First breakfast at Crystal Palace or Chef Mickey's?

[3"Mouse"keteers]

Hi! We will be at Disney Oct.18-26th. We are planning on spending our first day in the MK. Hours are not out yet for our dates, but historically, the MK opens at 9 with no extra magic hours that morning. Crystal Palace opens at 8 and Chef Mickey's at 7:00. Should we choose Crystal Palace so that we could be on Main Street by ourselves before the park opens? My only worry is that we couldn't finish our breakfast quick enough and regular park guests would beat us to all of the rides. What do you guys think? If we choose Chef Mickey's, I think we can be finished in time, but we'll have to line up and fight the regular crowds when the park opens. I'm torn! Or should we just get to the MK early, in hopes of an early rope drop, and then have a late lunch at Crystal Palace or Chef Mickeys? I'm so confused, please help!

 

[crosstheborder]

Hi, we just got back from Disneyworld and ate at Crystal Palace twice. One morning we ate at 8:20am, but we checked in a little after eight (the bus was actually quicker than we thought it would be). They seated us soon after and surprisingly we were done a little after 9. There were 8 of us, the characters came around quickly and if we had wanted to we could have been done by 9. Hope this helps

 

[Cinders Mum]

we do CP and get an 0805 adr, we are seated, well fed and done, just before the regular park goers come in, and we can get slightly ahead of them, but not massively so.

We do prefer the food at cp over cm though.

Val
xx

 

[3"Mouse"keteers]

Thanks for the quick responses. I figured we could probably be done by 9, but I heard that often Disney will do a "soft" opening at say about 8:30 where they go ahead and let everybody waiting in line in. I didn't want to eat at CP and chance letting all of those people get ahead of us. We are going in Oct. though, so maybe it won't be so crowded when they first open. Has anyone been this week in Oct (18-26)? What were the crowds like?

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Don't worry about people getting in a head of you... they still have to wait for the 9am rope drop like everyone else. I would take the 8:05 at CP just to avoid waiting in a long line at the MK gates at 8:30 etc. Save Chef Mickey for a day you are going to Epcot since the TTC is the next stop after the CR anyway...

 

[mikymouse]

On our last trip we did the rope drop at 8AM and then headed over to CP for a late breakfast at 10:30ish. I thought this was perfect because we got to ride everything in tomorrowland and fantasyland and we were ready for a break. We grabed a Fastpass for Buzz on the way to breakfast and got to ride Buzz one more time without a wait. My kids love Mickey waffles and unlimited bacon!

I agree with the OP that Chef Mickey's is great for a day when you want to ride the monorail.

 

[Family Fun Mom]

I think there is no better start to a Disney vacation than a meal with Mickey and his friends. It's just gets you totally in the Disney spirit. So, my vote is for Chef Mickeys!

 

[Disney_Freak56]

I'd go with Crystal Palace. There is nothing like walking down Main Street without 100 (or more) other guests in your family's Castle photos.

We've done the 8:05 seating before and had plenty of time to eat and get to Fantasyland for a 9:00 opening. We hit nearly every major attraction in Fantasyland way before most of the crowd got there. It was great!

 

[kwelch10377]

I would also agree that an 8:05 ADR at Crystal Palace is great. We got there about 10 mins before hand and were able to take some pictures and then we were done right before 9am and got ahead of the crowds. We did some rides and shopped for about 2 hours after breakfast then went back to the hotel for a nap. We are also going in Oct and plan on doing the same thing again.