What am I missing about breakfast???

[otterpop]

Hi Everyone,

My family (wife, 2 girls; ages 6 and 4) and I are going in March and I was wondering why it seems like a lot of posts are about character breakfast recommendations. What am I missing? We are doing the 1 TS, 1 QS, and 1 snack DDP. Breakfast seems to be the cheapest meal and the least special (not much you can do with eggs, pancakes, etc...). So, why would anyone want to spend a lot of money or use 1 TS for breakfast, when you can spend the same amount of amount/1TS for a character dinner and a more extravagant meal? ...For 1 TS, I would rather do dinner at Akershus rather than breakfast.

Are there better characters for the breakfasts? Can the kids spend more time with them? Is everyone doing the Deluxe, Platinum or Premium DDP's?

Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Evan

 

[marathonmommy]

Hi Everyone,

My family (wife, 2 girls; ages 6 and 4) and I are going in March and I was wondering why it seems like a lot of posts are about character breakfast recommendations. What am I missing? We are doing the 1 TS, 1 QS, and 1 snack DDP. Breakfast seems to be the cheapest meal and the least special (not much you can do with eggs, pancakes, etc...). So, why would anyone want to spend a lot of money or use 1 TS for breakfast, when you can spend the same amount of amount/1TS for a character dinner and a more extravagant meal? ...For 1 TS, I would rather do dinner at Akershus rather than breakfast.

Are there better characters for the breakfasts? Can the kids spend more time with them? Is everyone doing the Deluxe, Platinum or Premium DDP's?

Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Evan

Breakfasts are a last resort for me as well for the same reasons you suggest. I would rather spend the dough on lunch or dinner - more variety in my mind and something to look forward to during the day.

 

[cglaura]

One of the biggest appeals for some of the restaurants I think is that the ADRs are usually before the park opens, so you can get some very nice photos in a virtually empty park (think...just your family standing on Main Street with the castle in the background...).

I've never been to a buffet breakfast, we don't eat so much and usually share meals, but from the photos I've seen, they are way more than eggs and pancakes.

Or, could just be timing and preference. Some people don't like what is offered at the lunch/dinner buffets, but do like the breakfast. Or maybe they won't be in the park for dinner time.

For some people it is just tradition.

 

[wdwmickey]

My family loves breakfast!!! My girls would rather eat breakfast than any other meal. In fact they still talk about the "cheesy potatoes" at Akershus. We have enjoyed seeing the characters at breakfast and if my girls know ahead of time which characters we'll be seeing then that saves us waiting in long lines to see those characters. That being said--now that my girls are older we'll be using our dining plan credits differently on this trip (only 1 character breakfast- Akershus). Have a great trip.

 

[tiredsigh]

It may be that character meals are the only TS meals their family wants.

We do the Deluxe plan and try to do as many character meals as possible. We have a 2 year old who loves the characters. Even my 11 year old would be a little shocked if we didn't do the character meals.

Breakfast may be the least expensive, but you will find more character meals for breakfast than lunch or dinner. To some of us, that is the big draw.

To each his own

 

[Jenny_WDWFan]

I agree with you that this doesn't seem to make financial sense... This is one reason why we avoid the dining plan and pay out of pocket. I guess everyone has their own preferences.

 

[yakkin' yeti]

Another factor is that not everyone is on the DDP. For our trip next spring, we're doing a couple of late breakfasts precisely BECAUSE they're cheaper (and yummy). Then we'll eat a late lunch and avoid the premium prices at dinner.

 

[karly05]

I love breakfast. Eating a big, cooked, breakfast "out," with eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fruit, waffles, etc. is part of vacation. And I love getting an early ADR at Crystal Palace and already being in the park when everything opens.

 

[maxiesmom]

I love doing character breakfasts. Besides being just a fun way to start your day, if you go right when the restaurant opens, you get into the parks ahead of the crowds. Time it right and you can be done eating at or before the parks open. Why waste precious park time at a sit down meal when you can do that, and see the characters before the park opens?

I have found that when I do a table service meal, complete with dessert, I don't feel like doing much afterwards. I need to waddle around and work some of the meal off before I feel like going on any rides. I don't eat as much at breakfast, so I feel much more able to take the parks.

 

[Pakey]

We don't do the dining plan because it takes all of the flexibility out of the vacation. Character breakfasts are good because for the most part, the buffet food is better at breakfast than the other meals. There are a lot of offerings that are provided outside of eggs and bacon. We can eat early, start the day with some character meets and then have flexibility the rest of the day "to go with the flow" rather than working around ADRs.

 

[Micca]

I'm guessing for some families it's a way to kickstart a day at Disney with the kids getting some quality time with characters first thing in the morning. Besides if you can get some food into a kid in the morning they'll generally do a little better coping with the crowds/heat/excitement all day. I also think a big family breakfast is pretty much non-existent for most people in their daily lives so it's really a treat to have the big meal on vacation.

 

[stoneyloon]

We don't do the dining plan because it takes all of the flexibility out of the vacation. Character breakfasts are good because for the most part, the buffet food is better at breakfast than the other meals. There are a lot of offerings that are provided outside of eggs and bacon. We can eat early, start the day with some character meets and then have flexibility the rest of the day "to go with the flow" rather than working around ADRs.

I've got to agree, I think the dining plan takes all the spontaneity out of the holiday. I've seen families falling out because a $2 treat wasn't part of the plan! Get a grip, it's a holiday, you're supposed to enjoy it......

 

[Keri]

I like doing breakfast at least once. Yeah, maybe they aren't the best use of our DDP dollars, but sometimes we make up for it other places. We've done both the early morning breakfast before the park opened, which was great, and the late/almost lunch 'breakfast" which is also nice -- we grab a quick snack-like breakfast before we leave the hotel, and then the breakfast is basically our lunch. The early ones are nice sometimes because it doesn't take a big chunk out of the touring part of the day. This is more important to me if we're eating out of the parks -- for example, Chef Mickey's is a great early breakfast ADR, but this trip we had a late one (11:15) and it didn't really make sense to go to the park for an hour first. Just took a big part of the day when we could have been riding rides. Similarly, we had 1900 PF reservations at 4:30 last year, and leaving the park at 3:30 and not getting back until almost 7 was kind of a bummer just for dinner.

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

We are on the Deluxe plan in Jan and we are starting almost every day with a character breakfast. Largely due to the fact that my DD5 is up every morning at 6:45am no matter what time she goes to bed. We start the day with the earliest ADR we can get so we can make it to rope drop. We love to see characters first thing in the morning so we do not need to stand in line to see them in the parks. Also we all like breakfast, it's the meal my DD5 is the best eater at. We aren't used to fast food because we live in the arctic so my DD5 would not be able to survive on CS all week. But I could I'm dying for a whopper, I haven't had one since August

 

[DisneyJen0504]

We only do the dining plan when it is free. When it is not, we dont do it because it isnt cost effective for us. When not on the ddp, we dont eat many TS meals so for us, we prefer the TS breakfasts especially character ones. We also find the restaurants in the parks (with the exception of Epcot) are not very good so we don't waste our money on TSs in the park when not on the DDP.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

We go b/c my son loves character meals and most of them are only offered during breakfast (like Donald's safari breakfast, Goofy's Beach Club breakfast and 1900 Park Fare Supercalifragilistic Breakfast). If they offer lunch and dinner character we also go b/c part of our Disney vacation is going to the character meals b/c my son loves it. My son asked me when we are going and he told me the places he wants to go. I was hoping to remove Hollywood and Vine b/c we went there 4 times already and I though we can go to Brown Derby but he said please I need to see my friends there (his request for his next trip is Hollywood and Vine, Chef Mickey, Crystal palace, Donald Safari, Goofy's Beach Club, CRT, a place with Chip and Dale)

 

[Ginamarie]

I would never use the dining plan for a breakfast. Like you mentioned, it doesn't make good financial sense. If you want to do a character breakfast, you're better off doing it OOP.

We usually don't use the dining plan (we have a cast member discount and it works out better for us that way). We will be dining at Akershus for breakfast rather than dinner. It's pricey, but the dinner menu doesn't appeal to us, and there are so many other places in Epcot that we enjoy to eat dinner.

 

[bangzoom6877]

We do the basic DDP too, and we include an occasional character breakfast OOP. We tend to eat a TS dinner each night on vacation (it's just our style), and so we use the TS credit each night on dinner. We pay OOP for breakfast for the reason you stated, it is less money anyway than paying OOP for a dinner for the extra TS meal.

We love character breakfasts for a few reasons. One, if it is in a theme park we go before the park opens and we are out just before rope drop. Two, our kids love the characters and sometimes we want to do a non-character dinner (because of the food at a particular restaurant), but they still get to eat with the characters. Three, we love a good breakfast buffet, and the ones we have had at Disney were much more than just eggs and pancakes. There are some really unique dishes as well. And forth, my kids love breakfast food and always eat well if we go out for breakfast, so paying OOP for this extra meal is more than worth it since I know my kids will eat plenty!

It's all a matter of personal preference. I know lots of people who feel the same way you do and even when paying OOP they will get a quick CS breakfast at their resort, then go to a character dinner because they feel that even though the dinners are more expensive than the breakfasts, they are getting more for their money. And I know some people who don't like eating at dinner buffets but they will eat at a breakfast buffet so they will go to a character breakfast and an a la carte restaurant for dinner. Besides CRT breakfast lunch and dinner, Akershus breakfast lunch and dinner, and Ohana breakfast, the other character meals are buffet.

 

[gigi1313]

we do b'fast for the reasons mentioned by other posters... to get into the park for an empty main street... to see characters that don't appear at other meals... because my kids were extremely picky eaters when they were younger and b'fast was the one meal i knew they would eat with gusto (because you *can't* do much to eggs, pancakes, waffles, etc! LOL!)

what we don't do is worry about getting the biggest bang for our buck (on the dining plan or in general)... while we do try to spend wisely, we don't obsess over being sure we squeezed every penny of value out of something because to our family, that takes away some of the enjoyment!

 

[lissiesmum]

We eat the breakfasts for the character interaction and being in the park an hour before the park opens. It's nice to take pics without the crowds! Plus, the breakfast foods at the character meals tend to be better than what is served at dinner. This will be my second year on the DDP, and with the exception of Akershuh in Norway, I pay OOP for my breakfasts and save the credits for the big boys like 'Ohana, Le Cellier, Teppan Edo, etc.