Must visit character meal?

Kirstyn · May 24, 2015

Hi. My family and I are a party of 5 ( 4 adults and a 16 year old). We will be visiting Disney world for the first time in July. Which is the better character meal for lunch or dinner?
First Day: chef Mickey late brunch, crystal palace lunch or dinner, 1900 fare park dinner?
OR
Second day: Tusker house lunch or Epcot Royal Banquet Hall dinner?

I really appreciate the help. Thank you!

Capang · May 24, 2015

CP was ok for lunch. Not great. I can't speak to the rest of them since we never tried them. We just aren't in to Winnie the Pooh so much. I hear 1900 is a blast for dinner with Cinderella and her step-mother.

senadler · May 25, 2015

I think it depends on the characters you want to see. For me if you are only doing one it would be a choice between Chef Mickey and Crystal Palace. Mickey and the top 5 or Winnie the Pooh and friends. I am suggesting this totally on characters and not on the quality of food. I think for food other choices are clearly better.

5kidsmommy · May 25, 2015

Well my soon to be 15 year old daughter's only must do is Chef Mickey's, it's the quintessential Disney character lineup so it's what she wants. We are scheduled for the late brunch which should be a nice mix of food and for a large party like yours that might be nice.

Nancyg56 · May 25, 2015

OP_ you did not say if your teen was a son or a daughter, and for my family, that would make a difference. For a first trip, we always recommend Chef Mickey. I know it gets mixed reviews, but we always enjoy kicking off our Disney vacations there, and think others may as well.

CP at lunch would not be my choice, but we never stop for lunch. I like 1900 PF, and think the character interaction is really fun. It is the Stepsisters and Lady Tremaine, so I think it depends on your teen.

Akershus is a great Princess meal. Does your teen like the Princesses? Do you?

Tusker House is great for any group.

lmhannah516 · May 25, 2015

I have heard really good things about 1900 Park Fare for dinner and we are looking forward to our reservation there in September. We have done Chef Mickey in the past and it was okay.

Have you considered Ohana breakfast? We have always had a pleasant experience there.

kastoney · May 25, 2015

I'm not a big fan of buffets in general, so following suit not a big character meal fan, but that said they only one that we truly have enjoyed is Tusker House. The food is leaps and bounds above the other character meals we have tried (Crystal Palace, Hollywood & Vine, and Akershus) and of course you can't beat Mickey and friends in safari gear. We like to do a late breakfast because its not only cheaper, but if you time it by 1045 or later you can experience lunch too

librarymom2007 · May 25, 2015

Not a fan of CP lunch food. I say CM or 1900.

mom2AidanAndEli · May 25, 2015

Bottom on my list would be Chef Mickey. Unless someone absolutely has to meet those exact characters, there's no reason to go there--bad food, loud, chaotic, DIRTY!

Top choices would be Tusker House or 1900 Park Fare. Tusker House food is a little different than what you get at the other places, some more out-of-the-ordinary choices with still enough to keep picky eaters happy. You get to see Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy. Seems a little more laid back than Chef Mickey.

1900 Park Fare has much better food, although nothing too far out there. Strawberry soup, yum!! But the characters are wonderful. At dinner it's Cinderella, Prince, and the Tremaines. The stepmother and stepsisters are absolutely hysterical and worth the price of admission on their own!

CP was okay but nothing special unless you want to meet Pooh and friends. Never done the princess thing (boys weren't interested!).

pmaurer74 · May 25, 2015

I would do Akershus and 1900 Park Fare but if you want to see the fab 5 then Chef Mickeys and Akershus for princesses. That being said I always enjoy 1900 Park Fare. The food at CM is not great but of course there are no brunch reviews yet.

scrappinginontario · May 25, 2015

We really like 1900 Park Fare for dinner. Went two years ago with 2 teens and they really enjoyed themselves. Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella make it enjoyable for the entire family.

Since character meals are not high on the priority for many teens I think they'll enjoy this one as much as any of them.

SA mom · May 25, 2015

We like to book Chef Mickey's for breakfast at the last seating time available. The restaurant clears out and you have a lot more time with the characters. We go almost every trip and have never seen it dirty or had bad food. The food isn't outstanding, just basic ordinary buffet food that you pay way to much for just to see Mickey Mouse. This is always our top choice because we love Mickey and Donald.

We enjoyed 1900 Park Fair breakfast. The food was way better and Alice, Mad Hatter, and Mary Poppins were wonderful. We like the cook to order omelets.

We really enjoyed the dinner at Crystal Palace, but we are not big Pooh fans. Food was good and a lot of variety.

We've eaten lunch and dinner at Akershus. We preferred dinner options better. We like the cold buffet/salad bar they have. I know a lot of people hate it, but we really like the choice. We were big fans of the lunch menu at the time, but it's been a few years so they've probably put some more popular choices on it. I doubt we will ever go back. Our daughters are way past the princess stage (they'd rather have a Star Wars or Marvel character meal) and there are so many other great choices in Epcot.

Hope this helps and you have a wonderful trip!

kadrachb · May 25, 2015

Tusker House for breakfast is something I don't think I'd ever want to miss now. Its very laid back, and I have always had good character interactions there. The food is also really good. I'm going to assume it's the same at lunch.

1900 Park Fair for dinner is also excellent. The character interaction is also really good, and I think this is another character meal we wouldn't want to miss out on.

Akershus is nice. However, since my boyfriend and I are in our 20s, the princesses tend to be sort of quick with us. However, we enjoy the food. If you have a picky eater, it might not be the best choice. If you like princesses, are adventurous with food, then I think it is a good choice.

Chef Mickey's is so-so to us. Its nice to see the characters there, but we don't think it's anything special.

Crystal Palace was cute. If you like Winnie the Pooh, then it's probably a must go, as it's the only place to meet Piglet and Eeyore. The food was standard. And the restaurant is kind of chaotic.

dkrauss · May 25, 2015

The Goofy Beach Breakfast at the Cape May Café is the only meal that we repeat on every visit! Love the food and its GOOFY!!!

Doug :goofy:

villainj · May 25, 2015

I really like Tusker House for breakfast, but then again I am a huge fan of Animal Kingdom. Akershus is awesome if you want to see princesses (which my daughters love). Ohana breakfast also provides great character interaction and you get to see Stitch! 1900 park fare is pretty good (my wife and mary poppins went selfie crazy). There are just so many good choices for great character interactions!

jenjersnap · May 25, 2015

I would choose the actual meals based on which characters you want to see. Honestly, other than Akershus, there isn't really that much variation on the buffets (each restaurant has a couple specialty items but, otherwise, it is similar as we found when we did every character meal that WDW offers last November). In terms of which meal we prefer at each restaurant (I know you aren't considering some of these, just wanted to offer our overall round up).

Crystal Palace: 1. Breakfast 2. Dinner 3. Lunch
Chef Mickeys: 1. Breakfast 2. Dinner. Brunch is unknown right now. I have it booked myself, hoping it is mostly breakfast stuff.
1900 Park Fare: 1. Breakfast 2. Dinner
Tusker House: I think breakfast and lunch are pretty equal. Haven't done dinner since characters were added so I can't comment.

Sticking to your list, from a character mix POV, I would likely choose Crystal Palace dinner and Tusker House lunch with Chef Mickeys brunch and Akershus as the runner up.

I highly recommend 1900PF for breakfast though...Alice, Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins, Pooh and Tigger. Very fun!

Disney Mom 7272 · May 25, 2015

Like everyone else said I think it depends on what characters you want to see. As far as food we love Tusker House, Akershus and Ohana. The others also have good food but those are just my families favorite. The food wasn't anything wonderful at 1900 Park Fare but I do love Mary Poppins so if you want to see her then I would go to that one. We did Crystal Palace just to get into Magic Kingdom early. Again the food wasn't wonderful but it was ok!

midnightlouise · May 25, 2015

As PP have said, it all boils down to who you want to see. We've done Chef Mickey's several times for breakfast, and it's always been fine. The food is just ok, but it's cool to see the big 5 and not have to wait in line. Ohana is fun, and the food is quite good. Loved seeing Stitch. We've also done Crystal Palace breakfast a couple of times because I adore Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. Never done any of the others because I have boys (15 & 11) so they're not interested in Princesses or Alice, but it's my goal to try to get them to 1900 one of these days so I can see Alice haha. Doing Tusker House this year so can't speak to that either, but I hear great things about it, so you may want to check out reviews etc. Have fun whatever you pick!

DisneyWishes14 · May 25, 2015

I would do Tusker House lunch or Akershus dinner. They are both very good, with Tusker House having the better food. Chef Mickey's is consistently bad. CP is cute, but I wouldn't do the Pooh characters with a teenager and the food isn't great. 1900 Park Fare is fun, but if it's a first trip, I would go for the fuller princess experience at Akershus or the Mickey experience at TH.

dpswift · May 25, 2015

Our top choices are Park Fare dinner and Tusker House breakfast. Cape May breakfast gets an honorable mention. DS loves Chef Mickeys mostly because that was his first character meal and he celebrated his 6th birthday there.

Meals that we will not repeat are O'hana and Akershsus.

Must visit character meal?

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