Easter planning

[maleficent55]

Unsure where to post this exactly. but for an Easter Sunday in Epcot, which is also the Flower & Garden Festival, is it a bad idea to try to eat breakfast a resort before entering the park? Thinking of doing an Easter breakfast at maybe the Poly first, but crowd wise for Epcot on this day is that wasting time?

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Unsure where to post this exactly. but for an Easter Sunday in Epcot, which is also the Flower & Garden Festival, is it a bad idea to try to eat breakfast a resort before entering the park? Thinking of doing an Easter breakfast at maybe the Poly first, but crowd wise for Epcot on this day is that wasting time?

Depends on what you want to get done. Will you have G+, do you want to hit headliners, etc? If you don't really care about hitting up any headliners first thing, I wouldn't stress too much about arriving later. If you get G+, that may alleviate some pressure to be at the park early but even if you don't, you could still have a solid day if you plan to stay till close.

But, to answer your question, eating a sit down meal during park hours any time the parks are open, is probably a waste of time but we all got to eat lol. We do not usually do ADRs on epcot days when there's a festival, just not worth it imo. But if a sit down meal is on the must do list, it might make more sense to do a later lunch/early dinner to have a reprieve from the crowds and get a little built in break. You can still get to the park early if you think that's wise and still have a nice Easter meal.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Yes, but that doesn't mean you can't do it.

How much it will cost you depends a good deal where you are staying. If you are staying at Poly, or at least on the monorail loop, then it makes more sense. But if you plan to use free transportation to get to Poly (2 step: bus from your hotel to MK then monorail to Poly), then you will lose a considerable amount of time on transportation alone. You can still do it, but it will cost quite a bit of time.

If you are going to Epcot, and staying anywhere other than the monorail loop, it makes more sense to eat somewhere closer to Epcot.

Over a week like Easter, we mostly eat quick breakfasts now, so we can make Early Entry. If I was going to do a sit down breakfast, I'd probably aim to EITHER eat early, OR eat a very late breakfast around 11am.

If you eat late breakfast around 11am in the park, you will lose the least amount of time, and still get to enjoy a table service breakfast. Eating that late means you probably won't need to eat lunch.

Mind, it might also make sense to consider a non-park day on Easter with a leisurely breakfast, visiting the hotels, etc.

I don't know if they will do it this year, but in pre-pandemic years the GF lobby used to have an amazing Easter egg display. These were not small eggs, but very large chocolate eggs with each one designed by a pastry chef and themed to a Disney movie or character. Some years the Boardwalk and Beach Club also had a few of them on display.

 

[maleficent55]

Depends on what you want to get done. Will you have G+, do you want to hit headliners, etc? If you don't really care about hitting up any headliners first thing, I wouldn't stress too much about arriving later. If you get G+, that may alleviate some pressure to be at the park early but even if you don't, you could still have a solid day if you plan to stay till close.

But, to answer your question, eating a sit down meal during park hours any time the parks are open, is probably a waste of time but we all got to eat lol. We do not usually do ADRs on epcot days when there's a festival, just not worth it imo. But if a sit down meal is on the must do list, it might make more sense to do a later lunch/early dinner to have a reprieve from the crowds and get a little built in break. You can still get to the park early if you think that's wise and still have a nice Easter meal.

We will have Genie+ and also DAS
It’s our first time to WDW but it’ll be our 2nd Epcot day.

Im pretty determined to do everything in the park we can attraction wise, but my biggest priority is seeing and taking time to appreciate each country. And I’m excited about all the food booths that will be there!

We are staying at POR Riverside and will have time another day to explore resort hotels, but I thought the GF was a very good place to try to eat Easter morning.

 

[maleficent55]

Yes, but that doesn't mean you can't do it.

How much it will cost you depends a good deal where you are staying. If you are staying at Poly, or at least on the monorail loop, then it makes more sense. But if you plan to use free transportation to get to Poly (2 step: bus from your hotel to MK then monorail to Poly), then you will lose a considerable amount of time on transportation alone. You can still do it, but it will cost quite a bit of time.

If you are going to Epcot, and staying anywhere other than the monorail loop, it makes more sense to eat somewhere closer to Epcot.

Over a week like Easter, we mostly eat quick breakfasts now, so we can make Early Entry. If I was going to do a sit down breakfast, I'd probably aim to EITHER eat early, OR eat a very late breakfast around 11am.

If you eat late breakfast around 11am in the park, you will lose the least amount of time, and still get to enjoy a table service breakfast. Eating that late means you probably won't need to eat lunch.

Mind, it might also make sense to consider a non-park day on Easter with a leisurely breakfast, visiting the hotels, etc.

I don't know if they will do it this year, but in pre-pandemic years the GF lobby used to have an amazing Easter egg display. These were not small eggs, but very large chocolate eggs with each one designed by a pastry chef and themed to a Disney movie or character. Some years the Boardwalk and Beach Club also had a few of them on display.

We are staying at Port Orleans Riverside

We will hopefully have a dinner reservation for Space 220 on this Easter Sunday as well. Maybe that’s all too much and I should forget about breakfast that day at the GF and do it instead on a non park day. We have two “rest” days on this trip.

What would you pick for a non park day breakfast, kona cafe at the poly or somewhere at the GF?

 

[mickeyluv'r]

We will have Genie+ and also DAS
It’s our first time to WDW but it’ll be our 2nd Epcot day.

Im pretty determined to do everything in the park we can attraction wise, but my biggest priority is seeing and taking time to appreciate each country. And I’m excited about all the food booths that will be there!

We are staying at POR Riverside and will have time another day to explore resort hotels, but I thought the GF was a very good place to try to eat Easter morning.

GF or Poly?

If this is your first vist....then I highly suggest NOT trying to do it all. There is so much to see everywhere, that you don't need to go crazy trying to cram in all the so-called headliners.

I mean, WDW is so much more complicated these days for one. But WDW isn't really a race. All the attractions are worthwhile. The flowers are very worthwhile, and never a line to see those. Or rarely I should say.

Trying to get to Poly via bus then later to Epcot will cost a great deal of time.

With pricing what it is though, personally, we trend to marathon park days if we're buying both park tickets and G+ on top of that. I can't say we didn't do any sit down meals on park days, but we timed them for 3pm, which is an off-time, and only a very few now. (When prices were more reasonable, we toured differently.) We also now have a car to minimize how much time we lose to transportation. Time is $.

If you are coming from POR, it may well make sense to pay for transportation to Poly/GF. I mean that's entirely up to you, but that's what I'd do, if was going to go there and then go to Epcot.

For me though, I also would not buy G+ if I only planned to go to Epcot, and also planned to start late, and you will likely be paying $30 per person for it.

We did get good value out of G+ on our MK days though. I don't like paying for it, but we did get quite a few passes there.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

We are staying at Port Orleans Riverside

We will hopefully have a dinner reservation for Space 220 on this Easter Sunday as well. Maybe that’s all too much and I should forget about breakfast that day at the GF and do it instead on a non park day. We have two “rest” days on this trip.

What would you pick for a non park day breakfast, kona cafe at the poly or somewhere at the GF?

Both are great. I favor GF theming at Easter.

To be honest, we have not done a breakfast TS in some years. We used to sometimes do 1900Park Fare. That was one of the best character meals. Crystal Palace is also cute, but that's in MK.

Kona was very good the last time we ate there, but it was dinner in 2019. I think they restyled the decor a little since then.

 

[maleficent55]

GF or Poly?

If this is your first vist....then I highly suggest NOT trying to do it all. There is so much to see everywhere, that you don't need to go crazy trying to cram in all the so-called headliners.

I mean, WDW is so much more complicated these days for one. But WDW isn't really a race. All the attractions are worthwhile. The flowers are very worthwhile, and never a line to see those. Or rarely I should say.

Trying to get to Poly via bus then later to Epcot will cost a great deal of time.

With pricing what it is though, personally, we trend to marathon park days if we're buying both park tickets and G+ on top of that. I can't say we didn't do any sit down meals on park days, but we timed them for 3pm, which is an off-time, and only a very few now. (When prices were more reasonable, we toured differently.) We also now have a car to minimize how much time we lose to transportation. Time is $.

If you are coming from POR, it may well make sense to pay for transportation to Poly/GF. I mean that's entirely up to you, but that's what I'd do, if was going to go there and then go to Epcot.

For me though, I also would not buy G+ if I only planned to go to Epcot, and also planned to start late, and you will likely be paying $30 per person for it.

We did get good value out of G+ on our MK days though. I don't like paying for it, but we did get quite a few passes there.

I don't know why I typed Poly in on my initial post. I 100% meant GF!

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We will have Genie+ and also DAS
It’s our first time to WDW but it’ll be our 2nd Epcot day.

Im pretty determined to do everything in the park we can attraction wise, but my biggest priority is seeing and taking time to appreciate each country. And I’m excited about all the food booths that will be there!

We are staying at POR Riverside and will have time another day to explore resort hotels, but I thought the GF was a very good place to try to eat Easter morning.

As a first timer, you may not be aware of the time it takes to get around WDW, it's large and to go from your resort to another resort to eat will 100% take away from your goals of hitting the headliners and taking in each country. You can spend all day at epcot with no ADRs and you won't have enough time to see each country and ride all the attractions, it's just not feasible. Having G+ and DAS will help but having two ADRs will not allow you to accomplish what you are aiming for. You will not know where you're going as a first timer so just navigating the parks and resort will be new for you.

I think a lot of first timers underestimate transportation time, waiting time, how long it takes to walk from point A to point B, meal waits/delays to be seated, etc. Also, keep in mind Space is not designed to be a super quick walk in, eat meal, it's definitely an experience that takes a bit longer than a traditional sit down. I would give yourself at least 1.5 hours for each ADR and that might be light when you add in your drive/wait time. If you have another day devoted to exploring resorts, it might make more sense to move your ADR at GF to that day so you aren't trying to cram two meals into an epcot day.

 

[maleficent55]

As a first timer, you may not be aware of the time it takes to get around WDW, it's large and to go from your resort to another resort to eat will 100% take away from your goals of hitting the headliners and taking in each country. You can spend all day at epcot with no ADRs and you won't have enough time to see each country and ride all the attractions, it's just not feasible. Having G+ and DAS will help but having two ADRs will not allow you to accomplish what you are aiming for. You will not know where you're going as a first timer so just navigating the parks and resort will be new for you.

I think a lot of first timers underestimate transportation time, waiting time, how long it takes to walk from point A to point B, meal waits/delays to be seated, etc. Also, keep in mind Space is not designed to be a super quick walk in, eat meal, it's definitely an experience that takes a bit longer than a traditional sit down. I would give yourself at least 1.5 hours for each ADR and that might be light when you add in your drive/wait time. If you have another day devoted to exploring resorts, it might make more sense to move your ADR at GF to that day so you aren't trying to cram two meals into an epcot day.

Thank you! Will do then.

I won’t give up Space 220, so I’ll give up breakfast somewhere else that day
Thanks!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I second that meals at WDW take a long time. Just the meal itself can easily take 90 minutes, longer over the holidays. You will typically have to wait 15minutes or more past your ADR time just to be seated. ADR's are not traditional reservations; they do not have a table waiting for you. Instead, WDW books many dining locations at 110% capacity, so they often run behind.

This is one of the reasons we cut back on TS dining. We got tired of being seated 30+ minutes past our ADR time (even though we arrived on time). WDW charges us a no-show fee, but they don't hold up their end.

Getting from point A of WDW to point B can also take quite a bit of time. POR is pretty close to GF in a taxi, but via WDW transportation it can easily take close to an hour if you need to take bus +monorail.

To go from GF to Epcot you either need to walk to the Transportation Ticket Center (maps says 19minutes, but brisk walk could probably do it in 15), or take the monorail around to the TTC, which would probably take about 16minutes. From the TTC, you then have to transfer to the Epcot monorail. Maps says that takes about 17minutes. So that too can easily take over half an hour.