Best Character Breakfast

[feline figaro]

If you had to pick only 1 character breakfast to go to, which 1 would it be??

This will be our 1st trip to DL so really need some good advice, we re WDW vets but unfortunately are nt very clued up on the Land

Think I saw some1s photos of 1 of the breakfasts showing Honest John who I ve never seen before. Is he a character that shows up at a specific breakfast?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Sherry E]

If you had to pick only 1 character breakfast to go to, which 1 would it be??

This will be our 1st trip to DL so really need some good advice, we re WDW vets but unfortunately are nt very clued up on the Land

Think I saw some1s photos of 1 of the breakfasts showing Honest John who I ve never seen before. Is he a character that shows up at a specific breakfast?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Honest John was seen at Goofy's Kitchen recently. I have never seen him at Goofy's but all of a sudden he was there (along with Gideon and Wendy, who are also rare at Goofy's). There's no telling if he will be a semi-regular at Goofy's or not, I suppose.

Minnie & Friends has the most characters out of all the character meals. Also, it's a few bucks cheaper than the other meals.

Storytellers Critter Breakfast has the menu or buffet options, but usually just a few characters (4 - 6).

Goofy's Kitchen (my personal favorite and the one I would choose if I had to choose one) has a huge buffet and anywhere from 5 - 8 characters onsite at any given time. But it's also very expensive.

Surf's Up with Mickey has a small buffet and is the only meal where you can find Mickey.

 

[lwilkison]

What about Ariel's breakfast? I was told you get around 5 princesses and breakfast.

Any word on how that is?

 

[Sherry E]

What about Ariel's breakfast? I was told you get around 5 princesses and breakfast.

Any word on how that is?

From the photos I've seen of Ariel's, it appears that they always have 4 - 5 Princesses onsite. It seems like the majority of people who go there like it. Like Goofy's, Ariel's is considered "premium dining" so the price is higher.

For some reason, Minnie & Friends has a whole bunch of characters and is a few bucks cheaper, but the other meals all seem to have an average of 5 characters onsite (give or take). Goofy's is the only other one that may have 7 or 8 characters onsite, but that's not even a guarantee. Sometimes there may only be 5. Places like Goofy's and Ariel's are so expensive - you would think that there should be more than 5 characters there all the time!!

 

[pigby]

Well the one one we've been to was Goofy's Kitchen - we did make a ps but there was no need as it was quiet - really enjoyed it. We saw (I needed to check my photos for this) Baloo, Goofy, Chip, Dale, Mulan and Snow White - this was in July.

Planning to try Storytellers this coming April.

 

[feline figaro]

Is there much difference in the food served at each breakfast??
Are they all buffet style??

 

[Vala]

We saw Honest John at Minnie's last fall.
I almost fell off my chair. LOL

Is there much difference in the food served at each breakfast??
Are they all buffet style??

At Ariel's I think they bring a selection of items to your table. The others are buffet style.
At Storytellers you can either order off the menu or get the buffet.

Minnie's is cafeteria food and besides the made to order omelet no one cared about the food.
I've not been to Ariel's, so I can't comment. Also haven't been to PCH Grill breakfast since Mickey took over there.

You have the basic items everywhere but yeah, there is a difference. Goofy's for example has a brunch menu, even at 7 AM.

 

[gaucho2000]

We have done Minnie's, Ariel's, and Goofy's. I asked my five year old which one she wanted to do this November and she chose Goofy's. I thought for sure she would want to dine with the princesses again but she love the little dances and interactions they did at Goofy's.

 

[spacemermaid]

Personal favorite? Goofy's Kitchen, all the way...it's the original character meal (I've been going there since the beginning in the late 80s ) with the biggest selection of food & a good variety of characters. It's more expensive than the other character meals, but soooo worth it, IMO.

 

[greens_in_WA]

We have done Minnie and Friends a number of time. We like to get the last breakfast seating and make a brunch of it.

We have had great interactions with the characters at this time because it was fairly quiet.
- Capt. Hook sat down and fed DS (16mos at the time) grapes.
- Minnie "stole" DS's pirate hook and pretended to "gut" Chip & Dale. I had to playfully admonish her "It's not ice to gut your friends". Minnie doubled over in slient laughter.
- Tigger trying to get Capt. Hook to bounce with him and Hook giving him the "I don't think so" look

At Ariel's Grotto, we felt that the interactions were rushed and they only came around once during the time that we were there.

 

[Caramel]

We just returned from our first trip to Disneyland with our 6 year old twins and haven't done a character breakfast before. We were staying at Paradise Pier and decided last minute to do the character breakfast there before heading to the airport because we had heard it's the only breakfast with Mickey and our girls are head over heels in love with him now having met him many times on our trip.

I have nothing to compare with, but I thought the breakfast was outstanding. We arrived at 7:40am on Saturday and left about 9am. Crowds were low and totally manageable the entire time. You greet Mickey/do pictures with him right as you walk in and he stays in one spot within the restaurant the entire time. As long as there's no line to meet him, the kids can keep going up to him as much as they want. Our girls visited him at least a half dozen times.

Then, the following characters came out at various points during our breakfast and spent lots of time at our table: Minnie, Daisy, Pluto, Stitch.

The kids also got to come up with Mickey and some of the other characters periodically and dance, practice with hula hoops, practice surfing. The restaurant is a beach theme.

The food was excellent in my opinion. At least two dozen options. Yummy breakfast potatoes with carmelized onions, pastries, smoothies, scrambled eggs that were to die for, Mickey shaped pancakes and waffles. Really, anything you could want; even pizza!

The meal was relaxing, uncrowded, tons of time with the characters, the kids free to roam and have fun. Just a truly pleasant experience. Breakfast is 7am - 12pm and the characters are all their (in rapid rotation) the entire time.

And here's the best part. As we were leaving, we told the kids they could say goodbye to Mickey one last time. As the girls were hugging him, I told Mickey that we were heading to the airport and this would be the last time on our trip that the girls would see him. Well! He took their hands, escorted them out of the restaurant, gave them both big hugs, and then waved goodbye and wiped "tears" from his eyes as we walked away. I darn near boo-hooed myself right then and there.

It was the perfect closure to a perfect vacation.

 

[OctoberDisney]

Sorry if this has been asked before but...
What are the prices at Goofy's Kitchen? I'm trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to buy vouchers through Ares Travel.
We are 2 adults, 2 kids.

Also, we made our reservations for a Sunday morning at 11:00 am. Anyone know what time they switch from breakfast foods to lunch?
Thanks

 

[Sherry E]

Sorry if this has been asked before but...
What are the prices at Goofy's Kitchen? I'm trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to buy vouchers through Ares Travel.
We are 2 adults, 2 kids.

Also, we made our reservations for a Sunday morning at 11:00 am. Anyone know what time they switch from breakfast foods to lunch?
Thanks

They don't switch foods. Basically, there is breakfast (which has some brunch-type options in the enormous buffet, such as cold cuts, chicken, pizza, hot dogs, etc.) and there is dinner. But there is no separate lunch meal - if they started rolling out a separate set of food items for lunch, then they would charge differently.

I even checked with a CM in Disneyland Dining about this very topic earlier this year - I asked him specifically if there was any different food put out for brunch/lunch and he said no. Now depending on the season, they may have different items in the buffet - there could be slightly different things during Summer than what's there during Fall or Winter. Also, there might be a couple of different buffet items on weekends that are not there on weekdays, but, essentially, what you see at 7:00 a.m. is pretty much what will be there at 11:00 a.m. or noon (except they will put out fresh batches of it, of course!!).

So right now, the "breakfast" extends from 7 a.m. to noon on some days, until 1 p.m. on other days, and until 2 p.m. on certain other days (like on Saturdays or during holidays). Is your Sunday a day when they serve until noon or later than that? You want to make sure you get enough character time - sometimes the characters will start trickling out of the restaurant a bit before they stop serving.

During off-peak season (which would usually be now), the breakfast/brunch price for adults (including tax and tip) is about $32 and some change . During peak season (like during the holidays), the breakfast/brunch is about $37 and some change for adults (including tax and tip).

In the old, old, old days of Goofy's there actually was a whole separate lunch (spacemermaid probably remembers this). they had a breakfast meal, a lunch meal and a dinner - all for different prices. Of course, back then the breakfast was also only $11.00 so you can tell how long ago that was!!! For some reason or other, when they moved to the different location in the DLH and when DLR began adding in more character meals, they stopped doing the lunch at Goofy's.

 

[daniele_ut]

Sorry if this has been asked before but...
What are the prices at Goofy's Kitchen? I'm trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to buy vouchers through Ares Travel.
We are 2 adults, 2 kids.

Also, we made our reservations for a Sunday morning at 11:00 am. Anyone know what time they switch from breakfast foods to lunch?
Thanks

We were just there this morning for breakfast at 11am. The adult price was $25.99 and the child price was $13.99. Tip is added to the bill automatically, so our bill for 2 adults and 1 child with tax and tip was $82.51

While we were there, the food was brunch. There were hot dogs, pizza and mac n cheese, Mickey waffles and pancakes and a selection of cereals for the kids. There was french toast, hot oatmeal and several types of scrambled eggs, a couple of different kinds of potatoes, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, made to order omelets, and a lunch stir fry entree that I didn't try. There was also a special lunch salad that had a bunch of toppings that looked good. On that same salad bar there was a citrus and jicama salad and a chicken curry salad as well.

On the opposite side was a fruit bar that had several types of melon, whole bananas, nectarines and apples. There was also a huge dessert bar that had warm bread pudding, blueberry peach cobbler, cupcakes, lemon bars, cookies, dirt worm cups, brownies, raspberry danish, and when the cobbler was gone they brought out to-die-for bananas foster crepes. All of the food was really good, though the Mickey waffles I cut up for DS seemed too crispy for my taste.

As for the experience, the kids really enjoyed it. I was disappointed that the character that we got to take pics with at the entrance was Balloo, since my kids don't know who he is and DD was afraid of him. The pic was cute and I'd have spent the $32 if it had been a different character. I don't know if he's always the one they pose with, but I should have asked if we could pose with a different character. The characters that came to our table were Goofy, Pluto, Belle, Mulan, Chip, Balloo, and Snow White. I didn't expect the princesses, and DD was thrilled to see them. Twice during breakfast Goofy came out the middle of the restaurant to interact with all of the kids. The first time it was a dance party and DD loved it. The second time they pretend to bake a cake with the kids and they give out cans that are labeled sugar, flour, etc that are actually filled with rice so the kids can make noise while they are helping. DS had a great time that time. He was apprehensive about the dancing for some reason.

Friday was DS's birthday so I asked them what they do for birthdays when we checked in. They wrote "birthday" on our ticket for the server and at the end of the meal, they brought him a decorated chocolate cupcake and Mulan and the servers sang and Goofy clapped along to the the singing.

For us, it was totally worth it. We are staying at Hojo and drove over, taking a wrong turn and ending up in the line for theme park parking. The cast member in the entrance to the lot was super nice about it and sent us on the way. Since we were late, dh thought we'd just valet and I told him to check the cost. We were really happy to find that valet (usually $17 on top of the hourly charges) was complimentary when you eat at Goofy's Kitchen and included 5 hours of parking. We were 10 minutes late for our reservation, but were seated within 5 minutes. The restaurant was a zoo, honestly, but the service was really good. We would definitely do it again. Our kids are 2.5 and 6, BTW.

 

[OctoberDisney]

Thanks Sherry...you know we picked Goofy's Kitchen because of you!

Our brunch is on Sunday December 12. Hhhmmm, should I change the reservation to 10:30 or maybe we should just head over there early? Either way...it's a surprise for the kiddos, they won't know til we get there!

 

[spacemermaid]

They don't switch foods. Basically, there is breakfast (which has some brunch-type options in the enormous buffet, such as cold cuts, chicken, pizza, hot dogs, etc.) and there is dinner. But there is no separate lunch meal - if they started rolling out a separate set of food items for lunch, then they would charge differently.

I even checked with a CM in Disneyland Dining about this very topic earlier this year - I asked him specifically if there was any different food put out for brunch/lunch and he said no. Now depending on the season, they may have different items in the buffet - there could be slightly different things during Summer than what's there during Fall or Winter. Also, there might be a couple of different buffet items on weekends that are not there on weekdays, but, essentially, what you see at 7:00 a.m. is pretty much what will be there at 11:00 a.m. or noon (except they will put out fresh batches of it, of course!!).



So right now, the "breakfast" extends from 7 a.m. to noon on some days, until 1 p.m. on other days, and until 2 p.m. on certain other days (like on Saturdays or during holidays). Is your Sunday a day when they serve until noon or later than that? You want to make sure you get enough character time - sometimes the characters will start trickling out of the restaurant a bit before they stop serving.

During off-peak season (which would usually be now), the breakfast/brunch price for adults (including tax and tip) is about $32 and some change . During peak season (like during the holidays), the breakfast/brunch is about $37 and some change for adults (including tax and tip).

In the old, old, old days of Goofy's there actually was a whole separate lunch (spacemermaid probably remembers this). they had a breakfast meal, a lunch meal and a dinner - all for different prices. Of course, back then the breakfast was also only $11.00 so you can tell how long ago that was!!! For some reason or other, when they moved to the different location in the DLH and when DLR began adding in more character meals, they stopped doing the lunch at Goofy's.

Yes...I do remember the seperate lunch menu at GK! That was the first time I'd ever had "mini hotdogs". IIRC, they also had a very good baked spaghetti/pasta with marinara dish. Wow...that was so long ago!

To answer the OP's question about price, as of 2 days ago, the adult price for brunch at Goofy's Kitchen was $29.99 (for December 11th, which, as far as I know, isn't considered "high season"). They do also add a 15% tip.

 

[OctoberDisney]

Thanks to you, too Daniele. GREAT information. I know my boys will love it!