Which character meal?

[dotcomgirl]

We are traveling in March and only spending 2 days at WDW. It will just be 2 adults. We'd like to do one character meal, but we can't decide which one. Here are the 3 we are considering at present (but please, if you have a better idea than one listed here, let me know)...

1) Ohana breakfast. I've done this one before, but my friend hasn't. We can get an 8:40am ADR, but I'm worried that with it being outside of a park (I know it's not far from MK), that it will take away more park time than the other options.

2) Crystal Palace breakfast. I currently have an 8:30am ADR for a day when MK opens at 9am. I like the idea of walking down an empty Main Street, but the Pooh characters don't thrill me very much and I don't see taking empty Main Street photos as a huge advantage.

3) Tusker House dinner. We visit WDW right after they change dinner here over to character dining. The menu looks very intriguing to me and seems like a nice change over my usual dining options. I currently have a 6:55pm ADR on a night when AK closes at 7pm. I thought it might be nice to exit AK to a deserted park (as long as the food is still fresh for dinner at park closing time!).

Which would you choose? Or again, if you have an alternate option, let me know. Thanks!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

OUR WDW CHARACTER MEAL & BUFFET RANKINGS (*rev: NOVEMBER 2014*):
Results are listed from best to worst

Best Food (quality first, then variety):
. . . Tusker House
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Ohana
. . . Garden Grill
. . . Garden Grove
. . . Akershus Royal Banquet
. . . Cape May Café
. . . Hollywood & Vine
. . . Crystal Palace
. . . Cinderella Royal Table (since new menu)
. . . Chef Mickey's

Best Character Interaction (time with guest first, then friendliness):
. . . Tusker House
. . . Akershus Royal Banquet
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Garden Grill
. . . Ohana
. . . Garden Grove
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Chef Mickey's
. . . Cape May Café
. . . Hollywood & Vine
. . . Cinderella Royal Table
. . . Crystal Palace (barely enough time for a photo)

Best Atmosphere (surroundings and ambiance):
. . . Cinderella Royal Table
. . . Tusker House
. . . Akershus Royal Banquet
. . . Ohana
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Garden Grill
. . . Crystal Palace
. . . Hollywood & Vine
. . . Cape May Café
. . . Garden Grove
. . . Chef Mickey's


NOTE1: Results are listed from best to worst. Overall, Tusker House wins due to best
food and the length of time the characters stay at each table. A close second is 1900 Park
Fare. By far, Chef Mickey's is the loser, due to mediocre character interaction and almost
terrible in quality. The very distant second worst is Cinderella Royal Table, due to brief
time at tables for characters and the new menu.

 

[DisneyMommy77]

Tusker house for breakfast was one of my favorite meals of our 2011 trip. It is now a must do for us. The food was great, and the character experience was awesome! They had a little parade and the kids got to be in it. Not sure if dinner is ran the same way.
I tried crystal palace for lunch, wasn't impressed. Maybe because we aren't big Winnie the Pooh fans as well. The food was just ok to me.

 

[kastoney]

A third vote for tusker house. I've never done dinner, just breakfast, but the food and characters were great. I wasn't impressed by crystal palace either, but the early entry to MK would likely sway me

 

[LovesTimone]

We are traveling in March and only spending 2 days at WDW. It will just be 2 adults. We'd like to do one character meal, but we can't decide which one. Here are the 3 we are considering at present (but please, if you have a better idea than one listed here, let me know)...

1) Ohana breakfast. I've done this one before, but my friend hasn't. We can get an 8:40am ADR, but I'm worried that with it being outside of a park (I know it's not far from MK), that it will take away more park time than the other options. While I know this is a favorite for a lot of guest, its really not for us. The last time we where there for Dinner it was a complete nightmare, food quality and service. We made the decision no more dinners here, so we tried breakfast and it was just not what I was hoping for, again it was the same issues, food quality and service

2) Crystal Palace breakfast. I currently have an 8:30am ADR for a day when MK opens at 9am. I like the idea of walking down an empty Main Street, but the Pooh characters don't thrill me very much and I don't see taking empty Main Street photos as a huge advantage. We love the Breakfast here, and we have never had a bad meal or service here, Dinner is good just not good as breakfast. Walking down a nearly empty Main Street is fun, you can get some great pictures of the Castle without being in the way of other guest, which is priceless at Disney.

3) Tusker House dinner. We visit WDW right after they change dinner here over to character dining. The menu looks very intriguing to me and seems like a nice change over my usual dining options. I currently have a 6:55pm ADR on a night when AK closes at 7pm. I thought it might be nice to exit AK to a deserted park (as long as the food is still fresh for dinner at park closing time!). DH and I had dinner here New Years Eve, the food was really good, and service was good, not out standing, But good considering our poor server had a 2 very large tables that were together, and they were very demanding, and the kiddos were wild, running around and crawling under and over the tables, they knocked over drinks and knock a plate to the floor. and not once did any of the adults correct them. Basically they thought they were the only one in the whole restaurant. Tusker house is a favorite and we will continued to dine here.

Which would you choose? Or again, if you have an alternate option, let me know. Thanks!

What about Chef Mickeys - We love having dinner with the fab 5 -

 

[dotcomgirl]

What about Chef Mickeys - We love having dinner with the fab 5 -

I've done Chef Mickey's for dinner and honestly I felt it was a let down. It seemed so busy and there were so many kids jumping up and down in their seats that I felt like I was in a school cafeteria. I know I'm in the minority in not liking it, but oh well.

Thanks for the other input! Going to go with Tusker House, but now have to decide between breakfast or dinner. From googling, it seems that most people prefer breakfast, but I really wanted to do dinner there, so I just don't know! I currently have an ADR for 8am for breakfast on a day when the park opens at 9am, and an ADR for dinner at 6:55pm on a day when the park closes at 7pm. Uggggh, which one to go with?!

 

[graychef]

Of your choices, we recently did Crystal Palace breakfast and the food was excellent. If you want character interactions, be on the lookout. They come in, mingle and leave really quickly.

We also did Tusker House breakfast and O'Hana dinner. Both were phenomenal.

 

[littlejimmy]

tusker house.

 

[Melanie B]

Tusker House was the best Character meal we had. As far as I know there isn't any characters at Tusker House for dinner.

 

[JamiLeigh]

This may have helped me out too. We've always done Crystal Palace, I love this for breakfast for the same reasons listed above, and that is an empty Main Street. It was always just DH and I do we could do an 8 am ADR and be done by 9 am rope drop.

We did Chef Mickey 2 years ago for our first trip back with kids, and I thought it was great. I'm actually leaning toward a Tusker House breakfast this October and want to make sure I'm not crazy for not picking Chef Mickey. I just want to try something new so I guess I'm not crazy for choosing Tusker House?

 

[dotcomgirl]

Tusker House was the best Character meal we had. As far as I know there isn't any characters at Tusker House for dinner.

Characters at dinner at Tusker House starts March 8th of this year.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Tusker House & Crystal Palace breakfast are both EXCELLENT!! I love them both.

Tusker House for lunch/dinner thou, I didnt like at all.

Ohana breakfast is great too. I liked the beautiful/relaxing atmosphere, while waiting for the food to be served to you. But given a choice, i'd probably pick Crystal Palace. I wasnt thrilled with pooh characters at first either but honestly, its the best interaction! Tigger especially took his time with us (and my teen boy!). We both loved it!

 

[greentea]

I loved Tusker House breakfast. I'm sure their dinner is good, too. I would choose Tusker House over your other two options if it was me.

For my June trip, though, with 4 adults (3 have never been), I booked 1900 Park Fare dinner because of the Tremaines. I haven't been there yet, but I've seen the stepsisters in the parks and love them.

 

[GrumpyBelle]

We did Tusker House for breakfast. Thought the food and characters were excellent.

 

[ttintagel]

We really enjoyed the Crystal Palace for an all-adults character meal. The layout and decor of the place makes each area feel a little more private, so you don't get that big, noisy, chaotic mob scene you get at some of the character places like Chef Mickey's. Not to mention that the architecture and decor are just plain lovely to look at.

I never thought of the Pooh gang as my favorite characters either, but they were just great with customers of all ages. Tigger and Eeyore were especially engaging. We happened to be sitting in a section that was mostly all-adult groups, and the people at the next table offered to take group shots of us with the characters. It was our last meal of the trip, and one of my fondest memories of WDW as an adult.

 

[AlexisMaxMommy]

I haven't done the Crystal Palace, but I've heard great things. I've been debating trying it next time, but we aren't real big Pooh fans.

We did the Tusker House, and it was good. I recommend the Tusker House.

 

[klinlin]

I hate buffets, don't eat eggs, and love Crystal Palace breakfast. Pooh's French toast is awesome. The restaurant is very clean and bright, and for me the character interaction is just right because my boys aren't young anymore. I have tried many times to get in before the park opens, but we go thanksgiving week. At 180 days out, the park is listed as opening at 9, but inevitably, they open it earlier as the week gets closer.

 

[tina.tina]

Crystal Palace: We didn't really care about the empty Main Street and didn't want to get up too early. We like breakfast food but didn't want an ADR to take too much early park time, so we had a 10:20 ADR for breakfast at Crystal Palace. We got up at 7 and had a small breakfast with an 8am opening so the 10:20 ADR was really lunch and was the perfect time to provide us a break. Our character interaction was awesome. We were the only ones in our section and we saw the characters repeatedly. We enjoyed the food, too. We all love Pooh & friends, though.

Tusker House: I don't have anything to say about the restaurant, but we went to AK late in the afternoon, closed down the park, and just lingered. No one stopped us or said anything as we very leisurely walked out of the park. We were staying at Pop but ended up on a bus with a just few other people who were at different resorts. That was kind of cool, riding around looking at the other resorts. So, I would say an evening Tusker House ADR would be a good idea.

 

[AllEars91]

1900 Park Fare is great. It's right inside the entrance into the Grand Floridian and you can take the monorail straight to Magic! It's got Alice and the Mad Hatter, Cinderella and others. So basically more rare characters than the Princesses who are always out.