Hi Emily! Welcome to planDisney. It looks like you are doing a little last-minute planning for your park day tomorrow! I'm going to enlist my friend Dash from
The Incredibles and zip this answer over to you in the hopes that it gets to you in time!
I just love an early morning character breakfast! What a fabulous way to start a day at the Happiest Place on Earth! You are going to love those Mickey waffles (or Minnie if you're enjoying
Minnie & Friends - Breakfast in the Park!) - really, anything mouse-shaped just tastes extra sweet! Oh, and those hugs from your favorite characters are the best way to fill up with pixie dust to kick off your day!
I just took a look at the
park hours for tomorrow and it looks like Disneyland Park will open up at 8 a.m. From my experience, planning about an hour to enjoy a character meal is just about right. The good news is that most of the current
character dining options are all buffet-style, so you won't have to wait for prepared meals, and you can be a bit more in control of your own time. The only exception is
Disney Princess Breakfast Adventures at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. This is an experience you will not want to rush as you and your Mouseketeers get to mix and mingle with royalty in some very unique ways! Of course, any of these experiences can be longer or shorter depending on how you'd like to spend your time and how many times you want to give Chip and Dale a squeeze!
I always like to recommend getting to the parks for "rope drop", as we like to say. This is when they open up those gates, sometimes even a few minutes before the listed park opening time. I actually think your timing will be perfect. You get the full hour to enjoy your meal and then head straight over to Disneyland Park. Keep in mind that it is a summer weekend and there will likely be quite a few Guests visiting along with you, but as long as you are there within the first hour, you should be able to take advantage of an attraction or two before those queues start to fill up. If you have your heart set on a particular, popular attraction, I would head straight there. You can always check wait times through the Disneyland Mobile App as well on your stroll into the parks to plan the best strategy for that first hour!
A sure-fire way to skip a few queues would be to add
Genie+ to your tickets. This will give you access to
Lightning Lanes on select attractions. If you haven't already included Genie+, not to worry! You can add it very easily once you scan into the parks directly from the Disneyland Mobile app. Just tap the "+" along the bottom navigation bar and select "View My Genie Day and Tip Board" and toggle to "Tip Board". Front and center you should see the option to purchase Disney Genie+ right at the top! You can make your first selection immediately and can continue making selections throughout your day either when you tap into the current attraction OR two hours after you made that selection if your return window is later in the day. I know that might be a lot of information, so if you have any follow-up questions feel free to reach back out to me!
Emily, have the most magical time. Be sure to take a few moments to just sit and enjoy a churro on a bench along Main Street, U.S.A. or listen to The Dapper Dans sing some of your favorite tunes. You never know what magic might find you!
Tara