus]

The Tusker breakfast was amazing and the characters were awesome. We ate breakfast in the parks. I would use your snack credits for breakfast

I feel remarkably silly right now- how do you do that? I thought snack credits only worked from like, food trucks or kiosks of snacks.

 

[1025cruise]

At the hotel food courts, certain items were snack credits. I was able to get a bagel as a snack credit, and then paid for a couple of coffee (now with the free mug, I expect not to have to pay for the coffee).

 

[ValarDisneyus]

I can't remember how many snack credits comes with my plan. I think it's just 1. I wonder what's cheaper, a bagel or a dole whip?

 

[sharonabe]

Everyone gets one snack per night of stay. You can use them at any time you want. You could use all of them in one day if you want. They are pooled for your room.

As to what you can get for a snack credit, for future reference, there's a sticky at the top of this forum entitled "Confirmed Snacks 2014." For now, here's the link:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3215018

 

[1025cruise]

I'm more than likely to enjoy a bagel over a Dole Whip.

 

[kaybird]

Just don't want you to get confused. If you have the regular plan, you will get 1 snack, 1 QS, and 1 TS per person, per night. You may use them in any combo you like. You can book maybe one or 2 character breakfasts which are great, or each park also has CS breakfasts, as well as the resort. You can also use your snack credits for breakfast items such as muffins, bagels, croissants, etc.

We rarely eat at our resort, grabbing something in the parks after we have hit EMH or rope drop. We sometime keep a few granola bars, but many times share a QS breakfast, or keep a dessert on hand. You will find out what works for you pretty quickly! Have a great trip!!

 

[POOHsie]

I found that if I waited to arrive at a park to eat breakfast, I was totally starving. Travel to the parks, entry into the parks, walking to a food outlet, takes time. And MK doesn't have a lot for bkfst. It's better now that Sleepy Hollow has the waffles.

You could bring breakfast bars, instant oatmeal or cereal, plus bowls. The gift shop has some items like milk, cereal, bread, etc. At the food court, you could grab a bagel, fruit, yogurt, whatever. They have toasters and microwaves for use at the food court. What I did was, I would order a breakfast croissant with egg, bacon and cheese at the food court and cut it up to share. I'd get that and mug refills and bring them back to the room. But I wouldn't spend DDP credits on any of it. Our snack credits were saved for special goodies on the DDP snack credit list. Disneyworld parks have much better snack choices than common breakfast food.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

DDP gives 1 snack per person everyday. So, the way Ive done it is to stop by the food court at our resort on our way to the bus and grab a muffin (usually very large) to split with my daughter. This tides us over till lunch which we usually book a sit down meal to beat the heat and crowds. Then in the mid afternoon we use the other snack credit for a treat like a pretzel or cupcake (etc)... then we use our counter service meal either at the park or back at the resort for our dinners.

The dining plan is quite a bit of food, and comes with a desert with every meal. We found that we were never hungry when we were on it and rarely wanted more snacks!

 

[SnipsNSnails]

Generally, yes we eat breakfast at our resort. For us, we would send a couple of people with the order to get it and bring it back to the room, much faster for us. We usually travel with extended family so we have a lot more credits to go around. The plan includes a lot of food and we found that it was rare for everyone or even most of us to use our snacks each day. We have some big eaters and others not so much. So we often had a plan of who would split meals etc. My mom and I would often share a QS lunch and that would leave a credit to share for breakfast. We can usually feed 6 adults and 2 small children off of 3 of the large breakfast platters. Other times we would grab a muffin or pastry with a snack credit for breakfast and that is more than enough breakfast for me. Another thing we would do is box up dessert if there wasn't room at TS or QS and eat that for breakfast the next morning! During MNSSHP we skipped having a QS dinner because we had a TS lunch that day and everyone just picked a snack during the evening so that left extra QS for breakfast too. We had many snacks leftover at the end and if anyone saw something they wanted, they got it while we were there. We had free dining so I wasn't terribly worried about whether it was a good use of a credit. If one of the boys wanted a bag of chips then we just got it for them.

 

[ValarDisneyus]

Sharing! That's a great idea! I bet I could get a breakfast platter and split it among the 3 of us. Even if my co-travelers don't want to share their counter service with me, it's probably cheaper to buy one counter service every day than to upgrade to the deluxe dining plan. Thanks!

When you get breakfast to-go back to the hotel room, there are disposable plates/trays, yes?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

The other issue that you have is going to be that breakfast doesn't include dessert. You will just be forfeiting the dessert allotment. That could be a consideration since you are paying for the dining plan.

 

[ValarDisneyus]

Ohhhhh, that's a good thought. Thanks! ....boxes of granola bars can go in carry-on luggage, right? And is there typically yogurt in the gift shops, or no?

 

[nkereina]

What the CM told you on the phone is one person's opinion. We enjoy TS breakfasts.

On days we are planning to get to the park for rope drop, we will just get something at the QS location in our hotel. On other days, we do plan a TS breakfast and some you can book before the park opens - Crystal Palace at MK and Tusker House at AK are both good for this. TH is one of our favorites on property.

We also enjoyed Chef Mickey's and Ohana is another popular breakfast. If you guys are at all breakfast people, I think character breakfasts are a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

 

[Mikie]

What the CM told you on the phone is one person's opinion. We enjoy TS breakfasts.

On days we are planning to get to the park for rope drop, we will just get something at the QS location in our hotel. On other days, we do plan a TS breakfast and some you can book before the park opens - Crystal Palace at MK and Tusker House at AK are both good for this. TH is one of our favorites on property.

We also enjoyed Chef Mickey's and Ohana is another popular breakfast. If you guys are at all breakfast people, I think character breakfasts are a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

Ditto. I analyze the value of our dining plan overall, but I don't stress about each meal or snack "maximizing" value - we love breakfast out - especially Akershus in the Norway pavilion, or others mentioned above. We like the food, getting to the park before open, meeting characters in a great venue and then not having any reservation schedule to adhere to the rest of the day. Not for every table service, but if you like breakfast and want to see certain characters, I don't think skipping an enjoyable experience in favor of a different one that is a better deal is a requirement of utilizing the ding plan well.

 

[Figmentmommy]

We do a mixture of things for breakfast over the course of our week there. A couple of TS, a couple of CS at the food court, and then eat something in our room before heading out to the parks other days. We don't do full on groceries in our room but since we drive I have a pretty good snack bag packed. Last year we bought a couple of containers of sliced breakfast breads at our local grocery store and ate those a few mornings. Also we had packed apple juice boxes, granola bars, and individual fruit cups. I think that's probably the most we've eaten in our room in all of our trips over the years.

 

[ValarDisneyus]

Ditto. I analyze the value of our dining plan overall, but I don't stress about each meal or snack "maximizing" value - we love breakfast out - especially Akershus in the Norway pavilion, or others mentioned above. We like the food, getting to the park before open, meeting characters in a great venue and then not having any reservation schedule to adhere to the rest of the day. Not for every table service, but if you like breakfast and want to see certain characters, I don't think skipping an enjoyable experience in favor of a different one that is a better deal is a requirement of utilizing the ding plan well.

Reading this is making me slightly confused. I know the WS opens at 11, but if you have reservations at Akershus for breakfast...how do you get there? (Sorry; I'm sure it's a total newbie question.)

 

[missbrooke06]

We usually do one TS breakfast on our stay - my husband isn't the "Go, go, go!" type I am so it's usually on our quieter day. Otherwise, on our first night in WDW, I drive to the local grocery store and get a bag of bagels, cream cheese, milk, juice, bananas, and a box of cereal. $15 and breakfast for the week.

We do have the luxury of a car when we're there typically (I generally travel with reluctant flyers) and it sounds like you won't so my approach may not work for you.