Easiest way to get to character breakfasts from Swan?

[LACOOP]

We are going to Chef Mickeys one day and Cinderella's Breakfast another day. We are staying at the Swan. What is the easiest way to get to either one of them (I also have a car rented) and how much time should I allow?

 

[jwfla422]

You can drive to the CR for your Chef Mickey's breakfast and they'll give you a 3 hr parking pass. If you valet (it's $6) you can leave your car as long as you want and head over to the MK after via the monorail (or walk).

At one time they did have character breakfast buses but depending on what time your breakfast is, you can take the bus to the MK if your breakfast is later than 9 otherwise you can drive to the TTC and park there and take the monorail to MK.

Driving is usually easiest for the "earlier" breakfasts so you don't get stressed out trying to make it on time via the bus system. It can take a good 20 minutes to bus from the EPCOT resorts to the MK. And, then you need to add the time you may have to wait for the bus and if it is a busy time of year there may be a lot of people waiting (but you'll get on that bus because the Swan is the first stop). If it fills up at the Dolphin it will usually go straight to MK from there, otherwise it stops at the YC and then the BC and sometimes the BW.

The nice thing about the S/D bus is that it is the first bus stop at the bus depot closest to the MK.

 

[katrina1122]

When we stayed at the bwv we found that sometimes it was just easier to take the boat over to epcot and walk out to the monorail and go to the mk rather than sit around and wait for the bus. We found the buses to be rather sporadic, now this may be because it was picking up s/d first and hitting bwv and inn last, but we were there in jan its not like it was a high volume time. We actually did the crystal palace character breakfast that way, but we had a later priority seating time so we weren't in a massive rush.
We also returned to the resort from mk that way alot too, it even though it wasn't direct it just seemed faster and less hassled somehow.

 

[MLAinVA]

When we stayed at the Swan in March they had a character breakfast in the Swan restaurant. It was real easy to get to!

 

[swilphil]

I think the busses start running an hour before the parks open. Swan is the first stop, so you shouldn't have any problem getting on. You won't be able to get into Epcot before the park opens to catch the monorail, but I love the idea if you're heading out after 9 a.m., or on an EE day. If you're going at a busy time of year, you may want to ask someone at the hotel if traffic will be bad. It seems like the busses we were on passed a lot of cars stuck in traffic to get into the parks.

We had a 8 a.m. PS at AK on a non-EE day (enough abbrev. for ya??LOL) Anyway, the bus came at 8 a.m. We were told they hold the PS for 15 minutes, but we were probably there a little later, and it was no problem, just bring you PS conf. # or printout.

BTW, at the Dolphin the concierage desk did a really good job finding PS's for us for the next day. I'm sure the Swan would be just as good, and we were there right before July 4th.

It's really nice having a PS before the park opens. We avoided the EE parks, as we heard they were actually more crowded.

 

[Uncle Mikey]

We stayed at the Swan last year. We had an 8:00 am reservation for the character breakfast at the Grand Floridian. We were told to be at the bus stop for the character breakfast bus at 7:00 am. The bus showed up about 7:10 and had to make a couple of other stops. The driver picked up one other family that was going to Cinderella's Royal Table at the Magic Kingdom. We arrived at the MK bus stop about 7:40 am. The driver told us to remain on the bus and then drove us over to the Grand Floridian. That was unexpected and greatly appreciated. It saved us a few minutes on a monorail trip.