Thoughts on timing of breakfast

[dancin'bec]

My 60 day window opens tomorrow. Want to book Minnie's Breakfast at the Plaza. If the earliest reservation I can get is for 20 mins before park opening (this will be on a Mon), and my goal this morning is to do Hyperspace Mt, Star Tours, and the Launch Bay, should I try for the earliest opening and then hit up Tomorrowland, or get in at rope drop, do Tomorrowland and have a later reservation? Anyone know the last seating time? Thanks

 

[figment_jii]

I think the last seating is usually around 11:00 am. They re-open for lunch around noon (they're one of the later locations), so they need to clear out the breakfast guests by then. If you opt for the last seating, there have been some intermittent reports about whether or not guests felt rushed or had a chance to see all of the characters.

I don't think Launch Bay opens at the same time as the rest of the park. I was scrolling through some random days that have hours listed and it seems to open at 10:00 am regardless of when the park opens.

For Tomorrowland, I don't think it makes a huge difference when whether you eat first or go to TL first, other than, I'd probably want to some to digest the buffet breakfast before riding HSM and Star Tours. So, I would probably consider going to TL right at opening and try to ride HSM and Star Tours first before breakfast. Maybe grab a FP for Star Tours on the way to HSM and hoping that the time works out. So I would look to make a breakfast ADR for somewhere around 60 to 75 minutes after park opening. Otherwise, I would make the earliest breakfast ADR possible and then visit TL after breakfast. The lines build, but there are FP for Star Tours and HSM and while HSM FP are popular, they seem to be lasting at least a few hours after opening.

For Fantasyland, I would probably opt to head to the rides (especially Peter Pan) right at opening. That attraction's lines gets long quickly and then stays long throughout the day. Right at opening (although, it often reaches 30 to 45 minutes within the first 15 minutes of the day) is your best bet for the shortest wait.

 

[MaggieS79]

Good question - following! Our window opens today and I'm having trouble deciding too, though I'm pretty sure we'll be heading into fantasyland first with little ones... Looking forward to the responses! Thanks for asking!

 

[SMD]

There's really nothing special in Launch Bay that you have to run there first to do. And as PP said, it doesn't open when the park opens anyway. If you make your reservation just after opening you could do HSM, grab an FP for later, then do Launch Bay after breakfast.

 

[sherilaine]

We have 10AM reservations at Minnie's for a Saturday when park opens at 7AM for EMH and MM - our plan is to be there very early so as to be able to take advantage of our magic morning and then once we've done lots of rides to head over and have a nice late breakfast with some characters. We have done the 'first seating of the day' a few times so we are fine with showing up while the show is in full swing and taking our time seeing the characters. If you book the first reservation on a day where there is no early entry, then yes, you will be 20 minutes before park opening. You won't likely get in any earlier than all the other guests who are let in around half an hour before to go wait at the rope at the end of main street. You will be given a button though so you can pass the rope and go directly to Plaza Inn for your breakfast. I found to get the most of your time there you want to spend at least an hour and of course you want to make sure you eat enough to last you awhile - that being the case you are likely going out into the park with a full tummy after the park has been open for about 40 minutes or more. At that point ride lines will already been a certain length and at that point you likely don't want to ride some of the more intense rides on a full stomach.

 

[MICKEYFIL]

We have 10AM reservations at Minnie's for a Saturday when park opens at 7AM for EMH and MM - our plan is to be there very early so as to be able to take advantage of our magic morning and then once we've done lots of rides to head over and have a nice late breakfast with some characters. We have done the 'first seating of the day' a few times so we are fine with showing up while the show is in full swing and taking our time seeing the characters. If you book the first reservation on a day where there is no early entry, then yes, you will be 20 minutes before park opening. You won't likely get in any earlier than all the other guests who are let in around half an hour before to go wait at the rope at the end of main street. You will be given a button though so you can pass the rope and go directly to Plaza Inn for your breakfast. I found to get the most of your time there you want to spend at least an hour and of course you want to make sure you eat enough to last you awhile - that being the case you are likely going out into the park with a full tummy after the park has been open for about 40 minutes or more. At that point ride lines will already been a certain length and at that point you likely don't want to ride some of the more intense rides on a full stomach.

We just did this on Sunday and we had a 10:30am reservation. Now looking back it was too late and I should have been there early. I think 10 will be fine but try to be there a few minutes early so you don't feel rushed. For us we had all the characters come over, even a few repeats, except for Tigger. We tracked him down near closing time.

 

[MICKEYFIL]

My 60 day window opens tomorrow. Want to book Minnie's Breakfast at the Plaza. If the earliest reservation I can get is for 20 mins before park opening (this will be on a Mon), and my goal this morning is to do Hyperspace Mt, Star Tours, and the Launch Bay, should I try for the earliest opening and then hit up Tomorrowland, or get in at rope drop, do Tomorrowland and have a later reservation? Anyone know the last seating time? Thanks

Since Monday is not a magic morning I will make the following suggestions if you decide to go to the rides rather than breakfast first. Get a fastpass for Star Tours (and astroblasters - optional) and then head over to Hyperspace mountain. Your return time for Star Tours will be around 45 minutes after park opening, you can then do Hyperspace, probably walk onto star tours, go back get a fast pass for hyperspace if you want to do it again since you will be past your fastpass window for star tours and then go from there. I would be at the launch bay at 10 if you want to get some pictures with the characters. They are near the back and they have two lines. Filled up fast, but at just after 10 we only had a few minute wait for Kylo and Chewbacca.

 

[Karyanne]

I am wondering the same for our trip. I am leaning towards the later breakfast.

 

[MikeRx]

We do the later breakfast most days as we don't want to miss out on the "golden" first few hours of the park. A breakfast bar and coffee and we are goo to go until late morning. if not we get a snack on the fly.
We always do Minnie's at 10:30-10:40am and have had no trouble with seeing all of the characters. Others may disagree, but it's worked for us. We also enjoy the Carnation Café for the last seating of the morning as we've done so much in the first 2-3 hours and then can relax and watch the crowds file in and there is no worry about seeing characters. We eat a leisurely breakfast and listen to the Dapper Dans.

 

[MrDisneyFan]

We're doing Minnie's next week (our first time for this character breakfast) and opted to do a later seating at 10:40. Like the others here, I don't like to miss out on the golden morning hours. We can get so much in the first 2-3 hours. We'll have a small snack in our room or Starbucks on the way in to rope drop. But that way we can get a few attractions in before sitting down to breakfast and relax for a spell.

 

[agamble]

How many days are you staying? If you are doing 5 days then missing a bit of morning time for a nice character breakfast isn't going to matter. However, if you're doing 3 or fewer days you definitely don't want to miss out on the lighter morning crowds. We've done both and had a good experience both times. I would try to get a seat inside. One other plus to eating the later meal is that it could tide you over through lunch, whereas if you eat at 7AM you'll still likely need lunch.

 

[TalkDisnerdytome]

This was my problem too. I was hoping to have reservations to where we could eat and be finished by the time they opened but decided to make reservations at PCH instead since we could make them for earlier and then be at the front gates for opening.