Lots of Breakfast ?s Early ADR or Later?

[mom2munchkin]

This is our first trip to WDW and we are on the regular DP. DH is a little concerned about breakfasts and having a good start to the day since we will be walking so much. Our usual routine at home is a normal breakfast (cereal, poptarts, bagals) at 7-8 a.m. and then lunch at 11-12 and then dinner at 5. I was thinking we could practice what I have read about here and do a pastry or breakfast bars we bring from home to start and then eat lunch around 11 or 12 at CS and then TS for dinner at 5-6 with a snack later in the day or evening.

DH thinks we need more of a breakfast than that and is worried that maybe there won't be enough food for the day?

My second question is if we do have a TS breakfast, what is the best time? I have an ADR for 8:20 at Tusker on one day and another one at 9:45 a.m. Just curious which one is the better one to keep? Is it better to eat before park opens and then be ready for rides right away? Or is it better to eat later in the morning b/c it will be our one TS meal for the day? Then we only have the CS and the snack left unless we pay OOP or use another CS or TS from another day?
TIA

 

[free2div]

the earlier..the better..we always try for the first one before the park opens, that way you are finished by the time it opens so you have a little head start.

 

[rlahansler]

In my experience, the earliest the breakfast ADR is the better. Being at the parks when they first open is key. We are going again in March and I have 3 early ADR's. Our first one is at Chrystal Palace in MK at 805a, I plan on being done eating by 850am so we can wait for the rope to drop (plus we will be in the middle of the park anyways). Our second ADR is at Tusker House in AK at 8am. Same thing here, done by 850am. Last, we have Cape May Cafe at our hotel at 730am, should be done in plenty of time to walk to Epcot or HS first thing in the am. Our family eats pretty fast, and I guess it all depends on how quick the servers are, etc.

 

[PictureJumpr]

When doing TS breakfasts (mostly they are buffet or family-style), we usually go with a later breakfast. More like brunch, in the 10:30 vicinity. It actually often turns into an actual brunch since they start changing the serving line over from breakfast food to lunch menu.

As a boost early in the morning, we use granola bars, fruit, peanut butter sandwiches, milk from the resort food court... and we hit the parks full force, ride and play for a couple of hours, and then settle in for breakfast/brunch. The added bonus of this is, we end up missing peak mealtimes. While everyone is packed into restaurants from 11:30-1 for lunch, we're still full from breakfast

Most people who've travelled with me in recent years come to realize that all of the activity, walking around in the outdoors, does tend to suppress appetite - I've had plenty of first-timers express concern about having enough food on the plan, and then find themselves with extra credits left at the end because we didn't feel like eating that much. I do share a lot on the plan - particularly with the CS credits, once you get a large drink and a dessert on top of the CS meal there is plenty to share, especially in places like Cosmic Ray's or Sunshine Seasons where they serve plated meals as CS options. Using your own water bottles (refilling them at fountains), carrying small snacks like granola bars or nuts, and making sure everyone eats well at mealtimes will help you 'conserve' snack credits too.

 

[latmck]

I was wondering about late breaksfast. This will will be our family first trip as well. I want to schedulle a late breaksfast/brunch at Princess Storybook Dining.
Questions: Do you feel rush when they are transition from breaksfast to lunch? Will we be able to see all the princesses?

 

[Dsnygrl1205]

What we usually do is a small breakfast using the snack earlier then a QS lunch around 1:00 and a later dinner too. I have found we almost always end up spending some OOP $$ on snacks at some point during the trip, though.
I agree with the others about the earlier Breakfasts ADR's. Getting into the parks before they're open is wonderful for picture opportunities!

 

[sydneysmom]

I vote for later breakfast. We made all our breakfast ADR's for 7:45 / 8:00 this past trip. Next trip, we swore we would make all our breakfast ADR's for 9:00 / 9:30. Rope drop isn't important to us.

I found that to get to all these ADR's on time, I had to get up at 5:45 / 6:00 am. Yeah, that is NOT what i want to do on vacation. Plus, with staying up late in the parks ....well, waking up very early wasn't the way to go. We also did DxDpl so we did a breakfast and (most nights) skipped lunch and had a 2 TS dinner. So a later breakfast would have been better in our case.

If you know you want to be at the park first thing for rope drop, I'd make them early. It's especially nice to get into MK first thing for pictures... I wouldn't trade that for anything. But for us, I think our ADR's at AK and Epcot we'll do a little later next time.

 

[ktlm]

It really depends on your kids and whether you are dealing with a time change. My DD (now 4) is not a morning person, and we found that even with just a one hour time change getting to a pre-park opening TS breakfast did not work for us at all (remember you have to leave your room an hour-or more- before that ADR). Getting to the parks at rope drop is difficult enough for her. Her first trip when she was 2 yrs 10 months, I wound up scrambling to see if I could trade out my 8:30 Tusker house for one after park opening. I got lucky and we got a 9:30.

What works best for us is having DH run down to the resort CS in the morning and grab a little something for us and pancakes for DD. We have also ordered from Garden Grocer and had cereal, fruit, yogurt and milk in the room for DD. Then we do a TS lunch around 11 or 12. We have found that gives us a nice break and energy to make it through the rest of the day. Plus it also winds DD down for a stroller nap (we do not do the afternoon break. We found out the 1st trip that even at 2, DD was a commando and the break left us with an angry child who wouldn't sleep for 2-3 hours. We have done 3 WDW trips and 1 DL trip with her and she does the parks open to close with stroller naps). Also DD is not really that fond of WDW CS (never met a chicken nugget she did not like UNTIL WDW), so she won't eat much of a CS meal, where she eats well at most of the TS. I think if we fed her CS at lunch much, she wouldn't eat enough to make it through the rest of the day.

I am not crazy about the post park opening breakfast, as it takes away the morning ride time when the lines are shorter. We are okay with it for Tusker House at AK, because we grap a FP for Safari which is right near the restaurant, and then there aren't really any little kid rides at that park to wait in line for. We usually do CS for dinner. Usually after a long day and a big lunch no one is that hungry, and if an evening ADR is too late, then she starts getting tired and doesn't have as much fun at the restaurant.

 

[ktlm]

I was wondering about late breaksfast. This will will be our family first trip as well. I want to schedulle a late breaksfast/brunch at Princess Storybook Dining.
Questions: Do you feel rush when they are transition from breaksfast to lunch? Will we be able to see all the princesses?

One of our trips, we did the very first lunch ADR at Akershus. It worked out well. Had enough time to do some stuff in FW (Nemo, Turtle Talk with Crush, the Land, Soarin), and then cross over for lunch and spend the afternoon in WD.

I do believe you would still see all the princesses if you had the last breakfast ADR. They have a couple of rooms. We were taken into the room where they were putting the lunch people, and we could still see people in the other room finishing up breakfast. I don't know if you would feel rushed as they were trying to empty out the breakfast people to start lunch (they won't seat lunch people in the room until all breakfast people are gone).

 

[havoc315]

From the differences in opinion, there is clearly no right or wrong answer.

But some notes --
-If you are getting the DDP for free, then you may not care how you use the meals. But if you are paying for the DDP, then it becomes a money-loser to use your TS credits for breakfast. The "best value" for use of TS credits, is typically for dinner.

-Don't underestimate using snack credits for breakfast. A snack credit can get you a bowl of cereal, a pastry, I believe a bagel and creamcheese. So you may be able to get an ample enough breakfast with your snack credit.

-The mornings are typically the best time of day to tour the parks. It is often difficult to schedule a TS breakfast AND still make it in time for rope-drop (if you planned on getting to rope drop). And.... Knowing that lines will grow as the morning moves on, I personally wouldn't want to sit down for a long breakfast at 9-10 am.

-A late large breakfast (10:30), or an early large lunch may be (11:00) may be enough to hold you over until dinner, without interfering with the best touring hours. Or, you may want to make your early lunch into your main large TS meal for the day. Knowing that you have a big early lunch coming, might help you survive on the smallish breakfast, and fill you up sufficiently that a CS dinner will easily suffice.

 

[havoc315]

From the differences in opinion, there is clearly no right or wrong answer.

But some notes --
-If you are getting the DDP for free, then you may not care how you use the meals. But if you are paying for the DDP, then it becomes a money-loser to use your TS credits for breakfast. The "best value" for use of TS credits, is typically for dinner.

-Don't underestimate using snack credits for breakfast. A snack credit can get you a bowl of cereal, a pastry, I believe a bagel and creamcheese. So you may be able to get an ample enough breakfast with your snack credit.

-The mornings are typically the best time of day to tour the parks. It is often difficult to schedule a TS breakfast AND still make it in time for rope-drop (if you planned on getting to rope drop). And.... Knowing that lines will grow as the morning moves on, I personally wouldn't want to sit down for a long breakfast at 9-10 am.

-A late large breakfast (10:30), or an early large lunch may be (11:00) may be enough to hold you over until dinner, without interfering with the best touring hours. Or, you may want to make your early lunch into your main large TS meal for the day. Knowing that you have a big early lunch coming, might help you survive on the smallish breakfast, and fill you up sufficiently that a CS dinner will easily suffice.

 

[OhThePain]

From the differences in opinion, there is clearly no right or wrong answer.

But some notes --
-If you are getting the DDP for free, then you may not care how you use the meals. But if you are paying for the DDP, then it becomes a money-loser to use your TS credits for breakfast. The "best value" for use of TS credits, is typically for dinner.

-Don't underestimate using snack credits for breakfast. A snack credit can get you a bowl of cereal, a pastry, I believe a bagel and creamcheese. So you may be able to get an ample enough breakfast with your snack credit.

-The mornings are typically the best time of day to tour the parks. It is often difficult to schedule a TS breakfast AND still make it in time for rope-drop (if you planned on getting to rope drop). And.... Knowing that lines will grow as the morning moves on, I personally wouldn't want to sit down for a long breakfast at 9-10 am.

-A late large breakfast (10:30), or an early large lunch may be (11:00) may be enough to hold you over until dinner, without interfering with the best touring hours. Or, you may want to make your early lunch into your main large TS meal for the day. Knowing that you have a big early lunch coming, might help you survive on the smallish breakfast, and fill you up sufficiently that a CS dinner will easily suffice.

I agree with everything this poster has said.

Sometimes we like to do an early TS breakfast (usually if it includes us getting into the park early) and sometimes we like the late breakfast. I usually pay for the breakfasts OOP since, as the PP said, there is no value of using a TS credit on the DDP if you are paying for the plan. We always have a TS dinner. When we have an early TS breakfast we usually end up using the CS mid-day. When we have more of a late morning/brunch ADR, we usually roll over our CS to a day when we have nothing planned for lunch and dinner. Also on the days we have the late morning ADR, we usually have a pastry and juice from the resorts food court and make it to the parks for RD.

 

[pixarmom]

This is our first trip to WDW and we are on the regular DP. DH is a little concerned about breakfasts and having a good start to the day since we will be walking so much. Our usual routine at home is a normal breakfast (cereal, poptarts, bagals) at 7-8 a.m. and then lunch at 11-12 and then dinner at 5. I was thinking we could practice what I have read about here and do a pastry or breakfast bars we bring from home to start and then eat lunch around 11 or 12 at CS and then TS for dinner at 5-6 with a snack later in the day or evening.

DH thinks we need more of a breakfast than that and is worried that maybe there won't be enough food for the day?

My second question is if we do have a TS breakfast, what is the best time? I have an ADR for 8:20 at Tusker on one day and another one at 9:45 a.m. Just curious which one is the better one to keep? Is it better to eat before park opens and then be ready for rides right away? Or is it better to eat later in the morning b/c it will be our one TS meal for the day? Then we only have the CS and the snack left unless we pay OOP or use another CS or TS from another day?
TIA

OP, we have three boys (ages pre-school to pre-teen) and we're always up early so we enjoy starting each day at rope drop. As a result, we usually have breakfast in the room. We no longer do the dining plan, and we have a TIW card, so next trip we did schedule 2 character breakfasts - both very early so that we can still make it to rope drop each morning. But when we were on the dining plan, we used to always have breakfast in the room - using snack credits and breakfast items we brought from home and we were always glad we saved our TS credits for dinner.

We don't do as many CS meals anymore because we switched from dining plan to TIW. But we used to do CS for every lunch, and we still do CS for lunch once in a while. When we do, we always try to eat around 11:15am. We do this for two reasons: 1) everyone is pretty hungry after a light breakfast in the room; and 2) the lines at CS places are very short (or don't exist!) and they get longer as you get closer to noon. We usually get a snack around 4pm, and make dinner ADRs for either 5:30 or 6pm.

If you decide to use a TS credit for breakfast, as many others have said, the timing depends on your family's touring style and whether you like to get up early and be at rope drop. As I mentioned, we're up early anyway and so it's not a problem for us to be at rope drop or an early breakfast. And we find that we can get on lots of rides with little or no wait and start collecting fastpasses. For some families, this isn't relaxing, but we think it's really fun. So if you do want to be up and out for rope drop, the 8:20 ADR would be ideal. (We're doing Tusker at 8am for a 9am AK opening and Cape May at 7:30 for a 9am DHS opening.)

Whatever you decide, good luck with the planning, and have a great time!