*BEST* character meal

[traci]

We are planning our first trip to Disney World in years and this will be our first trip there with our children. The baby will only be 9 months old and our son will be two. He just loves characters! We are staying at GF and was wondering what the best character dining experience would be. I would love your opinions! Thanks a million

 

[2buzzboys]

I have a 3 yr old boy and he loves Chef Mickeys. I think you would probably see the most characters there. They also do a song about every 1/2 hr where the kids can spin their napkins in the air and sing and dance along. Also the kids love the dessert bar.It is filled with everything.

 

[jl3614]

I would say if DS likes Pooh characters do Crystal Palace, otherwise try Chef Mickeys.

 

[traci]

Are Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace at MK? I have so much to learn.....

 

[HaleyB]

We did Crystal Palace when my son was 15 months and it was perfect. Not too wild and loud, but fun with good photo ops. Chef Mickeys was fun, but really not my favorite.

 

[brooke1]

Crystal Palace is at Mk and Chef Mickeys is at Contempory resort.

 

[MinnieM21]

The breakfast at the Crystal Palace (which is in the MK) is the best character meal. The characters include: Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore. Even Pooh starts a parade around the restaurant and the little kids follow him. It is SO cute.
If you get an early reservation at 8:05am, you'll be able to enter the park before it's open to the public, which makes for great photo opportunites.


I swear I have a photographic memory of the buffet at the Crystal Palace. The food includes: Pooh and Piglet waffles, pancakes, cheese pizza, croissants, bagels and cream cheese, an assortment of jams, hard boiled eggs, fruit, scrambled eggs, cheesy hash browns, potatoes, biscuits and gravy, sausage, bacon, frittata, made to order omelets and pancakes, walnut crumb cake, raspberry crumb cake, chocolate muffins, blueberry muffins, and various cereals. Everything is delicious and the service is fantastic!

Yep, the memory is still working great.

 

[disneydreamer98]

With kids that young I would definitely recommend Crystal Palace! The Pooh character's are wonderful with the really young ones and I have the best character photo's from there when my oldest DS was two. Plus, it is right inside of MK and a nice midday break! The restaurant itself is beautiful and with all the openess and glass the lighting for photos is magnificent! Crystal Palace is ALWAYS our first meal at WDW!!!!

 

[BunnieGene]

Oooh, I agree, Crystal Palace is the best! We try to go there even when the kids aren't with us

 

[3lilprincesses]

i also agree that crystal palace would be an excellent choice. i think chef mickey is great, but for children your age, i think crystal palace is a must do. it is beautiful, and the characters are so adorable! you might even want to consider lunch. it's a good time to get out of the sun, relax, and have a good lunch.

just wanted to also mention that right at GF, 1900 Park Fare has 2 great character meals also. we especially enjoyed the breakfast. the food was GREAT and it wasn't too crowded. when we were there the characters were mary poppins, alice in wonderland, the mad hatter -- so funny!, pooh, and tigger. we were so full from breakfast, none of us could eat until dinner.

have a great trip!!

 

[Christine]

I have been to just about every character breakfast there is and, to tell you the truth, they are all pretty good. To and 2 year old and a 9 month old (who aren't very discriminating ), I think it won't matter. They will love every minute of whichever one you go to.

As the parents, I would look at which breakfast fits into your schedule the best. The character breakfast (and food) is very good and the Grand Floridian. It is a very big restaurant and, to me, one one of the noisiest we were at! I thought the food was great and that was important to me.

At Chef Mickey's they do a little "napkin twirling" thing every once in awhile and the kids liked that.

My kids also always loved the breakfast buffet at the Cape May (over at the Beach Club). They don't do anything fantastic there but it is smaller and quieter (less busy) and we have consistently gotten the best character interaction there.

The princess breakfast at the castle is also wonderful but your kids may be a little bit too young for that one.

So, my vote is that since you are with little ones, ease and comfort would be mine main concerns. If it is easy just to get up and walk down stairs to the breakfast at the GF, do that one. They are all quite wonderful.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

We love going to breakfast at Crystal Palace-what a great place!

 

[SpoonfulofSugar]

Crystal Palace is nice, but you don't get to see Mickey !!!!!! But if your kids like Pooh and the Gang, then it's perfect. If you want to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Chip and Dale, Chef Mickey's is the place to go. The character meal at the GF has Mary Poppins, Cinderella, and Alice in Wonderland. It all depends on which characters you think the kids would like the most, because the food is pretty good at all of them .

 

[mommykds]

It's between Chef Mickey's & Crystal Palace..I have done both when my guys were infants with success. I love both.

If you have only one to do I would suggest CP because it is quieter than CM. The food is great at both buffets but CP is less "in your face" than CM which works well for little ones..especially if this is one of their first character experiences.

 

[SteinsLaFemme]

Be prepared. When my daughter was 2, she loved, loved, loved Winnie-the-Pooh. We were so excited to go to Pooh's character breakfast. When Pooh came near her she screamed louder than I thought was physically possible. After that throughout the trip she went berzerk whenever a character came near her.

She wasn't permently scarred however. She likes characters now.

 

[traci]

Thank you ladies so much!

If we do the CP than which meal should we choose. The 8:15am may be a bit early for us to be there on time. Although I would love to do it then. Do they do lunch also?

Do I reserve seats before our trip? Is this one of the things the travel planner meant for me to book 90 days out??

 

[mommykds]

Thank you ladies so much!

If we do the CP than which meal should we choose. The 8:15am may be a bit early for us to be there on time. Although I would love to do it then. Do they do lunch also?

Do I reserve seats before our trip? Is this one of the things the travel planner meant for me to book 90 days out??

yes call on the 90 day out. I like breakfast there better than any other meal but they do offer characters at all meals.

Here is the breakfast menu.
http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menu_cpb.htm

Breakfast runs until 10:30 am

 

[Christine]

Thank you ladies so much!

If we do the CP than which meal should we choose. The 8:15am may be a bit early for us to be there on time. Although I would love to do it then. Do they do lunch also?

Do I reserve seats before our trip? Is this one of the things the travel planner meant for me to book 90 days out??

In my opinion, the earlier you go, the better. By the time you finish up at CP you will be inside the park and you can hit some rides. When you eat later, it gets way more crowded (no one else can get up either!) and you get less interaction.

I call last week for a Cape May PS and all I could get was 7:30 and 9:40. I figured we'll do the 7:30 a.m. one because we will probably get the best service and it will get us to the park early. But it will be tough...

 

[Jackie H.]

I agree with the poster about young kids being afraid of the characters. They are so large in comparison to a little kid!

I would like to offer this unsolicited advice: save the character meal for later in the trip. This way the kids have seen the characters in the parks. You can judge how willing they are to get close to them. In fact, they will have the all those days to "warm up" to them. In the parks, you can stand back and look at them as long as the kids want. They can watch them interact with other children and see that nothing "sneaky" is happening In the restuarant, the kids are seated and next thing they know this giant pooh is standing next to them! It can really frightened them.

On our kids first trip they were 4 & 18 months and I got this advice on these boards. It worked great for us. By the last day of our trip, the kids were ready to hug and talk with Pooh & friends!

I also suggest you go over to the Dis Family Board (link at the bottom of this page) to find out more secrets of touring WDW with young ones! It is fun and can be done wonderfully (no matter what non-WDW people try to tell you!), but there are some tips that will make it much better!

Have fun! I envy you! I wish we were back taking our first trip with our little ones! Well! I'll just take my grandchildren one day! (Still got a long way until that!)

Edited to add: Another advantage in waiting - the kids will likely be tired toward the end of the trip and you can get a late PS time and have a more relaxing morning. You can ride the monorail from GF to MK (for Crystal Palace) or to Contemporary Resort (for Chef Mickey's) and not feel like you have to rush to go to some attraction!

 

[hannah03]

Be prepared. When my daughter was 2, she loved, loved, loved Winnie-the-Pooh. We were so excited to go to Pooh's character breakfast. When Pooh came near her she screamed louder than I thought was physically possible. After that throughout the trip she went berzerk whenever a character came near her.

She wasn't permently scarred however. She likes characters now.

This is EXACTLY why we are NOT doing any of these. My DD(2) is terrified of most "animated/talking" animal toys. Like the "Touch My Toes Pooh", she would scream and run away from it everytime.
I ended up selling it b/c my DS(11) would tease her with it.
We'll see, but I'm still in the air about the CHARACTERS, but DH wants to do one meal.