How many character meals is too many?

[drcbpearce]

I'm hoping to get some input from some of the pros out there. This will be our first WDW vacay as a family. I've got three character meal ADR's : Ohana breakfast, Akershus (for my little princess), and Chef Mickey's breakfast. I"m debating. do we really NEED that third character meal? We'll see the characters in the parks. My thought is to possibly give up Chef Mickeys, and do breakfast at Boma and then go to AK. Or should we trade Ohana for something else? I've only told my children about Ohana, I want to keep a few tricks up my sleeve

Is it possible to have character overload?

We only have 4 full and 2 almost half days there and I want this to be great fun for all of us, but at the same time, I don't want to miss something really great, since I have a feeling it might be a while until we get to come back.

So....that said, input please! I really appreciate any and all opinions!



Thanks!

 

[hvivona]

We typically do one character meal a day. For us that's the perfect amount for others its too much. You just have to go by what you think your family will do.

 

[mkygrl]

There can never be too many character meals! (I am an adult who travels usually with only adults!) You can't give up Chef Mickey's!!!

 

[danielle782001]

We love character meals... We will take them all if we could

 

[jinia]

Never to many and if your on the DDP then it costs the same (except for the few 2DDP places) as any other TS. We look at it as part of our entertainment - actually that is how we even see our CS. Enjoy!!!

 

[frdeb1999]

We love the character meals also. And all you have listed are very good choices. Although I'd switch Chef Mickeys to a supper meal instead of breakfast. The items on the buffet are way better IMO during this time frame.

 

[prettypixie]

I agree with the others, sometimes the character meals are a better experience for the little ones and besides you don't have to spend time in line waiting to see characters in the park you can be in line for the rides...LOL!
Personally we always do character meals every trip especially when we are there for Free Dining.

 

[quinnc19]

If you are worried about time constraints, how about doing Crystal Palace or Tusker House before park opening? Then you'll be right there for rope drop.

 

[HappyCamper87]

I LOVE to do character meals and my DD - 15 loves them too as she's reading what I write.

I just want to give you a little advice from my Disney Planning experience. Do not overplan. I will never forget sitting at 50's Prime Time and being so tired I could barely hold my eyes open and a restaurant I probably would have enjoyed on any other day became pure torture. DD is laughing and saying "whipped cream and sprinkles".

My tiredness is obviously good humored memories for DD-15.

There is a tendancy, especially when frequenting the DIS to overplan and then be disappointed because you could not fit every moment in, this ADR didn't go as planned, this restaurant stunk and we rushed from AKL to get here!

I plan a park in the morning, with two must do rides/attractions in that park. Anything more is bonus. I plan a break at the hotel/campground and then back to a park , again two must do rides/attractions for evening fun. I have gone to planning only one must do TS a day and making an ADR I have a rough idea of where/what we will eat the rest of the day but I just go with the flow.

I hope my experience saves you from a tired dinner at at 50's Primetime Cafe.

 

[mrzrich]

...We'll see the characters in the parks. ...

Well the reason we go to character meals is so that we don't have to waste precious park time waiting in line to see the characters.

When I was a kid, you could just walk up and see the characters. Now some of them have lines with greater than 75 minute waits! No thank you, I perfer to have them come to me!

 

[Eeyore's Pal]

We generally do two character meals in a 7-day trip and three in a 10-day trip. But I have to add the caveat that we travel to WDW two-three times per year, so we don't have the same sense of urgency that guests have on a first trip.

I agree with previous posters: The experience in the restaurants is better than in the parks. No lines; the characters come to you. No time wasted; you're eating while you're waiting.

I would say to minimize time, do as many character meals in the parks, or at the restaurant at monorail resorts when you are in MK. Also, doing the early breakfasts is a great way to extend your time.

In choosing the character meals, you may want to consider which restaurants have the characters that appeal most to your kids.

Have a great trip!

 

[holly7347]

I agree with the others, sometimes the character meals are a better experience for the little ones and besides you don't have to spend time in line waiting to see characters in the park you can be in line for the rides...LOL!
Personally we always do character meals every trip especially when we are there for Free Dining.

That was sort of my thinking when I planned our ADR's. I have reservations for character meals for each day of our trip except our arrival day. My youngest DD loves to eat but my oldest has sensory issues which really limit what she will eat because everything makes her gag. So I'm hoping the characters are a distraction for her so the rest of us can eat in peace. And it seems better to catch the characters inside with no lines and out of the heat I'm not sure that we have character overload but I think we may have princess overload. We have an ADR for CRT, 1900 park fare dinner, and princess storybook breakfast. We also have ADR's for the Donald breakfast in AK, Crystal Palace, and Hollywood and Vine - playhouse disney.

 

[drcbpearce]

I agree with the others, sometimes the character meals are a better experience for the little ones and besides you don't have to spend time in line waiting to see characters in the park you can be in line for the rides...LOL!
Personally we always do character meals every trip especially when we are there for Free Dining.

Well the reason we go to character meals is so that we don't have to waste precious park time waiting in line to see the characters.

When I was a kid, you could just walk up and see the characters. Now some of them have lines with greater than 75 minute waits! No thank you, I perfer to have them come to me!

Thank you. You both make very good points that hadn't thought of/didn't realize, being a newbie.

I'm trying not to overplan our trip. I"m making plans to be early each day, if possible Our Ohana is for 7:30 and Chef Mickey's is 7:15, so I"m hoping that not only will they not be overly crowded, that we might get finished early enough to be at the parks either at opening or shortly after. I'm also planning to take the mid-day breaks and not have everything set in stone. I have a park plan, which parks, which days, etc. and our ADR's, and a general idea of what we're going to do. My plan is to plan it all now, so when we get there we can just have fun and relax.

Thanks for all of your opinions. I really appreciate it.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I would drop your third character meal. We try to do a sit down meal every 3-4 days. Of that about 2 are character meals.

 

[jdcamp]

We do at least 1 maybe 2 character meals per day. I love them because my kids DS 10 months and DD 2yrs are kept entertained. I actually get to enjoy a meal for once

 

[phinsleft10]

We do at least one per day. We try not to do the same one more than once each trip.

 

[drcbpearce]

I agree. I think, for us at least, more than one a day might be too much. And since we haven't been yet, to do one twice could be a bad decision, we might end up somewhere that no one was happy. But can that really happen in WDW?

I've got them fairly well spaced out so hopefully no one will get tired of it, especially my DH who's only just now warming up to this whole trip. But hey, he's warming, so I'm not complaining.

I think I will keep all of my ressies and just have a good time, and if that's too much, we'll know next time around.

Thanks for all of the input. I really appreciate it!

 

[penjen]

We do one or two for our 10 day trips. DS isn't really entertained nor interested in the characters and the meals are usually chaotic in nature. Going to 1 or 2 is good for us.

 

[disneychick0412]

I have to do Chef Mickey's every trip! I love all the characters in their Chef clothes. DH and I always do breakfast! One of these days I want to try dinner, but I don't want to give up the breakfast because I like it so much!
Yes, it is hectic feeling in there, but I would miss it very much if we did not go!

 

[luvmylittleboy2003]

Our last trip we did a Character meal every day, this time we have only one. We are doing CRT (which uses 2 ts meals), if we weren't doing that we would have sced. another one (Chef Mickey's & one other one we haven't tried yet, maybe a breakfast one - even though we did the CM's last time, I think its a great repeat one). The other days we are doing Y&Y at AK and LeCellier at Epcot. We love the Character Meals, but, I do think they can be stressful if to many is planned (for us anyway). I don't think I would ever do them every day like our last trip.