In-Park Character Breakfast Question

[DisneyPiPhi]

Hi Everyone! You are going to get very sick of me by February (when our trip is) because I have so many questions! I am new to DLR and trying to switch from a WDW mindset to a DLR mindset.

I think we are going to do two character breakfasts: Minnie & Friends at the Plaza Inn and Ariel's Grotto. We are staying off-site.

My predicament is that I love character meals, but hate "wasting" park time sitting down to eat. We are early risers and will eat as early as possible so that we still have plenty of park time!

Here is my question: do either of these restaurants have times we can eat BEFORE park opening? For example, if the park opens at 9:00 AM, would they have some 8:00 or 8:30 reservations? I would love to be done eating at or soon after park opening time so we don't waste any time!

Thanks!

 

[MonkeyDishwasher]

On early entry days, Minnie's opens with the early entry time.

A good suggested strategy that I've read ( I don't wake up early enough to do it though, lol) is to book Minnie's at park opening on an early entry day That way you can utilize your hour of extra attraction time, and then miss some of the cattle call that happened when the ropes drop for everyone because you'll already be inside eating- having ridden all of your available attractions that you can try for in that hour.

 

[MikeRx]

We do Minnie's every trip and book one of the last available times so it's effectively a brunch for us. We get there at rope drop, take advantage of the lower crowds in the morning and then go to breakfast at 10:30am at the Plaza. Some don't like this strategy, but it works for us. We've not found the breakfast early enough to enjoy without seriously impacting valuable morning park time or as we call it "the golden hours". In WDW you can squeeze in a CP breakfast prior to park opening an still beat/join the rush, in DL it's much harder or impossible. One reason is the shear number of characters to see at the Plaza. We've had between 8-10 characters at breakfast each trip while at the CP it's only the Pooh team (4). Good luck and have fun.

Mike

 

[Happyjenz]

We do Minnie's every trip and book one of the last available times so it's effectively a brunch for us. We get there at rope drop, take advantage of the lower crowds in the morning and then go to breakfast at 10:30am at the Plaza. Some don't like this strategy, but it works for us. We've not found the breakfast early enough to enjoy without seriously impacting valuable morning park time or as we call it "the golden hours". In WDW you can squeeze in a CP breakfast prior to park opening an still beat/join the rush, in DL it's much harder or impossible. One reason is the shear number of characters to see at the Plaza. We've had between 8-10 characters at breakfast each trip while at the CP it's only the Pooh team (4). Good luck and have fun.

Mike

We also do "brunch", works great!

 

[CateinPhoenix]

We also do around a 10:30-10:40 time. I wouldn't waste any of the first few hours on Minnie's breakfast. We did a late lunch at Ariel's Grotto and that was great also.

 

[agamble]

What time do the parks open when you're there? I'm thinking the park may not open until 10 mid-week in February.

We have done Minnie's during the early entry time before. It was not crowded at all, the food was hot, and the characters were plentiful. We also went about 90 minutes after opening during the summer and breakfast was much more crowded and there was some "fighting" over characters. The last time we went we had a late breakfast (around 10:20) at Storyteller's in the Grand. That day we were able to rope drop DL (8AM) to meet princesses, then hop over to DCA and enter right after their rope drop at 9AM for a few rides, and then walk to the hotel for our breakfast.

So I would think that doing a 10:30 at Minnie's or Ariel's would similarly allow you a bit of morning time IF the parks are open by 9AM. But if they don't open until 10, you may be better off changing at least one of your character meals to one of the hotel ones so you can eat before going to the parks and not miss any park time. Each hotel has their own breakfast with different characters.

 

[MikeRx]

Good point on opening time. We are now bound by busier times due to school breaks. We typically have a 7am EE or 8am entry to make the 10:30am brunch work. As very fortunate frequent Disney fliers we'd do this regardless of entry time as there is nothing we have to do anymore and the breakfast is part of the experience of the trip.
Mike

P.s. 3 sleeps...

 

[Sagginit]

I was just there and as we stayed onsite we got an extra hour each morning so we hit the parks at that time each day. They did have an entrance open for those of us with passes that allowed us in (MM and EMH) and then one turnstyle for those with ADRs (they had a list of names/ADRs to ensure only people let in where actually going to a meal) so they do normally have breakfast available starting at least an hour before the park opens, in fact one morning they let us in at ten minutes prior to our hour opening and people with ADRs were coming in too.

In DCA there was a flood of people when the hour was up, so I would only try this if you can get an ADR at the location at least 1.5 hours beforehand or you will be wasting park time (although maybe only 30 minutes or so). Out of the two I would keep Ariel's if you do want a park character meal. The early hour in DCA is only for hotel guests, so the crowds inside are much smaller whereas in DL it includes people with certain tickets so we found it was just as crowded during that hour as at RD, in fact it felt worse some days as they had so few rides open and Fantasyland was a nightmare (we got in line to Peter Pan before RD and still waited over 45 min on a low crowd day). Ariel's is near the pier area where you can quickly go to California Screaming and TSM. If you do the FP runner system someone can head out to RSR to get FP for that right away, but depending on the crowd level you may choose to go back and do the big things on the Pier before looping over to RSR.

I have done the brunch thing myself on a past trip. After a morning of trying to do a fast loop to the big rides and collect FPs it was a nice way to relax. It also meant that we could then hit up rides by 11:30/12 when people are starting to hit up lunch spots and leaving the ride lines.

 

[ADisneyFamilyof5]

We also do around a 10:30-10:40 time. I wouldn't waste any of the first few hours on Minnie's breakfast. We did a late lunch at Ariel's Grotto and that was great also.

I just booked our first Minnie's breakfast for 10:15. We normally do character breakfasts at the hotels for first seatings. Do you find that 10:30 time quality in terms of food and characters? I have heard some people feel rushed with less characters with later seatings.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Hi Everyone! You are going to get very sick of me by February (when our trip is) because I have so many questions! I am new to DLR and trying to switch from a WDW mindset to a DLR mindset.

I think we are going to do two character breakfasts: Minnie & Friends at the Plaza Inn and Ariel's Grotto. We are staying off-site.

My predicament is that I love character meals, but hate "wasting" park time sitting down to eat. We are early risers and will eat as early as possible so that we still have plenty of park time!

Here is my question: do either of these restaurants have times we can eat BEFORE park opening? For example, if the park opens at 9:00 AM, would they have some 8:00 or 8:30 reservations? I would love to be done eating at or soon after park opening time so we don't waste any time!

Thanks!

Ariel's Grotto usually has breakfast starting at 9 am. During lower seasons, DCA and DLR opens at 10 am (not counting EMH), so you can have breakfast in the park before it opens.

We did this during the week after Labor Day, they let us into the park early.