Character Breakfasts... Are they really worth it?

[pinkprincess30]

Hi all,
Our family leaves for our 1st DLR trip ever in May.
Our 1st day in the park is actually Mother's Day. We are trying to plan on a budget. So I am wondering if the Character breakfasts are a MUST do in your opinion? My 3 boys don't even know they exist, and our hotel has free breakfasts, so the practical side of me says skip it...DLR is enough by itself, but the Mom in me wants my kids to have the BEST! How has your Character Meal rated? Is it worth it?

 

[sonnyjane]

In my opinion, it really depends on how into meeting the characters they are. If they are big into characters, collect signatures, etc. then a character meal is a great way to knock out several "big names" at one time without waiting in the meet & greet lines in the park. If they couldn't care less then it's really nothing more than an expensive breakfast buffet.

Now, this is completely unrelated, but I did want to say that many of the Harbor hotels that offer "free continental breakfast" don't have very satisfying breakfasts at all. I'm not sure where you're staying, but most places offer cold cereal, cheap supermarket donuts, bananas, apples, and bad coffee lol. Some of the better ones have hot oatmeal and toasters with bread. If your family is big on breakfast, it might be necessary to supplement the hotel's offerings somehow, but that doesn't necessarily have to be with an expensive character breakfast. Just an FYI!

 

[QueenDoOver]

I think it is worth it. One of my best memories is of turning around and finding my non-character interested sons dancing with Minnie Mouse with a huge smile on his face. So many opportunities for magical moments. Especially Minnies.

 

[Flitterific]

I totally agree with sonnyjane. If your kids are into characters, a character meal will be so much fun. I have friends who didn't think they were into them and we had a blast at the Minnie & Friends breakfast. The character are a lot of fun and they make an effort to interact with everyone at the table. M&F also tends to have the most characters at any one time (usually 8-12 characters). The only thing is that I am not a huge fan of their food. They usually just have omelets, eggs, sausage, bacon, fruits and some baked goodies.

Goofy's Kitchen is actually my favorite character meal at the parks. It's also the most expensive but they have a huge selection of pretty good food including an awesome omelet station, pizzas, other hot food items and a salad and fruit bar, baked goodies, etc. There are usually about 5-7 characters there but I always have a blast with them.

I hope you have fun whatever you decide to do

 

[TheColtonsMom]

We took our DS6 for the first time this past Christmas & tied all our Christmas money into the trip. We did our first character meals this trip and did 4 (one time only deal we will never do that many again) At least one will be on our agenda from now on. The 90 minute meal saved us countless hours in lines to have a quick moment and a photo snapped with a character that we spent in better ways. The interaction with the characters was much better/longer than at the photo spots. We loved aspects of them all but our favorite was Mickey's surfs up at the PPH. If you want details check out my TR (link below) there are already 2 reviews up and tomorrows episode will include a third.

 

[skiingfast]

I have to third what SonnyJane said. It depends on if you really want to meet charaters.

If you plan to meet characters in the parks it takes about 10 to 30 minutes of waiting on a busy day. So a character meal can save at least 30 minutes of time spent in line. Carefully consider what characters you want to meet and if they are at character meals before you choose one.


Also in the hotels there are non breakfasts with characters.

 

[brenda1966]

It really depends on the ages of your boys. Would they rather spend time standing in lines to do rides? If so, skip the sit down meals -- they take up a lot of time. If they want to stand in lines to meet characters, get autographs, then the meals can allow you to do that without standing in line.

The thing about breakfasts is that they waste precious morning time when the parks are not as busy. The times we have done breakfast we have booked the latest breakfast, so it was more like brunch and we ate a small breakfast in the room, enjoyed the park, and then went to our character breakfast as an early lunch.

 

[DizNee Luver]

We consider the character meals as part of our families Disney experience. My kids range in ages from 3 to 9, with some grown up kids who still like to pose with characters!!

If your children really want to meet Minnie or Goofy, then going to a character meal will give them a chance to have some one on one time. Standing in the meet-n-greet lines at the parks doesn't guarantee you will actually get up to the character before they leave. We have had this happen more times than I can count. It's very hard to explain to a crying child why Minnie has left without saying hello.

Some people say that spending the allotted 90 minutes at these meals is a waste of park time.....but if you go from character line to character line you will probably spend more than 90 minutes of park time doing them.

We enjoy Goofy's Kitchen. We usually see Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale & Baloo.

Minnie & Friends is a wonderful meal to see multiple characters. We've seen anywhere from 8 to 14 characters!!! Minnie of course is there, but we've seen characters from Winnie the Pooh, some characters from the classic movies (Fairy Godmother, Capt Hook, etc).

If your children love princesses (even boys love them!) then Ariel's is a great place to see Ariel & 4 more princesses.

If seeing Mickey is a must.....then Surf's Up with Mickey is the one to go to. Mickey only appears at this meal. We usually see Stitch here as well.

If you're looking for the forest critters, then the Storytellers would be the meal to go to. Chip & Dale host this one. On our summer trip we also saw Brer Fox, Meeko from Pocohontus, Kenai from Brother Bear & Rafiki.

They are a wonderful way to watch your kids interact with the characters, get a meal & make memories.

If your kids aren't into the characters & never want to stop & see them.....then the character meals would not be the way to go.

 

[DahliaRW]

If your kids are the right age, yes. And if you can do it before the parks open, even better. When we did ours, DL opened at 10, MM was 9, so we did breakfast at 7 and were in line for MM by a little after 8:30. No wasted in park time!

 

[minjo]

We always have at least one character meal - usually at least one breakfast.

My kids, DD 17 and DD 22, both want to do character meals.

They have asked for Goofy's Kitchen (we did that one the last time we there on our last day before we had to go to the airport - it was a great way to leave DLR

We are also doing Minnie's because there is a chance that we will see Pooh - when we went there last time (2003) it was Plaza Inn with Pooh and friends.

Like all the other PPs - it is a great way to see a few characters in a short amount of time. We have had characters interact with us.

Pooh last time (we went at Xmas) stoled my youngest DD (10 at the time) pooh santa hat. It was a great time.

 

[lostatdisney]

It really depends on the ages of your boys. Would they rather spend time standing in lines to do rides? If so, skip the sit down meals -- they take up a lot of time. If they want to stand in lines to meet characters, get autographs, then the meals can allow you to do that without standing in line.

The thing about breakfasts is that they waste precious morning time when the parks are not as busy. The times we have done breakfast we have booked the latest breakfast, so it was more like brunch and we ate a small breakfast in the room, enjoyed the park, and then went to our character breakfast as an early lunch.

I completely agree that when you are eating at the character breakfast, you are missing the early hours when the lines are short. By the time you finish and get to the next ride, you will be waiting in a much longer ride. Try to do something over lunch when the lines are long anyway. But I would try to work it in!

 

[blackjackdelta]

We consider the character meals as part of our families Disney experience. My kids range in ages from 3 to 9, with some grown up kids who still like to pose with characters!!

If your children really want to meet Minnie or Goofy, then going to a character meal will give them a chance to have some one on one time. Standing in the meet-n-greet lines at the parks doesn't guarantee you will actually get up to the character before they leave. We have had this happen more times than I can count. It's very hard to explain to a crying child why Minnie has left without saying hello.

Some people say that spending the allotted 90 minutes at these meals is a waste of park time.....but if you go from character line to character line you will probably spend more than 90 minutes of park time doing them.

We enjoy Goofy's Kitchen. We usually see Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale & Baloo.

Minnie & Friends is a wonderful meal to see multiple characters. We've seen anywhere from 8 to 14 characters!!! Minnie of course is there, but we've seen characters from Winnie the Pooh, some characters from the classic movies (Fairy Godmother, Capt Hook, etc).

If your children love princesses (even boys love them!) then Ariel's is a great place to see Ariel & 4 more princesses.

If seeing Mickey is a must.....then Surf's Up with Mickey is the one to go to. Mickey only appears at this meal. We usually see Stitch here as well.

If you're looking for the forest critters, then the Storytellers would be the meal to go to. Chip & Dale host this one. On our summer trip we also saw Brer Fox, Meeko from Pocohontus, Kenai from Brother Bear & Rafiki.

They are a wonderful way to watch your kids interact with the characters, get a meal & make memories.

If your kids aren't into the characters & never want to stop & see them.....then the character meals would not be the way to go.

Our family also considers it part of the Disney experience. Even though my kids are young adults, they insist on doing at least 1.

Jack

 

[Huff]

I would have to say no, they are generally not worth the high price. It is true that it saves time for kids wanting to collect signatures and photos of characters. You have to weigh the price paid for such and for us its just too expensive.

We've been to all of the Character breakfasts as well as Ariels for dinner. I found the breakfasts to be simply ok but not great. Ariels was considerably better food but still not worth the $'s. In more recent trips we've taken the saved money and found other things the kids enjoy more such as pin trading, or Disney clothes to wear while in the parks etc.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

My wife and I walked into a character breakfast at the DL Paradise Pier hotel not knowing it was a character breakfast. We were a bit new to the parks and thought it was just a place to eat. After eating we received our $70 bill for mediocre breakfast buffet food. The selection was huge, but wow. We will never make that mistake again.

The following year we did a free character lunch at Ariels at DCA. It was free with our package. It was a huge tri tip dinner. The bill would have been $100 but Costco payed for that. The food and atmosphere was excellent, we will do this again.

*OFF TOPIC... Ariels has Red Magicale sparkling wine. Its amazing.

Rusty

 

[rainyday77]

We did not attend a character meal our 1st year at Disneyland due to price. The 2nd year we went with Christmas money from Grandma and had an amazing time. I would highly recommend Goofy's Kitchen. Our 3 year old loved the character interactions, and they have a few group interactions where kids can pretend bake and make music with Goofy. We are going to Minnie's this year.

If the cost is too much, the kids won't know any better. If you can save in other ways (buying Disney clothes outside the park, making sandwiches for lunch at the hotel, saving $ before the trip, etc.) the character breakfasts are worth the money for the experience... in my opinion. It will be hard if not impossible to go to DL without taking in the char. breakfast from now on!

 

[CrazyDuck]

If your kids are into princesses then Ariel's Grotto is a must. Anything to not have to stand in line at PFF its woth the money!

 

[wvnative]

If your kids are into princesses then Ariel's Grotto is a must. Anything to not have to stand in line at PFF its woth the money!

I'll second that!

I travel with teen/20 somethings and they still like character meals. I like that I actually get to sit down to eat with no complaining and that there is something for even our pickiest eater.

We've been trying to one every trip.

 

[taaren]

Hmm ... if this is your first trip, I would say not a 'must-do'. We've been going to DLR annually, sometimes 2x per year since '05 (granted the first few years were child-free), and have yet to do a character meal. Contemplating squeezing one for the first time this upcoming trip.
We usually try to get a character pic in with the Disney Visa card line-up they have at DCA first couple hours the park is open when we bring the DS. But really, to me why spend time on a long expensive breakfast when you could be riding more rides?
If in future trips you feel like you really want the kids to interact with the characters, the character meals will still be there but there's _so_ many other things to see/do/experience at Disney that are included in your park ticket, take advantage of those.
Just my $0.02.

 

[jacs1234]

It's a must have for us. We find it so much fun. My children were 9, 7, 5 and 3 on our last trip and they loved it. When the parks open late, I like to book Goofy's kitchen in beforehand, so we can have a disney breakfast and not miss out on any park time.

 

[pinkprincess30]

Hmm ... if this is your first trip, I would say not a 'must-do'. We've been going to DLR annually, sometimes 2x per year since '05 (granted the first few years were child-free), and have yet to do a character meal. Contemplating squeezing one for the first time this upcoming trip.
We usually try to get a character pic in with the Disney Visa card line-up they have at DCA first couple hours the park is open when we bring the DS. But really, to me why spend time on a long expensive breakfast when you could be riding more rides?
If in future trips you feel like you really want the kids to interact with the characters, the character meals will still be there but there's _so_ many other things to see/do/experience at Disney that are included in your park ticket, take advantage of those.
Just my $0.02.

After reading all your opinions, which are ALL so appreciated, I think I agree with what Taaren has said. Because this is my DS5, DS6 & DS9's 1st trip to DLR I think we will skip it and take in more time at the park. PLUS this will give us something new to look forward to on future trips.

NOTHING says I won;t change my mind between now & May though

Thanks everybody!