5 Walt Disney World restaurants we book for breakfast
Be Our Guest Restaurant
Magic Kingdom’s Be Our Guest Restaurant is the only non-character meal restaurant we book for breakfast, and the main reason for us to choose this venue is the Fantasyland location, which makes it ideal for families trying to benefit from an early morning breakfast before the park opens. With a reservation close to 8am, we finish before park opening at 9am and get in line for a ride before the many park-goers waiting in front of Cinderella’s Castle are let into the park. For breakfast, Be Our Guest is a quick-service meal and the Beauty and the Beast-themed restaurant opened in 2012 as part of the new extension to Fantasyland. It features three dining rooms, including the Grand Ballroom, the Castle Gallery with a huge figure of Belle and Beast dancing as a centrepiece, and the darker West Wing where the enchanted rose is located and there are intermittent loud thundering sounds.
Garden Grill
In Epcot, Garden Grill can be a good choice for an early morning character-meal breakfast. As we’re not using a Tier 1 FastPass in Epcot to ride Soarin’, we love having breakfast here at 8am, an hour before the park opens at 9am. This means we can jump in the queue for the ride before crowds have made it to The Land pavilion where both Soarin’ and Garden Grill are located. A scrumptious breakfast with eggs, waffles, fruit and more is served family style at the table, the service is friendly and fun, and Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale are meeting guests at the table. Due to the small-size of this rotating restaurant compared to many other character-meal restaurants, some of the characters might even have time to get to the table twice, making the experience extra special.
Hollywood and Vine
As long as the boarding pass system is in place for Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ new Star Wars Rise of the Resistance ride, guests hoping to get on this ride will be planning to enter the park close to park opening to join the virtual queue. With the ride being hugely popular, I think an early morning breakfast inside the park could be a great way to avoid the morning rush to get the full riding party in and secure a spot in the queue, while also having an opportunity to sign up for Jedi Training if that were to be of interest. American diner-style Hollywood and Vine is currently the only early morning breakfast option in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and it’s a buffet-style character meal with kids favourites like Mickey waffles and colourful fruit loop cereals. For breakfast, restaurant-goers can meet Disney Jr characters, and last year we met Doc McStuffins, Princess Sofia, Roadster Racer Goofy and Vampirina at the Hollywood and Vine breakfast.
Topolino’s Terrace
With some rave reviews and tempting Mickey-themed dishes, the newly-opened Topolino’s Terrace restaurant on top of Disney’s Riviera Resort is a venue I’m particularly keen to visit on our next trip for a character breakfast with Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Donald. The restaurant has an artist theme that’s reflected in both character costumes and certain dishes, and the food is served a la carte, making for a more relaxing character meal experience than buffet-style character dining where you have to make sure you leave the table at the right time. While we mainly prioritise breakfast in the parks, to make the most of the lower crowd levels first thing in the morning, this is a breakfast I book for a day we’re not visiting a park in the morning since we can easily get to Disney’s Riviera Resort on the Skyliner from the Epcot Resort area, where we’ll be staying. I would also have booked it if we had stayed at Disney’s Riviera Resort.
‘Ohana
Another favourite Disney resort restaurant from last year’s Walt Disney World holiday is ‘Ohana, and it was particularly the restaurant’s character breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto that had our eyes ablaze with happiness. Similar to Garden Grill, a scrumptious breakfast with eggs, waffles, fruit and more is served family style at the table, meaning there’s no reason to leave the table and risk missing a character visit. Stitch is surprisingly charming, and ended up being one of our most memorable character meet and greet experiences.
In Disney’s Animal Kingdom, we like Tusker House, which is a buffet-style character meal. An early reservation (8am if park opening is 9am) at Tusker House would be great for families planning to get on Kilimanjaro Safaris without a FastPass, as the restaurant located in this section of the park.
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