Best Character Meals/ times to go

[Photobee]

We went to Disney for the first time with our girls last Feb. We scheduled a Character dinner at 1900 PF for around 6pm. WE took the monorail there...but were rushed for time to get back to see the evening fireworks.

We are thinking that our next trip, we only do either a late breakfast (used as a lunch) or a late lunch (used as a supper). Also, is it better to just stay at one of the parks for the character meals to save time in traveling there....or is there a way to eat a Character meal at one of the resorts but not waste tons of time in the traveling and time spent missing out at the parks?

Any help would be wonderful! I have lots of time to plan ahead for this trip, but we really want to do it up right the next time! There are so many things I would have done differently from the last time. I want to be well educated the next time we go, so we all have a wonderful time! (I hadn't found the DIS boards for our first trip!)

 

[Hootch]

probably get more responses to your question on the dining board. I'll give you my $0.02 and that's about all it's worth.

I think the best time to schedule a resort character meal is either when you are near the resort (e.g. at the MK and dining at Chef Mickey's or Ohana) or on an off day. Our family departure day tradition is to do CM and Downtown Disney before we head out.

Some people are concerned about quality of food and/or character interaction with an ADR late in the meal cycle. Our CM ADR time was 11:25 AM this past June - about as late as you can get. Essentially all of the late diners were grouped together in one section of the restaurant. I went to the buffet a couple of times and noted that dishes had been replaced each time. The characters were still lively and attentive. Donald and Goofy had already been through the area once and came back again I presume to ensure they didn't miss anyone. At one point we had either four or five characters in that one section.

A couple of in park meals that I think are worth considering if you are going to these parks are Crystal Palace and Cinderella's Royal Table in the Magic Kingdom and Donalds breakfast in Disney's Animal Kingdom. CRT doesn't work for some but we have done the lunch the last three visits. CP is probably my personal favorite but we usually go for dinner. Many of the character meals don't serve lunch "Ohana, CM, Donald's, Cape May, etc. CP, CRT and Askerhus all do. I'm sure I'm missing some on both lists.

Transportation, as you noted, can eat into your touring times. Link your park touring plans with your restaurant plans to minimize it as much as possible.

 

[nicki.momof3]

We always schedule our meals at dinner time in the parks we are going to be in.

Some of our favorites -

Lunch at the castle is YUMMY and all the princesses are there. We always do the BBB for a cute hair/ nails/ makeup in the AM and lunch - FUN!

Crystal palace is very good - 4 characters - pretty setting - good variety of food

Norway (epcot) dinner is very YUMMY - again great princess interaction and cheaper than the castle.

We have done the breakfasts and in our opinion they are not worth it. We did donalds breakfast safari at 10:25am and the food was good but we had hoped it would serve as a Lunchish type of meal and it didn't. We had to feed the kids breakfast before we went (little ones can not wait until 10:25 to eat) and they still wanted a afternoon meal - they saw the late breakfast as more a snack time.

Hated garden grill - food was not so good and no room to move around.

Chef Mickeys is OK - overrated in my opinion.

Have a great time.

 

[Ninnygunk]

Perhaps you might hit the Polynesian for Lilo & Stitch's breakfast (Mickey and Pluto too!) before heading in to the Magic Kingdom. It's served family style and the atmosphere is fantastic! Although doing breakfast/dinner at CM's is also a good idea if heading to MK. I haven't been to 1900 Park Fare but would love to. We just couldn't fit it in to our itinerary this year. Maybe next time...you'd think with 7 days you'd have no problem finding place for another restaurant!!!

 

[Photobee]

Thank you for your help and advice!

 

[ChristinaN]

My favorate is the character dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table. I think it's really cool going inside the castle and look out the back windows at the carousel.

 

[GrumpyMom25]

We always like to try something new ... always do a character breakfast when we're there ... we don't like to book dinner reservations ... too busy running around the parks. We love Chef Mickey, tried Donald's Safari Breakfast last trip and loved it. My sister's family enjoys The Crystal Palace so we'll be trying that breakfast in a couple of weeks. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the character meals ... just depends on which characters you want to see.