Hi Kelly,
Character meals at Disney World are the perfect way to interact with your favorite Disney pals while chowing down on some delicious food. I love the breakfast options because they are normally a little less expensive and it is such a fun way to start your day.
When a restaurant switches entirely from breakfast to lunch will depend on the restaurant as they all run slightly different and have different ranges of hours. I am assuming that you are asking about a reservation at
Chef Mickey's Buffet because it is the only one that takes breakfast reservations until 12:30. If that is not the case, feel free to
ask me directly about the specific restaurant, and I will be happy to look into it for you!
Chef Mickey's only serves breakfast and dinner so this is one restaurant where you do not have to worry about the food switching over if you have a late breakfast reservation. The character attendants are great about making sure that each table has seen all of the characters available before they head over to the theme parks to make magic there! For this restaurant, 12:30 PM is simply the last time they will seat anyone but they still want you to enjoy your experience to the fullest and will not rush you to eat or move along. I have found that the breakfast buffet is continually restocked until all guests have made their way to the buffet so the food will still be fresh and delicious.
This is a nice time to make a reservation if you have family members who love to sleep in or if you want to get an early start at Magic Kingdom before the afternoon heat and then take a break for a quick monorail ride over to
Disney's Contemporary Resort for breakfast for lunch! When I have stayed at this resort, it always looks like the restaurant is pretty cleared out by 1:15 PM so as long as you aren't super slow eaters, that should be enough time. Some people I know do not love this seating time because they feel that the character interactions are a little quicker and there isn't as much time to go back for seconds from the buffet so if either of those will be an issue for you, you may want to try for a little bit earlier time. A few tips if you want to make the most of this time: arrive early to make sure you are seated by your reservation time, wait until you see the characters to head to the buffet, and get plenty of food your first time around!
Happy Planning,
Jenna