Timing of Breakfast at Tusker House

[hllb]

First, I "accidentally" have two reservations for the same day for an ROL package Tusker House breakfast. I thought I lost the first one! I had a regular breakfast reservation there and once the ROL packages came out (and there weren't any for my day and family size of 5), I tried a trick someone mentioned here. I waited until later at night (around midnight), and dropped my reservation. Then, I turned around and searched for an ROL package and there it was! So, I tried to reserve it. I got all the way to the end and hit the final button and got an error. And then it was gone. I figured someone beat me to hitting the final button. Then I just noticed TODAY that it's actually in my reservation list even though I never got a confirmation!

So now I have a decision to make. I was able to find another reservation, but I had to split my family into 4/1 for that. Here is what I have:

8:10 PPO Reservation for ROL Tusker House breakfast for 5

10:15 Reservation for ROL Tusker House breakfast for 4
10:15 Reservation for ROL Tusker House breakfast for 2 (put 2 here just in case someone wanted to sit together)

The park opens at 9 on this day. While I don't yet have FPs (window opens late next month), I do expect to be able to get FoP FPs. My plan was to RD for Na'vi. I actually liked the 10:15 time better because I figured I could rope drop Na'vi, and possibly do my FoP FP before that breakfast reservation. But, it's a split reservation (I'll keep looking for one for the whole family). But now I also have the 8:10 reservation. But, that would mean, at best, I'd get to Na'vi maybe 15 minutes after park open. I suspect that would be 45 minutes to an hour wait at that point.

Which would you keep?

 

[SarahC97]

I did a 10:30 last month and really liked it because you get both breakfast and lunch.thats my vote
!

 

[BriLovesDisney]

Because of Pandora I would keep the 10:15.

 

[megs1313]

I like 10:30 or so for TH because you get lunch food then, too, so your 10:15 gets my vote. we'll be there at 10:45 soon. YUM!

 

[Haley R]

I Have a 10:35 time and I’m excited to try both breakfast and lunch!

 

[GillianP1301]

If you can get checked in for the early one closer to 8:00am, you will most likely be done before 9:00. Breakfast character meals with the earliest times are faster than an hour or more into the meal time because the restaurant is nowhere near full and the characters are already circulating and you will see them all in far less time, like 20 - 30 minutes instead of an hour. That's probably what I would take of your two choices.

 

[hllb]

If you can get checked in for the early one closer to 8:00am, you will most likely be done before 9:00. Breakfast character meals with the earliest times are faster than an hour or more into the meal time because the restaurant is nowhere near full and the characters are already circulating and you will see them all in far less time, like 20 - 30 minutes instead of an hour. That's probably what I would take of your two choices.

Hmmm....now you're making me think about it more! We could definitely be there early. Maybe I'll have to wait and see what my FPs look like and then decide. I'm OK not getting any lunch food (I'm OK with it either way)

 

[fiversmama]

I would say the 10:15, hands down! The breakfast and lunch offerings make it really interesting and filling, and because you're overlapping the breakfast and lunch time seatings, crowds reach a natural lull. I ALWAYS do a very early lunch TH and we have actually had characters stay at our table together for up to 5 minutes with up to three passes in the hour or so we are there. At that time, they will probably easily seat you together as a family, too. I think your RD plan sounds great too, and allows you to avoid the TH crowd at breakfast and beat the TH crowd for lunch!

 

[sanapp]

I always LOVE ADRs before the park opening. There is something special about getting to go into the park before it opens. I would say that you can get done in about 45 minutes. I would try and be sure that you meet each character the first time they go around though if the character meets are important as it could be quite some time before they make it all the way back around. When my daughter was little we would have one adult stay with her incase characters came around while the other adult went and got food for her and themselves. I can say though that I was only interested in the breakfast items and not interested at all in the lunch items. We were always RDing the safari back then though, so it was super handy to already be back there. We were often in the first vehicle out.

 

[scrappinginontario]

My suggestion would be completely different. Since your trip is still 3 months out I would keep all you have booked right now and keep looking for a 10:00ish reservation for 5 people. The challenge with what you currently have is that your 2 tables could be in different locations in the restaurant. Are you okay if your party is separated if they're not able to seat you together?

My concern about keeping the 8:10 if you're hoping to get to Na'vi is that if it were me I'd feel rushed the entire meal and find myself clock watching rather than enjoying the meal. Also, the wait times for Na'vi will not be as long as they are for FoP so you may find a wait time in the afternoon that you're comfortable doing.

Right now you are in a 'lull' for looking for dining reservations and many people are just kinda sitting tight with what they have. You're well past the 180 day mark yet still 90+ days away from your trip. The next time you will see more movement for reservations will be around the time that FP reservations can be booked. Some people will change their dining in place of a FP reservation for FoP, etc.

After that, you will see a lot of movement in dining reservations in the last few weeks before your trip. Many people will need to make final decisions and extra reservations will be dropped.

I book 15-20 trips for family and friends each year so am well familiar with looking for dining reservations. Hope this helps out a bit.

 

[hllb]

My suggestion would be completely different. Since your trip is still 3 months out I would keep all you have booked right now and keep looking for a 10:00ish reservation for 5 people. The challenge with what you currently have is that your 2 tables could be in different locations in the restaurant. Are you okay if your party is separated if they're not able to seat you together?

My concern about keeping the 8:10 if you're hoping to get to Na'vi is that if it were me I'd feel rushed the entire meal and find myself clock watching rather than enjoying the meal. Also, the wait times for Na'vi will not be as long as they are for FoP so you may find a wait time in the afternoon that you're comfortable doing.

Right now you are in a 'lull' for looking for dining reservations and many people are just kinda sitting tight with what they have. You're well past the 180 day mark yet still 90+ days away from your trip. The next time you will see more movement for reservations will be around the time that FP reservations can be booked. Some people will change their dining in place of a FP reservation for FoP, etc.

After that, you will see a lot of movement in dining reservations in the last few weeks before your trip. Many people will need to make final decisions and extra reservations will be dropped.

I book 15-20 trips for family and friends each year so am well familiar with looking for dining reservations. Hope this helps out a bit.

Yes, I am continuing to look for a 10:15ish reservation for all of us. I am OK if we have to sit apart, but obviously would prefer not to.

 

[nursejackie]

I'm not sure what month you are going in, but bear in mind Disney change their park hours nearer the time so you have the potential to lose the PPO advantage if they change to 8am opening. We go every December and I can guarantee the hours that are showing now for Christmas will not be the actual hours, as the last 7 Christmases they have mostly opened earlier with extra EMH added. If you are not going at a busy time though, this may not happen, but it's just something to keep in mind.

 

[hllb]

I'm not sure what month you are going in, but bear in mind Disney change their park hours nearer the time so you have the potential to lose the PPO advantage if they change to 8am opening. We go every December and I can guarantee the hours that are showing now for Christmas will not be the actual hours, as the last 7 Christmases they have mostly opened earlier with extra EMH added. If you are not going at a busy time though, this may not happen, but it's just something to keep in mind.

We're going at the end of January to beginning of February so the hours may change, but won't be like December hours for sure. If the park changes to 8 AM opening, we'll definitely not be keeping the early reservation.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We're going at the end of January to beginning of February so the hours may change, but won't be like December hours for sure. If the park changes to 8 AM opening, we'll definitely not be keeping the early reservation.

Just realized our tickers show us arriving the exact same day!

 

[hllb]

Just realized our tickers show us arriving the exact same day!

Why yes they do! You're not coming from Detroit too, are you? Given your screen name, it's a direct possibility LOL.

 

[DMLAINI]

We just did a 10:15 ROL pkg. We usually do Tusker at 8 am when the park opens at 9 but 10:15 was soooo great because we got to try breakfast & lunch & we all were really impressed by how amazing lunch was

 

[steph12]

The rope for the Pandora area will drop around 8:40. If you eat at 8:10 there is no way you will be there in time, and you will be behind the entire crowd that was there before you. We went 2 weeks ago and by 9:15 Navi had a wait time of 120 minutes! We couldn't believe it, but we couldn't even find the back of the standby line it was that packed! I would look for a 10:30 reservation for all 5 of you. No way would I want to have my party split up into 2 tables.

 

[achang2001]

I always find TH to be very accommodating. We’ve had to do the 2 reservation setup for a larger group. We check in for both reservations and ask to be seated together and ensure they mark off both reservations. We’ve done this for our last 4-5 trips. YMMV though