Anyone know why no character bkfst on 3/4 day

[marley]

Just curious why a character meal is not offered on the 3 or 4 day cruise.

I think I have also read there is a tea and a formal night on the 7 day. I guess I can kind of understand the lack of a formal night, but the exclusion of the other events I just don't quite see.

Anyone have a good explanation or address/email I can write to suggest these similar events are offered on the Wonder?

thanks! Marley

 

[WDWLVR]

marley,

I think the simple reason is the lack of time. Character breakfasts are held on sea days, as is high tea and Palo brunch. The 3 day doesn't have any sea days and the 4 days are split between having sea days and freeport days. Also as far as the character breakfast it is spread out over all 3 sea days (or in the case of the Western on the morning of Key West day while they are still at sea) to make sure that everyone gets a chance.

I'm wondering if the thinking is not to offer it on the Wonder since it wouldn't be fair to everyone. Just me 2 cents.

 

[marley]

wow, spread out over 3 days. That makes more sense to me now. Thanks!

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Also, for the first two years of DCL's existence, they only offered the 3- and 4-night cruises. When they added the 7-night cruises in 2000, they had to add programming to keep folks happy during the days at sea. The Character Breakfast was part of that expanded offering.

 

[lbgraves]

I am wondering how the character breakfast on the Magic compares to the ones at WDW. We will have 2 days there before boarding and I am trying to decide if it will be worth it to do one there as well? TIA!

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Originally posted by lbgraves

I am wondering how the character breakfast on the Magic compares to the ones at WDW. We will have 2 days there before boarding and I am trying to decide if it will be worth it to do one there as well? TIA!

I haven't done one at WDW, but from what I understand, those who have done both find the one onboard to be disappointing by comparison. Since I can't compare, I thought the one onboard was fine. But keep in mind that there's no extra fee required for the one onboard... it's included with your cruise fare.

 

[thegales]

If you are used to character meals at WDW during busy times, then I think the two are comparable. When at WDW, we tried to schedule meals at off times, so characters spend more time with each table.

On the cruise, the restaurant is full, so the characters do not spend as much time at each table. Photographers also travel with some (if not all) of the characters. This takes away some of the time for autographs and your own pictures.

We had early seating, so our breakfast started at 8:15. Looking at the time stamps of our pictures, the first picture with Pluto was at 8:40. The last picture with Mickey was at 9:15. Mickey was very rushed since they needed to turn the room around for the late seating. It seemed like it took forever for Mickey to come, and some tables didn't wait.

In the end, we had a great time, got some great pictures, and ate breakfast.

By the way, we did a breakfast after WDW after the cruise during an off time. While the characters seemed to spend more time with each table, we still had to wait for all of them to come over. First picture had a time stamp of 11:05, last at 11:35.

In the end, if you go in with a good attitude, then your family will have a good time. They will also have plenty of other opportunities to see the characters during the cruise.

 

[Doctor P]

As a veteran of WDW character meals (the family and I have done six together and DW and DSD have done two more with my FIL), I can tell you that the character meal stinks on DCL. It is by far the worst in terms of character interaction of any meal we have been to, and the CM's with the characters were some of the rudest I have ever encountered. Don't get me wrong, we had a good time, but for someone who had never been to a character meal I would have been disappointed. 50% of our professional photographs did not turn out because they were in such a rush! That's inexcusable, IMHO. And having been to lots of character meals, we knew not to monopolize and to be ready when the characters came (we also did not try to do any autographs).

 

[CRSNDSNY]

They really did seem very rushed to get from one table to the next and the photographers were a little rude and pushy in getting the photographs. I guess it might be because of the time frame compared to the amount of tables they need to visit. If you don't expect much, you won't be disappointed. Just try to think of it as nice background entertainment and eye candy.

 

[lbgraves]

Well, from all your posts, I think that I wont expect much. My 3 & 5 yos will proably be happy enough to meet the characters on the ship. At least they will have seen them in the MK a couple days before. It doesn't sound like they are old enough to deal with another breakfast at the park. Maybe next year...or the next?

 

[KenP]

I've done dozens of Character Breakfasts and thought the ones on DCL Magic were just fine (I've done 5 of them). Always have had the late seating and they go fine.

 

[WDWLVR]

I'm a veteran of both land and sea Character Breakfasts. I think the big difference is that with the ones in the park people come in at different times so the characters have busy and slow times and during the slow times can really spend more time with the guests. I remember one breakfast in the Disneyland Hotel where we had 5 characters around us at once!

Having said that I think the ones on the Magic are fine. Since everyone is scheduled to eat at once they have a plan for how the characters are coming through the room. They stop and take lots of pictures and at least on our sailings the photographers have always been nice. We had time for our own pictures as well. They even put on a little show. Now we are a childless couple who just enjoys Disney and the characters. I think some of the children might be a little disappointed that the characters can't spend more time with them that morning (they do keep them moving), but I think the breakfast is worth attending.