How long should I expect an 8:35 am breakfast at Tusker House to take?

[DumboDash2006]

I've tried to get it earlier and so far that's the best I've been able to do. Wondering how long it will take so I know what time to make our first FP+ reservation.

Also how does it work to get into the park when you have a dining reservation before the park opens but not right at 8:00 am. Will they let us in at 8:00 or will they wait until closer to our reservation time at 8:35?

Oh and do you have to get your picture taken with Donald? Honestly we aren't that interested in the characters, more the food. We love a good breakfast buffet lol.

 

[RealBlast3]

You should be done by 9:30 or even earlier. I have been to many of the character breakfasts over the years, including this one, and they really don't take long. I mean, you might have a 20 minute wait to be seated, which is always possible, but even then, you'll probably still be finished eating and have your payment processed within the next 40 minutes.

I don't ever recall any breakfasts buffets exceeding an hour from time of reservation, generally speaking. And within that hour you would easily see the characters make the rounds maybe even thrice over.

All my trips were during April (during non-Holiday weeks) and early June.

 

[ericstac]

it really depends.. if you get to the park about 7:30ish you will most likely be taken back with the 8am group and might get seated right then been there done that

i remember Tuskers taking about ten minutes once you are called to sit, if you wanted the character pic out front.. or you could bypass it.

the food is top notch.. one of my favorites.. the blintz's are dang good

but anyway, if you are not too overly concerned with the characters it is a buffet so you could be done eating within 10-20 minutes depending on how long it takes you to eat.. there is no waiting around to order and then cook your food etc.. its all laid out for the taking.

and they got donuts too. i heard it switched to donut holes

 

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . Will they let us in at 8:00 or will they wait until closer to our reservation time at 8:35? . . .

1) You can get in at 7:45 am, if your ADR is before 9:20 am.
2) You will be seated as if you had an 8:00 am ADR.

 

[LetsDoDisney!]

1) You can get in at 7:45 am, if your ADR is before 9:20 am.
2) You will be seated as if you had an 8:00 am ADR.

Woohoo happy to hear this! We have an 8:20 as that's the best I could do also although I keep trying daily. We plan to be there at 7:30 ..... yay!

 

[DumboDash2006]

Thanks for all the replies!

We definitely plan to be there well before opening. How early do they let you in the parking lot?

Seriously, I would like to be among the first there. If we can get seated even earlier, that would be awesome! Though I know not to expect it.

 

[nkereina]

I've tried to get it earlier and so far that's the best I've been able to do. Wondering how long it will take so I know what time to make our first FP+ reservation.

Also how does it work to get into the park when you have a dining reservation before the park opens but not right at 8:00 am. Will they let us in at 8:00 or will they wait until closer to our reservation time at 8:35?

Oh and do you have to get your picture taken with Donald? Honestly we aren't that interested in the characters, more the food. We love a good breakfast buffet lol.

Our ADR at TH has always been for around 8am, but in our experience, a woman with a clipboard checks off your name before you're allowed through the gate. I'm not sure if she has the times on there or not, so I can't speak to whether they'd let you in early.

As far as how long the meal will take, we always finish up around 8:45 or so and its starting to really get busy then. I wouldn't expect it to take much longer though, the longest wait will be for the check so you can ask for that at the start of your meal if you want,

And no, you don't have to get your photo with Donald. We have bypassed that every time we have eaten at TH because we're not much for characters either. I just tell the person who's ushering us towards the Donald line that we will pass, and they just have us proceed to the door to be seated. No problem!

 

[disnee4mygirls]

Our biggest holdup has always been waiting on the check! Our servers always seem to go MIA when we are trying to get out of there. So make sure you request your check early!

 

[lovin'fl]

I got an 8:10 for DH and I at Tusker House in November...only ADR I made. Never been there. Does it include the pics with the characters or do you pay extra for those? Thanks!

 

[SPOERLX3]

1) You can get in at 7:45 am, if your ADR is before 9:20 am.
2) You will be seated as if you had an 8:00 am ADR.

I got an 8:10 for DH and I at Tusker House in November...only ADR I made. Never been there. Does it include the pics with the characters or do you pay extra for those? Thanks!

Picture is extra, I think $25-$30. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
We always go to TH Breakfast but this year we have a party of 6 and I haven't been able to get a ressie I was on at 180 (since I was waiting for FD to book my trip I didn't get the 180+10) but there have been no times available at all. I will just keep checking

One of the other posts stated that you can enter early as long as your reservation is prior to 9:20am and you would be seated as if it were an 8am ressie. This has not been the case for us, especially this past January.

We have had a couple of experiences that I thought I would share so IF by some chance you don't get seated at 8 with an 8:30 ressie you won't be too disappointed.
Normally I am able to get on at 180+10 and get our ressie between 8am-8:10 but our last 2 trips our ressie has been at 8:25 & 8:30am.

On our trip in 2013, we had an 8:25 ressie. We were one of the first 10 families that checked in with the hostess. After about 15-20 minutes and after about 20 other families were seated we were called so we got in about 10 minutes early. So we were not seated in order of check in but still got in a little early.
Our last trip in January 2014, our reservation was at 8:30, we got there at 7:30, hoping to get in a little earlier. We checked in and the hostess had our reservation and it showed 8:30 on her sheet. As I watched multiple families coming in after us and being seated, I went to the hostess stand and kindly asked where we were on the list. The hostess said "I show your reservation is at 8:30, is that correct?" I replied yes. She then said "I will call you as soon as it gets a little closer to our reservation time, we have others with an earlier reservation time that we need to get seated." I kindly thanked her and continued to wait. It was about 8:15am.
There was a gentleman behind me talking to a manager about how he had gotten there before a lot of other customers that were already being seated. The manager asked him what time his reservation was, the man responded 8:40. The manager explained that they would get him seated as quickly as they could however there were reservations prior to his that they had to honor. The man started acting a little crazy saying that he had never had an 8am reservation but had always been able to come prior to his reservation and always been seated early. The manager explained to him that they had been getting alot of customers coming in at park opening with later reservations and they were doing their best to get everyone seated but unfortunately it was causing some customers with earlier reservations to not be seated at their actual reservation time. The manager explained to the man that they had a reservation system for a reason and that the customer was correct that they had been seating guests in the order they arrived which actually was defeating the reservation system and that they are now seating guests based on reservation times in order to honor everyones reservation. With that being said, they called our name at 8:25 so we were seated about 8:30.
I'm not sure if this is an everyday thing or if it is hit or miss but these are our most recent experiences. In 2012, we had an 8:10 ressie and were one of the first few families seated.

I sure hope I can snag a TH breakfast ressie for our trip this year. I am sure going to miss it if we can't