Best character breakfast for a 19 month old?

[jess98ac]

We're taking DD to the World in December, she'll be 19 mos at the time. Do you rec Chef Mickey's for the "classic" characters? Or Crystal Palace for the MK atmosphere? The party will consist of me, DH, DD, and my parents and sister.

Thanks!

 

[HGD24]

I would recommend taking your DD to a local amusement park or someplace that has characters in costume before planning a character meal. Our DD recently turned 1 and is suddenly terrified of characters in costume. When she was at WDW at 8 months old, she wasn't sure of them, but she wasn't terrified. We've have friends who took their 16 month old son to WDW and he was terrified of the characters too. I know all kids are different and your DD may be fine with the characters, but I'd rather know for sure that my DD will enjoy it before I spend big $$ on a character meal.

 

[goldenears]

We have 2 DDs and we took both of them to WDW when they were 12 months old and they have also both been since then. I have done CMs for dinner and we always do CP for breakfast. I would do CP for your DD. I think the MK atmosphere is unbeatable and the breakfast is really good. Have fun!

 

[brymolmom]

Play & Dine in Hollywood & Vine. It has Little Einsteins and Jojo and Goliath. If your child knows these characters and watches playhouse disney - then this is a great one for young kids.

Chef Mickey is great too OR Crystal Palace with Pooh Characters.

I agree with not expecting too much from character meals at a young age - my dd used to hate them when she was little. She would scream at the characters when they came near her.

 

[HGD24]

I hope no one took any offense to my post. As I said, all kids are different. What made me think of it was that we were at a local restaurant recently and they had a character in costume walking around the waiting area - DD was terrified - shaking & crying. She spent the entire wait and meal looking for the character with this scared look on her face and we spent the time looking out for the character - it wasn't exactly a relaxing meal for any of us. I wouldn't want to spend $$ on a character meal that wasn't enjoyed by DD or us and I would hate for any other parent to do that either.

 

[Mommy2Abby]

I second the vote to check your DD's reaction to the characters before you go to a character meal. We took our DD at 8 months old and she was just "ok" with the characters. She was afraid at first, but warmed up to them after a while. We took her back at 18 months old and she was terrified! She didn't want them anywhere near her and burst into tears whenever they got too close. We were there for a whole week and I kept hoping she would warm up, but she never did.

Luckily we discovered this before our ADR at Chef Mickey's so I was able to call and cancel. There's just not much point in spending an entire meal with a traumatized child. Plus...there were lots of places that DH and I wanted to eat that didn't involve characters.

If your DD is ok with the characters, I would recommend Crystal Palace at the MK with Pooh and Friends. The characters are really good with the smaller kids and it's not quite as noisy and chaotic as Chef Mickey's can be.

HTH.

Mommy2Abby

 

[barnaby1]

This is another vote for making sure she is OK with characters first. My dd3 has only just become OK with the characters on our last trip (2 months before turning 3) to the point where I would consider taking her to a character meal. My dd is in many other ways fearless (the faster the rollercoaster the better) but characters freaked her out big time.

 

[wtudor3201]

Our 15 month old loved all our our character dining. We did AK for breakfast and it was great. Classic characters and in a park, so great combo traveling with a toddler.

 

[mrsannb]

I'd say crystal palace. The characters are nice and it's relatively quiet. Hollywood and Vine was really loud & the characters heads are HUGE (scary). I haven't done Chef Mickey's.
Or you might do the princess breakfast, as they are all face-characters--no big scary costumes-- if you're not sure about that.