Best character dining??

[Lisa808]

My son is 2.5 and we will be visiting in sept... what are the best character dining places? and do they only do breakfast? We are staying at the grand californian THANKS!

 

[MissMichigan]

Minnie's was my favorite.

Minnie's, Mickey's, and Storyteller's only do breakfast. Goofy's and Ariels are all day.

 

[Stitch35]

Minnie and friends is fantastic for character interaction and the quantity of characters. Their food is good, but not as much variety as Goofy's. The food is better at Goofy's but the character interaction seems rushed at best in our experience. I haven't tried the others, but they all seem to be fun!

 

[belle'ssister]

We took our grandson to Goofy's when he was 2 1/2 and he enjoyed it. The characters we saw were Goofy (his favorite), Max, Pluto, Aladin and Jasmine, Alice (didn't like her at all, who knows), Chip and Dale Mad Hatter and I can't remember who else.

He liked when they did the Macarena and tried to dance with them. He liked the characters so much that he followed go of them into their break room. Mom had to run in after him.

Food was good. Doing Ariel this time with the granddaughter.

 

[Lisa808]

Thanks guys! I think we will do dinner at Goofy's the first night since we are planing on doing a pool day at the hotel the first day then Minnie's for breakfast our last day! yay!

 

[d1sneymom]

Minnie and friends is fantastic for character interaction and the quantity of characters. Their food is good, but not as much variety as Goofy's. The food is better at Goofy's but the character interaction seems rushed at best in our experience. I haven't tried the others, but they all seem to be fun!

This exactly. I love Goofy's breakfast (PB&J pizza - I <3 U) but their characters are lacking and don't interact as well as Minnie's. But Minnie's breakfast is not that great.

 

[ballarinamom]

We always come in the day before we plan to hit the parks to get settled in and a little rest before the madness starts. Dinner at Goofy's is a tradition we never forget! Good plan!

 

[Lisa808]

We always come in the day before we plan to hit the parks to get settled in and a little rest before the madness starts. Dinner at Goofy's is a tradition we never forget! Good plan!

YAY! I am so excited!

 

[IBLarsen]

It has become our family tradition to do Goofy's Kitchen for dinner on our arrival day. Generally we aren't in the parks that day, and have just a few evening hours, so it's a great way to start the trip. We often will do Minnie's Breakfast one morning later in the trip, more like a brunch.

We have two kids, DD and DS, now ages 7 and 9, but have been going every year since 3 and 5, and Goofy's is the place they always ask for, if that helps

On a side note, our first visit to Minnies Breakfast, we had SO much character interaction it was near impossible to actually eat! Not a bad complaint, don't get me wrong, so depending on how busy they are, you really can get some good quality time in here, whereas Goofy's does seemed more rushed as previously pointed out.

 

[Mousequake]

It has become our family tradition to do Goofy's Kitchen for dinner on our arrival day. Generally we aren't in the parks that day, and have just a few evening hours, so it's a great way to start the trip. We often will do Minnie's Breakfast one morning later in the trip, more like a brunch.

That's become our tradition too. We generally don't arrive until mid-afternoon and DD4 still has a relatively early bedtime, so an early dinner reservation at GK is a great way to start our Disney experience without burning off a day on our Parkhoppers. Our first morning in the parks we generally do TTMM, then head over to the Plaza Inn for brunch as the crowds start piling in to the park.

 

[pixiewings71]

Minnie and friends is fantastic for character interaction and the quantity of characters. Their food is good, but not as much variety as Goofy's. The food is better at Goofy's but the character interaction seems rushed at best in our experience. I haven't tried the others, but they all seem to be fun!

This exactly. I love Goofy's breakfast (PB&J pizza - I <3 U) but their characters are lacking and don't interact as well as Minnie's. But Minnie's breakfast is not that great.

Just a warning that our family does not agree with this at all. We did not like the food at GK nearly as much as we do at M&F's. And we found the character interaction at M&F's to be unmatched, at GK we had 3 characters come to our table, we saw many more but they were always on their way out to take a break. YMMV but that's been our feeling.

 

[cgh]

Our favorite last year was Surf's Up-great interaction and good food. We did Goofy's kitchen on arrival night and Surf's Up the day we left. (7 am reservation for an 11 am SNA reservation) It was wonderful! Kind of like a welcome and a goodbye to the park.

We really would like to try minnie's but I don't know about 3 character meals.

 

[Sherry E]

There's a new Character Meal Super Thread in town, courtesy of Laurie/DizNee Luver!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=45514859#post45514859

She has experience with all 5 of the character meals (and has done both breakfast and dinner at Goofy's). She usually takes extensive photos of the food at each meal, too.

Everyone is welcome to share their own experiences/reviews/opinions/photos in the Super Thread.