1st time Character dining

[dnw25]

We are taking our toddler son to Disney for first time this fall. He will be 22 months. I want to book Crystal Palace but am torn between breakfast, lunch and dinner since the reviews seem to be all over the place.

Additionally, we are torn between Chef Mickey's (again brunch if available or dinner. not sure which is considered better) and Tusker House breakfast. Plus, I just read how great Cape May Breakfast is... So torn. Hubby and I love our food. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

BTW, not sure how LO will handle characters.....Santa was a disaster but the Easter Bunny was smooth sailing.

 

[Kae]

What is his best meal. My kids were not get up and eat types so we have done CP lunch quite a few times. Its nice to take a break when in the parks. We also did after 10 at Cape May too.

 

[dnw25]

Very good point. Right now he is bright eyed and ready to go at 5:20 am/6:20 Disney time. Which meal did you feel was the better food? (realize apples to oranges)

 

[Disney Mom 7272]

We love Tusker House breakfast and the character interaction is great. We have also done Crystal Palace breakfast before the park opened and enjoyed that one to. What are your son's favorite characters? We actually do several character meals when we go because that saves us tons of time in the park. When you do the meals, then you don't have to stand in line to meet them later

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Breakfast seems to get more consistently positive reviews at any of the character meals. It's pretty hard to screw up. I've never done any other character meal except breakfast so I can't really weigh in. Tusker House seems to be the exception to this rule. If you want lunch or dinner with Mickey, I think TH is your best bet food wise.

 

[WhoDat09]

We love Tusker House. We usually get a reservation aound 10:45 so that we can enjoy both the breakfast and the lunch. The characters there are great and the food is the best of any buffets that we have eaten at Disney IMO.

 

[dnw25]

Thank you all!!! We limit his tv time considerably. Too the point that even at 22 months he probably will have had very limited exposure to Disney Junior - so Hollywood and Vine would probably be a waste.

Honestly, I am thinking we do a meal at CP early in the trip, since he loves his Pooh and friends books and plush animals. Just a matter of which meal. If the character interaction is positive, then introduce him to Mickey, Goofy and Donald later in the week at either Chef Mickey, Tusker am or Cape May am. He has been exposed to the Fab Five through his Little People Discover Disney set and various plush animals.

Off topic, but do any of you think the Ohana dinner kid activities are age appropriate for him?

 

[dnw25]

I love the idea of a later Tusker ressie - over breakfast and lunch, but what time do the characters stop?

 

[TinkLoverSam]

I love the idea of a later Tusker ressie - over breakfast and lunch, but what time do the characters stop?

Characters appear at all meals at TH so you'd have them through your whole meal time.

 

[dnw25]

Thanks - for some reason I thought Tusker was breakfast only.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

Tusker House isn't in the same category as CM or CP. It is in a class by itself. We've done both the 8am there and 10:45 and enjoy both. 8am gets you in and out in time to jump on the first safari of the day, and AK gets HOT, so the earlier the better. The 10:45 gets you breakfast and lunch foods and has the most variety of foods of any character meal in WDW.

As for CM and CP. I highly recommend breakfast as well. The lunch and dinner meals range from mediocre to bad. At least breakfast has certain staples impossible to screw up. For atmosphere CP is better. Very nice restaurant, CM is just loud. As for character interaction between them, I like CM better. We've had Tigger skip us twice at CP even after our waiter attempted to let someone know. Had some really good character intercation at CM particularly with Goofy and Minnie.

 

[GillianP1301]

My opinion on most of the character buffets is that breakfast is better. And if you have a child who is naturally a morning person and up anyway, then it can be a great way to start your day off. Plus, as our mothers always told us, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and having a nice buffet will definitely give you the fuel you need for a morning of touring.

 

[Hydra]

I'd also vote for Tusker House, the food was fabulous. 10:45, like others have said, satisfy both breakfast and lunch cravings, it kept our party happy.

 

[TravelJess]

We do an early breakfast at CP every vacation. On our last trip we also did Tusker house breakfast. They were both great meals, however I personally prefer CP. There is something special about it. We've never done Cape May breakfast, we just like to be in the "parks" early. I would highly recommend CP breakfast(early)!

 

[Apopper74]

Off topic, but do any of you think the Ohana dinner kid activities are age appropriate for him?

No. I would say age appropriate would be at the minimum 4.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

Chef Mickeys i definitely recommend breakfast/brunch. Their dinner tends to be on the disappointing side. Crystal Palace we love. Its 1 of our fav places in Disney. We always get a pre park ADR for it because we like being able to walk down main street without tons of people and the memory maker photographers are there as well so its great getting your family pic taken infront of the castle without 100s of strangers photo bombing your pic, lol. We have never had Tusker House for breakfast, but we ate there at lunch and it was excellent! 1 of the best places to eat in Animal Kingdom as fas as I'm concerned lol. Happy eating!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I think the breakfasts are the best.

Since your son is up early do pre rope drop ADRs at CP and tusker house.

I've never done CP BF but I've done lunch and dinner and enjoyed them. TUsker house BF was the best character meal food wise I've ever been too.

My DS and SO don't eat right when they get up so no RD BF for us.

I would do TH every trip but DS requests chef Mickey's and they are too much alike character wise. Chef Mickey's is just ok to me but its DS only request.

 

[jacknsally19]

So I know that you said your kid doesn't watch TV much, but if he is a big fan of Mickey Mouse, I would say go for Chef Mickeys. I am certainly a bit of a foodie - but I let that go when it comes to character dining. I mean its really all about the excitement for the child not really the food. Tusker House is very cool but I can tell you that my daughter at 23 months went BANANAS for Chef Mickeys. She was freaking out about how there were Mickey's everywhere (lots of pictures) I mean the excitement was just over the top b/c its over the top Mickey theming. At the time, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was just her favorite thing ever and she LOVED mickey more than anything.
Personally, I have gone to a lot of the character meals and I just haven't found the food to be anything special at any of them. The theming or the experience can be very special but the food... meh. I mean most are buffets and I can always find something that I am OK eating. Also, I think there is one less character at Tusker House (only 4) and its been awhile since I was there.
Finally, I think 2 is more than enough character meals for a week. I sort of like hitting them on the later side of breakfast say 10:30 and making it my own version of brunch. Then I can get away with a granola bar in the early AM, eat brunch, and last until dinner. But of course, thats more a personal choice.

(BTW - your kid may wake up that early at home but WDW is a different beast.... my DD always sleeps a lot later when we are there even if she goes to bed on time)

 

[senadler]

At that age my DS was all about Tigger, so there was no question for us that CP would be his first character meal. He didn't really watch any TV at that age, so he also only really knew the Pooh characters from his books and toys. I think going to the one that has characters your son is most familiar with makes the most sense.

Our kids have never been early risers, so we have always done CP around noon for a park break. The food is okay, you can certainly find enough to eat for everyone.

My choice for a second meal would definitely be CM for breakfast. Again, average food, but the atmosphere of the contemporary with the lobby and monorail is definitely something to experience.

 

[oam]

We are taking our toddler son to Disney for first time this fall. He will be 22 months. I want to book Crystal Palace but am torn between breakfast, lunch and dinner since the reviews seem to be all over the place.

Additionally, we are torn between Chef Mickey's (again brunch if available or dinner. not sure which is considered better) and Tusker House breakfast. Plus, I just read how great Cape May Breakfast is... So torn. Hubby and I love our food. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

BTW, not sure how LO will handle characters.....Santa was a disaster but the Easter Bunny was smooth sailing.

Consider Ohanas for breakfast. They often will parade the kids around with the characters. Great time.