Ok, so I’m a mom of two so everything to me is about kid-friendliness without sacrificing enjoyment for the parent. So lets talk a bit about dining in the Magic Kingdom.

Option 1: Eat in your room/house. I highly suggest that you go to your local Sams/Costco or whatever and pick up some granola bars, pop-tarts, whatever dry goods you think your kid and you will both eat in the morning and pack those. Especially if you are planning to drive. Bringing some groceries can save you lots of moola in the long run.

Option 2: Character Meal Breakfast is the LEAST expensive Character Meal of the day. So to really maximize your $$ let me suggest that you eat breakfast in your room then take one of the LATEST Character Meals before it switches over to lunch -OR- Use the time of the Character Meal to your advantage to get you into the park early. Make sure you know if its early entry for that park or not b/c an early reservation does you no good if everybody is getting into the park at 8am anyway!!

Crystal Palace is my favorite choice for EARLY Character Breakfast. B/c its INSIDE the park it can get you in earlier than park-opening. So not only do you get to take in the beauty (and photo-ops without random people walking in the back of every picture) of Main Street completely empty, but you can be standing “at the rope” in front of the castle when park officially opens and can jet through the castle to hit Dumbo & Peter Pan before all the people standing outside at park opening are even in the park itself.

Crystal Palace offers an “All you care to Eat” breakfast buffet. Usually there are all types of eggs, breakfast meats, fruits, cereals & pastries of all varieties. The earliest reservation is 8am and the latest for b’fast is 10:30. For those of you not using Disney Dining it will cost $19.00 (plus tip) for adults & $11.00 for kids (3-9) . You MUST have a park ticket to get into your dining reservations.

An advantage to taking the LATEST reservation is that you’ve hit most of the main park “busy” attractions before the park is reaching max. volume, so waits are less. Also, the rumor is that the later the reservation the more TIME you get to spend with each of the characters b/c there are less tables for them to go around to. So they may make 2-3 stops at your table. One person even reports being able to get a picture of her family with ALL of the Pooh characters at the same time. Also, its a b’fast buffet and it will be able to hold you guys ALL THE WAY till you’re back to the resort for rest time, or at least push back your lunch time and maybe cut out a “snack” all together.

My second pick would be Chef Mickey’s. We’ve done Chef Mickey for breakfast and dinner and I personally liked the food A LOT better at breakfast. The food was better and I felt like the energy of the room was higher. Both meals offer an “all you care to eat” buffet with the same stuff (more or less) at Crystal Palace.

My hubby and I agree that Chef Mickey’s is a GREAT first meal at Disney, whether you’re arriving at 4pm and not jumping right to the park or the first morning. It gets the “Fab 5” Characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto & Donald) out of the way first thing, which cuts back on standing-in-line autograph time. It also helps your kids who have never been around these GIANT MICE get some time to warm up to them before seeing them every 10 steps in the Magic Kingdom! It helped my kids a lot and I know a lot of you worry about that. Characters will stay back from your kid if they can tell they’re starting to panic.

Chef Mickey Menu includes:

PREMIUM FRUIT BAR- Seasonal Melon and Fresh Fruit Display, Assorted Flavored Yogurts & More

CEREAL SELECTIONS- Almond Granola, Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, Cocoa Krispies, Hot Oatmeal, and Grits

BREAKFAST SPECIALTIES Pluto’s Corned Beef Hash, Scrambled eggs, Three-cheese Omelet, Chef’s Daily Omelet, Mickey Waffles, Goofy’s Vegetable Lasagna, Bacon and Cheese Potatoes, Breakfast potatoes, Minnie’s Breakfast Pizza, Challah French Toast, Pancakes made to order with a variety of toppings, Buttermilk Biscuits and Gravy, Sausage Links and Bacon

PASTRY CHEF’S CREATIONS- Bagels, Chocolate Croissants, Muffins, Cinnamon Rolls, Rice Krispy Treats,Cheese Blintzes, Peach Cobbler, Brownies, Assorted Danish & More

Traditional breakfast beverages included

 

Chef Mickey’s is in the Contemporary Resort so no park admission is required (which makes it a great choice if you’re arriving at 4pm and want to save a few bucks on another day park ticket)Earliest reservation is 7am and latest is 11:30. Cost is slightly higher at CM than CP at $23.00 per adult and $13.00 for children (3-9) for breakfast.

Both locations, CM & CP have random party breaks which are a BLAST for the kids IF THEIR PARENTS GET INTO IT! You’re at Disney people, where you have full permission to be as child-like as possible. So grab your napkin and whip it around your head with the rest of them. Go marching around with Eeyore and have fun. Your kids are taking a cue from you, so help them drop the “too cool syndrome” act by acting like a kid yourself.

Option 3: Eat at your resort’s Food Court or at Main Street Bakery.

Resort Food Court Tip. You can click on this link for a sample of what b’fasts a food court holds. What a lot of people don’t realize is that you can get a box of doughnuts at the food court and feed at least three people. Each box has 6 good-sized doughnuts in it. And if you’re using Disney dining its only ONE SNACK! So take advantage of that one. Super cost-effective. Most of the foods at the food court will run you between $2-$5.00.

You also REALLY NEED to get a refillable mug if you’re staying on-property. Each mug costs about $13.00 and the handles come in three colors so you can tell yours from your loved ones. I’d say it holds about 16oz. This is HUGE if you’re a coffee drinker as coffee in the park can cost you between $2-$5.00 or if your kids drink soda (over $2.00 per) or juices. We loved using it!! It paid for itself in no-time FLAT. From what I understand they don’t do those short fat ones anymore. We would grab a mug full before we got on the bus bound for the parks and we weren’t thirsty for a while after we got there.

Also, most people don’t know is that you can ask for ice or ice water from any place in the park and they’ll give it to you and you can pour it into your insulated mug. NOT THE BOTTLED WATER, you must be SPECIFIC!! I highly recommend getting some of those crystal light packets and put it in your water if you get it out of the fountain cause its not so tasty.

Main Street Bakery: Main Street Bakery is another good option, but ONLY if you’ve already taken a ride on Dumbo and Peter Pan. 🙂 What I mean is as soon as they let you in the park you need to go ride EVERYTHING in Fantasyland you are interested in riding. THEN you can relax a bit before going to the next part of the park (you may want to include Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin in your “first things”. Or if you want to send someone to the bakery to pick up yall’s food while you go back to Fantasyland and bring it to you then thats cool too. Remember to look for things that can be shared. For example: 2 kids can EASILY split a chocolate croissant. (And it would only count as 1 snack on the disney dining plan).

And now… a word about Cinderella’s Royal Table.

Listen, I’m not going to sit here and LIE and say we won’t be taking my 19 month old daughter to the Royal Table for a meal when she’s older. The real DRAW to the meal in the first place is that its IN the elusive castle walls that we have been walking inside of for years. Its almost like seeing a secret hiding place. However I have to say that from everything people tell me its HIGHLY overrated. Now, people pay 5x what a house is worth to live in named neighborhood so let’s not pretend that not a part of the beauty; you really just wanna brag you “went there”.

The Royal Table earliest reservation is 8 and latest is 11:15. It IS in the MK so it puts you in the park earlier, but even if you’re done with eating early they wont let you go back there and ride anything.

When you arrive at Cinderella Castle for your reservation,a photographer will be on hand to take pictures of your group in the lobby,before you are seated in the dining room. A package with four 4×6 prints and one 6×8 print of your photo, as well as one 6×8 print of Cinderella Castle,in a Cinderella photo holder (valued at $29.95 plus tax) will be delivered to you during your meal,which will be from a fixed-price, set menu.(One photo package per party of 1-4;two photo packages for parties of 5-8, etc.)Additional photos may be purchased. But guess what. You can take your own freaking pictures with the princesses for FREE at Aukershus. 😉

This is a Signature Dining Experience which means it takes two Table Service credits when using the Magic Your Way Dining Plan. TWO MEALS for ONE dining experience and a few princesses? You must be outta your mind. And let’s say you’re not on the dining plan. Its $34.00 per adult and $23.00 per kid. And babes… its not even an a buffet!! Its a PLATE! You can get it refilled of course, but sheesh…

Menu includes: Fresh Fruit, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Cheese Danish ,French Toast, Potato Casserole, Healthy Choice: Granola – LowFat Yogurt – Caramelized Bananas

WHAT?? No mickey pancakes? No chocolate croissants? No REAL pastries? And Granola? Any kid of your gonna eat that in cereal form? (you trick them into eating it in a bar by adding chocolate chips for pete sake!) Characters are Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Belle, Aurora, Snow White — but the characters vary by day. You can see all these and more at Aukershus and catch the Fairy Godmother for an interview later.

Its your call really, just realize that a) it books up INSANELY FAST! So you need to call (407) WDW-DINE to see if its available. Remember that the princesses are NOT at DINNER so don’t “settle” for a dinner reservation. b) You’re really just paying to eat in the castle.

So, there you have it. The Disney Diva’s TOP PICKS for Breakfast Dining on Magic Kingdom days.

Questions?