Best Character Breakfast?

[SLK1]

We purchased the dining plan for our upcoming July trip. We get one character breakfast. What's the best one? Thanks!

 

[Sherry E]

We purchased the dining plan for our upcoming July trip. We get one character breakfast. What's the best one? Thanks!

For me, hands down, Goofy's Kitchen. I am a 17-year devotee. They have the widest buffet options of all the character meals and there are just enough characters to make it fun, but not so overwhelming that I can't eat my food.

Check out this character meal photo thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2170088


Here are some Goofy's breakfast buffet pictures from Mareeld86:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32671739&postcount=1658
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32671747&postcount=1659


More Goofy's from J.C.andAli’sMom (scroll down the page to see all her threads):

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1253888&page=82


And some Lilo and Stitch Aloha breakfast buffet photos from got2travel:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=18126978&postcount=200

 

[LuLusApple]

I am partial to Minnie and Friends at the Plaza LOL
Love the variety of characters love the buffet. I enjoy the décor inside or you can eat outside. Free balloons for the kids. I don't like most of the other ones cause you have to leave the parks go thru security check again and on and on LOL I just want to be at DL

 

[amyamya]

I've only done Goofy's and Storyteller's and between the two, Goofy's --hands down. I LOVE the theme of Storyteller's but thought the food was so expensive and the music was SO LOUD, and the characters were just OK.

 

[teacups]

We;ve done Goofys, Stoytellers a nd Lilo and Stitch. Lilo and Stitch was by far our fave! Really though it depends on what you want out of it. How old are your kids (if you have them) and what characters do they like best?

 

[want2bsnowwhite]

We have done Goofys Kitchen for the last few years, Sorry to say we were a little disappointed with our last trip there. We only had 2 characters come to the table. My children were a little upset, even my preteen DS felt jipped.


My husband really enjoys the Character meals if Jasmine shows up.

 

[silence]

Our favorite is Minnie's. We LOVE being in the park and the character interaction is the best.

We did Goofy's yesterday. I swore I would never go back after our dinner fiasco a few years ago, but since we were staying at DLH and our passes were blocked out, we gave it another try.

The food was good. At our table, we only saw Goofy (twice), Balou and Cinderella. When we walked in, Belle was leaving and took my DD by the hand and led her to the table. We missed Chip and Dale, they got called to do one of their dances before they reached our table and never returned to our room. We did not see any other characters roaming around. Our PS was at 9:20 AM on a Saturday. I guess I just expected a whole lot more.

Now, I do have to tell you, we saw a family next to us with 3 children. The youngest, perhaps 3-4 y/o, had an obvious disability and hearing implants. We watched Cinderella bypass our table and seek out this child specifically. She got down on the ground and talked to him and it was just totally heartwarming. She spent extra time and care with him, totally loved it, brought tears to my eyes. She then circled back around to us. Anyways, it was really nice to see.

However, I was not overly impressed with Goofy's once again this trip. If we had to choose between the two, it would be Minnie's hands down.

We have done Lilo's, Ariels, Minnie's and Goofy's.

I rank them as follows based on our experiences:

1) Minnie's (best overall, awesome food, the best interaction with characters)
2) Ariel's (My 6 y/o asks for this every trip and we have had great character interaction here)
3) Lilo and Stitch (the quietest place of them all, Lilo colored with DD. We did not personally care for the food much)
4) Goofy's (good food, still not impressed with character interaction. We have been 5 times here, one HORRIBLE dinner experience with only 1 character in 2 hours coming to our table of 14, and only 1 more once we asked for a manager)

 

[want2bsnowwhite]

Our favorite is Minnie's. We LOVE being in the park and the character interaction is the best.

We did Goofy's yesterday. I swore I would never go back after our dinner fiasco a few years ago, but since we were staying at DLH and our passes were blocked out, we gave it another try.

The food was good. At our table, we only saw Goofy (twice), Balou and Cinderella. When we walked in, Belle was leaving and took my DD by the hand and led her to the table. We missed Chip and Dale, they got called to do one of their dances before they reached our table and never returned to our room. We did not see any other characters roaming around. Our PS was at 9:20 AM on a Saturday. I guess I just expected a whole lot more.

Now, I do have to tell you, we saw a family next to us with 3 children. The youngest, perhaps 3-4 y/o, had an obvious disability and hearing implants. We watched Cinderella bypass our table and seek out this child specifically. She got down on the ground and talked to him and it was just totally heartwarming. She spent extra time and care with him, totally loved it, brought tears to my eyes. She then circled back around to us. Anyways, it was really nice to see.

However, I was not overly impressed with Goofy's once again this trip. If we had to choose between the two, it would be Minnie's hands down.

We have done Lilo's, Ariels, Minnie's and Goofy's.

I rank them as follows based on our experiences:

1) Minnie's (best overall, awesome food, the best interaction with characters)
2) Ariel's (My 6 y/o asks for this every trip and we have had great character interaction here)
3) Lilo and Stitch (the quietest place of them all, Lilo colored with DD. We did not personally care for the food much)
4) Goofy's (good food, still not impressed with character interaction. We have been 5 times here, one HORRIBLE dinner experience with only 1 character in 2 hours coming to our table of 14, and only 1 more once we asked for a manager)

We too love Ariels , My DD asks every year to go.( Have some great pictures that I am having a hard time downloading .)

Trying Minnies for the first time this year for my birthday. Glad to hear your good reviews.

When you make your reservations you hope everything go's like you invision it.

 

[shyboy72]

We have done Goofy's Kitchen, Story Tellers, and Minnie and Friends. By Far we love Minnie and Friends. Inside the park and more character interaction.

 

[want2bsnowwhite]

Glad too hear so many good reviews of Minnie and friends. We will be eating there on the 24th of July

 

[Sherry E]

I don't think Minnie & Friends ever got lots of bad reviews, did it? It has always pulled in pretty good reviews.

Now to be fair (just because I don't want to highlight what is wrong with Goofy's and not what's wrong about any other place, when the original question was simply, 'Which character breakfast is the best?'), the same complaints I have heard about Goofy's have also been stated in the past about Minnie & Friends. I have also heard that Minnie's food is lukewarm much of the time and that characters skip the tables of some follks. In fact, I have also heard the tables are a bit grungy and icky at Minnie & Friends. Whether or not that is actually the case all the time or was just a random occurrence is anyone's guess. There will be good days and bad days at Minnie & Friends, and also good days and bad days at Goofy's Kitchen and all the other ones too.

But what I think it is that people like what they like and they don't like what they don't like, and that's it. It boils down to personal preferences. People who want tons of characters may want Minnie & Friends. I tend to want some characters but I don't want so many coming by that I cannot eat my food (which used to happen at Goofy's). If I am paying the money I am paying to eat at Goofy's, I want to EAT my food. I am paying to eat specifically the stuff that I like and also meet some characters. Other folks are mostly paying for characters and not so much the variety of food. I like a wide mix of lots of food options and a handful of recognizable characters. Actually, lately, Goofy's seems to have added some characters, based on reports. I would be annoyed if so many of them were coming by that I couldn't eat. But that's just me. I personally didn't care for Storytellers as a character meal because the menu items are too expensive for the portion size, the buffet is not that vast and the characters are not that interesting to me, but I gave it two tries and that was enough. I don't need to go back. I am not going to keep paying that kind of money to go back to a place that doesn't really please me. (Ahem....Silence.....5 times at Goofy's? Hmmmm....I think you may be a secret fan!) However, other people love Storytellers the best! It's all subjective.

If there is any question about the fun that can be had at Goofy's, look at the photos in the character meal photo thread (I posted the link for it above). And for all of the Minnie & Friends fans, and the Lilo and Stitch fans, and the Ariel's fans, and the Storytellers fans - I WISH you guys would post your photos of your great character meals on the character meal photo thread - which I keep bumping and/or promoting! That thread is for ALL character meals, so if you want to show your love for Minnie & Friends or any of the other character meals and represent them in the right way, please post on the character meal photo thread!!! - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2170088

Meanwhile, I would like to try Minnie & Friends at some point, in addition to the tried and true - but I am going to stick with what has worked for me for 17 years, and that is Goofy's Kitchen, and eat there on my birthday. If it ain't broke and all that... This will only be a very short, possibly 7 or 8 hour trip to DLR, and I am still working in a trip to Goofy's! I wouldn't have it any other way! Best buffet, best buffet choices, good characters (my character interaction has always been great) and I would not be eating somewhere for 17 years that was bad!

Oh, also, OP - check out these trip reports - DizNee Luver has photos from all the character meals except for Storytellers, and WazowskiLOVER has some excellent Minnie & Friends character photos from several visits there, one being just in the last week:

DizNee Luver: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2088835

WazowskiLOVER: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1986026

Prettyprincessbelle: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1998221

Belle Ella: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2103191

 

[Belle Ella]

Sherry just got a link up to my TR (which is also in my siggy) but I have only +++++++'s to say about Minnie & Friend's. It's the only one that I've done so far though so I have nothing to compare it to, although I'll be giving Goofy's Kitchen and Ariel's Grotto a try in September, both for breakfast.

 

[pixiewings71]

I agree 100000000000000% with Silence, we had about the same number of characters visit us and the food was good but nothing spectacular. We would much rather do Minnie & Friends or Ariel's Grotto. Of course if we were staying at the GCH or PPH we'd do Lilo & Stitch again, and we have yet to do Storytellers......

 

[disneyfan4ever54]

We've done Goofy's several times and Storyteller's once. We are planning on doing Minnie's on our next trip in October to possibly see more of the characters that we haven't seen yet. We would like to eat outside and I was wondering if the character interaction is just as good. Do they all visit outside as well?

 

[want2bsnowwhite]

I don't think Minnie & Friends ever got lots of bad reviews, did it? It has always pulled in pretty good reviews.

I have not heard much about Minnies till this thread. My only Character experience is with Goofys, and Ariels. (We thought about doing The new Celebration Roundup, maybe next year.) I was able to choose the character meal this year. I am looking forward to it.

Since we are ending this D trip with a cruise to Mexico this D trip wont be so centered on food.

 

[pixiewings71]

We've done Goofy's several times and Storyteller's once. We are planning on doing Minnie's on our next trip in October to possibly see more of the characters that we haven't seen yet. We would like to eat outside and I was wondering if the character interaction is just as good. Do they all visit outside as well?

Yes, the characters go outside as well.

 

[Sherry E]

I don't think Minnie & Friends ever got lots of bad reviews, did it? It has always pulled in pretty good reviews.

I have not heard much about Minnies till this thread. My only Character experience is with Goofys, and Ariels. (We thought about doing The new Celebration Roundup, maybe next year.) I was able to choose the character meal this year. I am looking forward to it.

Since we are ending this D trip with a cruise to Mexico this D trip wont be so centered on food.

This is the trip you guys are taking next week when I am there too, right? Darn! I wish I were going to be there longer - I would definitely try to catch up with you to say hi, but I think my trip is going to be lightning fast, sadly. In fact, I haven't even made my PS for Goofy's yet because am not sure when we will get there. We have not done a walk-up at Goofy's in ages, so I wonder what the seating will be like for us if we do that. Either way, I am high-tailing it over to the bacon, the fruit and the cupcakes (because it will be my birthday, of course!).

And even though we will probably miss each other, keep an eye out for me anyway. You never know when we may end up in a line together somewhere!

Have a great time at Minnie & Friends - and make sure to post some photos on the character meal photo thread!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I've only done two character meals at the DLR, one breakfast at Minnie's and a lunch at Ariel's so I can't comment on the best breakfast. However, I would encourage you to choose the breakfast based on the characters. Character meals are expensive(I paid more for lunch at Ariel's than dinner at Blue Bayou), so you have to decide if the characters at the meal you choose are worth it to you knowing that only the host character is guaranteed.

In other words, if seeing a non-host character will make or break the meal for you, I'd almost have to say that you should probably rethink your plans for a character meal. If you just want to see characters, and don't care a whole lot about who you do see (perhaps hoping that your favorite will be there because they sometimes or usually are), then go with what sounds the most fun to you and which menu appeals to you the most.

 

[want2bsnowwhite]

This is the trip you guys are taking next week when I am there too, right? Darn! I wish I were going to be there longer - I would definitely try to catch up with you to say hi, but I think my trip is going to be lighning fast, sadly. In fact, I haven't even made my PS for Goofy's yet because am not sure when we will get there. We have not done a walk-up at Goofy's in ages, so I wonder what the seating will be like for us if we do that. Either way, I am high-tailing it over to the bacon, the fruit and the cupcakes (because it will be my birthday, of course!).

And even though we will probably miss each other, keep an eye out for me anyway. You never know when we may end up in a line together somewhere!

Have a great time at Minnie & Friends - and make sure to post some photos on the character meal photo thread!

We will definitely look for you . If I dont get a chance, I hope you have a magical Birthday loaded with lots of Pixie dust.

Caroline

 

[Sherry E]

We will definitely look for you . If I dont get a chance, I hope you have a magical Birthday loaded with lots of Pixie dust.

Caroline

Thank you, Caroline! I hope I do too. The Fun Card will definitely help in that endeavor!

You have a great time on your (entire) trip as well and make sure to come back to my TR sometime after you get back for the DLR rundown....and hopefully you can do a TR for us too with pictures!