Pre-Park reservations?

[CarolinaDD1997]

I just read there's something called Pre-Park reservations? That means you can actually enter to the park earlier than the rest? What parks and restaurants have that? Is it worth it? How early can I make the reservation?
Im really sorry if this has been answered before, I just won't find a list of the places and if im right that they let you in before everyone else.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

What parks and restaurants have that? Is it worth it? How early can I make the reservation? . . . if im right that they let you in before everyone else.

1) All parks have a pre-opening meal, except during some EMH days.
. . . on EMH days, you normally can only enter at the Rope Drop time
. . . example: ADR at 8:05am and Rope Drop at 8:00am, you get in about 8:00am
2) For the most part, the character meals (and BoG in MK) have eats at 8:00am or 8:05am.
3) If the park opens at 9:00am, you can enter about 15-minutes prior to your ADR. *

* If you have an ADR at Tusker in AK any time prior to 9:20am, you can still enter as early as 7:45am.

 

[JWigs]

Hi,

Yes some restaurants who do breakfast (like Be Our Guest) will let you do a 8 am ADR and MK doesn't open til 9 on most days off season. So you do get in early but I think only 10-15 mins before the reservation to get to the restaurant. I am doing this in March but assuming after you're done eating you can be in the park but no rides are up and running until 9.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

It sounds too good to be true, but it is! We like pre-park opening ADRs for a couple reasons. First, I love the peacefulness of the parks early in the morning. Also, I like that if you enjoy your breakfast before the park opens, you don't "waste" park touring time eating. (And those first couple hours in the morning are prime time for low waits on rides!)

• At Magic Kingdom, you can make pre-park opening ADRs at Be Our Guest (counter service), Cinderella's Royal Table (character meal - princesses), and Crystal Palace (character meal - Winnie the Pooh).
• At Animal Kingdom, you can make pre-park opening ADRs at Tusker House, which is a character meal. You can also book breakfast at Rainforest Cafe, which is at the park entrance, but I'm not sure if that "counts" since you don't enter the park to eat there.
• At Epcot, you can make pre-park opening ADRs at Garden Grill (character meal - classic Disney characters) and Akershus (character meal - princesses).
• At Hollywood Studios, pre-park opening ADRs are at Hollywood and Vine, which is a character meal with Disney Junior characters.

Of these, I have only done Akershus and Be Our Guest before park opening in recent memory. The Akershus breakfast was one of the highlights of our trip last year. It was just beautiful to walk through an empty Epcot and enjoy the topiary displays in the peace and quiet. After last year, I am firmly on the pre-park breakfast bandwagon. We have Be Our Guest, Tusker House, an Garden Grill on our list this year!

As a previous poster said, the benefits of a quiet park and eating before touring time begins are all for naught if park hours change so that the park opens at 8:00 AM, but I think it's worth the while to get the ADRs anyway.

With any Disney restaurant that takes ADRs, you can make them up to 180 days ahead of time. For most of these places, to have an early ADR, you do want to call several months ahead of time.

This podcast/blog post is a good primer on early morning ADRs: http://wdwprepschool.com/how-pre-park-opening-breakfast-reservations-work-at-disney-world-prep102/

 

[Nancyg56]

We really like prepark opening breakfasts too, if we can book them early enough. I must say that we loved Akershus a lot when we after there in August. It was very good, and Epcot was lovely!

BOG is also a great pre park opening ADR to have. We generally head over to Peter Pan because we love tha SB queue, but I have heard that the mine train is up and running too.
Crystal Palace is a fun meal to have as well, and positions you in the other side of the park.


Tusker House in AK is one of our favorite breakfasts. The food is really good as is the character interaction.

 

[Hopefully]

A PP mentioned it a bit but I want to highlight one thing. Disney will release park schedules up to a bit more than 6 months in advance. Folks look & then plan their pre park opening ADR's. It is COMMON for Disney to change park opening times earlier during anticipated high crowd times. This happens around the holidays, spring break etc. They often do this just weeks ahead.
The DIS is then full of folks furious that their breakfast is no longer pre opening and in fact they will miss prime touring time.
This happens ALL the TIME. just know this can happen
Have a Great Vacation

 

[CarolinaDD1997]

Wow! thank you all for all these info! It seems like pre park ADR are great.

BOG is also a great pre park opening ADR to have. We generally head over to Peter Pan because we love tha SB queue, but I have heard that the mine train is up and running too.

I'd love that plan. How long does BoG breakfast takes? Is it possible to be done by 9 am, so we can get into either PPF or Mine Train before everyone else?

At Epcot, you can make pre-park opening ADRs at Garden Grill (character meal - classic Disney characters) and Akershus (character meal - princesses).

I'll be going to Epcot on a 9 am park opening day (or that's what it seems). During the summer Soarin will be open already, so is it worth to do Garden Grill at 8 am so we can be done by 9 am and do Soaring with no line?

A PP mentioned it a bit but I want to highlight one thing. Disney will release park schedules up to a bit more than 6 months in advance. Folks look & then plan their pre park opening ADR's. It is COMMON for Disney to change park opening times earlier during anticipated high crowd times. This happens around the holidays, spring break etc. They often do this just weeks ahead.

In order to avoid that, is it possible to do two different breakfast reservations? Like, lets say my plan was to do a 7:30 am Kona, but also do a 8:00 am pre-park ADR at Garden Grill? is it possible to do that and then some weeks before leave one? Or Disney won't let you?

Some more advice guys! I had planned for an August day to do
8 am - 9:30 am (EMH) Hollywood Studios
10 am - 2:30 pm Blizzard Beach
3:00 pm - 10 pm Hollywood Studios again.

Should I change that morning of EMH at HS for a MK Pre park Reservation at BoG in order to have the park free for pictures of just my family, Mine Train and meet Merida with no time? Or not worth it, and just stick to my HS plan?
Obviously HS is much near to BB, so being at MK would take us really long to get to BB at that time. Btw we will be staying at the Poly.

 

[Nancyg56]

Wow! thank you all for all these info! It seems like pre park ADR are great.


I'd love that plan. How long does BoG breakfast takes? Is it possible to be done by 9 am, so we can get into either PPF or Mine Train before everyone else?


I'll be going to Epcot on a 9 am park opening day (or that's what it seems). During the summer Soarin will be open already, so is it worth to do Garden Grill at 8 am so we can be done by 9 am and do Soaring with no line?


In order to avoid that, is it possible to do two different breakfast reservations? Like, lets say my plan was to do a 7:30 am Kona, but also do a 8:00 am pre-park ADR at Garden Grill? is it possible to do that and then some weeks before leave one? Or Disney won't let you?

Some more advice guys! I had planned for an August day to do
8 am - 9:30 am (EMH) Hollywood Studios
10 am - 2:30 pm Blizzard Beach
3:00 pm - 10 pm Hollywood Studios again.

Should I change that morning of EMH at HS for a MK Pre park Reservation at BoG in order to have the park free for pictures of just my family, Mine Train and meet Merida with no time? Or not worth it, and just stick to my HS plan?
Obviously HS is much near to BB, so being at MK would take us really long to get to BB at that time. Btw we will be staying at the Poly.

First, you cannot make ADR's that close together, one may be canceled.

I would never count on Soarin to have no line. Book a FP and if you are out and in place (you are in The Land, so that is good) you go twice. Garden Grill is a favorite, so no matter what, you are in the park early with a lovely character experience to begin the day. Eat and enjoy...do not rush.

BOG is as long as you want it to be. No matter what time your Pre Park ADR is, get to the MK entrance early so you can enter early. They really do not separate the times too much so you can check in and head over. I do not preorder, but the food does come out fast and because it is CS, you are not at the mercy of servers getting your check to you. You have already paid. This Castle is lovely, so plan to check it out, and then head to whichever attraction you want. I have never seen PP open before RD, but I have heard that there are times tha Mine Train will do so. In any case, you will be in line before the RD folks, so your ahead of many.

I will only weigh in on your BB day because I think you are inning too much. WE do not go to the water parks, so I cannot tell you what the experience is there, but I can tell you that I would rather chew glass and die than start at one park for a hour, head to a water park for 3 hours, and then back to a park. No matter how close anything is, you need to factor getting in and out of each park, as well as transprtation to and from each park. I would start at the water park and end at DHS. Skip RD DHS.

The same holds true for changing to a pre park opening at MK that day. You need to eat and then get in line for the character M&G, which may not start at 9 AM. There is no alone time in a park anymore. The MK has three pre park opening breakfasts opened, and each one holds a lot of people. If you book that meal, stay at MK for longer than an hour or so. You are going to waste a lot of time in travel.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

in order to have the park free for pictures of just my family, Mine Train and meet Merida with no time?

It's very rare you get a wholly "empty" shot, even with a PPO breakfast. BOG packs them in. It was more common when it was just CP and CRT. BOG is so high volume. If you think part of the "value" of a $22/person breakfast is an empty park, you will likely not find that value in practice.

 

[ariane37]

We had an 8am BOG PPO breakfast and we finished eating by 8:35. I can't tell you exactly what time they let us in or what time we got our food, but we were one of the first in the castle and we did wait a bit for our food. We'd pre-ordered and a few tables who sat after us received their food first. We didn't wait LONG, just pointing out it took a bit and we didn't rush eating and were still done by 8:35. We went over to 7DMT where about 10 people (not parties, people) were waiting. They let us on for the first ride at 8:45. We rode immediately a 2nd time and when we exited after that, the RD crowd had arrived. So it's possible to ride MT and get over to Merida with a PPO 8am ADR. We took a somewhat empty picture of the castle and a nice sort of empty picture of Main St. while standing on the deck (?) balcony area ?) of the castle. After years of trips and never doing a PPO ADR, we did enjoy it and felt it was worth doing.

I have to agree with Nancy g56 about your HS-BB-HS day. We have yet to do a water park, but 90 minutes in a park is a bit rushed. Even when it's just DH and I and we do 3-4 parks in a day, we're in each for longer than that. Figure it's close to 30 minutes just to enter/exit the park and that's if crowds aren't crazy and you're not entering or exiting while people are all gathered somewhere for a parade or show and you have to walk through or around them. Is there another day you can try for a PPO MK ADR? And if you can't do BB another day and want to stick with HS EMH, I'd just give yourself more wiggle room as far as what time you get to BB and leave there

 

[jmkjr72]

I love pre park adrs
But I will say with bog doing breakfast there are a lot more people in the mk for pre park then when it was just crt and cp
Years ago it was great you could get pics with it looking like you were the only one in mk
Most people would move right off to the side and try and stay out of pics being taken
But people have become more ad more self centered and I bet bog allows 3 times as many people in for prepark adrs then the other 2 combined

 

[CarolinaDD1997]

Thanks everyone for your advice!

I would never count on Soarin to have no line. Book a FP and if you are out and in place (you are in The Land, so that is good) you go twice. Garden Grill is a favorite, so no matter what, you are in the park early with a lovely character experience to begin the day. Eat and enjoy...do not rush.

Is there another day you can try for a PPO MK ADR? And if you can't do BB another day and want to stick with HS EMH, I'd just give yourself more wiggle room as far as what time you get to BB and leave there

So...I've reschedule my whole WDW plan and my only day I could do a pre park ADR is our day at Epcot. The park will open 9 am, and we could get a 8 am reservation for Garden Grill (in a week I will be able to do all my ADRs!)
We've never actually been there. We always ate breakfast at Sunshine Seasons but now i've read its closed, and even if they do open it when Soarin opens up, we still would love to try a new place.

Can you guys tell me about Garden Grill? And do you think if we start 8 am, we will be done by around 9ish-9:15 and do Soarin with no FP+? Of course no rushing.
I would love to book a FP+ but by August, Frozen Ever After, so we all know that ride will be Tier 1 lol. And probably have more line than Soarin. What do you think? Should I do that or just do my ADR for Garden grill 8 am, Soarin FP+ 9:30 am and then try doing the regular line for Frozen Ever After.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Thanks everyone for your advice!





So...I've reschedule my whole WDW plan and my only day I could do a pre park ADR is our day at Epcot. The park will open 9 am, and we could get a 8 am reservation for Garden Grill (in a week I will be able to do all my ADRs!)
We've never actually been there. We always ate breakfast at Sunshine Seasons but now i've read its closed, and even if they do open it when Soarin opens up, we still would love to try a new place.

Can you guys tell me about Garden Grill? And do you think if we start 8 am, we will be done by around 9ish-9:15 and do Soarin with no FP+? Of course no rushing.
I would love to book a FP+ but by August, Frozen Ever After, so we all know that ride will be Tier 1 lol. And probably have more line than Soarin. What do you think? Should I do that or just do my ADR for Garden grill 8 am, Soarin FP+ 9:30 am and then try doing the regular line for Frozen Ever After.

Reviews of the Garden Grill breakfast have been positive. If you like cinnamon sticky bun and nutella on your waffles, you will be happy.

With a third lane at Soarin' and the positioning on GG, I think you can do Soarin' without a FP+ if you want Frozen or Test Track.

 

[ariane37]

Thanks everyone for your advice!





So...I've reschedule my whole WDW plan and my only day I could do a pre park ADR is our day at Epcot. The park will open 9 am, and we could get a 8 am reservation for Garden Grill (in a week I will be able to do all my ADRs!)
We've never actually been there. We always ate breakfast at Sunshine Seasons but now i've read its closed, and even if they do open it when Soarin opens up, we still would love to try a new place.

Can you guys tell me about Garden Grill? And do you think if we start 8 am, we will be done by around 9ish-9:15 and do Soarin with no FP+? Of course no rushing.
I would love to book a FP+ but by August, Frozen Ever After, so we all know that ride will be Tier 1 lol. And probably have more line than Soarin. What do you think? Should I do that or just do my ADR for Garden grill 8 am, Soarin FP+ 9:30 am and then try doing the regular line for Frozen Ever After.

We did GG breakfast in Nov. and really enjoyed it! I have a review of it in my Nov. TR if you want to take a look, the link is in my signature

We did have a bit of a wait but our ADR was 10:15; hopefully you wouldn't have a wait with an 8:00 one. We were technically done eating in 45 minutes so as long as you've seen the characters you can make Soarin'. With a 9am open they do often let quests in anywhere from 8:45-8:55 so you may still have a little bit of a wait, but I think you'd be safe using your Tier 1 for TT or Frozen.

 

[Araminta18]

Thanks everyone for the advice--super helpful for a Disney newbie like me!

 

[Nancyg56]

Thanks everyone for your advice!





So...I've reschedule my whole WDW plan and my only day I could do a pre park ADR is our day at Epcot. The park will open 9 am, and we could get a 8 am reservation for Garden Grill (in a week I will be able to do all my ADRs!)
We've never actually been there. We always ate breakfast at Sunshine Seasons but now i've read its closed, and even if they do open it when Soarin opens up, we still would love to try a new place.

Can you guys tell me about Garden Grill? And do you think if we start 8 am, we will be done by around 9ish-9:15 and do Soarin with no FP+? Of course no rushing.
I would love to book a FP+ but by August, Frozen Ever After, so we all know that ride will be Tier 1 lol. And probably have more line than Soarin. What do you think? Should I do that or just do my ADR for Garden grill 8 am, Soarin FP+ 9:30 am and then try doing the regular line for Frozen Ever After.

I can't speculate on Soarin and the FP situation, but I would chance it if I had a Princess who was a Frozen Fan. I will say that an emptier Epcot is a lovely walk IMO, believe that Epcot is an underrated experience in terms of the details you get to take in when there are fewer people in the way. I really think that GG is a great way to begin a trip and I know that I will be booking this meal for my girls in December. The Chipmunks are fun!

 

[johnmcbride3]

Question, we have an 8:00am at H&V and HS opens at 8am that day. Will we be allowed in early or at least get to front of line so we're not late?

 

[PSULion]

We had an 8:00 ADR at Garden Grill last month. We were completely done, paid and everything, by about 8:45 without rushing AT ALL. We would have easily beat the rope drop crowd to Soarin (it was closed when we were there) so save your FP for Test Track. Garden Grill became our favorite character breakfast!