Anyone booking LESS character dining?

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

I think I am going to book less character dining meals this time. I feel like they can take alot of time, and my kids are so into watching the characters interact with people that they barely eat!

The last time we were at Chef Mickey's we waited forever for all of the characters to come around, and my oldest was asking to leave and go to MK. Also, they were all complaining that they were hungry not long after the breakfast!!

So, I'm thinking maybe 2 characters meals. Does anyone else feel like this?

 

[my2disneyboys]

YES! We are on character overload! The last two trips we have eaten at a character breakfast or dinner on almost everyday of the trip. I am planning a much lower key trip this time. It was just too much get up and go... and our plan now is to have our traditional first night dinner at Chef Mickey and then on the day we leave have breakfast at Ohana.... this way the two days we are not going to a park we have those meals and on the days we do go to the parks, I am having garden grocer delivered and we will just eat fruit/cereal/muffins in the room and it will give us an extra hour of sleep!

 

[2Tiggies]

I think a lot depends on the age and stage of your children. I have the opposite at the moment and have ended up booking a LOT of character meals, but DD is now 8 and my only child and I think character meals are about to drop a few notches on the priority list so I am going to make the most of it while I can.

If my situation was like the one you described, I fully agree that my response would be to book one or two carefully selected character meals and leave it at that. The up-side of these meals during busier periods is that you cut time outside in the hot sun standing in line for the meet n greets. The trick is to ensure that the characters your kids want to meet are covered by the ones at your selected meal locations - and as kids often do, they sometimes change their "absolute favorite" AFTER you have dined and they spot another character in the parks.

 

[Chellymouse]

We're cutting back a little, but the reason is primarily as the OP stated, the food hasn't been all that great and at some places, waiting around for the characters takes much longer than if you'd just see them in the parks. Given the fact that we are going in Oct. it shouldn't be an issue, however, if you're going during busier times of the year, the character meals do help out with time in the parks.

 

[2DisPrincesses]

I agree that they do take a lot of time, but when you consider the time you would spend in line to see all of those charaters, it's not bad at all. Not to mention, you are not standing in the sun (especially if you're there in the summer). I figure instead of standing in line for hours we can take our time grazing while the characters come to us.

 

[soulmates]

We have last trip & this one as well. We're trying for CRT and that's it. Hoping to see my favs in the park. But then, our "baby" is almost 15. When they were younger, it was a different story.

 

[HunnyJar]

Actually, I think we are doing more now than we did a few years ago. I'd much rather wait to see the characters while we dine than to stand in a long line. Yes, they do take a bit of your time out of the day but to be honest.. Going to a restaurant with my son can take forever anyway. He is the SLOWEST eater I know and this way we aren't getting bored while we wait for him to eat.

 

[nicki.momof3]

Last Easter we did all character meals (except on dinner at sci-fi). We did Chef Mickeys, CP, Norway, CRT, Garden grill. It was fun - kids were 4,5,6 years old.

This Easter (got home 4/8) we did Hoop De, Sci Fi, Mexico, Germany, Norway, CP, Whispering Canyon, Plaza. Kids were 5,6,7. We had a great time and I really think we did nit miss anything.

I think lots of character meals are great once but it is overkill if you keep repeating them. WDW has so many great places to eat. My kids LOVED whispering canyon and Hoop De.

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

We didn't do any this trip, and we always do at least one per trip. It just seems like the breakfast's are way too expensive now for adequate food, and I would much rather go to Boma's (splurge) or Kona's (more reasonable) for breakfast.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

We are! Last year we had 5 character meals booked -- we did 4 of them and ended up cancelling Chef Mickey's. Even at 4, it was too many for us -- they really lost the "wow" factor for DD. I'm not a buffet fan so in a sense it killed me to be at a buffet for the sake of the characters when DD wasn't even that excited about it, kwim? This year I booked just two character meals and we ended up cancelling one of them. DD really enjoyed the one we did and didn't seem to miss not doing more (I was afraid she might miss the princesses since we did CRT and PSD last time). We probably ended up waiting in more meet and greet lines this time around but as she gets older she doesn't mind the lines as much (which was part of the reason we did alot of character meals -- to avoid the lines).

 

[Tiger926]

We did a good amount on our March trip a few weeks ago, and tried to eliminate some for July, as summer surcharges are in effect, but I couldn't eliminate as many as I wanted to. I currently have 6 booked - doing CRT again though, even though we just did it a few weeks ago, as we greatly enjoyed the addition of princesses at dinner, and we went during Wishes, as well as Crystal Palace, Garden Grove, Cape May, H & V (added for Handy Manny) and Chef Mickey's (it's not very good, but kids asked for it). I have a soon to be 7 year old, and a turning 3 year old (during our July trip), so it's all about characters for us. We go for approx. 2 weeks each July, so we welcome the character meals as we get to relax and eat, all the while getting autographs that we can't stand outside in the stifling heat for.

I did eliminate 1900 PF for breakfast as we just did it a few weeks ago, as well as 1900 PF for dinner, as the Steps are just too much sometimes. There are a few others that we aren't doing as they aren't good at all (Garden Grill & 'Ohana), or, because they've changed the format (Donald's Safari). Normally we also always do Akershus, my DD's fav, but we have done it 5x in the past 3 trips (sometimes 2x in 1 trip), so that's off the list as well.

We have done all character meals over and over, but we will continue to do so as long as it works for us. We have the TIW card, so we are just selective in our meals - mostly do lunches, as breakfasts just aren't worth it, and some of the dinners such as Crystal Palace for example, are about $10.00 more/person, and that's not worth it to us.

Tiger

 

[melissac]

When we started to go regular to Disney 5 years ago we did 2-3 character meals each trip. Now as the kids got older (DS-8 & DD-13) we have dropped that to 1 per trip. We were at Disney for 10 days our last trip and only did 1 character meal. The kids have eaten at everyone in the World now and they're not as exciting and they would rather go to differnet resturants. I guess that is what happens when the kids start to grow up.

 

[MaleficentandGoons]

I'm not at the point yet where dd knows characters. We have decided that DD first Disney trip will be when she is 4 or 5 and we will do a max of 2 character meals when there. I think it's important to save something for the next trip.

 

[flipflopmom]

Umm... no. Our youngest is only 3, and still loves the characters. Add that to a family that really enjoys breakfast foods, goes in the summer and needs a break from the heat and doesn't care for character greeting lines, the DxDP, and we have a total of 6 for 6 days!

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

Well, my adr's are done and I still ended up booking 3 character meals! LOL I think that will work out good for us!

 

[phyllis1966]

We always did 4 to 5 character breakfasts (the whole family, especially Poppy, loves buffets for breakfast!). DD is almost 11 now, though, and she says that although she still enjoys the characters, "sometimes I just want to eat." That really cracked me up!

Next trip we're only planning 2, and that's because they are the 2 absolute faves (which change from trip to next trip)...this time, we'll do 'Ohana and Cape May Cafe for breakfast.