I have both a dinner and breakfast and going to cancel one (so I can get that huge hit off my cc 
. Is breakfast just as good as dinner for characters etc, leaning on doing the breakfast? Have not read the best things about dinner
Thanks
D
Dinner is really good, but if youâre more in it for the experience and the time of day and meal is not so important, breakfast is more affordable.
Iâm voting for breakfast. The breakfast food is much better than many of the other character breakfasts, since itâs a la carte (not a buffet or family style) and since they took away my favorite Major Domoâs Pie Iâm not such a fan of the lunch/dinner options.
Also breakfast, if you have a pre-RD time, can be a great chance to get inside the park before everyone else to get some nice crowd-free photos.
With the change in rope drop procedures is this still true? I guess Breakfast ADRs do have access at 7:45 vs. the masses at 8, so I guess if you definitely intend to take advantage of that 15 minutes, it would be trueâŚ
Good point⌠I forgot about that. I hate when they move my cheese! Iâd still pick breakfast⌠Iâm not a fight the crowds at RD kind of person, though.
Thanks so much. Going breakfast and saving the money.
One more question. How much time should I block out for the breakfast? Trying to figure FP+'s around it
Iâd say 90-100 minutes with 2-4 people, add maybe 5-10 minutes each additional 2 people⌠Iâm not sure why, but meals just seem to take longer with a larger group, even if theyâre buffet/family style.
Thank you for the help
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ok a little revision. I broke down and got the dining plan. now that its 2 table service credits for either breakfast or dinner and out res for breakfast isnât until 9:55 AM. does a 6 PM dinner sound like it makes more sense?
I have been at breakfast and dinner, I liked the breakfast food a lot but enjoyed dinner as well. I like the castle at dinner, especially if it is dark outside. It adds to the magic.
Characters were the same quality either time of day. Either way it is 2 TS on the dining plan and your tip is included so may as well have the dinner option with dessert!
I found the dinner food to be really terrible. It was a huge disappointment because it is so expensive. You are not paying for food there (I donât think anyone in my party of 6 enjoyed their food or even ate it). You are only paying to see the princesses. If you havenât done it before, I would go for breakfast because the atmosphere is beautiful and the characters are great. Hopefully they canât mess up breakfast food so badly.
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On the dining plan, I try not to worry too much if Iâm getting a good value at any given meal. That being said, we do compare the overall expected costs for various places to figure out which to pay out of pocket (since you will run short by a TS credit if you do any 2 credit meals). Fun fact: most 2-credit TS meals are a very poor value on the dining plan. In doing this you will probably find that keeping this breakfast reservation but paying out of pocket will be a better overall value than using the dining credits. Then you can either do a different 2-credit meal, or do 2 TS one day instead of just one. Does that make sense?
We chose dinner because we felt we would be more relaxed and not worried about missing out on prime touring time. We had the steak and shrimp and thought it was fine (better than our entrees at Akershus dinner). Dessert was also fine. Werenât as crazy about the appetizer. DD loved her sâmores dessert.
We were on the dining plan and it was cheapest overall for our to use our dining plan credits for CRT and pay out of pocket for another meal (such as breakfast at Garden Grill or lunch at Beaches and Cream). If you use the http://www.distripplanner.com/ calculator and input your planned meals it will recommend what you should use the dining plan for and/or pay out of pocket for.
Yes, less expensive dollar wise, but less value credits wise.
According to this, CRT breakfast is using $31 per credit. There are MANY more meals which average a higher per-credit value. At the top of the chart, for example, is Hollywood and Vine Fantasmic Dinner Package at 1 credit worth an average of $57. Thatâs $26 per credit per person that youâre wasting by using the credits at CRT.
Most 2-credit meals are a very poor dining plan value - especially at breakfast.
I also thought the food wasnât great! Super disappointingâŚif we go again I would most likely skip CRT.
If using a regular dining plan, with just the 1 TS credit/person/night I would pay out of pocket for CRT at any meal. Iâm not really a âget the best value for each creditâ person, but if I only had 6 TS credits in a week I canât say that Iâd want to use 2 for any one meal. That said, if youâre planning 6 TS meals and one of them has a lower average cost than CRT ($31 for breakfast, $35 for lunch/dinner) then thatâs the one youâll want to pay out of pocket for.
If you have a deluxe dining plan and plan to use lots of your credits for TS then do whatever one will make you happiest⌠that is usually our MO. Also, if you have a deluxe plan then any 3-9 year olds can order from the adult menu, if thatâs appealing to them. This means that you can finagle some things like paying out of pocket for their meals at any family-style or buffet places, or places where theyâd order the cheapest thing from the kidsâ menu and saving those credits for more expensive meals because they donât differentiate between kids and adults credits on the plan⌠theyâre all just âdlx cpnâ. In other words, never used a deluxe credit to pay for your 3 year oldâs chicken nuggets.
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Wow I totally love that idea !!! 
I think thats what I am going to do and use the single credits elsewhere !!!
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But if you are eating at the same restaurants either way, wouldnât you want to spend the least money total? I consider my cost of dining as what I spent on the dining plan (or its value if you get free dining) plus what I spend out of pocket. I would rather get less value out of a credit if it means I save money overall.
The long and short of it is that CRT averages $62 or $70 in value ($31 or $35 per credit) depending on which meal you eat. There are a few other meals where it would still be cheaper to pay out of pocket, but in most cases (particularly if youâre doing mostly character meals and/or no breakfasts) your TS lunches and dinners in parks or at better resort restaurants will be more expensive. In most cases it will be a matter of a just a few dollars difference, and not worth much though in the end but there are a number of way that difference can increase with even slight changes.
For example:
Scenario 1: I have 5 TS credits total and Iâm eating at:
Akershus (breakfast, $46)
1900 Park Fare (dinner, $47)
Tonyâs Town Square (parade pkg lunch, $45)
CRT breakfast (breakfast, $62)
50s Prime Time (dinner, $30)
Coral Reef (dinner, $40)
I could use 2 TS credits for CRT, and pay out of pocket for Coral Reef and 50s PT for $70, but the better use would be to pay for CRT and use credits for the other two. Either way itâs $8, so itâs negligible.
Scenario 2: Its the same, except Iâm eating my HS dinner at Hollywood & Vine as a Fantasmic package ($57) instead. Thatâs an additional $27, so now if I use 2 at CRT and pay out of pocket for Coral Reef and Tonyâs (my cheapest meals) itâs $85 total⌠thatâs $17 which doesnât seem much until you realize that for my family of 6 that amounts to over $100.
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