Must visit character meal?

[tinkerbella16]

Our must do character meals came from last years trip... We loved Garden Grill for dinner and Akershus for breakfast. Both were really great! I do want to try Tusker House for breakfast sometime. In MK, we really enjoy Crystal Palace for breakfast.

 

[eeyore45]

Definitely O'Hana breakfast!

Its a "laid back" approach, imho! Don't book it expecting to get in and out fast!

I love its all you can eat - but they bring it to you! Fresh fruit, so delicious! The bread, the POG juice, yes please! and the character interaction for us is the best - we are a family of 3, dh dd (now 17)and me - and we get time with the characters, Stitch, or Pluto do find something silly to engage dh in that gets dd laughing - just watching and laughing at their interaction with other tables is fun!

At Ohana they seat by "section" so you may see a long line and lots of pagers and empty tables - thats because the characters devote time to each section and therefore no one gets left behind! Love it!

our "must do" for our last day, when we are relaxed and contemplate over our vacation...

 

[Passholder]

We had Garden Grill last night. YUMMY! Does Liberty Tree Tavern still have a character dinner? It's very good too.

 

[Jen731]

I'm going to offer an opinion based on different criteria. Of your day one choices, only one is in the Magic Kingdom. My choice would be to stay in the park at Crystal Palace. Even though the other choices are within a monorail ride of the park, I would not take the time to transport to the hotels and then eat. It's a bigger time commitment than CP. If you only have two days in the parks, you might not want to spend 2.5-3 hours traveling and eating. However, since you are traveling in July, you might need a park break anyway, in which case your ADR might be a welcome break. In that case, I would either go for a late lunch or an early dinner at either restaurant. The characters are quite different - Mickey vs Cinderella's family. Choose your favorite.

Personally, I really loved the Tusker House buffet. The difference there (to me) is that Epcot has so many great places to eat that it seems like a waste to use a character meal there unless you have young princesses in your party. But are you park hopping from animal kingdom to epcot that day? If so, I definitely would not spend the time at a character meal. Most character meals take at least an hour to 1.5 hours depending on how quickly you are seated.

Hope that helps.

 

[MotherRunner]

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!

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

Agree on CM 100%. Seated 40mins after our ADR and the characters took forever to come around to us. And it was a low crowd park time.

Disagree on CP. I thought the buffet was outstanding. The characters were all great with my kids and the setting was gorgeous. We had a pre-RD ADR and I would do it again just for that.

Oh and Akershaus was amazing!! To a 3 year old princess obsessed girl, it was heaven. All the characters were flawless and the food was different and delicious!

 

[JZCubed]

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!

Chef Mickeys - best Characters, but the food, not so much. There is also something cool about Monorail passing overhead if you're not staying at Contemporary. One other benefit - you can walk to/from Magic Kingdom. May be least fun for 16 y.o.

Crystal Palace - unless someone is a Pooh fan, Characters are - meh. But it is inside Magic Kingdom at that might be more convenient than going to Chef Mickey's.

1900 Park - suggested to have one of the two best buffets (Cape May). At dinner, I believe Characters include Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters - and their antics make the party. May be most fun for 16 y.o.

Tusker House is convenient on Animal Kingdom day, in part, because most folks have a long journey back to their resort. Food has some exotic flavors of Boma. Characters are Mickey & Friends (and Minnie).

Akershus - Food is fine, but there is better in Epcot (anything but Nine Dragons). If you want Princesses, it's here or Cinderella's Table.