Best character meal:
OHANA
OHANA
We ate breakfast here on our last day and out of all the character dining experiences we had, this was the best and for a few reasons. The food was great. My husband and I enjoyed it, the kids enjoyed it. The juice they served, the fabulous cinnamon bread and pineapple bread the hostess brings to the table was very yummy. The food was all brought to US. This was a big plus. We actually got to relax and enjoy our family breakfast without one of us having to run around and get food and bring it back. My husband and I were just ahhhhh, and just sat and enjoyed our tea and coffee. The breakfast was served family style and had fresh fruit, waffles, scrambled eggs, homefries, bacon, sausage, warm syrup and biscuits. It was all great.
Our server Melinda was fantastic. She was always making sure that we had lots of everything and that our girls were happy and were eating the food and brought out extra of whatever they were enjoying. Again, that was just pure ahhhhhhhh. The restaurant wasn't loud and the view of the castle and the Grand Floridan was just amazing.
The character interaction was great. Pluto, Stich, Lilo and Mickey were there and were fantastic with the girls and spent a lot of time with them and weren't rushed. It is a large restaurant and even though it wasn't packed, the characters only did 1 rotation while we were there. The parade that the children got to participate in was also great and the main aisle had lots of room for the children to go around. Mickey was swarmed with children and was just hugging them all.
Only con was that we had to wait 15 minutes past our ADR but it was not a big deal. We also declined to take the photo and they didn't have a problem with that. We also all got leis which our oldest loved.
Great experience and we will definitely do it again.
DONALD'S SAFARI BREAKFAST @ TUSKER HOUSE
This was our first breakfast during our stay and we had a 9:00 ADR. We got to the park at 8:30 but it still wasn't early enough to make our ADR because the rest of the guests were entering the park and we got stuck in the crowd waiting for the rope drop. I did ask a cast member who was holding back the crowd if we could just go ahead to make our reservation but was told no, we would have to wait until after the rope drop. We were 10 minutes late for our reservation and had to wait an additional 15 minutes once we checked in.
The restaurant wasn't packed and they were taking walk-ups. It is a very loud restaurant and this in combonation with it being the first time our 15 month old was coming up close and personal with characters made for a very stressful breakfast. The characters that were there included Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Mickey. Minnie wasn't present. The characters did make it around more than once. The food was good and the juice served when we arrived at the table was also good. The service was fine but our server was extremely busy and we didn't see him often. They had a good selection of breakfast items except maybe the fruit. The girls were ok with the food. I think it was part to excited too eat/too hot to eat that they just picked at their breakfast.
They do a fun parade with instruments for the kids. It was hectic for us being our first time at a character dining. We didn't want to miss any opprotunity to take pictures and video of the kids meeting the characters or for our oldest to be in the parade so my husband and I were always rushing up and back to the buffet because it was hard for just one of us to do everything on our own when a character came by. My husband and I actually didn't eat a lot because it just felt so crazy for us. For those wondering, it took about an hour from the time our pager went off to paying the bill. I did go and grab fast passes for the safari at the start of breakfast so at least we could walk onto a ride and get our day going.
It was a good experience and we would recommend this restaurant.
CHEF MICKEY'S
This was our second breakfast and we arrived at our ADR about an hour ahead of time. We decided to take the bus and monorail and thought we would have long waits but got there in no time. They had no problem accomodating us showing up early since it wasn't busy and they were also taking walkups. We arrived at 8:30
We lucked out that the room we were seated in, the characters were just starting at the other end of the room so this gave us lots of time to get food and actually eat. The food was good and always fresh. The characters were Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Mickey and Minnie in chef outfits (exept Minnie). The character interaction was great and our youngest was much more relaxed and had lots of exposure at the Animal Kingdom to characters and she was very happy to see them all at breakfast and they spent a good amount of time with the girls and signing autographs and pictures. Donald was really great with the baby. The service was ok and they did a napkin toss to a song instead of the parade which was also ok.
It was a nice experience and would suggest that those who haven't tried it give it a try.
CRYSTAL PALACE
If I were to let my husband review this dining experience, he would be giving it a -5. I was fuming also after this lunch but now that a few days have gone by I won't be as harsh as he would be.
Our lunch reservation was for 11:45 and I checked in at 11:30. We weren't seated until 12:30. The check-in process and the people waiting to get in to start lunch was just total chaos. I would recommend getting to a lunch reservation near the start of lunch service early to check-in because the waiting area is packed from wall to wall and it will take a while to make it to the hostess. It took an hour for them to seat us because they forgot about us. Groups with reservations after ours were being seated and we continued to wait. Whenever I went up to ask about the status I could tell from the look on there faces that they overlooked us. After my 3x inquiring into our table they finally let us in. The restaurant was fully booked and not taking walk-ins unless you were willing to keep on going back to check for any cancellations.
The food was ok, and the character interaction was fine. We didn't get to meet all the characters. Winnie, Piglet, Tigger and Eyeore were there. The characters did a parade around the restaurant with the kids. The lineup for the buffet was huge and slow moving. Our server was good and was quick to clear the table and bring drinks. Our kids hardly ate the food except for a bun and some cheese. It is a packed restaurant but it is very nice inside.
When I made the reservation and again at check-in I mentioned that I needed a high chair. They didn't have any hair chairs left and wanted to use a booster seat that wasn't secured to the chair for the baby. This was completely unsafe and we ended up having to hold her and while we tried to eat. This was difficult because there wasn't much room between tables and to sit with a baby in your lap wasn't comfortable. I did ask during our lunch if any highchairs had become available yet but no one got back to us.
Our baby did end up having an accident during our lunch when my husband was passing her to me so that he could go to the buffet and she smashed her head into the corner of the table and ended up cutting her lip. If only we could have had a high chair. Good thing First Aid was right next door and they were really helpful. It looked like the baby bit her lip when she smashed into the table so it required some ice on a bump on her head and also on her lip. I did pass some lovely high chairs though when exiting the restaurant. Go figure.
At least we can say we have tried the Palace. It's just too packed with people both inside and out and the wait wasn't worth it for the food. The same characters our daughters met at the Animal Kingdom and got to spend more time with them.
