Character Meals Super Thread!!

[asianway]

This thread is fantastic -- thank you!

Wondering if Pluto is still at Chef Goofy's? And has he been recently spotted at the Surf's Up breakfast? He's my DD5's favorite

Pluto is at Goofys every day, it would be extremely unusual for him to be a no show. Pluto at Surfs up hit or miss, I'd estimate half the time - we go to PCH every trip so have a good read on the lineup

 

[Tink1987]

Thanks so much for the info on this thread everyone, it's really helped plan our first trip in January

 

[pixarmom]

This is a great thread - so helpful! We have two teenagers and a 6-year-old, so we've started to reduce our character dining. After many years of WDW character dining, Garden Grill is the last character meal standing on our rotation!

But we just made a reservation for Goofy's Kitchen brunch in August, and think it's a good choice for us. Our youngest loves Goofy (although if it's just Pluto and no Goofy, he said, "I'm fine with either dog.") And our teens love the fact that the character appearances are random and sometimes not mainstream.

From reports here, it looks like there are quite a few lunch items on the breakfast/brunch buffet - is that still the case? That would be ideal, since our oldest son and I are just OK with breakfast and would prefer salads and lunch items.

 

[jazzkitten]

Hi! First time posting here. I'm planning a 1-year old birthday party and I want to make a reservation at the Minnie and Friends Breakfast in the Park. The party won't be until November and I know that they start taking reservations 60 days prior to the day. But, does this rule apply even if it is for a large party (23 adults, 4 kids, and 4 babies under 3)? Does anyone know? Thanks!

 

[DizNee Luver]

This is a great thread - so helpful! We have two teenagers and a 6-year-old, so we've started to reduce our character dining. After many years of WDW character dining, Garden Grill is the last character meal standing on our rotation!

But we just made a reservation for Goofy's Kitchen brunch in August, and think it's a good choice for us. Our youngest loves Goofy (although if it's just Pluto and no Goofy, he said, "I'm fine with either dog.") And our teens love the fact that the character appearances are random and sometimes not mainstream.

From reports here, it looks like there are quite a few lunch items on the breakfast/brunch buffet - is that still the case? That would be ideal, since our oldest son and I are just OK with breakfast and would prefer salads and lunch items.

They always have a large selection at the brunch of breakfast & lunch items. A fruit area, a salad area, a pastry/sweets section, kid favorites like: pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, mac & cheese and then the hot section with a mix of both meals offered. You won't be disappointed!!

Hi! First time posting here. I'm planning a 1-year old birthday party and I want to make a reservation at the Minnie and Friends Breakfast in the Park. The party won't be until November and I know that they start taking reservations 60 days prior to the day. But, does this rule apply even if it is for a large party (23 adults, 4 kids, and 4 babies under 3)? Does anyone know? Thanks!

The 60 day rule applies for all party sizes. I would contact them at the 60 day mark so you're able to get close to the time frame you'd like to do the meal.

 

[jazzkitten]

Okay, thanks for the reply!! Do you know if I'm allowed to bring outside food/drinks like cupcakes and treats for favors?

 

[DizNee Luver]

Okay, thanks for the reply!! Do you know if I'm allowed to bring outside food/drinks like cupcakes and treats for favors?

I don't think you can take food or drink in. The only time I've seen someone bring cupcakes is to the picnic area between the parks.

When you talk with Disney Dining to make the reservation, they can advise you on that & also give you options for purchasing a Disney cake.

 

[lucysmom]

Last Christmas, we enjoyed Goofy Kitchen and Minnie's. We had dinner at Goofy's and breakfast at Minnie's. Now we'd like to try Surf's Up and Storytellers. I know Storytellers is a character meal forBbreakfast only. but, how about Surfs Up? Do they have character dining all day long?

 

[pixarmom]

They always have a large selection at the brunch of breakfast & lunch items. A fruit area, a salad area, a pastry/sweets section, kid favorites like: pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, mac & cheese and then the hot section with a mix of both meals offered. You won't be disappointed!!

Perfect - thanks so much!!!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Last Christmas, we enjoyed Goofy Kitchen and Minnie's. We had dinner at Goofy's and breakfast at Minnie's. Now we'd like to try Surf's Up and Storytellers. I know Storytellers is a character meal forBbreakfast only. but, how about Surfs Up? Do they have character dining all day long?

Goofy's and Ariel's are the only ones that do lunch and dinner as well as the breakfast.

 

[kimiquin]

We are heading to DLR this summer and my family is going to experience a character dining experience for the first time. We would like to do brunch at Goofy's Kitchen but wondering what time to book? We would like it later in the morning as we have breakfast included at our hotel. We want to make sure that the characters are still there through our whole meal. TIA

 

[DizNee Luver]

We are heading to DLR this summer and my family is going to experience a character dining experience for the first time. We would like to do brunch at Goofy's Kitchen but wondering what time to book? We would like it later in the morning as we have breakfast included at our hotel. We want to make sure that the characters are still there through our whole meal. TIA

To be honest with you.....I'm not sure how late the brunch runs. A quick call to Disney Dining will answer that for you. (it may vary on time of year you're going and days) The characters are there from beginning to end. They do take breaks and switch off with other characters during the course of the meal.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

We are heading to DLR this summer and my family is going to experience a character dining experience for the first time. We would like to do brunch at Goofy's Kitchen but wondering what time to book? We would like it later in the morning as we have breakfast included at our hotel. We want to make sure that the characters are still there through our whole meal. TIA

To be honest with you.....I'm not sure how late the brunch runs. A quick call to Disney Dining will answer that for you. (it may vary on time of year you're going and days) The characters are there from beginning to end. They do take breaks and switch off with other characters during the course of the meal.

I agree to call Disney Dining to get the definitive answer. My recollection though is that brunch at Goofy's Kitchen runs until noon on weekdays and until 2 PM on weekends and holidays.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

For our 2012 vacation, my family ate at (in chronological order):
1) AG for dinner with the princesses, an option that no longer exists, and enjoyed both the high-quality meal that came to our table and the general Special Occasion ambiance with most adults looking nicer than average (the young dad in his white tank-top undershirt *really* stood out in a way he would not have in the park) and many children in costumes. This was our fave character meal.
2) GK for dinner with decent character interaction and OK meal, but nothing of note to eat.
3) M&F for the last seating time, so that when we arrived Minnie was not even there to greet us or take her picture with us. So our PP+ photo from that meal is just us, no character. But we met a dozen other characters and Minnie eventually came to see us and we liked the heartier brunch dishes they had like southwest Tex-Mex hash. A down-side to the last seating was feeling a bit rushed as they started removing our brunch items to make way for the regular lunch menu.
4) Surf's Up on our departure day--but we were all so ill from a bug that the manager came over to make sure nothing was wrong because we were all eating so little. There were only Mickey and Stitch, but the activities looked fun, even if none of us could participate. I ate the oatmeal, wishing I could try the spicier, meatier choices, which looked good even while I was ill. (Because we had purchased vouchers from a third party, they said they could not refund them, so that's why we went ahead and took our seats.) The kids just drank OJ and ate some dry cereal.

So now we're going back in August and want to do one character meal. I really want a meal I enjoy for the *food*, since I have a general disappointment at DLR with the food given the cost of it. (Exceptions are relative values like the corn dogs, soup/chili cones at the Cozy Cone, and soups in bread bowls at the Wharf.) I don't want an AG WOC dinner, though, despite liking the AG food we had for the princess dinner. The kids want characters. How is the new breakfast with the princesses? I've skimmed and used the Find function on the past five pages of this thread, but found nothing. Might we enjoy GK's brunch more than dinner? Try Minnie's at an earlier time? Try Surf's Up when we can actually eat the food? Storyteller's? Where would your recent experiences tell you to go purely for a yummy meal?

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

3) M&F for the last seating time, so that when we arrived Minnie was not even there to greet us or take her picture with us. So our PP+ photo from that meal is just us, no character.

That's the way they always do the photo at Minnie's no matter what time you arrive. No character in the photo. Don't like that they do it that way.

Where would your recent experiences tell you to go purely for a yummy meal?

Honestly, I don't go to character meals for good food. I guess though for food quality, Storyteller's is the way to go. Buffet selection is limited, but the food is tasty. Character interaction is just ok.

 

[Kiwigirls]

That's the way they always do the photo at Minnie's no matter what time you arrive. No character in the photo. Don't like that they do it that way.

Hi I had been meaning to ask this, seems pretty lame to not have a character in the photo! We can get a family photo anywhere in the parks - at the character breakfast you want a character! So Minnie is never in the 'staged' photo at this meal???

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Hi I had been meaning to ask this, seems pretty lame to not have a character in the photo! We can get a family photo anywhere in the parks - at the character breakfast you want a character! So Minnie is never in the 'staged' photo at this meal???

Not that in my experience or from anything I have heard of others' experiences.

 

[Rebekkap]

We've done Minnie and friends breakfast the last 2 years and both times had a great experience there were lots of characters and pretty much all of them came by and had some sort of interaction with my kids they signed books and stopped for pictures..

We were really disappointed with Minnie and friends breakfast - from start to finish.

First we had to line up even though we had an advance reservation, wait for ages, and then took a table outside even though it was cold (it was January) because the wait (even with a ressie) was 40 mins for a table inside. Why bother making a reservation?

The food was really average - I've eaten better at chain hotels.

But worst of all, maybe because we were two adults with no kids, but not a single character came to our table the whole time we were there. By the time we'd eaten the (really average) breakfast and were wanting to leave to go ride the rides (about an hour later), I was almost in tears I was so disappointed. It was our last day at Disneyland and I'd booked the breakfast so we could get pics with the characters. They just weren't interested in coming anywhere near us.

I get that we're adults, but we wouldn't have booked a character breakfast if we didn't want to interact with the characters! It was particularly disappointing having done a character breakfast at the Hong Kong Disneyland hotel earlier in the year, where the character interaction was awesome and where no-one treats you any different just cause you don't have kids with you!

As we were leaving a lovely CM noticed I was upset and asked why, and she went to get Eyore to have a pic taken with us, which was nice, but honestly the whole experience was a negative. I wouldn't go back, and I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

That's the way they always do the photo at Minnie's no matter what time you arrive. No character in the photo. Don't like that they do it that way.

Oh! OK. At all the other meals, our host or hostess (character named in the title of the meal) greets you as you enter and is in the photo. How do they expect to sell that photo with no character? (Just a rhetorical question.)

Honestly, I don't go to character meals for good food. I guess though for food quality, Storyteller's is the way to go. Buffet selection is limited, but the food is tasty. Character interaction is just ok.

Oh, I know. We didn't go for the food either the first time, but now I care more since we've met so many characters (more than 50). Having said that, though, Storytellers seems too light on characters (or at least on ones my kids know), but it is tempting so that we can say we've done every character meal. Will consider. Thanks!

 

[mom2rtk]

Oh! OK. At all the other meals, our host or hostess (character named in the title of the meal) greets you as you enter and is in the photo. How do they expect to sell that photo with no character? (Just a rhetorical question.)

So which meals have a character in the photo? I know Goofy's Kitchen does. And AG has Ariel. But did I read that right? Is that not a character meal at dinner? If so is there not a photo with Ariel on the way in?