Where to go for Character Breakfast?

[McNic]

Hey all,
Just booked my character breakfast voucher and I'm not sure where I want to eat. I love buffets, and I love the atmosphere and coziness of the Storytellers Cafe at the GC, but wondering what other people think?

Thanks guys!

 

[DisSarahK]

Minnie's was our favorite character meal, hands down!

 

[CindyH]

We love Minnie's as well, with all the characters available. I think it depends on who "floats your boat" - to me, the food is always secondary. (Hey, our kids like the pancakes at McDonald's, so what can I say...)

 

[gigi1976]

Is minnie's family style or buffet?

 

[DizNee Luver]

Depends on what characters you're interested in.

Surf's Up with Mickey is the only meal Mickey is at. I hear that Stitch likes to hang out there as well.

Storytellers with Chip-n-Dale have more of the animal characters (Kenai, Koda, Meeko, Rafiki)

Ariel's Grotto is all Princesses.

Goofy's Kitchen has Goofy & Pluto & usually 3-6 other characters. We've seen Minnie Mouse, Alice, Mad Hatter, Chip, Dale, Baloo, Brer Fox, Max, Geppetto.

Minnie & Friends (if you hit it lucky) can find upwards to 13-14 characters wandering around. Our last time there we got 11 autographs & saw 3 more characters that never made it to our table. Minnie hosts this meal & has a lot of the classic characters (Pooh Bear & friends, Mary Poppins, Alice, Peter Pan, Hook, Rafiki, etc)

 

[Raindown]

I think it depends on who "floats your boat" - to me, the food is always secondary.

Yea, I would probably pick a place that has characters you want to see.

 

[CindyH]

Is minnie's family style or buffet?

Buffet. There's eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, pastries, waffles - the usual menu. No banana stuffed french toast, though!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Is minnie's family style or buffet?

Minnie's is a buffet. The made to order omelets are the best thing we've found there.

Goofy's Kitchen is a large buffet.

Storytellers is a small buffet or you can order off the menu.

Surf's Up with Mickey is a small buffet or you can order off the menu.

Ariel's Grotto Breakfast is served family style & possibly the lunch as well?? Haven't ever done the lunch so not sure!!

 

[CindyH]

We've done Goofy's Kitchen for dinner and Minnie & Friends for breakfast - it's been my experience that the character interaction is more constant and consistent at M&F (i.e. have your camera ready at all times!)

 

[blackjackdelta]

We like GK better than the others. Food has always been good and more characters than I would expect. Last time there were 8.

Jack

 

[Sherry E]

I've done Goofy's more times than I can count (literally, I lost count) since 1992. The buffet can't be beat in size or variety. To me, the food is not secondary. I want great food as well as characters, but if it is a slow character day, I want good food! Goofy's is a real, all-you-can-eat, serve yourself, large buffet. Goofy's character roster for any given day can range from 5 to 8 onsite, and two of those will likely be Princesses.

Here are some extensive photos of Goofy's Kitchen breakfast buffet offerings, courtesy of Disneynerd420 (taken in Fall of last year):

(Scroll down to Posts #338 and #339)

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2268157&page=23

Minnie & Friends is 'buffeteria'-style, which is slightly different, with a smaller selection. While Minnie & Friends clearly has the most characters out of all the character meals, there have been consistently mixed reviews of the food, with a slight edge towards the negative - more so than any other character meal. Much of that is subjective, though - what's "bad" to one person might be great to someone else, so I can't really put too much stock in bad food reviews of M&F unless everyone started saying it was horrible, and that has not happened yet. Also, every restaurant has its 'off days' - character meals or otherwise.

I like the cozy vibe at Storytellers too, and I think that kind of character meal (laid back, quiet) works for some people. It's not my favorite character meal, but many folks love it. It's not the kind of in-your-face, one after another after another, character onslaught that you get at Minnie & Friends. It's not the high octane fun that you would find at Goofy's or Minnie's or probably Surf's Up with Mickey too. Storytellers almost seems to me to have the vibe of, "Oh, I just stumbled upon this restaurant that happens to have friendly woodland creatures visiting the tables." It's sort of like a restaurant that just happens to have some characters onsite as an after thought (usually only about 5 characters). It's not like there is a big to-do about the characters at the Critter Breakfast. The good thing is you can order from the menu or the buffet, but the buffet is small and the menu items are costly for what they are. The buffet is a better bargain in that case.

Be sure to check out our character meal photo thread (start at the end and work backwards to see the more recent character sightings) to get an idea of who you will see at which place:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2234435

 

[BELLEDOZER]

I'm going to book Goofy's Kitchen for our surprise trip to DL in Feb/11. My question is do you have to make a reservation 60 days out? I was wondering while I was down at DL in Oct, if I could wander in and make my reservation for Feb. Just curious if I can do this.

 

[VictoriaAndMatt]

I'm going to book Goofy's Kitchen for our surprise trip to DL in Feb/11. My question is do you have to make a reservation 60 days out? I was wondering while I was down at DL in Oct, if I could wander in and make my reservation for Feb. Just curious if I can do this.

Goofy's takes PS no earlier than 60 days out. Sorry!

 

[mmlover74]

I like M&F for the amount of characters...GK for the food. Even tho on my next trip, I will have to try Surf's Up with Mickey.

 

[fidoprincess]

With the voucher, you can choose either breakfast OR dinner and dinner at Goofy's is almost $10 more per person so it is the better value.

I like the dinner food at Goofys, I think of all the meals, it has the most variety and really good food. They have a carving station and the chef will even cook my meat more well done for my taste and bring it out to my table. They always have a good fish dish and lots of variety, sometimes a whole section of oriental or mexican food and the desserts, well, wow!

I don't even care about the characters. I always ask for a table where I can see the kids at the buffet and let the kids go do their thing. They love it because we don't have any buffet place in our town so serving themselves is a novelty. Dh even likes it because he can get a cocktail. I always feel relaxed there. Sometimes, we have not had great character interaction but we still had good food.

My kids, however, want to do Minnie's for breakfast so we will do that after an early entry morning. We'll go in and do as much of fantasyland as we can and some of tomorrowland, get out FP for Space and by the time the park opens for the rest of the public and it starts to get crowded, we'll head over to Minnie's around 9:30. We like inside better than outside. There have been times here where the characters were not all that great either. If you come when they are changing shifts or taking a break, I swear you can get indigestion so we do the same thing here that we do at Goofy's. We warn the kids that we are here to eat and any characters are a bonus. We have to go here for Pooh and Friends. Pooh does not come to Goofys and is my dd's favorite. There are usually a lot more characters here-more variety here of characters and more variety of food at Goofy's.

On our last day when our tickets are all used up, we'll do Goofy's breakfast before we leave DL. We have a long drive and the kids get all filled up and it is hours before they need to stop and eat again and they have a happy smile the whole drive home.

Storyteller's is just okay, not a lot of variety but good food. Not a lot of variety in characters either, just 5 animals. Heck, dd didn't even know who some of them were.

PP's surf's up is just okay, not great food, a couple of outstanding things and not a lot of characters but Mickey is only there so we have gone more than once.

If I didn't have to answer to my kids, I would pick Goofy's dinner everytime.

We always make ps ahead of time but we were swiming in the pool one day at DLH and there is a house phone there and we were hungry and called and got in within 20 minutes. We went up to the room, changed our clothes and by the time we got down, got seated and enjoyed ourselves!

 

[CaseyK]

We did Goofy's kitchen last time we were there and I loved it. My mom, DH, and I ate as much as we could. DD was too excited to eat (thankfully she was free). all the characters came to the table and spent a good deal of time getting DD not to be scared of them. We saw Goofy, Dale, Pluto, Cinderella, Sleepy Beauty, and Baloo (who scared DD half to death but a seven foot blue bear will do that!) We are heading back in September and will probably do Goofy's kitchen again. The buffet was awesome and I loved that the kids got to get up and do stuff with Goofy.

 

[McNic]

Well darn, now I think I might consider Goofys Kitchen...too many choices Thanks everyone for the feedback. I am a food first, character's second kind of gal. I really heart breakfast buffets. I will have to discuss with my sis and maybe she can make the final call.

Sherry, love the description of Storytellers