How long will breakfast at CP take?

[minoh]

We have ADR at CP on our only day at MK and they're at 8:45 (I keep checking back for earlier times in the hopes that we'll move it up). My kids really wanted to eat there and meet Pooh and friends. I was just wondering how much time we should expect to spend there? I don't want breakfast to cut into our morning too much and if it's a long process maybe will cancel and just eat at the resort early and skip the character dining experience.

Thanks!

 

[Mom2Stitch]

We always eat at CP before park opens and are usually able to get out of there in a little over an hour if we are wanting to see all 4 characters. Mind you we usually are there at the earliest reservation of 8:05-8:10 so that does help with getting a couple of the characters out of the way quickly.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

It really depends where you are seated and where the rotation is when you get seated. CP is a really big restaurant, but because of sight lines they only have one set of characters moving through.

I would allow 90 minutes.

 

[DisBuckMan]

It really depends where you are seated and where the rotation is when you get seated. CP is a really big restaurant, but because of sight lines they only have one set of characters moving through.

I would allow 90 minutes.

Agree. If seeing all the characters matters, 90 minutes.

We are way past the point of worrying about seeing the characters at meals. We can easily be in and out of CP in 30 minutes or less.

 

[minoh]

Oh wow, that's longer than I'd anticipated. Perhaps we should either try to get an earlier seating or skip CP. Our ADR is for 8:45, which wouldn't really get us into the park very early after such a long breakfast.

 

[minoh]

But maybe the kids would be happy with seeing just a character or 2 so we could make it out in 30. Good to know that it's at least possible!

 

[DisBuckMan]

But maybe the kids would be happy with seeing just a character or 2 so we could make it out in 30. Good to know that it's at least possible!

Maybe, but I wouldn't count on it...especially if as you said your kids really want to meet Pooh and friends.

My situation is totally different. Our son is 11, has done the CP character thing numerous times as a child, and has no interest in the characters...only in eating a good breakfast quickly, then hitting the rides during the early hours with shorter lines.

 

[minoh]

I wish those early ADRs weren't so hard to come by when one has a short window for planning (and I thought 2 months was actually a long time to get organized

 

[schrammalot]

We've had it be an hour up to an hour and 45 before we gave up on seeing all the characters.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

When we were there in October, during a fairly busy week, they bumped open to 8AM, so our 8:15 CP ADR was now not PPO. We debated, but you have no idea (a) how terrible a person my daughter is without breakfast and (b) how much she loves Piglet. So we did it anyway.

It really didn't destroy our touring plan for that day. We did all of Adventureland and Frontierland, and did a fair part of Fantasyland. It was 85 degrees by mid-afternoon, so after some ice cream we bailed for some quality pool time.

 

[minoh]

We've had it be an hour up to an hour and 45 before we gave up on seeing all the characters.

So it sounds like there's a chance we might not even see all the characters even if we wait longer. That would certainly be disappointing! Our ADR is for 8:45 so we sure don't want to be hanging around if it's not worthwhile.

When we were there in October, during a fairly busy week, they bumped open to 8AM, so our 8:15 CP ADR was now not PPO. We debated, but you have no idea (a) how terrible a person my daughter is without breakfast and (b) how much she loves Piglet. So we did it anyway.

What does PPO mean? I'm just getting used to all these acronyms

 

[_auroraborealis_]

So it sounds like there's a chance we might not even see all the characters even if we wait longer. That would certainly be disappointing! Our ADR is for 8:45 so we sure don't want to be hanging around if it's not worthwhile.




What does PPO mean? I'm just getting used to all these acronyms

Pre-Park Opening.

So, we actually did use 90 minutes at the start of the day to eat. Now, we had 2 days and a party planned at MK and are low-pressure. But we treated breakfast as part of the fun and it was all okay. The pictures of my daughter hugging Piglet are great, too.

 

[brockash]

We have ADR at CP on our only day at MK and they're at 8:45 (I keep checking back for earlier times in the hopes that we'll move it up). My kids really wanted to eat there and meet Pooh and friends. I was just wondering how much time we should expect to spend there? I don't want breakfast to cut into our morning too much and if it's a long process maybe will cancel and just eat at the resort early and skip the character dining experience.

Thanks!

Is it a PPO reservation? If the park doesn't open til 9, then you should be able to get seated early. I'll preface this by saying, it's not guaranteed, I'm sure it doesn't always happen, it's not 100% etc., but in our 10 plus years of experience with multiple parties of extended family, it has never mattered what time our PPO ADR was scheduled for, what matters is how fast you check in at the restaurant. In the beginning we didn't know this and we would putt around taking pics etc., and show up at our ADR time and often had to wait...then we started sending 1 person from each party straight to the restaurant to check-in and it didn't matter if our ADR was for 8:05 or 8:45, we were always one of the first to be seated (all parties). It makes sense, as they have to account for ppl. running late etc., so they're not going to just sit there and not fill their tables. Generally speaking for PPO ADR's it's more of a first come first serve situation. Obviously, you have to have the ADR to get into the park early, but I don't even try to get earlier ADR's if the first that pops up is still for before park opening as it's never been an issue for us.

If I were you, keep looking if it makes you feel better, but if all you have is the 8:45 ADR, keep it, get to the park by 7:30am at the latest to give yourself time to scan in/enter etc. and as soon as they let you in, go directly to the check-in podium At that point you should be seated relatively quickly. Ask for the check as soon as your seated and hope for good luck with the characters. You can def. eat within the hour, however occasionally the characters don't cooperate and you may have to wait or miss out on a character or 2 if you're not wanting to wait.

I will also say, that with the new opening procedures, I'd probably skip the PPO at CP ADR, because everyone else is going to be let in with or right after you, so they'll be lined up long in advance of you, so even if you get done and out before the park officially opens, you're still going to be behind a good amount of ppl.

 

[minoh]

Thanks brockash, that's good to know. I recently noticed that our MK day has EMM, so we're probably going to try to get tickets for that instead. It's bigger expense but I think we'll try to swing it as it's such a neat opportunity. If tickets sell out before we secure them (have to work out some logistics first), then we'll keep the PPO ADR at CP and try to get there really early.