You can currently book until the end of December. Follow Metro's link and a calendar will pop up showing you what dates are available for you to book online. You don't need to call.
We booked about a month in advance for spring break, so no, nothing like Disney. When we went in April it was minions, gru, Dora, Diego, spongebob, squidward, E.B bunny. We have done every Disney character meal and this was way better, small place and a lot of character interaction.
The RPR character breakfast generally has a typical line up of Gru, a Minion (varies between Kevin, Tom, Bob and Jerry) and two characters from the movie Hop.
The hotels have characters appear on selected nights:
Trattoria del Porto (Loews Portofino Bay Hotel) Friday nights 6:30pm9:30pm
The Kitchen (Hard Rock Hotel) Saturday nights 6:00pm9:00pm
The RPR character breakfast generally has a typical line up of Gru, a Minion (varies between Kevin, Tom, Bob and Jerry) and two characters from the movie Hop.
The hotels have characters appear on selected nights:
Trattoria del Porto (Loews Portofino Bay Hotel) Friday nights 6:30pm–9:30pm
The Kitchen (Hard Rock Hotel) Saturday nights 6:00pm–9:00pm
My kids were at RPR last week and they walked around the corner to get into the elevator on the bottom level and there were Homer and Bart and their handler waiting to get in. When the elevator got there, they all got in (my kids included) and when the Simpsons got out their handler said, "Now Homer, don't do that thing you usually do." Homer quickly put his hands on the elevator floor buttons and pressed them all, lol. My kids couldn't stop laughing as the elevator proceeded to stop at every floor on their way up to their room.