Donald Safari - Best Character Breakfast in all of WDW Character Dining

[bytheblood]

Donald's Safari Character Breakfast


Pros:
Awesome character interaction
Great food Selection
Food was all very tasty
Very Clean Restaurant
Good Service

Cons:
Overpriced photos that the CMs try to push on you
Photo spot for said photos


Sunday, December 9th
8:05 AM
3 adults/1 child


In all of my Disney character dining experiences, this is by far my favorite. Upon arrival, we checked in and were given a pager. Our table was ready in about 10 minutes.

They took us to a spot where we were to be photographed. The sun was right in our eyes. They would not let us wear sunglasses and were a little pushy about removing them.

After the photo, we were taken to another line where we would wait to be seated. Not 3 minutes passed and we were taken into the restaurant. At that time it was shown to us where the hot food, bread and pastry buffet as well as the fruit & yogurt bar could be found.

As soon as we were seated our waiter came over to take our drink orders and give us all Jungle Juice. If you do not have anything else at the Tusker House, this Jungle Juice is reason enough to go there.

We enjoyed our meal and did not feel rushed in the least. The food was good, there was a lot to choose from and it was all good. I tried things I had never seen before and really enjoyed it all. They have an orange and banana bread that was WONDERFUL, too.

The characters came by our table twice. They spent a few minutes each posing for pictures and signing autographs. They were all friendly and happy to visit with each of us at the table.

The group that tries to sell the photos taken before the meal came to our table and tried to get us to purchase this $45 photo package. We said no. They were real pushy about it. We explained that they stood us with the sun glaring in our eyes, would not let us wear sunglasses and we can get pictures of us squinting anywhere - they were still pushy and we had to get pushy back! I could not believe that actually.

Overall I give the Tusker House Donald's Safari Character Breakfast an A+.

Scores
Cleanliness: A+
Food: A+
Characters: A+
Service: A+
Wait: A+

[quixoticvalue]

Thank you for your honest and informative reviews! For those photos, we either do one of these two:

1) Before we stand in the photo backdrop we ask the photographer if he can take our picture with our own camera first. If he/she says yes, then we get our own free photo from our camera, and then later decline the package when it comes.

2) If the photographer says that he cannot use our camera, we then decline to even take the picture.

We have only had to result to #2 once out of many times. Plus, we have found that the picture that was taken on our camera always looks better than the one that we see in the package. ;)

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your review ~ Thanx for posting.

[NJDisneymom]

thanks for the great review. I was just debating adding this to our AK day, now I definately will.

[bytheblood]

Thank you for your honest and informative reviews! For those photos, we either do one of these two:

1) Before we stand in the photo backdrop we ask the photographer if he can take our picture with our own camera first. If he/she says yes, then we get our own free photo from our camera, and then later decline the package when it comes.

2) If the photographer says that he cannot use our camera, we then decline to even take the picture.

We have only had to result to #2 once out of many times. Plus, we have found that the picture that was taken on our camera always looks better than the one that we see in the package. ;)



That is great, I will remember that next time. :)

[bytheblood]

thanks for the great review. I was just debating adding this to our AK day, now I definately will.


Unless something changes drastically, I do not think you will be disappointed. We loved it. :) Can't wait to do it again.

[TikiGoddess]

Yay! So glad to hear this. I just changed our last day to breakfast there. I was a little iffy, but that sounds wonderful. What's in the jungle juice? Any clue? Thanks for the review!

[bytheblood]

Yay! So glad to hear this. I just changed our last day to breakfast there. I was a little iffy, but that sounds wonderful. What's in the jungle juice? Any clue? Thanks for the review!


The jungle juice is a mixture of orange juice, mango juice, lemonade and pineapple juice. It is not tart however, it is very sweet and tastes so wonderful!!!

[pigletto]

Thanks for the report:goodvibes
That will be our first day breakfast with the kids and we are pretty excited about it.
Yuck to the pushy photographer. I have a photo pass.. I have my own camera.. there's only so many pictures I need. And 45 dollars isn't happening.
I don't do to well with pushy.. but dh does.. so it's all good :thumbsup2

[lynn46356]

We LOVED this CB also. We totally bipassed the photo opp. As they were escorting us to the spot for the photo we told them we were not interested and we went straight to the spot where they showed us where we were went to be seated. I wasn't interested in an expensive picutre package especially w/o characters. The gentlement seemed surprised but oh well. :) We really enjoyed the ham. It was fork tender. I can't remember how many plates we had of it. Everything was GREAT. Thanks for bringing back memories of our Feburary 08 trip.

Lynn

[ses1230]

Thanks for your review. We are going to this bfast for the first time in November and now I am really looking forward to it!

Was Daisy Duck there???

[Susan2771]

I am so glad to read this review. We are going to be taking our 2 little girls there in Sept for there first meeting with the characters. I know the baby isn't going to give 2 hoots but our 3 year old is going to be so happy!! Thanks for posting!

[KatMark]

What characters are at this breakfast?

[dizhoni]

We had breakfast here in May. The characters were Donald, Daisy, Mickey, and Goofy and they were wonderful. It was our 20 month old grandson's first character meet and it went so well -- they were even dancing with our teenagers!!! Oh, the food was wonderful, too. :goodvibes Honi

[delmar411]

Thank you for the review! :thumbsup2 I've been waffling about switching from Boma to this and I think your review helped me decide.

[bytheblood]

Was Daisy Duck there???

What characters are at this breakfast?


We saw Donald, Daisy, Mickey & Pluto.

[Lexxiefern]

Thanks for the review! We are trying this out in October. I am excited to see daisy. I hope she is there when we go.

[dizneedq]

thanks for thr great review-we loved the cb in dino-land and were sad to see it go but t least we know its still great at tusker house

[AmberLuvsWDW]

This breakfast is one of our new favorites too!:goodvibes

[bytheblood]

Thanks for the review! We are trying this out in October. I am excited to see daisy. I hope she is there when we go.



I look forward to your review/thoughts when you get back. :)

[disneyquilter]

Thank you for your honest and informative reviews! For those photos, we either do one of these two:

1) Before we stand in the photo backdrop we ask the photographer if he can take our picture with our own camera first. If he/she says yes, then we get our own free photo from our camera, and then later decline the package when it comes.

2) If the photographer says that he cannot use our camera, we then decline to even take the picture.

We have only had to result to #2 once out of many times. Plus, we have found that the picture that was taken on our camera always looks better than the one that we see in the package. ;)

Thanks for the great tip!!! :thumbsup2

[Gypsybear]

Great seeing the review....I have us booked during our Christmas vacation...and can't wait. :woohoo:

Thanks for sharing~

Bear

[Im_with_Dopey]

So glad you liked it. Can't wait to try it next month.

[mickey0930]

Does anyone have pics they can post of this? I would like to see the setup before booking in a few days. Thanks

[Dizneydaz]

Thanks for the great review! We are doing dinner there in Sept. and I'm really looking forward to it. :goodvibes I really like Boma so I'm excited to try Tuskers. Though I am still sad that Tuskers CS is gone. It was our fav. CS in all the parks and we didn't even get to have it one last time last Sept. :sad:

We have ADRs for 4:45 and the park closes at 5. So, I'm also looking forward to being able to take our time eating and taking pix, as we leave, of the practically empty park! :grouphug:

[Coconuts]

You must have read my mind; I was about to start a thread today asking about this character meal and this was the first thread I saw. What a coincidence!:goodvibes A few more questions: is there characters at other meals? is there any other dishes that you would recommend? is it a buffett? is it very crowded/character to guest ratio?:confused: Thanks:thumbsup2

[marivaid]

Thanks for the review ! We tried this breakfast in April and loved it. We were so disappointed in the old Breakfastausorus, this was a really good surprise.

We did buy the overprice photo package though but they weren't pushy about it with us - probably because we wanted to buy it!

[mickey0930]

subing

[bytheblood]

You must have read my mind; I was about to start a thread today asking about this character meal and this was the first thread I saw. What a coincidence!:goodvibes A few more questions: is there characters at other meals? is there any other dishes that you would recommend? is it a buffett? is it very crowded/character to guest ratio?:confused: Thanks:thumbsup2


Hi Coconuts,

The restaurant did not feel crowded and it was new and happening when we went. All of the tables were full, but the way everything is laid out gives it a good flow.

My favorites here were the frittatas, potato wedges, orange & banana bread, blintzes plus the fresh fruit.

Yes, it is a buffet.


There are quite a few other character meals at WDW. Check out this link:
http://allears.net/din/chglance.htm

Let me know if you have any other questions! :)

[Coconuts]

Hi Coconuts,

The restaurant did not feel crowded and it was new and happening when we went. All of the tables were full, but the way everything is laid out gives it a good flow.

My favorites here were the frittatas, potato wedges, orange & banana bread, blintzes plus the fresh fruit.

Yes, it is a buffet.


There are quite a few other character meals at WDW. Check out this link:
http://allears.net/din/chglance.htm

Let me know if you have any other questions! :)


Thanks so much!:goodvibes

[Bethmomof6]

Your review is great! Thank you!

We have never been to Disney and I hadn't even heard of Donald Safari. I might see if we can still get in for a breakfast!

[noahdove]

we are going to have our first breakfast of our trip there:) I am so excited about it now having read these great reviews..thank you and thanks to for your input re: photos...I'll remember the responses..

[Disney owl]

thanks for the review, our 1st ever character meal was at Donald's Breakfastsaurus & we loved it.

[NaplesRI]

if we have early ressies, do they let you into the park prior to opening?
Do you find it delays you in getting onto rides if you do breakfast at the park?

[lemondog]

We loved this breakfast too, in fact that was DH's favorite! I am sorry they were pushy about the photo...that happened to us at Chef Mickey's. We declined our TH photo as well but luckily they were fine with it.

I have to agree about the Jungle Juice...it is delish! :thumbsup2

[lemondog]

if we have early ressies, do they let you into the park prior to opening?
Do you find it delays you in getting onto rides if you do breakfast at the park?

There is a special check-in line at the Turnstiles for the Tusker House breakfast. They let us in about 7:50 and we were at the restaurant in time for our 8:00 ADR. If you do the 8:00 seating you should be finished and in time for rope drop by 9:00. The restaurant is steps away from the Kilimanjaro Safaris so I recommend doing that ride first.

[william4192]

great review