Early Breakfast Reservations - Any Park opening Benefit? - Strategy

[Mousetopia]

I am a long time WDW strategist and know that early breakfast at Be our Guest gets you ahead of the morning push and an easy walk on on Peter Pan or Dwarfs Mine Train. Is there any similar benefit at either park at Disneyland?

 

[sherilaine]

While you can book a character breakfast at Plaza Inn during EMH/MM hours there is no real benefit - from my understanding, unless this has changed, you are not able to have breakfast before others are in the parks.

Edited to add - from my experience the character meals are not cheap and you want to get the full experience - we normally spend at least an hour at our breakfasts so we book them for a later time - normally on the day we have MM at 7AM - so we get there early, are one of the first in the park - take advantage of the early morning hours and then around 10:30 have brunch!

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Not really. It is possible to book Plaza Inn on a MM day (when you don’t have MM), and if you book the first spot and eat fast, it can get you into DL with a bit of the MM left, but then the other MM people are already there. If you’re an early riser and reaaaaally want those extra few minutes of park time, it’s a bit of an advantage, but not much of one. For me, I’d rather do a leisurely breakfast at like 10.

 

[midnight star]

As others have said, not really. I wouldn't waste early park hours on a breakfast. I did plaza in at 7:40 am last month, but I have a season pass, so I wasn't missing anything. The only advantage I can think of is, if you have an early reservation, you can begin booking fastpasses through maxpass (if you are using it), since you will scan in for the day.

 

[Mousetopia]

At WDW the first reservation is before park opening on a no early entry day so you dont waste any park time. The strategy is a morning other than early entry then finish breakfast just as the park opens and you are then ahead of the pack in whatever area of the park you are in

 

[Skyegirl1999]

At WDW the first reservation is before park opening on a no early entry day so you dont waste any park time. The strategy is a morning other than early entry then finish breakfast just as the park opens and you are then ahead of the pack in whatever area of the park you are in

Right, DL doesn’t have anything like that. The only restaurant (in either park) that takes any reservations before official park opening is Plaza Inn, and that’s only during MM.

 

[Mousetopia]

Thank you! ..and bummer!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

...and bummer!

Not really a bummer -- as pp have said, since you cannot book a reservation earlier than park opening on a non-MM day, you will start even with everyone else at RD and, if you have a MM, you will start even with everyone else on your MM. You won't be behind the pack. (If you try to book an early breakfast at Plaza Inn on a MM day, you will be behind the MM pack when you finally finish your meal and enter DL -- which contradicts the whole point of entering DL early, right?) After you've made good use of your early morning hours (and after doing your research on this board, you will have a good early morning plan going!), you can take a nice break with a character brunch and get a lot of M&Gs out of the way. At DLR, those early morning hours are golden -- you can get so much done before the afternoon crowds show up.

By the way, this thread has great information: A DLR Guide for WDW Vets.

 

[Mousetopia]

Not really a bummer -- as pp have said, since you cannot book a reservation earlier than park opening on a non-MM day, you will start even with everyone else at RD and, if you have a MM, you will start even with everyone else on your MM. You won't be behind the pack. (If you try to book an early breakfast at Plaza Inn on a MM day, you will be behind the MM pack when you finally finish your meal and enter DL -- which contradicts the whole point of entering DL early, right?) After you've made good use of your early morning hours (and after doing your research on this board, you will have a good early morning plan going!), you can take a nice break with a character brunch and get a lot of M&Gs out of the way. At DLR, those early morning hours are golden -- you can get so much done before the afternoon crowds show up.

By the way, this thread has great information: A DLR Guide for WDW Vets.

Thank you, yes I do understand how it all fits together. All parks have their differences. Walt's original park will be wonderful to visit. What I meant by bummer (for me as it just my opinion) is that you cant have an early breakfast, finish and be ahead of the pack starting that valuable morning time like you can at WDW..or could last time I was there. Like Epcot where we had a lovely breakfast and then leisurely strolled over to Soarin to walk right on in the same building. That was amazing. On the flip side I long for the old days at WDW where you could decide the night before or even same day what you wanted to do that day..a risky venture now. I look forward to not having to have every day scheduled!

 

[katyringo]

Well it can give you an advantage on maxpass selections. You can book chracter breakfast for during MM on a day you don’t have MM and they will still let you in for the reservation.

So let’s say that your staying off site and only have one MM. use that magic morning on your first park day- go ride rides, etc. The next MM for Disneyland comes up 2 days later, but you have already used your MM. you can book a plaza inn character breakfast for during MM. you’ll get scanned into to the park and while your having breakfast you can start making fastpass selections- which will give you better return times for the whole day.

This worked great for us during really really busy Christmas week. We booked a 7:10am breakfast, enjoyed or characters breakfast (we had used our magic morning 2 days before hand) and left breakfast with a couple fastpasses ready to go.

 

[Mousetopia]

While you can book a character breakfast at Plaza Inn during EMH/MM hours there is no real benefit - from my understanding, unless this has changed, you are not able to have breakfast before others are in the parks.

Edited to add - from my experience the character meals are not cheap and you want to get the full experience - we normally spend at least an hour at our breakfasts so we book them for a later time - normally on the day we have MM at 7AM - so we get there early, are one of the first in the park - take advantage of the early morning hours and then around 10:30 have brunch!

Sounds like a great plan!

 

[Mamabun]

Well it can give you an advantage on maxpass selections. You can book chracter breakfast for during MM on a day you don’t have MM and they will still let you in for the reservation.

So let’s say that your staying off site and only have one MM. use that magic morning on your first park day- go ride rides, etc. The next MM for Disneyland comes up 2 days later, but you have already used your MM. you can book a plaza inn character breakfast for during MM. you’ll get scanned into to the park and while your having breakfast you can start making fastpass selections- which will give you better return times for the whole day.

This worked great for us during really really busy Christmas week. We booked a 7:10am breakfast, enjoyed or characters breakfast (we had used our magic morning 2 days before hand) and left breakfast with a couple fastpasses ready to go.

Since you explicitly mentioned doing the breakfast on a day AFTER you've used your MM morning, that makes me wonder, if you are eligible for an MM morning, and haven't used it yet, if you do an early breakfast on an MM morning, will entering the park for that early breakfast automatically use up your MM? That's what I understood from your post, and why it would be important to use your MM morning before doing an early morning breakfast, but just wanted to be sure I'm getting the details right?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Since you explicitly mentioned doing the breakfast on a day AFTER you've used your MM morning, that makes me wonder, if you are eligible for an MM morning, and haven't used it yet, if you do an early breakfast on an MM morning, will entering the park for that early breakfast automatically use up your MM?..

If you are doing an early character breakfast on a MM day AND not using your MM, make sure to tell the CM that. The CM can scan your ticket without using your MM that day so that you can save it for a later time. Just make sure the CM clearly understands you before scanning your ticket!
For the OP: What I meant about not being a bummer was that entering with the rest of the pack puts you on equal footing MP/FP-wise with everyone else at opening. Since the FPs can't be pre-booked months in advance, you are free to go as soon as you go through the gates with everyone else. So at RD, MM or regular park opening, all the headliner rides are available to you! It is highly, highly unlikely that you will find all FPs gone for any ride during the early hours of the day at DLR. So like the pp said, if you do book an early breakfast on a day you don't use MM, start booking MP right away! And on your MM, start booking MP as soon as you go through the gate!

 

[katyringo]

Since you explicitly mentioned doing the breakfast on a day AFTER you've used your MM morning, that makes me wonder, if you are eligible for an MM morning, and haven't used it yet, if you do an early breakfast on an MM morning, will entering the park for that early breakfast automatically use up your MM? That's what I understood from your post, and why it would be important to use your MM morning before doing an early morning breakfast, but just wanted to be sure I'm getting the details right?

I’ve always done it after to be sure, but I’ve read that they will nOT use it. There is a special line dedicated to dinning reservations in the morning.