Best way to meet characters

[Mandysue1976]

We will be at DL next June. We will arrive late afternoon/evening and be there 2 more full days (M, T, W...hit Hollywood Thursday morning before driving to Grand Canyon) I'm planning on getting a 3 day park hopper pass. I believe we get a MM with that.

I was just reading a thread about how fun Minnie's Breakfast at the Plaza Inn is, so I thought we could do that. But, since we have 2 girls, I wanted to do a meal with the princesses.

Should we try to fit all that in? On Tuesday we could start the day with Minnie's. On Wednesday, we could do MM, then lunch at Ariel's. What I'm saying is, we COULD do it all, but it seems it would take a lot of time from the rides. What would you do (besides stay longer...LOL)? If you only chose 1 or 2, which would they be?

Our girls will be 10 and 6, so a little older and hopefully tough enough to handle some long days in the park. We plan to stay offsite, but very close (HoJo is the farthest I'm considering) We live in the Central Time Zone, so I don't think early mornings at Disney will be a problem since it's 3 hours behind us.

Thanks!

 

[coaches24]

We will be at DL next June. We will arrive late afternoon/evening and be there 2 more full days (M, T, W...hit Hollywood Thursday morning before driving to Grand Canyon) I'm planning on getting a 3 day park hopper pass. I believe we get a MM with that.

I was just reading a thread about how fun Minnie's Breakfast at the Plaza Inn is, so I thought we could do that. But, since we have 2 girls, I wanted to do a meal with the princesses.

Should we try to fit all that in? On Tuesday we could start the day with Minnie's. On Wednesday, we could do MM, then lunch at Ariel's. What I'm saying is, we COULD do it all, but it seems it would take a lot of time from the rides. What would you do (besides stay longer...LOL)? If you only chose 1 or 2, which would they be?

Our girls will be 10 and 6, so a little older and hopefully tough enough to handle some long days in the park. We plan to stay offsite, but very close (HoJo is the farthest I'm considering) We live in the Central Time Zone, so I don't think early mornings at Disney will be a problem since it's 3 hours behind us.

Thanks!

The breakfast at Minnies would take away the best ride time depending on what time you get. For me doing a late breakfast at Minnies (so you get to do rides during the slowest time of the day crowd wise) and then lunch at Ariels on a different day wouldnt be an issue at all. Mid day is the best time to take a break anyway so why not go sit in a resteraunt and meet the characters so you dont have to walk back to the hotel. You can take as much time as you want and you are out of the biggest crowds at that time so you really arent missing good ride time. Thats my take on it anyway.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

The usual MM days at Disneyland are Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Currently Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays do not offer MM unless there has been some special event like a race necessitating a switch or it is the extreme busy season such as the week between Christmas and New Year's or the busiest spring break week when MM was offered every day of the week. So you should not be planning on an MM for Wednesday.

There are rumors that DCA may offer MM as an option, but nothing official has come out from Disney on this yet, and what type of MM option might be offered also isn't known.

Since you will be at the parks for such a short time and expect to have no difficulty getting an early start each day, I would use the morning times for touring and riding and save meals for after you've gotten a good 3-4 hours in. Therefore, if characters are important to you, I would choose a late breakfast at Minnie's one day, perhaps Tuesday since you can use your MM that morning and get several hours of touring in first, and then Ariel's lunch on the other day. Like coaches24 said, the middle of the day is a good time to rest and recharge a bit anyway, and a nice cool restaurant with food can be a good way to do that.

 

[Mandysue1976]

I just saw that by the time we go, they will be offering an evening meal at Ariel's too. That would be another option.

Which is better? MM or Character Dining?

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

We're doing Minnie's on a MM day (doesn't use up your MM) with the first reservation of the day at 7:10. Then we will use our MM on another day

Minnie's is a good option because you do see a bunch of characters. I want to do the princesses but we have an 8 year old Son and I want him to have fun too LOL

 

[Isatricia]

I just saw that by the time we go, they will be offering an evening meal at Ariel's too. That would be another option.

Which is better? MM or Character Dining?

I think MM is better! Several times we asked our 6 & 8 year old girls if they would rather stand in line to see a character or ride the rides they always chose the rides.

We chose to do Goofy's Kitchen for Dinner on our first partial day. Our experience was less than superb and would have preferred to do Ariel's Grotto but they were doing the WOC dinner instead. The characters we saw at GK, we also saw multiple times around the park. We did not get more time with them at GK.

Where we saw the most Characters was on Main Street. There are always a handful of Characters in the Town Square. There was often a character or two in front of the castle - well actually on the two sides of the main walkway - by the Wishing Well and by Carnation Gardens. We saw 39 characters total in our 3 full days and 2 partial days. We made walking though the Wishing Well area a regular part of our pattern several times a day.

 

[Isatricia]

We're doing Minnie's on a MM day (doesn't use up your MM) with the first reservation of the day at 7:10. Then we will use our MM on another day

Minnie's is a good option because you do see a bunch of characters. I want to do the princesses but we have an 8 year old Son and I want him to have fun too LOL

I think I read that if you do this, you want to use your MM on a day prior to your breakfast otherwise they will use your MM when you go into the breakfast.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

We're doing Minnie's on a MM day (doesn't use up your MM) with the first reservation of the day at 7:10. Then we will use our MM on another day

This is a great way to maximize your use of time. OP though doesn't have this option since they won't be there long enough to have two MM days.

I think MM is better! Several times we asked our 6 & 8 year old girls if they would rather stand in line to see a character or ride the rides they always chose the rides.

I agree. If it came down to a choice between using MM for rides, etc. or just eating breakfast, we would pick MM every time. You can always start the day with some carbs at the hotel or on the way to the park and then eat a late breakfast or early lunch after getting a few hours of activities in.

 

[coaches24]

I agree that MM is better than a breakfast. If you only have one MM but you will be in the parks on two different MM days then use your MM for one and then see if you can make the 7:10 res for Minnies on the other MM day. That way you eat and meet without missing any real park time.

 

[Mandysue1976]

I don't think I understand how MM works. Do I have to have it to have an early breakfast at Minnie's? I'd better go read about it, unless any of you wish to enlighten me!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i changed my minnies to later after MM was over, so that we got FL rides done (so try 930 or 10 for Minnies after mm i was recently reminded to do this

ty pixi and all others

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

I don't think I understand how MM works. Do I have to have it to have an early breakfast at Minnie's? I'd better go read about it, unless any of you wish to enlighten me!

You are correct that a 3 day or longer parkhopper ticket comes with one MM. Disneyland opens for MM one hour earlier than regular opening. Current MM days are Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. You can choose one of those days to use your MM.

Minnie's breakfast is served at Plaza Inn on Main Street in Disneyland. On a non-MM day, the first reservation of the day for Minnie's is close to the time when the park opens for regular guests. On a day when the park opens at 8 AM, the first reservation at Minnie's is 8:10 AM. On a day when park opening is later, 9 or 10 AM, the gates usually still open before that to allow people to walk down Main Street and gather inside the park for rope drop. Attractions and access to the park beyond Main Street will not be available before official opening. I have heard that Minnie's might be open for this pre-rope drop time, but I don't have experience with this.

Finally, on an MM morning, Minnie's opens when MM begins, and the first reservation available for Minnie's will be ten minutes after MM begins. So if MM is at 7 AM, the first available reservation for Minnie's is 7:10 AM. Even if you don't have access to MM, you can still make a reservation for Minnie's for during MM time. On the morning of your reservation, you report to Gate 1 outside Disneyland. Once the CM working there confirms your reservation, you are allowed into the park for the purpose of going to the breakfast even if you would not otherwise have access to MM. This is a nice perk for someone who has tickets that don't include MM or someone like me who has an AP and, therefore, doesn't get MM unless staying at a Disney hotel. It's also a nice way to get a jump start on your day in the park if you have already used your one and only MM earlier in the week.

 

[Mandysue1976]

So if we are there Monday evening, Tuesday and Wednesday, we should plan to use our MM on Tuesday. I thought this was a character interaction time, but I think I got it mixed up with with the Mickey Mouse Toon Town thing. If I'm understanding right, MM gives us early access to the park so we can ride the rides with shorter lines.

SO, MM on Tuesday, maybe breakfast with Minnie on Wednesday? That way I won't feel like we are wasting those early morning hours. We could do lunch at Ariel's on Tuesday or dinner there on Wednesday.

What about parades and fireworks, keeping in mind that we will be there during peak season, but only on weekdays. Are there opportunities for these (of course acknowledging that everything is subject to change over the next year!)?

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

I think I read that if you do this, you want to use your MM on a day prior to your breakfast otherwise they will use your MM when you go into the breakfast.

I called and talked to the reservation people who said it wouldn't use your MM. Hmmm

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

So if we are there Monday evening, Tuesday and Wednesday, we should plan to use our MM on Tuesday. I thought this was a character interaction time, but I think I got it mixed up with with the Mickey Mouse Toon Town thing. If I'm understanding right, MM gives us early access to the park so we can ride the rides with shorter lines.

SO, MM on Tuesday, maybe breakfast with Minnie on Wednesday? That way I won't feel like we are wasting those early morning hours. We could do lunch at Ariel's on Tuesday or dinner there on Wednesday.

What about parades and fireworks, keeping in mind that we will be there during peak season, but only on weekdays. Are there opportunities for these (of course acknowledging that everything is subject to change over the next year!)?

Ah, now I understand your confusion. MM is Magic Morning. Select, i.e. most but not all, rides are open early in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Fastpass machines are not turned on for MM, so it is an opportunity to ride things with fewer people in the parks and maybe shorter lines but not to gather fastpasses yet. You probably won't want to waste that chance.

I haven't done the ToonTown thing. The idea with that though is to get into ToonTown ahead of the throngs since ToonTown opens one hour later than the rest of the park and only people with the morning madness passes can get in early. I guess there's some sort of little ceremony that takes place, and it's a good opportunity to meet the characters. Not something that would really interest my family even if we did have access.

If you are there during peak season, then parades and fireworks usually occur even on weekdays barring bad weather or as you say other unforeseen changes.

 

[Isatricia]

I called and talked to the reservation people who said it wouldn't use your MM. Hmmm

I don't really know, but I have read that on these boards. Maybe someone else can chime in on it.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

I don't really know, but I have read that on these boards. Maybe someone else can chime in on it.

I posted a thread If that's the case I'll be changing mine probably...