Breakfast at Plaza Inn review

[mom2rtk]

All of the different experiences here are interesting - you'd think there would be a set "schedule" for how characters roam around. We have done the 10:40 at Plaza Inn on a Saturday after MM, seated indoors (didn't specifically request it) and it was almost like the characters were bored b/c not only did they hang around for a few minutes when they were at the table, most came around 2-3 times. I don't remember all of them but it was the usual Plaza Inn list - so 8-10 characters? This was an early November visit.

I've always been surprised at how hit or miss it is at Minnie's. I really don't think they have a set rotation there. Probably just too many characters and too many tables (compared with the other character meals). I sort of feel like we have to be careful what we complain about though or they'll "fix" it by reducing it to a set 4 or 5 that make a regular rotation and say it's due to "guest demand".

WDW is pretty predictable in how they rotate characters. Too predictable. And stale. We met the same 5 characters at Crystal Palace on our first trip in 1999 that we could meet there today.

 

[agamble]

Mary Poppins penguins are not uncommon at Characterpalooza at WDW, but I'm astounded you found one at DLR!

We've seen Pip the Penguin at Minnie's twice. And met him once near Tinkerbell's.

I think one of the things with Minnie's character rotation is you have the same CM playing multiple characters. So lets say you see Pip out and he goes in for his break. When he comes back later he may be dressed as Tigger. Well Pip came to your table so now the CM dressed as Tigger is starting where he left off and he can't get to every table during his time. So then you see him go back in for a break and he may come out as a different character. I am 90% sure this is why they have so many different characters there. The nice thing is that if you do feel that you haven't seen enough characters, the CM working the restaurant will make sure you get more.

We chose Goofy's this year, and I was not disappointed. They had fewer characters, but the interaction was great. And we could see the characters and have an idea of when they were coming to our table, so we didn't have to worry about missing them when getting food. They seemed to follow a set pattern for rotation and we did see every character, and were there long enough that some came back. We were lucky and they had Mickey at the front doing pictures and Goofy was roaming the restaurant, so there was a total of 6 characters.

 

[mom2rtk]

We've seen Pip the Penguin at Minnie's twice. And met him once near Tinkerbell's.

I think one of the things with Minnie's character rotation is you have the same CM playing multiple characters. So lets say you see Pip out and he goes in for his break. When he comes back later he may be dressed as Tigger. Well Pip came to your table so now the CM dressed as Tigger is starting where he left off and he can't get to every table during his time. So then you see him go back in for a break and he may come out as a different character. I am 90% sure this is why they have so many different characters there. The nice thing is that if you do feel that you haven't seen enough characters, the CM working the restaurant will make sure you get more.

We chose Goofy's this year, and I was not disappointed. They had fewer characters, but the interaction was great. And we could see the characters and have an idea of when they were coming to our table, so we didn't have to worry about missing them when getting food. They seemed to follow a set pattern for rotation and we did see every character, and were there long enough that some came back. We were lucky and they had Mickey at the front doing pictures and Goofy was roaming the restaurant, so there was a total of 6 characters.

Agree that's why the random nature of things. Which I think is pretty cool. And I'm pretty sure why I never saw Suzy and Perla out at the same time. LOL.

I'm glad Mickey is still at Goofy's. It was a disappointment to have them cut back on characters when they went with the set rotation. Still though, it's odd that Mickey is greeting guests at Goofy's!

 

[HydroGuy]

FWIW, I made a PI res 60 days in advance for the same week. June 19, 9:30AM. I was concerned about doing a late 10:30 res for the same reasons as the OP experienced so opted for 9:30. It was our first character meal ever.

We were seated outside which did concern me a little, but there were lot of folks outside too. It seemed like we had lots of characters stop by our table. Tigger, Captain Hook, Rafiki, Chip or Dale, plus a mouse (Cinderella?). It seemed non-stop.

 

[Malcon10t]

We've had experiences similar to yours on 3 out of 5 visits to Plaza Inn. We now prefer to do Surf's Up or Starytellers.