5 Character Meals??!!!

[teag_98]

Ok, I just reviewed my ADRs and here they are:

Coral Reef Lunch
Crystal Palace Dinner
Playhouse Disney Breakfast
Whispering Canyon Dinner
Chef Mickey's Dinner
Fatasmic Dinner Package at Hollywood and Vine
Tusker House Breakfast
Ohana Breakfast

My kids are 3 and 9 (turning 10 while there, it's his bday trip!!). I want to avoid waiting in long lines for characters in the parks, hence the number of character meals...but is 5 too many?? I would like to try Boma or Raglan Road and am considering giving up one of the char. meals for that...which one would you give up? I'm leaning towards giving up Tusker.

What do you think, in general, of my ADR's? Do I have a good selection of meals? First timer here, like you couldn't tell TIA

 

[KatMark]

Personally, I think 5 might be a bit much. You have a couple that the characters overlap so you might want to change one of those. I would tell you to drop the H&V one, but those characters only appear there (we do not like H&V and it is only of two Disney restaurants that we will never step foot in again).

As for selection of meals, most of your places are great...but most of them are buffets so you are going to get a lot of the same type of food.

 

[clairemolly]

I think it depends on the kids. When we took DD at age 3, we did 3 out of 4 TS as character meals. We have 9 total TS planned for Oct (DDs will be 10 months and 5) and older DD is wondering why we have only 6 character meals planned and not all 9! She loves it and it isn't too much for us.

 

[Lucky'sMom]

I would probably give up Tusker House, esp. if you only have one day planned at AK. The most I usually do is 3 char. meals: one Mickey & gang, one Pooh & gang and one Princess. We have done four, though. What I notice is that after 3 of these, the kids don't seem to care too much about seeing more characters, get tired of all of the photos, and DH and I get tired of having our meal constantly interrupted by characters appearing. It looks like you have a great trip planned!

 

[ReggieB]

I'm leaning towards giving up Tusker

and miss your chance with Daisy??!!!! No I'm kidding, that would be the only character that doesn't overlap with Chef Mickey's. I'd probably switch that out for Boma. Someone did mention that you had a lot of buffets, but Boma is different enough for it not to be a big deal.

You've got Pooh & Friends at CP
Mickey and the gang (no Daisy though!) at Chef Mickey's
Playhouse disney folk at H&V breakfast
Lilo & Stitch, Mickey & Pluto at Ohana
Nice selection of characters.

I don't think I would do both the breakfast and dinner at H&V However as one's a character meal, and the other's the Fantasmic package, it probably is a good use of your time, considering what you are looking for.

 

[teag_98]

!! The only reason I have the Fantasmic package at H&V is that I couldn't get Mama Melrose's....I'm not too thrilled about eating there 2x since the reviews are pretty mixed. I'm going to keep trying to get MM's, but the Playhouse Disney is a must with the 3 yr old!

My Tusker House is at 10:45 which I wasn't thrilled with either so I think I may go ahead and give it up....really want to try the Flame Tree and we'd be too full if we did Tusker!

I considered changing CM's or CP for breakfast, but both mornings we have planned for MK are EMH and I don't think I can get there early enough since we're staying at ASMo.

Now, the only problem is that we're going in June....it there even a prayer of booking Boma or Raglan in there somewhere??

 

[disneymom0104]

My kids love character meals, so that wouldn't be too much for us. We will be there 10 nights in Sept. and we have 6 character meals scheduled. Not many of the characters overlap- my girls are SO excited!

 

[aripantaloon]

We have 4 character meals, so I wouldn't say that you have too many.

 

[tlriv5]

We did four our first/last trip and our fourth was our least favorite. I'm not sure if was too many character meals, or if it was the breakfast buffet (donald's restaurantasaurus) and we enjoyed Ohana's breakfast character meal much better. I remember my dh saying after that meal that he wished we'd done a dinner instead of the ts breakfast. I will tell you that of the ones you have chosen we really enjoyed Ohana, Crystal Palace, Whispering Canyon and Coral Reef. If I was going to leave one off it would be Tusker House, just based on the fact that it is a charcter breakfast buffet and they are my least favorite and you'll be seeing MIckey at two other places.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We done as many as seven in one trip. I think it's fine, as long as that's what you want.

 

[holly7347]

I want to avoid waiting in long lines for characters in the parks, hence the number of character meals...but is 5 too many??

I certainly hope not since I have 6

All the TS meals I booked are character meals. My oldest has sensory issues and just doesn't eat anything that isn't packed from home and even then she eats very little. We take her out to eat and she is finished eating her cup of yogurt before the rest of us even have our food on the table. So I'm hoping the character meals give her something to do while the rest of us are eating. She is also the reason most of our TS meals are buffets. She does like fruit so I'm hoping since she is paying as well I can at least get her to eat a piece of fruit from a buffet and a desert.

Here are ours in order
CRT breakfast
Hollywood and Vine character lunch
Crystal Palace lunch
Donald's Safari Breakfast
1900 Park Fare
Princess Storybook Breakfast

I have read several times that the food at Hollywood and Vine isn't that great. But DD really wanted to see Jo Jo and Little Einsteins even though she hasn't watched those shows in forever. She asked me what my list was and I said I'm trying to decide who we should eat with and she announced that she wanted to eat with everyone. She asked me what every line on my paper said and as I said Cinderella, Pooh etc she said yes we HAVE TO eat with them. And this trip is really for them and if it helps us not to have to stand in so many lines to see characters then we all win.

 

[momof3girls6712]

Can you ever have too many Disney characters?

We have 5 planned for our 4 day trip.....we love the character meals.

 

[hlane]

We have 9 planned in our 7 day trip...I can't wait!

 

[Tanzanite]

We have 11 booked my daughter and i are doing a mummy and me 8 day trip i want to get as many charactor photos as possible as i am having my daughters dress maker custom design outfits espicially for them trip like this doesnt happen i will be leaving 2 brothers home so one time event

 

[Tinka_Belle]

!! The only reason I have the Fantasmic package at H&V is that I couldn't get Mama Melrose's....I'm not too thrilled about eating there 2x since the reviews are pretty mixed. I'm going to keep trying to get MM's, but the Playhouse Disney is a must with the 3 yr old!

My Tusker House is at 10:45 which I wasn't thrilled with either so I think I may go ahead and give it up....really want to try the Flame Tree and we'd be too full if we did Tusker!

I considered changing CM's or CP for breakfast, but both mornings we have planned for MK are EMH and I don't think I can get there early enough since we're staying at ASMo.

Now, the only problem is that we're going in June....it there even a prayer of booking Boma or Raglan in there somewhere??

I loved eating at the Flame Tree Barbeque. The chicken was wonderful. We ate there two times last year (not on the same).

We have also planned four character meals. Last year we only saw 5 characters total on a 6 day trip. DD was a little disappointed. She was hoping to meet Cinderella and the other princesses, but only saw them on stage and it just wasn't the same.

I have Akershus
Chef Mickey's
1900 Park Faire
Crystal Palace

Those cover the characters that DD wants to see.

 

[hoosiergirl7]

We only have 3 planned for our trip starting next week!

We're doing Chef Mickey's (dinner), 1900 Park Fare (dinner) and O'Hana (breakfast). It's a good variety of characters and DH won't get character overkill. DS 4 will enjoy it and we had thought about the Pooh meal but DS really isn't into those characters.

If you don't think it's going to be too many then I wouldn't worry about it. Do what makes you happy but I would see if you could try and change the H & V so that you're not doing it twice unless of course you are comfortable eating there twice.

 

[wildirishrose]

we have 8 planned out of 9 so I dont think you have too many. Tuskerhouse does have Daisy so if your DD even likes her you may want to keep trying for a better time. I know last year after 75 autographs my girls still whine about not seeing Daisy. BTW my eldest has sensory issues too and the Characters kept her busy, enough for me to get fruit and yogurt in her for each meal.

 

[teag_98]

Ok, so I don't feel so bad about 5 when I see 9!! Sounds like you're going to have a ball, and I'm sure we'll love every minute too...I need to stop stressing about where we're going to eat and start planning the rest of the trip!

 

[libinatorsmom]

HI - its our 1st time too in just 22 days... WOO HOO

We are doing a lot of Character meals too: Askerhaus Story Book Breakfast, CInderellas RT Lunch, Cape May Breakfast, Crystal Palace Breakfast, Chef Mickey Breakfast, 1900 Park Fair Breakfast - and I am excited as this way I know my dd4 will get to see her fave characters and we wont have to waste time in the parks... we picked a lot of breakfasts as we have to eat anyways!!! and we are on the Dulx dining plan so we have lots of food credits to use up and we are very excited about all our ADRs

I say look at the menus and pick based on what you want to eat as well as the wants of your children and find a happy medium... yes I knwo it can be HARD to do