Ariels Grotto or Goofy's Dinner + Vouchers?

[craftywriter]

We've done Ariels Grotto before and we purchased vouchers along with our tickets. Now we are annual passholders and we're planning to spend 4 days the last week of April. Since we've done Ariels before I'm wondering if we should try dinner at Goofy's instead this time? little ones are 5 and 7.

Next item - can I purchase dinner vouchers without having to purchase park tickets at the same time? If so, where?

One last item - does anyone know if you can still take the monorail over to DLH (Goofy's)?

TIA

 

[lilsprstr]

We love Goofy's kitchen. Definitely worth a trip if you haven't been. I'm not sure about the monorail though.

 

[mystic_path]

I dont know about the monorail, but you definitely can purchase vouchers separately. We usually get our through getawaytoday.com Most reputable travel agents will sell them, and sell them to you separately.

 

[blackjackdelta]

The monorail goes to its DTD close to the hotel, it is a short walk up to GK.

Jack

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Voucher usually aren't any cheaper than your AP discount. I'd look into prices before buying vouchers. We compared for our trip in December and for 2 adults and 2 kids they would've only saved us $6 TOTAL.

They have since changed the vouchers at ARES and GAT. They are regular character meal (minnies, storytellers, PPH) vs. premium (GK or AG any meal), instead of breakfast, AG lunch/dinner, or GK dinner.

 

[Jperiod]

Our AP discount was better than the vouchers.

As for which meal... Depends.

If your kids are nuts about the princesses and MUST see them all, then Airel's is the easiest than taking your chances at the fantasy faire. That alone was worth the $50+ when our son was princess crazy.

BUT, Goofy's is a lot of fun and interactive. They do silly things every 30 minutes in the middle of the restaurant for the kids to participate with the characters (like dancing the macarena), plus all the characters still come around to your table. The last two years we've gone, the only two princesses were Jasmine (who was always so awesome with my son) and Belle in her blue dress, plus there's pluto, chip/dale, minnie, goofy, and I think we might have had the mad hatter. We also love the food much more than Airel's.

 

[Jperiod]

Oh, and the monorail just goes to the station in DTD. You still have to get off and walk across to DLH, about another 10 minutes or so.

 

[waltdisneymama]

Would the deluxe AP discount for character meals be 10 percent? Thanks!

 

[Jperiod]

Would the deluxe AP discount for character meals be 10 percent? Thanks!

yes.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

As long as the vouchers won't cost me more than the AP discount gives I'd rather purchase the vouchers *I think* I prefer to have things prepaid, well I suppose I could *prepay* by purchasing Disney Gift Cards and then getting the AP discount *wait I have done that ~ but no AP for us this year, we're visiting over the 4th of July weekend and Thanksgiving weekend this year - and the Deluxe AP is blocked all of the days we'd visit! I'll definitely purchase vouchers for any CMeals we want to have ~ during Holidays they always charge more for the meals.

 

[Merry Mousketeer]

We have gone to both Ariel's Grotto and Goofy's Kitchen. If your children are into the Princesses, then it's no contest. However, in my opinion, the food is average and overpriced. Also, the princesses don't spend a lot of time at each table, so you may feel a bit rushed especially if you want to take more than one photo. Adults can order alcoholic drinks, which may be a plus.

At Goofy's Kitchen, we found the food to be excellent - especially the breakfast buffet. The hosts, hostesses and servers were much more friendly and the characters playful, interactive and willing to spend lots of time at your table and clown around. But no princesses! We had Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip & Dale, and some assorted Pooh characters wandered by briefly.

You might want to check out Storyteller's Cafe in the Grand Californian. We really enjoyed the Character Breakfast here. The food was by far the best and the characters were zany and ones you generally don't see - Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, Brer Fox and the bears from Brother Bear plus a hilarious Forest Ranger were the primary ones when we ate there. Just a tip, try not to be assigned to a booth against the walls. The characters sometimes forgot to go to those tables. We had to direct them there.

Also, we found the Character Breakfast times posted on the Disneyland website were incorrect when we called to make our dining reservations. They may have fixed this by now, but it affected our trip planning.

Have a magical time!!