Crystal Palace/Tusker House Breakfast During Christmas Week Question

[Skippydoo]

We will be braving Disney during Christmas week for the first time. We were thinking about doing the Crystal Palace and Tusker House Character Breakfasts because we'd heard great things about going into the park for early ADR's and enjoying an almost empty park. But I just saw that the parks open much earlier during Christmas week. Do the in park restaurants open earlier too? Or would we be sacrificing EMH hours while eating?

We're planning out our ADR's now so having more info about this will help us plan out a lot.

[scoobydooby]

Be careful. MK at least opens at 7am on some days Xmas week. The restaurants do not open at 6am. I don't think AK opens that early. When MK opens at 7am though almost everyone is in bed. If you can get up, I advise you storm the park 'till 9am then do breakfast. Me and my DD did MK from 7am December 16th one year. We cleared 15 attractions in an empty park.

[scoobydooby]

Sorry that should read December 26th.

[Drince88]

I don't think you'll have much luck getting pre-opening ADRs during Christmas week because of the early park-opening times, so I'll second scoobydooby's idea to hit the parks hard, then do a later breakfast.

[Skippydoo]

When I saw the 7am opening for MK during Christmas week that was what I was fearing... but if we can get the kids up and there for a 7am opening a 9am breakfast would work out pretty well...

Thanks!

[Drince88]

I don't know if you've seen scoobydooby's other advice about early mornings at crowded times or not, but I'm going to share it here, just in case.

She's of the opinion that you plan early mornings for 2 mornings in a row, and then the 3rd morning, you plan a sleep in day. (I think it's 2 then 1 - correct me if I'm wrong, Scoobydooby). That way you still get the relaxation benefit of a vacation, AND the great park-storming early hours. Obviously, I think it's fantastic advice, or I wouldn't be repeating it.

[scoobydooby]

I don't know if you've seen scoobydooby's other advice about early mornings at crowded times or not, but I'm going to share it here, just in case.

She's of the opinion that you plan early mornings for 2 mornings in a row, and then the 3rd morning, you plan a sleep in day. (I think it's 2 then 1 - correct me if I'm wrong, Scoobydooby). That way you still get the relaxation benefit of a vacation, AND the great park-storming early hours. Obviously, I think it's fantastic advice, or I wouldn't be repeating it.

I think two 'earlies' followed by a late allows for park storming and relaxation. We have done three 'earlies' followed by a late and then not always very late and we were on our knees by the end of the fortnight. My children have refused to do it again. I now own a teenager who loves his bed I do advocate early starts though because I hate to queue.

[Skippydoo]

I think our plan is:
Day 1: EPCOT slightly late (allowing for some jet lag)
Day 2: DHS Early
Day 3: off day, laze about, do some shopping, and Hoop de Doo that night
Day 4: Magic Kingdom Early
Day 5: Christmas Morning, a little bit slow, then what ever we didn't get to on Day 4 in Magic Kingdom
Day 6: Animal Kingdom Early

So not too many early morning park storming sessions. It is Christmas after all. I think the 4 year might have a hissy though if I tell him his Christmas present is getting to sleep in ... We selected Epcot for our day 1 so we can acclimate to the 3 hour time difference and then hit world showcase's Christmas stuff.

[scoobydooby]

Now I'm not very good at wrapping my head around how jet lag works according to the theory, but here's my 4 times experience. On our outward trip from the UK to Florida, when we gain 5 hours, despite the equivalent of an horrendously late night we always wake up day 1 stupidly early. So for us a lie in to acclimatise would be wasted. On our return journey our body clocks become destroyed and the first week back at home is usually pretty ugly. I'm just saying this in case you have the same issues as this would affect your planning.

[Skippydoo]

I'm in New Mexico and my friends are in Seattle, so they lose 3 hours and I lose 2. The 3 adults can weather the jet lag out pretty ok, but the kids are not morning people anyway... and when the WDW clock says it's 7am it's really 4am to them. And being 4 and 2 they won't be saying "We're tired" as much as they will scream and cry. So Day 1 we're expecting to be pretty hard. When Illuminations are going off at 9ish in Orlando it will feel like midnight to them...

We went during January off season in 2010 and the boy (who was 2 then) fell asleep at dinner on night one and then about as we were laying down to sleep that night he shot up like a light and declared "All done". He was all done sleeping at 9pm... While so, so funny it took some time to convince him he was not in fact, "All done" and he needed to go to sleep... It's so strange how that is one of my favorite memories from that trip... just those small family moments are so special

[Drince88]

When Illuminations are going off at 9ish in Orlando it will feel like midnight to them...

ACTUALLY, it will feel like 6pm to them. The problem is their wake up time!

For me, personally (as an adult) the first day wasn't as hard (I'm now only 1 time zone away, so it's no problem now) because I end up falling asleep fairly early on travel day because I'd get up so early Pacific time, and just the traveling wore me out (I wasn't really a nervous traveler, but it wasn't a relaxing day!) - so getting up the next morning on Eastern time wasn't hard. Generally, though the second night I'd have troubles falling asleep at a 'reasonable' Eastern time.

[3Princesses1Prince]

Coming from CA I was surprised on how quickly we adjusted. I braved a pre-park opening ADR at Cinderellas Royal Table that first morning, and they all did really well. It more hit us day 2 and we did a late start at Epcot.

[Skippydoo]

Coming from CA I was surprised on how quickly we adjusted. I braved a pre-park opening ADR at Cinderellas Royal Table that first morning, and they all did really well. It more hit us day 2 and we did a late start at Epcot.

That makes sense... that first day there's so much excitement and then on day two it all catches up with you... which would be very bad for us at Hollywood Studios because the 4 yr old is so hyped about Jedi Training Academy it's insane and I haven't gotten to see the Toy Story Mania which I am really excited to expierence, so if it hit us on day 2 and we were there it would be very bad... it might even cause someone to go over to the dark side

[danyoung]

I have 2 simple solutions to jet lag. First, before the plane takes off, I reset my watch to my destination time, and then don't think about it any more. The mind has a terrific ability to fake out the body.

The other solution is, of course, vodka martinis.

[TinaMouse]

Lololol!!!!!!