Pre-Park Opening Breakfast at Disney World Strategy
There are two advantages of pre-park opening breakfast reservations that make these some of the hottest ADRs at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In this post, we’ll cover how to use those ADRs for empty park photos and beating the rope drop dash at some of Walt Disney World’s most popular attractions.
Let’s start with the basics. A pre-park opening (PPO) advanced dining reservation (ADR) is a breakfast reservation prior to the opening of a given park, beginning at 8 a.m. on days when the parks open to regular guests at 9 a.m. While there is some fluidity to those times during busier seasons, that hour is almost always the window of time for pre-park opening ADRs.
No matter what (reasonable) time you intend upon arriving at Magic Kingdom or the other parks, Walt Disney World transportation will be running. Buses to Magic Kingdom usually begin running around 6:30, and buses for the other parks usually enter service around 7 a.m., as do the monorails and boats. This is more than enough time to arrive in time for your pre-park opening ADR. Security has been a little hit or miss in our experience, but usually opens by 7:30 a.m. at the latest.
Guests who have a pre-park opening breakfast reservation are (obviously) allowed into the parks early, with the ability to enter the park at around 7:45 a.m. This is true regardless of whether your ADR is for 8 a.m. exactly, or as late as 8:55 a.m. So long as your ADR is before official park opening, you’re “on the list” and allowed entrance via the turnstile for breakfast reservations.
Despite the fact that all guests with pre-parking opening ADRs are allowed to enter as early as 7:45 a.m., we’d encourage you to snag reservations closer to 8 a.m., if possible. This is because you’re going to be given priority in terms of seating if you have an earlier reservation, rather than a later one.
In actuality, we’ve never had things play out that way. We’ve done pre-park opening ADRs numerous times, and almost always get “stuck” with ones around 8:45 a.m. because we aren’t quick to the draw on the earlier ones.
Most times we’ve done this, we’ve spent around 12 minutes taking photos (and walking to the restaurant), and made a point of arriving at the podium to check-in by 8:00 a.m. By doing this, you should have around 45 minutes from the time seated until you need to leave to enjoy your breakfast. That’s a pretty narrow window once you factor in meeting characters (where applicable) and paying, but it’s doable most places.
If you’re not so concerned with racing through breakfast to get to an attraction by 8:55 a.m., we’d encourage you to go slower while entering the park. Soak up the ambiance and take as many photos as you can, because this is a rare experience that should be savored.
We did the unDISCOVERed Future World tour on our recent Walt Disney World trip, which also provides pre-park opening access to Epcot, and we had nearly 30 minutes to wander around. Here’s a quick walk-around video we posted to Facebook of the experience:
Another reason for taking your time is because most people who book pre-park opening ADRs–at least the ones entering at 7:45–are doing so in order to have a quick breakfast and finish in time for rope drop. They are in a hurry to get to the restaurant podium, be seated, and get on with their meal and day.
If you slow down and take your time, you’ll find there’s a bit of a “pocket” right after that initial rush into the park, and the next wave of guests who arrive. This is ideal for empty park photos and will also reduce your wait time to be seated at the restaurant podium.
In Magic Kingdom, it should be noted that this pocket is short-lived. Due to the new opening procedure, regular day guests start entering the park at 8 a.m., and even that time can be moved forward slightly on particularly busy days. (Park ops wants to avoid congestion at the turnstiles and security, which is why the opening procedure was moved inside the park.)
With that said, empty pre-park opening photos are still possible in Magic Kingdom. You just don’t have a full hour, and your chances of truly empty shots are dramatically lower. It’s still a nice experience, but nowhere near what it was a few years ago. If empty park photos in Magic Kingdom are your main motivation for this, staying late at night is probably the better option.
While any pre-park opening breakfast reservation will get you the advantage of empty park photos, not all offer the same in terms of rope drop strategy. For example, Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom is located outside the Fantasyland “rope,” meaning that if you finish there at 8:55 a.m., you’re behind a large horde of day guests who have been arriving since 8 a.m. In that case, you’re actually at a disadvantage for rope drop.
By contrast, if you do Cinderella’s Royal Table or Be Our Guest Restaurant for breakfast, you’re inside the rope, giving you free rein of Fantasyland. These are the only two Magic Kingdom restaurants that offer such an advantage.
We’d recommend Be Our Guest Restaurant for breakfast. Although we weren’t particularly keen on it in our Breakfast Be Our Guest Restaurant Review, it’s a significantly cheaper option (great as a Disney Dining Plan credit use, too!).
Plus, racing through breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table is more impractical…and honestly not recommend given the high price you’re paying. In fact, while this post assumes that you’ve already made your mind up on doing a pre-park opening breakfast, we have a tough time justifying the out of pocket cost of any of these character breakfasts–but that’s just us.
Once done with breakfast, the attraction to which you should race in Magic Kingdom is Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Other Fantasyland attractions are options (Peter Pan’s Flight is an alternative to consider), but Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is the hot ticket.
In Epcot, the attraction you’ll want to target depends upon your location. If you did Akershus, Frozen Ever After is it. If you did Garden Grill, it’s Soarin’ Around the World. It’s not possible to criss-cross the park to do the other attraction, so plan accordingly.
We shared our experience doing a pre-park opening Akershus breakfast and finishing that in our Frozen Ever After Tips & Strategy post, so I won’t regurgitate that here. Suffice to say, we were able to meet every princess (barely) but it was a rushed experience, and for the price we paid, I would’ve rather had a slower paced, relaxed meal.
We’d only recommend this approach as a last resort if you’re unable to score Frozen Ever After FastPass+, and doing it at the end of the night is not an option.
We can’t speak to Disney’s Hollywood Studios as we have no personal experience on that front, but the advantage to doing Hollywood & Vine pre-park opening is likely going to lie with being able to sign-up for Jedi Training Academy: Trials of the Temple. (We’ve heard you can do this before breakfast, but again, we have no experience. Perhaps someone who has done this can clarify in the comments?)
Over at Animal Kingdom, Tusker House offers a potential advantage for early access to Kilimanjaro Safaris. The bigger deal is that it currently offers a disadvantage for access to Pandora: World of Avatar. Under no circumstances should you book Tusker House if you plan on rope dropping Flight of Passage.
That could change once the dust settles with Pandora, but don’t hold your breath. We’re nearly a year into Pandora’s existence, and it’s still incredibly chaotic at rope drop, so the procedure is not likely to be anytime soon.
Actually, outside of Be Our Guest Restaurant, we have a very difficult time recommending pre-park opening breakfast reservations as an ‘alternative FastPass+.’ The cost of these character meals is simply too high, and even if you’re able to make it out in time, you’ll feel rushed and pressured throughout the entire meal.
Another thing to consider is that many of these breakfasts are buffets. When we do buffets at Walt Disney World, we put on our game faces, pretending we’re Crazy Legs Conti downing six hot dogs at once. Usually, we spend around 90 minutes at a Walt Disney World buffet: 60 minutes stuffing our faces non-stop, followed by 30 trying to recover from our waking food comas and trying to get up from our seats.
Plus, if you’re planning far enough in advance to make an ADR at the 180-day mark, there should be no reason that you can’t make a FastPass+ at the 60-day mark. Even the most coveted of these FastPasses (Frozen Ever After and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train) are not too difficult to score at that point.
One thing we would highly recommend is making two separate pre-park opening breakfast reservations for the park of your choice on different days. The reason for doing this is because ADRs can be made before park calendars are typically released, meaning morning Extra Magic Hours can be scheduled after you’ve already made your ADR. Morning Extra Magic Hours effectively undermine your early entry advantage, so avoid breakfast on those days.
The problem with waiting to book ADRs until the park calendars are released is that some of the more popular restaurants will already be fully booked. Booking reservations on two different days sidesteps this problem, and so long as you cancel the other reservation, there’s no penalty.
Ultimately, pre-park opening breakfast reservations are something we really enjoy for the sake of experiencing an empty park first thing in the morning, not having to deal with the chaos of rope drop crowds, and fun photos. There also can be an advantage in beating the crowds to popular attractions, but that’s less of a sure thing. In the end, we would not recommend booking a breakfast you otherwise would not want to do (given the cost), but these advantages are certainly icing on the cake for a meal that already interests you!
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Your Thoughts
Have you done a pre-park opening breakfast at Walt Disney World? What did you think of the experience? Any strategical tips to add? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Is it possible to get a 9:15 reservation (on a non magic hour morning), get into the park early, hit an attraction first, then go to the restaurant? I know that the time spent at the restaurant after that first attraction will prevent us from being able to ride anything else during the “slower” morning hours, but I’m nervous about having to be part of the lemming crowd rushing to Avatar!
Thanks!
In Animal Kingdom the attraction closest to Tusker House is the Safari. However, that attraction will likely take you longer than 15 minutes to complete. For a non EMH day, with a 9am park opening, you likely won’t have time to complete an attraction before your breakfast reservation unless you’re one of the first few people in line to get into the park. You’d still be pushing it, so I wouldn’t recommend that strategy.
Can you tell me why I don’t see Jedi Training as an option in September 2018? Is it just not scheduled yet or will it not be available?
You mentioned making 2 ADRs if you are unsure about EMH. What other time would we choose other than the earliest available? If EMH are in the morning and hours aren’t posted yet, we can’t choose anything earlier than 755-8 am. Right?
Unfortunately, even if there are extra magic hours, the restaurants will not change their hours/open early. So my personal plan is to make 8 am (ish) reservations at both Be our Guest and Garden Grill and then choose to attend whichever does not have EMH because I’d prefer less other people.
After reading the article and the threads, I need additional advice. We will book our ADR soon for our trip in Dec. We would like to book an ADR at Be Our Guest early to take advantage of the hitting the seven dwarfs mine ride and the Peter Pan ride. Should we book our reservation for 8:00 or later?
The same question for Hollywood Studios. We would like to book ADR for Hollywood and VIne so the kids can sign up early for Jedi Training. What time should we book our ADRs for that day and if we enter the park at 7:45 (depending on park opening schedule) should we go directly to the sign in for Jedi training prior to our ADR? Any advice would be helpful on this ADR, the kids are looking forward to Jedi Training.
I would recommend that you sign up for Jedi training prior to your ADR. The sign up is right next to Hollywood and Vine. Make sure that got Padawan is present at sign ups. We were able to choose our time for Jedi training with the early ADR.
I also recommend an 8 o’clock breakfast if you plan to interact with the characters.
I’m just seeing this incredibly helpful post! We have reservations for 6 at Tusker House for 8:40 am. Can my wife and mother in law check in with our other two kids, while me and me son get FOP out of the way and join them for breakfast if we are one of the lucky ones done by 9?
Does anyone know what time we would be able to enter AK on a day when they open at 8 am if we have ADR at 8:15? Trying to plan arrival times. Also, would we ever be able to squeeze in a safari before we dine?
Two summers ago I made reservations for my mother, my daughter, and I to eat breakfast before the park opened at Be Our Guest. The idea was to eat breakfast and then get in line for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train before the park opened. I failed to recheck the park opening time that week and since Disney changed it, the ride wait was almost an hour by the time we got there (and so was our #2 choice, Peter Pan). However, I do have to say that experiencing Be Our Guest was still worth it and we all enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. Just pointing out that sometimes best laid plans can be foiled 😉
I made a ADR for BoG for 8:15 but I plan to get there at 7:45 because I really want pictures in front the castle with no one in the background. Can they change the park hours for that extra morning hour, for the public, at any point? I have the app and as of right now it says MK will open at 9am. Since it is in the app is that the correct time or can they change it the day of to 8am?
Had a rsvp for BoG at8am on 11/28/17, and was sabotaged by Disney changing opening to 8 am too! So we were allowed in 15 min. Before the main crowd. Be aware that this may happen to you too!
Tom, I really appreciate your blog. After a couple years absence, my wife are ready for some pixie dust! Did not know about the early morning ADR. Going to try them out. Thanks for the tip!
I had an ADR for Be Our Guest on 12/20/17, I think it was for 8am. I got to security just before 8:00, so by the time I got onto Main Street other folks were coming in, but I wasn’t concerned with photos at that point so I wasn’t worried. I hustled over to BoG & got right in, got my breakfast (I had pre-ordered) and had plenty of time to eat & enjoy the restaurant. I was out by about 8:45 & jumped in the small line for the Mine Train. The group was let in to the ride about 8:50, if I remember right. When I came off the ride, the CM out front was calling out, “hey folks, if you want to go again, get in right now, the crowd is coming from the main gate.” So I jumped back in line & rode again. 2 rides in less than 10 minutes! I definitely felt like I scored that morning. Well worth the price of breakfast.
We did the same thing in December. Twice on Mine Train for the cost of a dining credit. It was great. We don’t really love the breakfast there though so I am not sure it is worth the cost out of pocket. We love Garden Grill breakfast so we do that one and then do Soaring. WE did Akershus last time we were there for a change but the food and experience were both better at Garden Grill.
We do the adr for Hollywood and dine it does allow you to get in line early to sign up for the jedi training. The breakfast is pricey.
Were you able to sign up before your breakfast or after?
As opposed to a dining pre-park reservation, I made a reservation for my niece at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique pre-park (closer to opening time, but we still got to enter early), so we entered early, took photos in front of the castle with little crowds (granted, this was still when the train show was happening in May of 2016) and while she had her appointment my Mom and I stayed with her, my Dad and brother rode Space Mountain twice and then met us at Cinderella’s Royal Table for a later breakfast reservation with her all done up as a princess. We didn’t rush through the meal to make any attractions, but made a Fast Pass for after breakfast as a back-up option. It couldn’t have gone better and I can’t recommend it enough!
Pre-park opening ADR with characters is worth every penny for the 5 and under crowd to meet characters. It fulfills their need to meet characters without standing in line all day to meet them one at a time. We have done Tusker House and Garden Grill both pre-park opening. Loved both. As a park opening/rope drop strategy, Garden Grill was fantastic. The food was great, it is served family style, the characters made it to our table twice, and my parents were able to sit with my 3 year old while he finished breakfast while I ran to get in line for Soaring (3 year old didn’t meet height requirements). I got to the line 15 minutes before park opening and THEY LET ME RIDE! I finished riding before park opening so my dad was able to hop in line and ride before park opening as well. As far as pictures, we entered Epcot from the International Gateway (we stayed at the Swan) so we were able to get some great empty park photos on our long walk to Garden Grill.
We did Hollywood & Vine our first trip in September 2016. We had Free Dining, so we were doing it for the purpose of the Character Breakfast (kids were 4 & 2 at the time), not to try to beat rope drop, but just to get there early. It was great to get a family photo with Grauman’s behind us and the rest of the street empty. We actually thought we were getting ther pre-opening for Tusker House breakfast that year, but ended up being there for an EMH day, so we had to wait with everyone else to get in.
Our last trip, this past August 2017, we were going to do more pre-park, but ended up only doing one (when we didn’t get Free Dining, we dropped Be Our Guest and Tusker House). We did Garden Grill Chip n Dale Breakfast in Epcot this time, and we really liked it. We were trying to get there close to 8, but ended up about 8:15/8:20, so we didn’t get to take advantage of roaming around. This time it was planned around getting to Soarin’ early, which worked pretty well, even though we probably didn’t get out of the restaurant until a few minutes after 9.
While we were slightly rushed at the end as we saw people walking in, it really wasn’t bad. This was one of our favorite character breakfasts too. I liked the family style breakfasts (we did ‘Ohana breakfast as well). As soon as you sit down, they bring you a skillet of cinnamon rolls, which were actually very good. With the setup, the characters seemed to get around to the tables pretty efficiently, so we were really finishing up breakfast anyway when 9:00 came around. We just had to hurry up in getting the check and getting out. Even with the few minute delay, we beat the rush for Soarin’.
We have had early ADR’s several times, for these reasons; however, in June 2017 they dropped the rope early for everyone at Magic Kingdom. The general population had to stay in the Main Street and castle areas but that killed our photo opportunity with early ADR. It was so disappointing. Have they changed it back to only ADR entrances prior to park hours?
Same thing happened to us during our late January/early February 2017 trip. Needless to say, we were disappointed.
I couldn’t get any early morning ADRs on our last minute trip in December 2017 but figured it didn’tafter anyway.
Have they changed this back to only those with early ADRs get in early?
My understanding is that this is because the pre-park opening show is no longer outside of the park but now at the castle, so the “regular” crowds wait inside Main Street before the park is officially open. Tom mentioned in the article that MK is no longer an advantage for clear park photos due to that change.
They do the same thing now at Animal Kingdom, by the way. All guests can enter the main gate early but then they set up in-park roped off areas at the entrance to Pandora, Africa, Asia etc., (at Africa, there is a side check in for ADRs). So you wouldn’t be able to get empty park photos of the tree of lide, but you do get them in “Africa” itself.
It also means that you have zero advantage for getting on Expedition Everest and the Pandora rides if you have a morning Tusker House reservation, although you do get priority access to Kilimanjaro Safaris.
Quick question, when you book 2 ADRs are you doing it for the and day at different hours in case the opening Time for the park changes?
Can you make an ADR reservation, use that to get in the main gate, then just not show up for breakfast? That would be an easy way to get in early.
Your credit card is necessary to make ADRs and will be charged (last I checked) $10 per person if you don’t show up.
We did this in 2015 to get in the gate. They changed me 30 for my family of four, but it was completely worth it to us. We were able to roam an empty park and take pictures, and be in line to see Anna/Elsa in under 5 minutes. It allowed us to be ahead of the crowds the rest of the day. Now that they let in everyone early, not sure if it would be worth it
The best thing we did was splurge for the magic kingdom early morning experience. They opened mine ride, winnie the Pooh, and Peter pan, two hours early and you also got a great breakfast buffet at pinnochios house, we got seats overlooking the inside of small world. We rode the mine ride 9 times Winnie the Pooh 5 and Peter pan 3 times before the park opened enjoyed breakfast at rope drop and then moved to other parts of the park. Expensive but we’ll worth it for us.
That’s what I’m looking at for this Christmas. What time did you arrive at the park since it says breakfast starts at 7:45?
We did the same thing and had a blast. We rode mine train ten times in a row which was great. Our only complaint was that we definitely felt like the cast members at mine train were judging us – it may have been in our heads, but we definitely were not getting the usual friendly vibe of from them! On the other hand, the cast members at Pinnochios were super friendly and the food was really good. We definitely felt like it was worth the money to do once, but I am not sure if it something we would splurge on a second time.
Thanks for your review of Early Morning Magic as we are considering this for our upcoming June trip. I’m curious though, what do you mean by the Mine Train cast members “judging” your party? Was it for going on the ride many times in a row? Isn’t that the point of this event? If it’s not, or if that is frowned upon by cast members I don’t think it’s the event for us since we are mainly interested in the ride access – not the breakfast. Thanks for sharing your thoughts / experiences!
Agreed! Early Morning at MK was the BEST morning of our entire 10 days at the parks! We liked the breakfasts at both the MK and HS early experiences, but MK works better for rides because they’re all together. Star Tours and Toy Story Midway Mania are on opposite sides of the park, so we rode each and then decided which one to do multiple times before hitting the yummy buffet. Money well spent! My eldest two sons rode Seven Dwarves over and over while my DH took DD on Winnie the Pooh six times. We have terrific photos showing how my more anxious son went from grimacing and gripping the handle bar on his first ride to smiling gleefully with his hands above his head by the sixth! You could never accomplish that during regular park hours. We also got an adorable photo of DD riding alone on the carousel, which opened early, too (although it is not a promised ride). Again, I was delighted and felt it was money well spent.
We had two pre-park opening FAILS: 1) Akershus, where there was a HUGE line at FEA by the time we got out. (We have a young DD who needed to stay for all the princesses, and our table was last in the line-up–but still there was an hour wait already lined up and it wasn’t even 9am yet when we exited the restaurant.) We were saved by completely random chance days later when a dad shopping next to me in a hat store at MK said his family was leaving for home and they had some “Oops, sorry we messed up!” FEA paper fast passes left that he gifted us. Pixie dust!
2) At HS, we booked for H&V, and like polite Canadian suckers, actually checked in and ate breakfast before getting in line for Jedi Training. It was mostly booked, again, before the official park opening time. We could not get one session for all three kids, so I then spent a week checking for cancellations at H&V, where we ate a second time, this time forgoing breakfast until we got booked for Jedi Training. Then we showed up about 20 minutes late to our ADR time. Having the same servers around, I got to talking to them, and the Jedi thing is throwing H&V’s cycle off as people show up late (like us) or just skip it and pay the fee (taking away an opportunity for a server to earn a tip).
So, everything worked out in the end, but those pre-park opening ADRs did not work out for anything but successful character meets and dining experiences. Now, that ain’t nothing, but we were hoping for more. The $$$$ early morning experiences worked as designed and hoped for. Forgot to mention that we got our iconic photo of the trip, our family “alone” (meaning no one else is in the shot, although others were around) in front of Cinderella’s castle with a photographer during the Early Morning event! It’s on the cover of the photo book from our trip. 🙂
Agree!! The early AM fantasyland with breakfast was worth the splurge. The breakfast was excellent, buffet style. We stay off property so parked our car at 7am (and no one was at the guard stands yet to take our money ) and then we took the monorail over to MK. We rode in the front car and scored trading cards from the driver. Then we received paper bracelets as they checked our reservations. We were able to wait by the newspaper/gift stand outside main entrance. Then they herded us into the park at 7:45. Our pictures in front of the castle were done right away so there are lots of people in the background since we were all coming in together. Would have been quieter if we had come back after doing rides. Regardless, we rode mine train 6 times, Peter Pan 4 Times, Winnie the Pooh and carousel. We ended with our breakfast and then got a few good rides in before our first fast pass at 10:45. I have awesome pics of my kids walking around fantasy land running off ahead of us and it looks like an empty park. We will definitely do this again!
This experience you guys are talking about is a separate admission, right? Do you know how much it costs?
I think it was approx $70 for adults and $60 for children. Yes, it was a separate ticket that we purchased in advance (similar to buying a ticket for the Christmas party). Regular admission for the day is also still required.
Do share. This sounds amazing.
Do they do this at animal kingdom?
We made ADR reservations at Be Our Guest during the first week of December 2017. Somehow I managed to get grandparents and grandchildren in past the turnstile before 7:45. We were with a small group waiting to be let in to main street at 7:45 am. We took pictures at the Christmas Tree and at the end of main street. Not a person in the background for our castle picture. Truly lovely. We made it to Be our Guest a little earlier than our 8:20 am reservation. Ordered our meals in advance and they found us just as we finished settling in with our beverages. After breakfast (not rushed), and a trip to the powder room we were in line for Seven Dwarfs Mine train just before rope drop. Didn’t feel rushed and was a great way to start the day! The pictures are treasures.
I will note we had early reservations for a 2nd day at MK at the BB Boutique to get us in early too, but they changed the park hours for that day suddenly. It worked out because we were there early early anyway and scored another ride on Seven Dwarfs Mine train since we were already there before the 8 am rope drop (which was originally 9 am) and then went off to the Boutique and were on time for our appointment. All that to say I really like the advice to book 2 ADR’s in case of changes to the schedule, because it does happen!