On our second day at Walt Disney World, we had park reservations at Magic Kingdom. Judy had requested breakfast at Crystal Palace.

We took the bus from the Boardwalk to Magic Kingdom. I was on the bus when it turned 7 AM, and unfortunately I was not able to get a virtual queue boarding group for Tiana's Bayou Adventure. The rest of the family didn't seem to care, but I was frustrated because I was assisting with the construction of the attraction at Disneyland, and the team kept asking me if I was going to ride it when I went to Florida. Oh well, I could try again at 1PM.

I was shocked to see that it was already Halloween on Main Street. It was the beginning of August!! I guess the first Halloween party was taking place later in the week.

Breakfast - Crystal Palace

We love Disney breakfasts. When I booked some initial dining reservations and shared them with my family, asking for their input, the first response was a unanimous - "NO BREAKFAST!?!?" So I went back and booked two - Grand Floridian Cafe (which we dined at on Day 1) and Crystal Palace.

Crystal Palace is a family favorite. We dined there for the first time in 2002 and have been going back ever since. And I believe this is the only restaurant on Disney property that we've dined at for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

What keeps us coming back? Perhaps it's the convenient Magic Kingdom location, or maybe the bright and airy atmosphere. It might be because we all quite adore Pooh and friends (Rachel and I grew up watching the 30-minute Winnie the Pooh VHS tapes religiously). But if I had to pinpoint a single reason, I'll go ahead and specify Pooh's Puffed French Toast.

Monday was Rachel's Birthday!

Now, you might remember from another thread that Rachel had requested two things for her birthday - a birthday breakfast and to spend the day at Magic Kingdom.  Because of the free dining promotion which had been offered at this time, character dining was impossible to get.  And MNSSHP was held at MK that night when meant we wouldn't be able to spend the evening there.

I played the ADR game, checking everyday, and character breakfasts eventually opened up.  I was holding a 7 AM ADR for Chef Mickey's and a 10 AM ADR for 'Ohana which Rachel had to choose between.  She chose 'Ohana, so I canceled Chef Mickey's, and a few minutes later, she changed her mind!  Of course, Chef Mickey's was long gone.

On Sunday, I was making our FP+ reservations for the next day and decided to check out ADRs just for kicks - and what do you know!  Availability for 8:45 AM at Crystal Palace!  I immediately booked and canceled 'Ohana.

Our ADR was technically before the park opened, but the buses to MK were running behind that morning (assuming, considering two MK buses showed up back-to-back and there were a lot of people waiting), so we didn't get to MK until after it opened.

Breakfast at Crystal Palace was aight. We'd eaten lunch here several times before, but never breakfast. I'm actually beginning to like these breakfast buffets. Sure, they take away from park time, but the food is standard and probably edible, plus it's the least expensive of the buffets.

The food wasn't as good as 1900 Park Fare, but it was pretty good. Better than my typical breakfast food.









We celebrated our birthday, again. here, we got a card with signatures from Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore.