The Crystal Palace

[cheryterese]

Would you recommend the breakfast or the lunch? How long does it take? We've never done character dining. Right now I have an 8:10 breakfast ADR on a day when the park opens at 9am. Would we be done by 9 or would that be rushing it? There's a lot of availability for lunch so maybe we should do that instead. Thoughts?

How is the character interaction here? My 3 kids are all Pooh fanatics!! It was closed on our visit last January, so we're excited to go this time.

 

[Disneyfreak616]

You could definitely be out at 9. Especially if you check in about 5 minutes early. I highly recommend the breakfast, IMO best character breakfast at WDW.

 

[PoohsFan1]

Keep your breakfast ADR, you will definitely be out by 9. We loved our breakfast there in September and we are going back on our upcoming trip. Having ADRs before the park opens is awesome because you can get really great pictures of the castle/Main Street before the rest of the crowds come in. Have a great time.

 

[saraheeyore]

definitly keep the breakfast. its great to go in before park opens. crystal palace is great for any meal though in my opinion. we will be there in 3 days

 

[Catie.Hiltz]

I agree go for breakfast-its a great experience-good food, atmosphere, and did I mention the food? Ha the characters are great too-everyone loves Pooh Bear!

 

[ncc1701]

Another vote to keep the breakfast. You can get a couple of great photos with your family on an almost empty Main Street.
A CP breakfast is one my & DH's must do.Food has always been tasty with a good selection of items. One advantage over lunch is you won't have to tell your chidren "we can't go on this ride we have to go eat"

 

[cheryterese]

Thanks, everyone! I will keep our 8:10 breakfast ADR. My kids eat the most at breakfast and it will be neat to walk down an almost empty Main St!!!

Do we just arrive at the MK gate about 15 minutes before that and show them our ADR?

One advantage over lunch is you won't have to tell your chidren "we can't go on this ride we have to go eat"

Good point! When we were at MK for our first family trip all they wanted to do was "ride rides!" We actually brought packed lunches and snacks for lunch so they could just eat in the strollers when they were hungry in transit from one ride to the next. They never wanted to stop!

 

[Singledad]

Thanks, everyone! I will keep our 8:10 breakfast ADR. My kids eat the most at breakfast and it will be neat to walk down an almost empty Main St!!!

Do we just arrive at the MK gate about 15 minutes before that and show them our ADR?

15 min should work you just have to state you have an adr for Crystal place. the line on the far right should be open for adr people. we arrived 20 min early to allow more time to snap a few photos and plus we had to go all the way to the castle.

trust me, you are going to LOVE IT!

oh and a tip to get out quicker is ask for the bill when you first get your drinks. then you can pay right away rather than waiting at the end.

 

[cheryterese]

15 min should work you just have to state you have an adr for Crystal place. the line on the far right should be open for adr people. we arrived 20 min early to allow more time to snap a few photos and plus we had to go all the way to the castle.

trust me, you are going to LOVE IT!

oh and a tip to get out quicker is ask for the bill when you first get your drinks. then you can pay right away rather than waiting at the end.

Thanks!! Good tip on the bill. I want to be sure to be out by 9am so we can get to Dumbo! The kids are all early risers, so it won't be a problem to get there even earlier to get some good pictures! I'm so excited, it's ridiculous! All of my kids have gone through a Pooh obsession and my 2 year old is currently in the midst of it. My 6 year old said he would like to do that one best because "all of the Pooh characters are nice". I was so dissapointed when it was closed on our first trip.

 

[kathie859]

Seeing the park virtually empty is worth the early ADR. Like another poster, we love the food at CP and have always had great service. I hope you like this as much as we do

 

[mpetti]

Another vote for Breakfast!!! You will love it and will be done by 9am. Enjoy.

 

[docg]

Really love the breakfast as it is one of the only Breakfast Buffets that have an omelete station. I personally hate eggs that have already been cooked sitting in a warming tray. Also love the characters as a bonus Enjoy and don't worry about the timing, it all works out with Disney's magic.

 

[JMJ3553]

Now I am excited too.

I was going to book the CP for lunch and had my reservation all set. I was looking up posting regarding the place in general and found this. I changed our reservation to breakfast at 8:15am. I am excited to walk into the part without it being too bustling!

Too bad I have to wait until November

 

[koolaidmoms]

Just a note on I think it matters when you go if you will be out by 9:00am. We were there this past Saturday morning, June 4th, it was mobbed! We knew this was going to be a busy day and made ADRs because of this. Our ADRs were for 8:15am with a 9:00am park opening. We were at the park by 7:30am. They held about 100-125 of us outside the gates until 7:45 am then herded us into a waiting area right in front of the gift shop on the left side of the entryway. They waited until 7:55 am to let us go in the park.

Some of the people around us had 8:00am ADRs at Crystal Palace and CRT. They made it to the restaurants after 8:00am as many could not run. We were in line to check in at 8:05 and we still waited until almost 8:30am to be seated.

The food was adequate but not great. We are glad we did it once but will not be going again for quite awhile. We far preferred 1900 Park Fare for breakfast.

If you are going at an extremely busy time plan ahead that you may be running behind. We were out of CP by 9:30am (it took forever for the waiter to bring our cards and check back). But, we were still able to do all of Fantasyland except for Dumbo, my kids are too old, and the carousel by 11:30am.

Good luck!

 

[mmullena70]

I can't recommend the CP breakfast highly enough! We love getting pics of the castle with no crowds in front of it. And even at that time of the morning there will CM's there to take photopass pics or pics with your camera of your whole group.

The character interaction is great, too. Think about it, the characters are fresh right at the beginning, so you'll get the highest energy level of the day!

 

[Cap'nJack36]

Crystal Palace breakfast, but I miss the breakfast lasagna.

 

[mmullena70]

Crystal Palace breakfast, but I miss the breakfast lasagna.

What? No breakfast lasagna? That was my husband's favorite!

 

[disneymommy78]

We love the CP breakfast. We also love lunch though, because it's a nice break from the heat and crowds. Honestly, Crystal Palace is our favorite Character Meal. You truly can't go wrong!

 

[starrysky]

CP is the only character meal DH will go to, we had an early ADR and it was so worth it to see the park so empty. We made sure we had about 20mins before our ADR time to get the photos we wanted. I have one of fantasy land empty, just walk through the castle as if you were going to cindys royal table and you can get a great photo just at the bottom of the stairs.

Food wise CP is great and we never felt rushed. Good selection and all fresh. Service was good too, they even let us meet pooh away from our table as we were getting food at the time he came to our table.

 

[cheryterese]

Thanks, everyone!

If we arrive at 7:30am for our 8:10 ADR do you think that would be enough time for pictures? Will they let us in at 7:30 or hold us at the gate for awhile? We are going the last week of October.

How many ADR's does Disney typically take for a 5 minute time slot (it looks like Crystal Palace takes them for every 5 minutes)? Just wondering how many other groups will be waiting to get seated the same time we are. We only did 2 ADR's on our first trip - we waited about 10 minutes for each (Biergarten lunch and Tony's dinner), being there 15 minutes before the ADR.