Character Breakfast disappointment

[kcashner]

I was just reading another thread where a mom said she was disappointed in the character breakfast. I'll echo this. THe character breakfast is probably the one thing that the ships do worse than the on land restaurants, and they seem to be getting even worse (this was our 10th cruise on the Magic).

I realize that in the on land restaurants, not everyone sits down at once, allowing the characters to work an area of the room and rotate thru the room. However, on this cruise, the whole purpose of the character breakfast seemed to be to allow the ship's photographers to get a picture of kid with character. There was very little character interaction with the kids. We had to push a little to get a picture with our own camera (even though it was loaded and ready to flash...the character ran off as soon as he saw the "official" flash), and a tablemate had the same issue with getting an autograph for her child. In one case, Goofy ran off without even approaching my daughter.

I know they are busy and it is a large, crowded room. However this was the quickest, least friendly character breakfast we've ever experienced.
Kathryn

 

[eagmommy]

I felt the same way when we went last April. I think this time we will skip the character breakfast. A lot of pictures I have from last time are of the character leaving!

 

[strawberryblonde]

I'm wondering if we should try and go or just sleep in for ours. We are early seating for dinner which means early character breakfast. Our CB won't be until Thurs morning (3rd day at Sea) and we may just want to sleep in by then. We have been to many, many CB's at WDW and we love them

 

[Michelemouse]

Wow, we had exactly the opposite experience on our October cruise. We had actually been thinking of skipping the CB because of negative reviews I had read. We were so pleasantly surprised to find great food, lots of character interaction and absolutely no problems taking pictures with our own camera. In fact, each of the characters made a point to come around to each of us at the table without being asked. The ship's photographer took pictures of them with the kids, as did we, but we took our own pictures of them with the adults. It was a highlight of our cruise and I"m sorry you didn't have the same experience.

 

[lbgraves]

I was wondering if we were the exception in this case. I know that it was our first trip to WDW & on the cruise so we hadn't seen the characters before, but I was impressed that we got pictures of the kids with all of them and 2 autographs from each as well. There were 2 other kids at our table who also got pictures but already had their autographs. While I didn't care for the ship pictures, we had a good shot of all of them taken on our camera. Some of the characters...especially Goofy...made us laugh with the different ways he signed his autograph...on his nose & behind his head.

 

[savs]

We must have been on a good cruise too, or seated at a really good table.

I thought they spent a great deal of time with us. We ALL got our pictured taken with them and they signed all the autograph books that we had sitting there.

We've been to alot of charcter breakfast and dinners on land and I thought this one was very comparable. Plus we didn't have to pay anything for it, like you do with the land ones.

 

[bubbleprincessmom]

Its been awhile since our cruise, but that was our experince as well. I was not thrilled with the CB. We were seated behind one of the podiums and my husband actually got up and went and asked the head waiter (Sandra....who was great btw) and when the photog came over with his "token" character he actually said to us..".oh we didn't see you behind this"....HELLO...you should know the layout of the room. Was very rushed, not at all our experience at the Poly last year, now THAT was a fun time (but than again it was an almost empty room so that might have made the difference)

 

[webray]

We have only been on one cruise..a table of adults, but the characters were great. Took their time with everyone, posed for pictures, acted funny...everyone had a great time. Actually, the whole restaurant seemed to have a great time.

 

[lotsofboys]

We were on the same 2/7 cruise as kcashner and I agree 100% with her evaluation of the breakfast. This was our 2nd cruise and we have done numerous CBs at Disneyland and this was by far my least favorite. Our DSs 7, 10 & 10 even asked if we could skip it on our next cruise they were so disappointed. The characters literally stopped at your table for 10 seconds and then were wisked off to the next. Luckily we did not need autographs this time otherwise I don't see how we could have got them. There was much more interaction on our first cruise. I had an idea that it wasn't going to be good when our servers told us the night before...make sure you are in your seats by 9:40 (it is supposed to start at 9:45) and don't leave the table for any reason. We were seated at 9:35 and they started coming around about 2 minutes later. That means that anyone who showed up at 9:45 probably missed several characters. They also sat all three kids together at the end of the table and the photographers actually told one of my sons not to sit down in between characters because it was taking too much time for him to get up and be in the picture.

My advice is have patience and don't go expecting anything more than a quick photo, have your camera ready to go and speak up to have them look at you for your camera.

 

[savs]

I just thought of this.....everyone that has had a bad experience were you in the 1st seating or the 2nd seating? Maybe the ones in the 1st had to rush since the 2nd seating would be coming in soon. Where the people in the 2nd seating had plenty of time to see all the characters and weren't rushed out. Just a thought

We were in the 2nd seating...so that could be the reason for such a great breakfast!!!

 

[rae519]

I am NOT a big fan of the CB at all. You rarely get to see all characters and the pictures are RUSHED!! They paired up my son with another child, one we didn't know, but who had an autograph book in his hand for the photo - now who wants that?!

I don't care much for the autograph books during photo opps - they do tend to take a lot of time and the characters leave at their appointed time regardless of how many are still in line.

The menu for the CB isn't very appealing either, and it's hard to eat when you are jumping up and around trying to either take a picture of get out of the way of one!!

Yes, this needs to be changed. I plan on telling our server this cruise that we will not be to all events and that will NOT reflect in his tip, but since we are veterans, we want to do some different things this time around!

Same with the Friday night dinner - since many guests will skip out on that night (due to the tipping) and miss Saturday breakfast, I will also make sure that my server knows I will be there Saturday or leave his tip at Guest Services.

Rae

 

[The4OfUs]

We did 2nd seating as well, and also had a good experience. I could have SWORN that I had read that they didn't do autographs at the character breakfast, and figured that made sense as there are SO many autograph opportunities that by cutting this out, the characters were better able to interact at the tables - and interact they did! Chip and Dale stole our table number and ran away with it, Goofy played around with the kids, it was alot of fun.

Who knows, maybe they interacted with our table a little more because there were no autograph books there, so instead of spending the time signing they could play! *grin* Luckily our server got the table number back... :spin:

 

[lotsofboys]

savs, your theory makes sense, but unfortunately we were at the 2nd seating on Monday

 

[bubbleprincessmom]

2nd seating here too.

 

[mariamard]

this was our first cruise so i dont have another one to compare it to, but we enjoyed ours. the characters even came to my corner of the table to pick up from my arms , kiss, hug my 5 month old. without us asking.....we did not expect that. some of our fav pix were from that breakfast . maybe it was where we sat(table 62 ) but the characters would horse around with our 4 y/o and sign an autograph without rushing.the only one that we felt rushed with was mickey....the family at the table next to us had thier own personal photo session . no lie, they took about 20 pix with different poses and family members--the staff photographer had to finally say something after 5 minutes.poor mickey, everytime he thought he was thru, they would pull him in for another shot.
the food could have been a little fresher---the buffet selection was better tasting and hotter.
JMO ---maria

 

[Michelemouse]

We were on 1st seating and had a great experience.

 

[CAMICKEY]

This was an interesting post for me to read. We were planning on taking my DS6 to this but sounds like the ones we go to at the Parks are better and less rushed. At California Adventure, we once had goofy sit at our table for at least 8 to 10 minutes and this happened to us twice. Thanks again to everyone for this valuable info as it will make our planning\choices easier once cruise time comes. Just not enough time to do everything. - Mike

 

[mmouse37]

I also was on the same 2/7 sailing as Kcashner and lotsofboys. It was also our 10th DCL cruise and we had 2nd seating on Thursday....

I must agree with their reviews....I felt this was the most rushed I had ever seen the characters. There was one photog who literally was pulling the character from one table to the next, barely letting anyone get pics in. We only stayed until Mickey came to our table and we had to ask him to stop and take a pic with our own camera. The photog did not look happy since we had 3 couples and we each wanted a pic with Mickey with our own cameras.

We left early to go have Palo brunch!!!

Anyone else on this sailing find the one woman photographer in the atrium to take way too long posing people. She was very pleasant but took forever to get a shot off. I hate it when they want your hand/arm up on your husbands chest...it looks so fake. When they try to pose me now I just say...I would like to keep my hands at my side...saves a ton of posing time.

MJ

 

[inkkognito]

For those who are looking for a little more quality character interaction (and those on the Wonder too), be sure to go to "Til We Meet Again" on the last night. It is not as formal as the regular photo opportunities, and a bit hectic when the characters go out into the crowd, but I've noticed that they take the opportunity for interaction. It was less crowded than usual last time we did it, but even when there are more people, it still seems good. For example, even on a crowded cruise, I was really amused by the antics of Peter Pan and Anne Marie with the people who were getting their photos and autographs. On our last trip, Stitch was clowning around with everyone. And you will see characters you don't normally see...for example, several Hercules characters from the stage show. Often there is not as many people waiting to see them, so you may even have a chance to chat. And while Minnie Mouse usually has a huge line, her line was almost non-existent on our last cruise!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[minniemoms]

Having never cruised before, so I didn't know what CB's were like. I have been to many at Disneyland, but I too was disappointed at the CB. We were 2nd seating with MJ, and not knowing what to expect it was awful. I didn't even get a picture with my own camera, they were too rushed. I think it is more of a PHOTO SHOOT than a character breakfast. I guess they need to sell more pictures, so they should just call it a photo opportunity for a 10 second chance at a picture with ONE character. There were others around, but only Mickey came to our table. And yes definitely the lady in the atrium taking photos took probably 4 to 5 of each family group, and then 3 of each child, faraway, closeup, and with a family member, and then on to the next child and the same thing...... I am a photographer, and that was excessive. I know they work on commission, so she was probably trying to get a couple more $$$. I am not trying to be critical, but honestly, it was a waste of everyones time to stand in that long of a line to get your photo in front of the sign. We waited over an hour, and there were only about 30 people in front of us.. It shouldn't have taken that long. The other photographers were much faster and their pictures just as good. Maybe this lady makes more money ???? CRAZY