Hollywood & Vine breakfast - 8am or 10am?

[Stacymarie1216]

Hi everyone!

I feel like I've been asking a ton of questions on here lately and I appreciate everyone's input so much!

Short version: Any experience on the 8am H&V breakfast vs. the 10:00 H&V breakfast?

Long version: Last time we went to HS we did the H&V early breakfast at 8am pre-park open. To be honest, we did have to rush out at the last second when we realized the hoards of people were coming in to try to make it over to TSM without an insane wait. And we were probably the second table sat that morning :/. We got to eat and meet all the characters, but we definitely didn't have a split second of extra time.

So this trip, my husband has requested fewer early mornings. Sigh. We'll still do rope drop, but our 8am CRT and BOG meals are out. I think he could handle one early morning if I asked him to do the 8am and Hollywood & Vine. But I was thinking about getting to HS for rope drop instead and maybe doing the latest breakfast they have (I think that's around 10:20). Especially with all the closings going on - there are really only 2 'must do' attractions on our list - TSM and TOT - everything else will just be stuff to see while we're there if we can make it.

Any great opinions either way? Again, thanks so much for all your help everyone!

 

[imthemamahere]

If you have a late breakfast, you can really view it as more like brunch, as the food switches over and you can grab a plateful of lunch options. (Or at least you could when I last went - we had scheduled a late breakfast and with the inevitable delay in getting us seated there, we discovered they were removing the breakfast food before we really got a chance to see what was offered!)

If I were picking one early breakfast, it would be CRT or BOG, or Tusker House at Animal Kingdom. (That's on our must-do list every trip.) I wouldn't feel like I needed to get to Hollywood Studios super-early.

 

[GillianP1301]

I personally prefer 8am in park breakfasts because I would rather be seated in a restaurant having a nice/fun character meal while I wait for the park to open than I would standing outside a turnstile. It's kind of a 2 birds/1 stone thing for me.

If your husband doesn't want to do an early morning breakfast, then I'm assuming he won't want to be there early for rope drop either, so I'm not sure your 2nd plan will work out entirely. You could do a little more leisurely arrival just after park opening and hit the 2 attractions you want, in which case the 10ish breakfast would be a good option.

 

[Stacymarie1216]

If I were picking one early breakfast, it would be CRT or BOG, or Tusker House at Animal Kingdom. (That's on our must-do list every trip.) I wouldn't feel like I needed to get to Hollywood Studios super-early.

I *totally* agree with you! But we're skipping the dining plan and just did CRT and BOG in June 2015. DH is not going to go for paying for CRT out of pocket again and we weren't that thrilled with BOG breakfast :/. Our little guy (3 years) has requested to eat with Jake again - and he's just so stinkin sweet we have to give in .

Also - awesome to know about the lunch switchover as DH would much prefer that, but I much prefer breakfast . How awesome if we could both win!

 

[Stacymarie1216]

I personally prefer 8am in park breakfasts because I would rather be seated in a restaurant having a nice/fun character meal while I wait for the park to open than I would standing outside a turnstile. It's kind of a 2 birds/1 stone thing for me.

If your husband doesn't want to do an early morning breakfast, then I'm assuming he won't want to be there early for rope drop either, so I'm not sure your 2nd plan will work out entirely. You could do a little more leisurely arrival just after park opening and hit the 2 attractions you want, in which case the 10ish breakfast would be a good option.

You bring up two amazing points.

1. waiting at breakfast vs. waiting in line. We'd have to get there at what, maybe 7:40 or so for an 8:00 breakfast? And if the park opens at 9 we'd be there by 8:20, so we're not saving *that* much time anyway.

2. He doesn't want to do early am breakfast a) because he would just rather not be so rushed which we kind of addressed above, and 2) he is not a breakfast food fan....much to my dismay .

 

[imthemamahere]

I *totally* agree with you! But we're skipping the dining plan and just did CRT and BOG in June 2015. DH is not going to go for paying for CRT out of pocket again and we weren't that thrilled with BOG breakfast :/. Our little guy (3 years) has requested to eat with Jake again - and he's just so stinkin sweet we have to give in .

Also - awesome to know about the lunch switchover as DH would much prefer that, but I much prefer breakfast . How awesome if we could both win!

Yeah, I'd totally say yes, too! My little guy (now 6) had such an amazing experience at Hollywood & Vine when he was 3 1/2, thanks to Jake. Jake came by towards the end of our meal as my son was eating his ice cream or froyo, or whatever the soft serve stuff is there. In any case, Jake noticed that my son was busy working his way through a dish of dessert, and he came over with a spoon tucked into his sash, whipped it out with a flourish, and gestured to ask my son if he could have a taste. My son was over the moon with excitement at the thought of sharing with his pirate hero, so of course, he said yes. Jake took a big scoop (and disposed of it discreetly) then posed for pics with my giggling, happy little guy. He was so proud that he had done something to make Jake happy. (because ice cream makes everyone happy, natch) He still talks about that character meal... "remember when Jake ate lunch with us?" Pretty awesome stuff. Whatever makes them happy, right?

If you take the latest possible breakfast reservation, your husband just might get lucky and get lunch, after you run and grab breakfast before the switch happens! You can call and ask the dining people what time the switchover happens, I'm sure....

 

[skuttle]

We had a 10:05am ADR at H&V last April. During our meal, they started to shut down one side of the breakfast buffet to prepare for lunch, but left the other side intact. The two sides were identical so we didn't miss out on anything. They never put out any lunch food for us to try, though.

 

[minnie mum]

I'm not sure why you feel the need to rush out of the breakfast. If TOT and TSM are your only must do's, then just FP them. Take your time over breakfast, and then get in an attraction or M&G (or 2) in before your FP times begin.

But if you want to do these rides twice, I can see where going standby at RD would be the way to go. Then do breakfast, with your first FPs starting at noon or so. I guess the bonus with such a late breakfast is that you wouldn't need to worry about lunch. Such a big meal will carry you til dinner time.

 

[twinprincesses09]

We did the late breakfast at H&V last May. I think our ADR was for 10:20. I really liked having it later. We got there at RD, did Jedi signups, TSMM with FP+, met Buzz and Woody, then went to breakfast. It was awesome. My girls were 5 at the time and loved meeting the characters. My girls are always slow eaters anyway, but with the interruptions with the characters and the dance parties, we were probably the last ones out. After spending that much for a meal (we paid OOP), I wasn't about to leave until they were finished eating, although I'm sure the wait staff was ready for us to leave. But after we did finish, all the characters were just standing around in the dining room and my girls got to spend extra time with them. They were starting to let in people for lunch at this point. As far as the buffet, there was 2 sides to it. They closed off one side not long after we arrived and started bringing lunch out, but they had it blocked off so that the breakfast customers did not have access to it. I'm not sure if this is always the case, but that's what happened when we were there.

 

[Disneylover99]

I would rope drop and then do the later breakfast. I hate plunking down good money for a restaurant and constantly looking at my watch and rushing out. What's the point?

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I would rope drop and then do the later breakfast. I hate plunking down good money for a restaurant and constantly looking at my watch and rushing out. What's the point?

This is how we felt when we did a 8:05 a.m. Crystal Palace ADR on our first WDW trip. Yes it was nice getting there early to be among the first in an empty MK, but we were still seated late and I felt anxious and rushed the entire time to get done by the time MK officially opened at 9. Since there aren't as many dining options we're interested in at HS, a late breakfast would definitely be like a brunch for us. We want to do JTA sign ups as well. Now I've read some reports of people with pre-park opening ADRs at HS being allowed to sign up for JTA before their ADR time and other reports where people weren't allowed so we are just going to stick with our 10:10 a.m. ADR and do JTA sign ups, Buzz & Woody meet & greet, and FP+ TSMM first thing before our ADR, then depending on our JTA time slot we'll do Star Tours, the Launch Bay, Great Movie Ride, TOT, and Disney Jr. Live later.