Character meals for 19 month old

[DisKimberly]

Hello everyone!
I can book my dining reservations tomorrow for our November trip. We are doing the quick service plan but I would like to do 2 sit downs with charactors for our 19 month old son.

I am thinking 1900 Park Fare for dinner,
and
Tusker House for Breakfast

We have never eaten at either place,
anyone have any idea if these two will be fun for our son?? or should we go somewhere else??

 

[Smithkids]

Do you think it would better for your son to have costumed characters or face characters? I'm sure you've probably seen the videos where a child is screaming because Winnie the Pooh comes too close...definitely don't want to start your vacation like that!. LOL!!

Crystal Palace has Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, etc, but it is a buffet. I have always found it hard to eat at buffets with small children (you need to tag team approach your meal- you go get food while DH waits with baby...then tag him in so he can go get food...I just prefer to have a server bring me my plate. LOL!!)

We loved, loved, loved Garden Grill in Epcot (did I mention i loved Garden Grill- LOL!!!). Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale- characters spent so much time with each family- we got many greats pictures at that meal!

Enjoy!!!

 

[skiingfast]

I totaly agree with the PP about the screaming child. If you child hasn't met a character before you really have no idea how you child will handle it.

Keep in mind that in truth you aren't doing this for your child but for yourself. Eat where you would like. Though the buffets have a lot of choices as far as what you may like to share with him.

 

[Dizzy over Disney]

1900 Park Faire is great..but not too sure for a 19 month old. It is a lot fun with the step sisters and step mother.. but for older kids (and adults)... sometimes they scream at each other.. joke a lot with the adults.. Cinderella is sweet and calm

 

[Shmily1]

We took DGS9 months to H & V last week and he loved it! He was familiar with Handy Manny so he wanted to play with him, but he was a little leary of June. He never cried, but he just kept looking at her then at us. I also think that it helped because we were interacting with the characters too.

 

[dawnbu40]

I would suggest the breakfast at Cape May. The atmosphere is a little calmer than most of the character meals and since it is less crowded the characters are able to come around a couple times. I wouldn't take a little one to Park Fare. I don't think they'd enjoy it much (besides the buffet is not very good)

 

[pixarmom]

We loved, loved, loved Garden Grill in Epcot (did I mention i loved Garden Grill- LOL!!!). Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale- characters spent so much time with each family- we got many greats pictures at that meal!

Enjoy!!!

We love love love Garden Grill, too! If you ask our 3 boys, it's their favorite restaurant, and it's become our arrival night tradition. We took our oldest there at 18 months, and he's loved it ever since. He's now a pre-teen and our youngest is a pre-schooler, and it's a big hit with all of them.

I think part of the reason it's nice for little ones is the semi-circle booths on the lower level make the atmosphere a little more relaxed than your average character meal. And it's family style - not buffet - so no worries about juggling plates, missing the characters when they are near your table, etc. The restaurant slowly rotates so you see different scenes from the Land ride during dinner. We also think the character interaction there is outstanding - because of the tall semi-circle booths, it can seem just like your family and the character visiting your table. We've been to Chef Mickey's a few times, and Garden Grill seems a little less overwhelming for Chef Mickey's for tiny ones.

 

[WAHMto5]

I would suggest Crystal Palace for that age. Great characters and good assortment of different foods

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I would strongly suggest locations where there are furry characters and not face characters. In other words, skip 1900 Park Fare, CRT, and Akershus.

 

[gallagher35]

H&V at HS
Crystal Palace @ MK
Garden Grill @ Epcot
Tusker BF @ Animal Kingdom

**with a young boy I personally don't think 1900 is good fit -- step sister are kind of loud and obnoxious definitely not humor that a young child "gets". Whereas H&V has playhouse disney characters, crystal has winnie & friends, etc.

 

[Eliza'sMom]

DD was 19 months when we went in December. The only character meal we did was Garden Grill, and it was fabulous. She got so much time with the characters and she loved them. Plus, with it being family style, you don't have to worry about taking turns going up to the buffet. It was yummy and it was nice to have some veggies for DD.

We went back in April and went to Crystal Palace and Tusker House breakfasts. If your DC knows the Winnie the Pooh characters, CP is great. I know a lot of people rave about Tusker House, but we were really disappointed by it. DD loves the characters, and they rushed through without paying much attention to her. Mickey came up just as we were sitting down, put his arm around DD in her high chair to pose for a picture, then took off. I don't think she even realized he was there. It was just a big bummer and we won't be back.

 

[newfie]

The first time we went to Disney my daughter had just turned 2 and she LOVED Winnie the Pooh at Crystal Palace.

 

[angipoo]

Have you taken your child to Chuck E. Cheese yet? That is a cheap way to find out how they react to "furry" characters.

 

[FunkyDuck]

We did Liberty Tree Tavern, Crystal Palace, and Chef Mickey's on our last trip...our DD was 18 mos. at the time...Liberty Tree was the first day and freaked her out....Crystal Palace was in the middle of the trip and was much easier.....Chef Mickey's was on the last evening....and SHE LOVED IT. I think it really was a build up of exposure...if you could push your character dining...towards the back end of your trip...it may help...at least that was our experience. I hope it helps. I would also vote for Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh, etc....and also...we loved Chef Mickeys...probably because she finally allowed them "in her face" and touched them...lol...even said bye bye to them as the left her. Complete 180 from Liberty Tree Tavern in the beginning of the trip!!! Good Luck and have a wonderful trip!!!!!!

 

[DisKimberly]

Thanks everyone!

Im going to swich out 1900 park fare with Crystal Palace instead!

We go once a year and I think I will save Chef Mickeys till next trip

Is Handy Mandy always at Hollywood and Vine??
On the website its says JOjo? Im not even sure who jojo is?

 

[Mrs. Charming]

Hello everyone!
I can book my dining reservations tomorrow for our November trip. We are doing the quick service plan but I would like to do 2 sit downs with charactors for our 19 month old son.

I am thinking 1900 Park Fare for dinner,
and
Tusker House for Breakfast

We have never eaten at either place,
anyone have any idea if these two will be fun for our son?? or should we go somewhere else??

I think they're really good choices, two must-do's on our trips.

 

[doccoc2002]

Hello everyone!
I can book my dining reservations tomorrow for our November trip. We are doing the quick service plan but I would like to do 2 sit downs with charactors for our 19 month old son.

I am thinking 1900 Park Fare for dinner,
and
Tusker House for Breakfast

We have never eaten at either place,
anyone have any idea if these two will be fun for our son?? or should we go somewhere else??

I was going to say if you want to eat at 1900PF you may want to try breakfast with Alice, Mad Hatter and Mary Poppins. My DD's LOVED the face characters better than the "furry" characters at that age. They LOVED them from afar but HATED them when they came up close! Not that we didn't have agreat time eating and when the characters came by they were very sweet and spent most of the time with our oldest and waved to our 16m old from the other side of the table which she LOVED!!!

Thanks everyone!

Im going to swich out 1900 park fare with Crystal Palace instead!

We go once a year and I think I will save Chef Mickeys till next trip

Is Handy Mandy always at Hollywood and Vine??
On the website its says JOjo? Im not even sure who jojo is?

CP is great choice if he watches Pooh! We have never eaten at this one 'cause DD's aren't really into Pooh...they would LOVE to see Tigger but maybe next time!

Handy Manny is now a regular at H&V...JoJo is the circus clown with Goliath her Lion. I don't believe the show is on anymore. My oldest DD6 use to watch this show when she was 16m old. I haven't seen it although from time to time I will see her doing yoga type exercises on Disney channel

The Chuck E.Cheese suggestion was great I never thought of that...I may have to try that at some point and see if DD10m will be afraid or scared closer to our surprise trip. I can always tell my older DD's that instead of Disney we are going to ChuckE.Cheese's boy would that get them mad

 

[dajulkrin]

Just have a question about Charactor meals.. Is there a time limit that you are aloud to sit at your table??

 

[Melino]

We did Liberty Tree Tavern, Crystal Palace, and Chef Mickey's on our last trip...our DD was 18 mos. at the time...Liberty Tree was the first day and freaked her out....Crystal Palace was in the middle of the trip and was much easier.....Chef Mickey's was on the last evening....and SHE LOVED IT. I think it really was a build up of exposure...if you could push your character dining...towards the back end of your trip...it may help...at least that was our experience. I hope it helps. I would also vote for Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh, etc....and also...we loved Chef Mickeys...probably because she finally allowed them "in her face" and touched them...lol...even said bye bye to them as the left her. Complete 180 from Liberty Tree Tavern in the beginning of the trip!!! Good Luck and have a wonderful trip!!!!!!

Was just wondering how the price works for kids under 3. Did not buy a dining plan as we are only staying one night at CBR before heading onto our Disney Cruise in January. We wanted to bring our 2 1/2 year old and 8 mth old to Chef Mickey's. They have already been exposed to mascots at various events we attended, so i'm not worried about them crying and freaking out with the Disney Characters.