A few thoughts on character meals

[Sparkly]

I really like Crystal Palace for breakfast. Character interaction is good and food is pretty good too! I loved eating with a view of the castle and meeting a bunch of characters in comfort before going off to enjoy my day. Can't wait to do it again on Monday!

 

[tcherjen]

We have done two. Both were at 1900 Fare, dinner and breakfast. We enjoyed them. I haven't book another one because there are other things we want to do on our trip.
Now if they were to have a pirate one, meeting Jack Sparrow, my daughter would love that. She is in to pirates over princesses

 

[AlexisMaxMommy]

If I had the DDP, I would book every expensive character meal that I could, but we never do the DDP because it is too expensive. The importance really depends on your family and what you want to do. We usually do one character meal each trip and make sure it's characters that my kids are really want to see.

 

[flump3k]

We love them so they are worth the money to us. I'm sure when my kids get older they won't be as bothered. But for now it's part of our disney experience.

 

[DISvirgin1]

When we didn't have the DDP, we booked one or two character meals. Yes it was pricey, but my girls were 4 & 5 when we did lunch at CRT. It was magical. At that age they believed they we're really meeting Cinderallla. Wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world.
I loved that we saw all the princesses at once, and then it freed up our park time since we didn't have to wait in long hot lines to see princesses because "we already met them at the castle!" Also, especially at MK, the food offerings at the character meals are better than the counter service offerings (unless it's lunch at Be Our Guest! That rocked!) but also, those meals are the few times we get to relax at the park.

We did the DDP, and loved it. We keep track of all our vacation expenses year to year and the DDP saved a bundle.

But if you're a family that likes to go go go, I can see where a character meal and the time they take might not appeal.

 

[Buttrcp16]

First off, we've never done character meals, and I can't say that we ever will. The exceptions being: 1) if we are on the DDP & not paying OOP, or 2) If the purpose is to meet a character our kids love that you can't see anywhere else. For any other reason I can't see us ever doing it.

Last year we took our 4 and almost 2 year old and we met Woody, Jessie, Buzz, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Stitch, Mr. Incredible, Frozone, and Elastigirl. Our longest wait was *maybe* 15 minutes, for Donald/Goofy - which was in air conditioning. All the others were only a couple minute wait (we did have FP+ for Mickey). So from my experience, is the cost of character meals justified? Heck no. I would much rather save our money for something more worthwhile.

 

[tcherjen]

We have done two. Both at GF, breakfast and lunch. My youngest enjoyed them, but has not asked to do them again. She was 6 both times.
She enjoys being in the parks and her favorite place to eat is Casey's corner. With that said, if they had a pirate dinner m&g she would want to do that.
She likes the pirates.

 

[JanieMc]

We probably won't do them again. We did CRT breakfast on our first visit with the littlest ones last year, and that was worth it and quite memorable. That said, we canceled our Chef Micky's ressies (we were staying at the CR, too) because we'd done two days at MK and met Mickey already... other characters weren't vital to my little ones. We don't plan any character meals this trip, and they're 6 now. It seems that there are so many Meet and Greets going now that character dining is largely unnecessary BUT for those who enjoy the literal "character dining" experience in itself. I don't think you need them to interact with characters at all. I wouldn't give anything for CRT that time, though. It was thrilling.

 

[Southern Bell]

I cannot answer for anyone else, different strokes for different folks! LOL! But... yes Character dining has been worth it to me. Has it been overpriced to me? Yes! Its Disney! LOL! But yet not any higher than the seafood buffet we do at the beach when we go. We save in a vacation fund at our bank just like we do for Christmas. My husband and I learned yrs ago these were two times during the yr we were going to spend money and then some! LOL! Some yrs we have been more limited in our vacation fund than other yrs and have done nothing more than go to Disney and eat quick service. But... when we have been able to afford a character meal it has been a welcomed change from Quick Service, and we have enjoyed the buffets because of having different choices, especially for the kids. We usually go in the summer and its been nice to have a table reserved in the air condition at least once during the week. The children (now grandchildren)have been excited to see the characters come around to the table. It is viewed by our family as something special we do in addition to our vacation at Disney. Because we all enjoy it I think its worth it! But if my family didn't enjoy it and they stop wanting to go someday, then I won't spend our extra vacation money on a character meal. We will do something else they enjoy.

 

[krd315]

We were lucky to have FD on last 3 trips and paid to upgrade to DDP. With two young grandchildren we have done every character meal on property and a few of them multiple times. Our favorites are breakfast before the parks open. Even without FD we would still do 2-3 each trip.

 

[Nancyg56]

This is going to be my first trip, sons second, and wife's third. We booked Park Fare for our first dinner. I'm excited. Can anyone let me know their thoughts if you've been there?

This is a fun meal. The Stepsisters are a hoot, and Lady Tremaine is worth the price of admission. I must admit that it can take a long time to get through though, but the Girls do their best to make the rounds in an orderly manner. WE like the food at 100 PF as well, so to me, it is worth it.

 

[Nancyg56]

Your dining wasn't free, you just paid for it in other ways that seemed less obvious, such as higher priced room.

While it is true that free dining is not "free" it is a discount that is offered. If a family is planning on several character meals, it can be well worth taking that discount over a discounted room price.

 

[froggibabey]

For us, some of the best memories were at character meals.. and we did a bunch of them!

it was especially nice after waiting in line (even with fastpasses) for Minnie Mouse and Tiana, since they weren't at any.. we waited at least 45 minutes for Minnie, and it wasn't even that crowded when we were there.

The girls thought iw as SO MUCH FUN that they came over, at CP Tigger pulled up a chair and sat next to them, and they just thought that was hilarious.