Do Character Breakfasts start before the Parks open?

[LuSoph]

Hi everyone,
I have Minnie Mouse breakfast booked at the Plaza Inn for this coming Friday. We are soo excited, especially since its my daughter's 3rd birthday! I had a reservation for 8:10, and I recently received a call that they had moved it to 9:15 because the park opening time had changed. I could have sworn that I have read a few peoples comments that you could book a breakfast before the park opens. Is this true, or am I mistaken?? I also really wanted to take my daughter to ELsa&Anna meet and greet on her bday, and having the breakfast moved is completely messing with my timing to get FP etc.

Thanks

 

[figment_jii]

I thought they started serving before the park opened, but that might only be on MM/EMH mornings. I scanned a few random MM/EMH mornings and the first ADRs appear to be about 10 minutes after the park opens for MM/EMH mornings. On the non-EMH morning, the first ADR I saw appeared about 20 minutes before park opening.

 

[GatorChris]

Well that kinda stinks. If I were to do a breakfast in the park, I would do it when I was eating up prime park time. What customer-killing budget cut caused this?

 

[gottalovepluto]

Well that kinda stinks. If I were to do a breakfast in the park, I would do it when I was eating up prime park time. What customer-killing budget cut caused this?

I wouldn't get too infuriated on that front, doing a character breakfast has always eaten up prime park time in the mornings...

 

[wdwfan22]

Minnie's has early breakfasts when DL has an MM, so Tues, Thurs & Sat (usually). So for a 9:00 park opening, and an 8:00 MM, the reservations officially start at 8:10. When we were there in January, we got in the park right at 8 and went directly to the restaurant and were seated. We were the 2nd ones in there, and the characters started coming fast and often. If was AWESOME! We saw 12 characters, some 2 or 3 times because we were there early. Also because there was not a lot of people there yet for them to see, they really played around a lot together. It was my best character meal experience yet!

 

[mom2rtk]

I wouldn't get too infuriated on that front, doing a character breakfast has always eaten up prime park time in the mornings...

The PP is probably used to the setup at WDW where character breakfasts start a full hour before the park opens (most days). It's a great way to get early park access, pictures in front of the castle on a fairly empty Main Street, and still be done by the time the park opens.

 

[Geemo]

When we went last year, we had one MM. We used the MM on Thursday and enjoyed the rides.
Saturday, another MM at DL we booked a Character Breakfast at the Plaza Inn. Our time was 10 minutes after MM began.
We were able to get in early and go to the CB since we had a reservation.

I wouldn't want to use my only MM for a CB.
I've also learned to use the MM on the first possible day of a trip. The times we have saved it to use at the end of a trip, everyone was too pooped to get out of bed in time.

Geemo

 

[LuSoph]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, these explainations make sense with what I was remembering. Unfortunately we are there for only 1 MM, so I am just going to have to work around this hiccup. Thanks again!

 

[Geemo]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, these explainations make sense with what I was remembering. Unfortunately we are there for only 1 MM, so I am just going to have to work around this hiccup. Thanks again!

FYI - Friday isn't an EE or MM day for DL. DL park hours are 9am to 12am.

On our next trip we'll have EE (staying on-site) so I have booked our CB 2.5 hours after EE/MM opening. I figure we'll pick up a muffin or something to tide us over until the CB. This way we can have full advantage of rides with low lines the first hour. EE/MM is at 7am our reservation is 9:30am.

Geemo

 

[wdwfan22]

The PP is probably used to the setup at WDW where character breakfasts start a full hour before the park opens (most days). It's a great way to get early park access, pictures in front of the castle on a fairly empty Main Street, and still be done by the time the park opens.

It's also a great way to get early park access in DL on MM days where you don't have access to the MM.

Although since the OP will only be there on one MM day, and has access to it, it won't help her this time. But hopefully it will help someone else.

 

[CaoilinnsMom]

It's also a great way to get early park access in DL on MM days where you don't have access to the MM.

Thank you this is exactly what I was looking for! Just made my reservation for a MM day I did not have

 

[pennym]

Does this mean if I don't have a MM (I'm an annual passholder) I can still make an 8am booking on a MM day and get in for it? How?? We are coming from New Zealand with 10 of us and want to do a Plaza Inn breakfast for the kids - would love to do it before park opening!

 

[wdwfan22]

Minnie's has early breakfasts when DL has an EMH, so Tues, Thurs & Sat (usually). So for a 9:00 park opening, and an 8:00 emh, the reservations officially start at 8:10. When we were there in January, we got in the park right at 8 and went directly to the restaurant and were seated. We were the 2nd ones in there, and the characters started coming fast and often. If was AWESOME! We saw 12 characters, some 2 or 3 times because we were there early. Also because there was not a lot of people there yet for them to see, they really played around a lot together. It was my best character meal experience yet!

Here is my answer for your question. I think it is pretty clear. If it does not make sense to you, please let me know what isn't clear to you.

 

[Malcon10t]

Does this mean if I don't have a MM (I'm an annual passholder) I can still make an 8am booking on a MM day and get in for it? How?? We are coming from New Zealand with 10 of us and want to do a Plaza Inn breakfast for the kids - would love to do it before park opening!

Yes. If the park has MM starting at 8am, you can make a reservation at 810am. You go to a special gate and they will check their reservations list and allow you in. Be aware with the rope drops now at the entrance to the various lands, you won't be allowed off Main St. until park opening at 9am.