Sitdown breakfast a waste of time?

[Amrita]

I notice a lot of people may breakfast reservations, but doesn't this waste a lot of time if you plan on getting to a park early. Would my family of four, including a 5 year old and 3 year, be better off getting a quick breakfast to go? Also, Ohanas seems like a lot of money for little choice, is Kona cafe better for sitdown breakfast? Thanks for suggestions.

 

[TooBoyz4us]

I really think this is one of those personal preference things.
What my family enjoys, is to have maybe one or possibly two sit down breakfasts during our trip, and on those days we usually skip lunch in lue of a snack in its place......then we plan a big table service dinner for that evening.

On the days we don't do sit down breakfasts, we will either grab a breakfast bar that I had brought along, or skip bfast entirely and plan an early lunch.

Those folks with small children, usually have to provide them something for breakfast,where as people with older kids, like me, can easily skip breakfast or do the bfast bar thing.

I have never had bfast at either Ohanas or Kona so I can't help you with that, but I bet someone here will

 

[aterriq]

Depends on where you are eating.

Say you are eating at CP at 730 and the park opens at 9 that morning. You get to enter MK early and could take lots of pictures with no one around. Still finish and walk around before the park opens to the public.

Its a choice of whats important. Some people only need two meals a day so a big breakfast would be a good start. Then you have a small snack at lunch and keep going.

Seeing the characters is a big plus for some who want their kids to get an autograph, picture and spend some time with the characters.

Different people have things they want to do and see. Their plan for a perfect trip may not be yours, just different.

 

[WVParkfan]

We only have one character meal per visit to WDW, and we always have it at breakfast. When we're touring the parks, we would rather spend all day having fun, rather than stopping for a dinner reservations. Plus, after a big dinner, we usually feel more like watching a movie and taking a nap.

We've been to O'Hana's breakfast, and Cinderella's Royal Table. This year, we'll be having breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Each of these breakfasts have all been scheduled for around 8am. That gives us the rest of the day for fun.

 

[dawnball]

It depends on your family, how you tour and the kind of stamina your kids have. For example - a character breakfast in the parks before opening might be a good idea, especially if you're done eating before opening. No park time wasted an some character time for the kids. When my daughter was 17 months, she was normally a late sleeper, so we would pry her out of bed *much* earlier than usual, hit the parks for the opening hour or two and then take a break for a late breakfast so she could recharge. It gave her the energy to happily do more instead of being miserable.

My neice doesn't eat well on the go, she has to sit and take her time. So a sitting breakfast (CS or TS) is the only way to get her to eat enough that she isn't cranky-hungry all morning. On vacation, I like to take it slow some days. Sleep in, a liesurely breakfast that's something I wouldn't make at home, meander around and take in the sights..

If you're ride people, and want to do all rides, al the time, then a TS breakfast might not make much sense for your family. What you're paying for at 'Ohana's breakfast is the characters btw - Kona is character-free.

 

[Tinker74]

I think the same ...I wouldn't want to waste the optimum park touring time sitting in a restaurant. Especially as we are going in August..the heat will be easier to manage in the mornings.
For this reson I only have 1 breakfast arranged...CRT ..But I made sure it was before park opening so we still won't miss any park time.
Most of my TS meals are for dinner..but I do have 2 lunches...CP and PSB in NOrway. I know PSB does do a breakfast that is popular but it would be such a waste of time to do this when future world will be at its emptiest.
So I have it saved for a 12.50pm lunch.

 

[DisneyArk]

I agree that it's a matter of personal preference. I would also consider the length of your stay. If you're only going to the parks for 4 days then I would skip a sit down breakfast. We personally like to get to the parks early and ride a few rides before we stop and eat.

We typically eat a quick breakfast in the room and head to the parks early. On our last trip my sons were 3 and 5 and we did not eat any sit down breakfasts. We did eat several early lunches though.

My sons love breakfast food, so on our trip in May (8 nights) we are eating breakfast at Ohanas. That's the only ADR we have for breakfast. This will be our first trip to try Kona and Ohanas, so I can't give a recommendation.

 

[Daryl]

I LOVE Character Breakfasts, but It is nearly impossible to get a moderate to large family moving early enough to make a priority seating and then get to a park at rope drop. What has worked for me is booking an 8:00am Priority seating reservation inside a park. This works well at the Crystal Palace in the MK. By the time we are done with our meal its about 9:20 and we are already inside the park. I feel like we waste less time this way.

 

[drogerstn]

Three options that we consider regarding sitdown breakfast:

1. Schedule a breakfast inside the park before park opening
2. Schedule a "late" breakfast to eat after visiting a park early morning
3. Schedule a breakfast during a "non-park" day or a morning when not visiting a park

I don't know if we'll have any completely non-park days with the new ticketing system since additional days cost so little if buying expiring tickets greater than 4-days. Some folks in our family tend to get tired after 3-4 days straight of park visits, so I am planning to have a day in which we sleep late and do a sitdown breakfast and maybe go to a park in the afternoon or evening.

If we schedule a late breakfast, its usually on a day in which we go to a park for the morning EMH and expect the park to get crowded at around 11am.

We usually do a quick breakfast and often eat items in our room that we purchased at Wal-Mart or a grocery store. This saves time because some eat while others are using the bathroom area and we don't have to wait in any lines to order or pay. Saves a little money too.

I haven't been to Kona Cafe. We ate at Ohana Polynesian character breakfast years ago and it was fun and a lot of food. I thought there were some other items which aren't listed at DIS Menu like pancakes This was about 14 years ago, so maybe someone more current can update

 

[DisneyDadFaNaTic]

My DS (age 7 now) loves the Character Breakfasts. Chef Mickey's has been a favorite of ours. If your children are into characters than breakfast is the way to go. You can get in early to certain areas with the breakfast (I'm thinking of Cinderella's Castle at MK and Restaurantasaurus at AK). So it depends on what you look to accomplish with Breakfast - something to get out of the way or another way to enjoy your trip. Anything you choose will be right for you.

Good Luck!

 

[IwannaseeMickey]

I personally think it is a waste of time...I'd rather do a quick bfast in the room, and then eat lunch and dinner out. We brought along one box of cereal and bowls to reuse, and a few bfast bar type things. My kids were happy w/ this and I'm not into eating much in the morning.

We did do one bfast and probably will do one on our next trip, but that is all! I will say on the one we did (CP on our last day), I was very glad we weren't wasting park time...we'd already been there a week, and were just going to ride a few rides and eat w/ Pooh. We ended up riding a few rides, eating and waiting to SEE Pooh for 1 hour and 10 min. Actually, we waited that long to see any characters at all in an half empty restarant. Not sure why they took so long to get to our side, but I would have been ticked if we were wanting to get out and do some park things.

 

[TommyTutone]

I lean on the waste of time side. We have one breakfast planned since it will be a character breakfast at the Beach Resort we are staying at, but otherwise, my intention is to have two people in our party visit the concierge lounge and eat while the other two get showered/dressed, and then trade off and then hit the parks at a reasonably early hour.

 

[MHTeacher]

I think it is just a matter of personal preference. You have to eat though at some time. We have never had a sit down breakfast every day of every vacation. We will have 1 or 2. We usually book it for late around 10:00-10:30, so it serves as breakfast/lunch. Then we eat an early dinner around 5:00-6:00. On the other days, we just grab cereal or a pop tart in the room.

May 2001-All Star Sports
July 2003-CSR
Nov/Dec 2005-Wilderness Lodge
May 2007-

 

[WVParkfan]

I personally think it is a waste of time...I'd rather do a quick bfast in the room, and then eat lunch and dinner out.

I'm glad some people think like you... that way, you guys are "wasting time" in the evening for several hours at dinner, while we're still in the parks having fun. It sure helps to keep it less crowded for us during the nice, cool evenings! And, since we've had a big breakfast, we have all of the energy in the world to keep on going all day.

 

[drogerstn]

... And, since we've had a big breakfast, ....

So this is why the crowds are so small early in the morning.

Thank You

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Having done both Kona Cafe an O'Hana's for breakfast I would say that Kona's is waaaaay longer. The food is great but no quicker. At O'Hana's at least the kids are entertained and it actually was a quicker meal for us. We do the breakfasts on some days because our kids are young (3,2,5months) and they do not want to wait in line for 30 minutes to see a character in the park. This way they see who they want, take pictures and aren't that crazed about it at MK. That being said- we schedule our breafasts early so we can come back to the resort in the afternoon when it is too hot for us and the kids need a break.

 

[poohraedopey]

We also did sit downs in the park to be in before opening. The 20 minutes between our CP meal and the official MK opening were awesome for us!

 

[tony609]

Everybody eats at some point...lol wether its b'fast/lunch/dinner/snack whatever....

Some people like b'fast some like dinner..either way it cuts into park time....right? Even if its a hot dog for the parade.....its cutting into the ride expirence. Different people have there own ideas about Disney magic. Personally I love the character meals. I prefer b'fast to any others. I like doing the b'fast right before the park opens..its great for photo ops too. Last year we had a CP ADR at 9:45..we got into the park at about 8:45....we walked over to tomorrowland...and we got to ride Buzz,COP,TTA and stitch all before b'fast..we basically finished tomorrowland..it was great for us. After b'fast it still wasn't crowded...we walked onto everything for about the next hour POC,Splash,HM.....we loved it!