Which character meal?

[Addicted2TheMouse]

I want to do one character meal in February. It will be me, DS2.5, and my parents. Which one should I do? DS is familiar with the classic characters (Mickey, Donald, etc.), not so much the newer ones.

[jeepgirl30]

We ate at CRT for breakfast, Chef Mickeys and Crystal Palace for dinner. Chef Mickey's dinner was awesome. Really it tied with CRT but its only 1 TS and less expensive. The characters at CM were great and so was the service.

[HeatherC]

We like Chef Mickey's for dinner too, but my kids LOVE Crystal Palace for lunch. The characters are Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit, etc.. It is also a nice break from touring and the food is really good. I have also heard really good things about Liberty Tree Tavern if you are in the MK for dinnertime..I believe it is Mickey and Friends at that one.

Have fun planning!
HeatherC

[RockyMtnMaria]

Our favorite was Seasons in Epcot (located in The Land Pavilion). It has classic characters and the food was excellent. We also loved the revolving floor and changing scenery. Be sure to ask for an outside table. It is worth waiting for!

My second choice would be Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom (assuming again that you want classic characters) but the food wasn't quite as good as Seasons. If you are a meat and potatoes person, without a lot of flavor, then LTT would be better. The princess meal in Epcot had some of the best food of our trip and the character interaction is the best since they can actually talk and interact more, but that is not a place everyone would like. The food is unique and delicious!

I wasn't that thrilled with any of the buffets we tried. I'd take Country Buffet any day over the buffets we tried. The selection was small and the food was just ok. And son got food poisoning from Crystal Palace.

[labdogs42]

Only one? Character meals are addicting, BTW. We loved the Garden Grill and Liberty Tree Tavern. I like the family style meals because you don't have to go up and get your food, they just bring it all to you right away! Very important for those with little ones. Enjoy!

[Harvest02]

Another vote for Chef Mickey's!!! We make it a family tradition to always eat there on our trips to Disney! My two boys love their breakfast buffet and who wouldn't enjoy meeting Mickey and Minnie??? We also like the atmosphere of the monorail running right by us too! :thumbsup2

[daisyduck123]

Chef Mickey's!!

We've eaten there 4 times this year. It's been great every time!!

They will take your picture (you pose with some very cute props) upon check-in. I suggest wearing matching shirts, if possible. It looks great in pictures.

[LuvOrlando]

I have to throw my top choice out there.

You guessed it, Chef Mickeys is our families all time favorite too. There is just something so Disney about the place, I can't put my finger on it but thats how I feel.

I always go there on the day of a trip to the Magic Kingdom. If I'm not on the monorail line I just take a bus to MK and hop on the monorail to the Contemporary from there and then take the monorail back again.

[SoonerGirl]

Our favorite was Seasons in Epcot (located in The Land Pavilion). It has classic characters and the food was excellent. We also loved the revolving floor and changing scenery. Be sure to ask for an outside table. It is worth waiting for!

I think you're thinking of the Garden Grill. We just ate there on our last trip in October and really enjoyed it. It's a small restaurant and you get lots of character interaction. Chip, Dale, Mickey & Pluto were there and each one came by our table at least 3 times.

We've also been to Chef Mickey's both for breakfast and dinner. The food is pretty good, but my one complaint is that unless you sit there for a long time, you won't see all the characters. We've been twice and didn't meet Mickey either time.

Crystal Palace is good too if you like the Pooh characters - my kids love this place.

[DisneyArk]

My sons love Chef Mickey's! When they were 1 and 3 they loved Crystal Palace. :cool1:

[makinorlando]

For a boy I would agree Chef Mickey or Crystal Palace. Both of these are buffets, and we have enjoyed both breakfast and dinner at both. We will be having Christmas morning breakfast at Crystal Palace!

Something a little different is Donald's Breakfastasaurous (too many letters, but you get the idea) in Dinoland/Animal Kingdom. It is a buffet as well, with Donald, Mickey, Pluto and Goofy. The atmosphere is like a dining hall on a archeological dig, so it's not as bright and cheery as some of the others. The food here was much the same as at CM when we went in Feb.

I agree lunch or dinner at the Garden Grill is great. It is a new found favorite of ours. It is a plated meal, but you can get seconds of anything. I also agree with the observation that the character interaction is awesome there Chip sat at the table and colored with DD for a bit!

My all time fav is breakfast at 1900 Park Fare - with Alice from Wonderland Mad Hatter, and two of the Pooh characters. Also Mary Poppins is generally in the lobby for meeting and greeting. This one probably not as much for a boy. This too is a buffet.

Dinner at Liberty Tree is great too. We enjoyed the basic food - and had wonderful character interaction from Minnie, Goofy, Chip, Dale and Pluto. We will be eating there before MVMCP and 12/18

DD and I have successfully visited every character meal this year it has been great fun, and there were none that were not good, just differing degrees from good to excellent!!!

Enjoy your trip!

[ndgqmiller]

Okay first of all I agree w/ the other posters. character meals are addicting. The best way to eat at Disney. If you can fit it more than one I would!

We loved Chef Mickey's breakfast it's a great way to start your vacation. The kids loved it and my husband loved the food!

Another favorite is Liberty Tree. Good southern home cooking. Our waiter was great. While we were there we were picked to open the resturant and were able to meet all the characters in private and do autographs. It was an awesome disney experience.

CRT is good but not a great choice for boys. There are so many others but these are my favorites. Good luck choosing. I don't know if you can go wrong with character meals!

[MinnieNurse]

Personally I love Crystal Palace and with a 2.5 year old the Pooh characters are just so sweet with this age group.

If you want Mickey and some of his gang I would do Liberty Tree Tavern in MK or Garden Grill in Epcot.

I actually love everyone I have been to though!!! :banana: :banana:

[kg66]

We've done, The Princess Bkfst at Norway, Cinderellas Gala Feast at GF, but our favourite was bkfst at Chef Mickeys. I'd love to do this again when we go in Feb, but we're going with another family who's on a tight budget. Maybe this could be a good time to separate for a while to do individual family time......

[Disfan3]

CP had a to die for BKFST!!! Yum!! Characters were ok...Tigger was the best...but we don't really care for much more than a hug and a picture...

Also CM's was sooooooooooooooo FUN!!! YES!! We had dinner there....a lot of fun and GOOD food for dinner!!!!

We also had dinner at PF...but that is more "girly" but let me tell you we LOVED that food!!

Garden Grill was fun for lunch! Good home style meal served family style. We ate three desserts!! Yum!! Characters spent lots of time with us here...and were funny!! Pluto was hilarious!!


(guess we are not picky eaters, huh??)

ITA character meals are totally addicting!! I am no help to you...I just spouted off every one we have been to!!! :rotfl:

Would NOT go back to CRT. Imo.

Hope I have helped in some way

Obviously I cannot pick just one!!

food: CP bkfst
characters: Garden Grill
fun and dancing: Chef Micks

and there ya have it! :woohoo:

[lady_hlh]

My DD loves Crystal Palace and Chef Mickeys. If think they are both great for the preschool set, I personally prefer CP because they have more interesting ethnic food choices on their buffet and they had fantastic coconut flan. My DH prefers Chef Mickey for dinner because he is a big fan of their carved meats station. None of us liked the food at Liberty Tree it was just so bland like a TV dinner.

[LaraK]

We love character meals and are doing five on our upcoming trip. We always do our character meals at breakfast, because that's when my kids are at their best (and it's cheaper). Also, we figure dinner is for mom and dad. I love all the meals, but one of the big advantages to the meals in the parks is that you can get a really early ADR and be further in the park at the rope drop. For that reason, and that reason alone, I have to have CP edge our Chef Mickey's slightly. (DD and I really REALLY love CRT for breakfast, but it may not be so good for a boy) Donald's in AK is ok, but not the best (dark, poor food selection) We're trying our first character dinner this time....1900 Park Fare.

[Addicted2TheMouse]

Wow, maybe I can't do just one. From the sounds of things I'd really like to try Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, and Garden Grill. After many, many trips as a child and several as an adult, would you believe I've NEVER been to a character meal? How deprived, huh?

I just hope DS takes well to the characters this year and isn't scared...

[averill94]

Have to agree with Disfan3 - CP for breakfast is unbelievable.
I booked it last trip to get into MK early (not really caring about the food)
But the food was beautiful!!
The characters are perfect for a 2.5 year old too- Compared to CM this is a smidge more low key character wise (CM is our 1st night rtradition)

Have fun!

[makinorlando]

I just hope DS takes well to the characters this year and isn't scared...

For this reason, I'm thinking your best bet for the first one might be Crystal Palace, as someone else mentioned, it is a bit more low key, and less going on. At Contemporary you have the monorail going throuh, and much more going on in general.

It really is beautiful. I'm so excited for XMAS morning breakfast there. My mother is 82 and will be joining us, she had never been to a character meal, and I think it will be fun, and make for some wonderful memories. Tara is NOT into Pooh being 9 years old they are for "babies" but she does enjoy the characters at CP!

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e291/makasper/Crystal%20Palace/CPTopiaryPoohCP.jpg

[slo]

I would go to Chef Mickeys.

The place is such great fun and there's good interaction with the characters.

The food is just okay (the desserts are the great), but the fun is what takes us back there every year!!! :thumbsup2

[MeLaNie9]

We loved Garden Grill (dinner). It is relatively quiet, the food is great, nice setting with revolving restaurant, and the character interaction is fabulous. We did not like Chef Mickey's (breakfast) - it was way too crowded and loud, we had to wait forever for a table despite reservation, food lines were terribly long with rude people cutting in front of others, table service was really slow, and characters were slow to come around (we left without seeing them all). Crystal Palace was enjoyable - fun to see Pooh and friends, food was OK, setting is really nice, service was good.
I don't think we will go to CM's again but will likely do GG every time we go to WDW!

[HLDisney]

We just got back on Wednesday and we did 3 character meals. Cinderella's Royal Table, Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's. If you're looking for the classic Disney characters, I agree that Chef Mickey's is great for that. I will admit that it's hard to do a buffet for a character meal because you're never sure when the characters will come by. We got lucky at Crystal Palace because all the characters came by within the first 20-30 minutes so we just waited until we saw all of them before we went for food. It was much harder at Chef Mickey's since the characters arrived at much more spread-out intervals and we ended up missing Goofy the first time and then had to wait quite a while for him to come back. My friend and I had to take turns getting food for our girls and my friend's DD5 was so anxious to see the characters that I don't think she ate at all.

Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table was better since we didn't have to get up to get food and the princesses and fairy godmother (since they didn't have a full body costume on) had an easier time taking the autograph book from the girls, signing the autographs and posing for pictures. For the other 2 character meals, I usually needed to take the autograph album and pen and sort of wave it in front of the characters before they knew to reach out for it.

The Pooh characters at Crystal Palace were very much in character so it was fun watching Tigger bouncing around everywhere and in general, being much more hyper ;) while Eeyore was much more subdued.

Since this was the first trip for my DD4 and the other little girl, I think having these 3 character meals was a great way for them to interact with all of the characters. In the future, I think we'll probably only have 1-2 character meals per trip.

HLDisney