Character buffet with littles

[FSU Girl]

I haven’t done a character buffet since having kids, only done the sit down ones. The buffet ones I’ve done before with my first was during the Covid era and buffets hadn’t come back yet. I’m wondering how difficult it is to do this vs having the food brought to us. Will be potentially with my parents to help, but they don’t love these kind of meals so might not go and I also couldn’t get a reservation for 6 at Crystal palace. So I guess we’d need to take turns getting the food since the kids can’t do that themselves. Are there long lines to get the food? I remember when I did Boma it had a really long line for the food which would be really annoying to have to wait in multiple times to get everyone something to eat.

I’m considering The Crystal Palace for breakfast, Chef Mickey for I guess also breakfast although it’s at 12:20 and Cape May Cafe for breakfast. I have them on different days right now but thinking of canceling and doing just one or maybe none of them. I’m doing topolinos on our last day that I plan to keep. My 4 year old is obsessed with characters.

 

[erinch]

Crystal Palace is terrific with littles, IMO.
THE CMs are great at alerting you when you have time to go get your food.
There are 2 identical sides set up, unless it is switching from breakfast to lunch, and the lines are not crowded like Boma. There is a dedicated kids buffet with a few items kids tend to like. It is fast to get the food and not nearly as chaotic as Chef Mickeys.

Tusker house is great too.

 

[Karalee402]

We have three kids and have done a bunch of character buffets. I never find the lines to be incredibly long, and remember, there will be TONS of kids there, so everyone tends to be patient and understanding of families working around kids. Sometimes we take turns getting the kids' plates, but with your four year old, they might be totally big enough to walk the buffet line with you. Cape May is a great option because it tends to be lower key, but I also really love Crystal Palace.

 

[jemtx]

Cape may is a little less hectic than Chef Mickey with similar characters. Doing Chef Mickey’s later will help make it a little less crowded/hectic. Have you ever tried Garden Grill? I’ve never done breakfast there, but have always had good character experiences for dinner and lunch. It’s quiet and calm and you get lots of character attention. Mickey, Pluto and Chip & Dale usually come around multiple times.

 

[FSU Girl]

Cape may is a little less hectic than Chef Mickey with similar characters. Doing Chef Mickey’s later will help make it a little less crowded/hectic. Have you ever tried Garden Grill? I’ve never done breakfast there, but have always had good character experiences for dinner and lunch. It’s quiet and calm and you get lots of character attention. Mickey, Pluto and Chip & Dale usually come around multiple times.

We have done Garden Grill and had a great time there. We are only going to Epcot for half a day on the day we arrive though so it doesn’t really fit into this trip.

Do you think since the reservation for chef Mickey is right before it closes that there will be less people there? It closed at 12:30 and our reservation is for 12:20. I’m wondering if that would make it less chaotic?

 

[Marthasor]

I haven’t done a character buffet since having kids, only done the sit down ones. The buffet ones I’ve done before with my first was during the Covid era and buffets hadn’t come back yet. I’m wondering how difficult it is to do this vs having the food brought to us. Will be potentially with my parents to help, but they don’t love these kind of meals so might not go and I also couldn’t get a reservation for 6 at Crystal palace. So I guess we’d need to take turns getting the food since the kids can’t do that themselves. Are there long lines to get the food? I remember when I did Boma it had a really long line for the food which would be really annoying to have to wait in multiple times to get everyone something to eat.

I’m considering The Crystal Palace for breakfast, Chef Mickey for I guess also breakfast although it’s at 12:20 and Cape May Cafe for breakfast. I have them on different days right now but thinking of canceling and doing just one or maybe none of them. I’m doing topolinos on our last day that I plan to keep. My 4 year old is obsessed with characters.

I only have one child and I found the character buffets to be incredibly inconvenient. We never actually ate together because one of us was always up, taking turns trying to get food for ourselves and/or our DS. Over time, I stuck with the TS character meals as they were so much more relaxing.

 

[FSU Girl]

I only have one child and I found the character buffets to be incredibly inconvenient. We never actually ate together because one of us was always up, taking turns trying to get food for ourselves and/or our DS. Over time, I stuck with the TS character meals as they were so much more relaxing.

Ya I’m worried about that. I never realized how many of the character meals are buffets though limits options

 

[jemtx]

Glad you’ve enjoyed Garden Grill. We really like it.
I do think that Chef Mickey’s gets less busy as the morning goes on.

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

Another option is Hollywood and Vine in HS.

We found Chef Mickey cute but loud.

 

[TheDailyMoo]

Just did Chef Mickeys and there were no lines and it was winter break so you bet it was busy! Same with many of the others like Tusker and Cape May etc. We do it all the time and it's very easy to take turns or to take our kid up to grab from the kiddie station.

 

[wendlle]

cape may gets my vote. I've done every single character meal except for the one at Riviera and Cape May is my fav.
Less chaotic, great character costumes and really nice food choices.
We did it with my 3yo and 10 month old at the time.

 

[MabelM]

My kids love Chef Mickeys and we have a reservation in March to go again. I do not recall the line at the buffet being an issue.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

My husband and I took turns getting the kids food at character buffets and it worked out fine.

If you're really worried about it though I would suggest Toppolino's Great character interaction and the food is really good.

 

[sponica]

We've yet to do any buffet character meals and I don't feel like we've missed out on anything (we did Tusker House when it was family style). Maybe if we were major Pooh fans, but aside from Pooh everyone else that we'd want to meet while eating, we've met at a TS restaurant.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I echo the above suggestion - if you want the characters but not necessarily a buffet - Toppolinos for breakfast is AMAZING!! Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy in their artist costumes. Great food. And it was so calm in there. I went the day before Thanksgiving and while busy, it was a lovely meal.

 

[Hubalorian]

Love doing chef mickeys at 12ish, it’s not as chaotic and provides a mid day break from the heat! Done multiple times with no issues

 

[Marthasor]

Ya I’m worried about that. I never realized how many of the character meals are buffets though limits options

Interestingly (or, maybe not? lol!) There are an equal number of buffet and non-buffet character meal options:

Buffet -
Chef Mickey's
H&V
Crystal Palace
Cape May
Tusker House
1900 Park Fare

Non Buffet -
Artist Point
Topolino's
CRT
Garden Grill
'Ohana
Akershus

Certainly, if you are looking for specific characters, it makes it a little more complicated.

 

[FSU Girl]

Interestingly (or, maybe not? lol!) There are an equal number of buffet and non-buffet character meal options:

Buffet -
Chef Mickey's
H&V
Crystal Palace
Cape May
Tusker House
1900 Park Fare

Non Buffet -
Artist Point
Topolino's
CRT
Garden Grill
'Ohana
Akershus

Certainly, if you are looking for specific characters, it makes it a little more complicated.

That is interesting!

 

[KristaZ]

Do you think since the reservation for chef Mickey is right before it closes that there will be less people there? It closed at 12:30 and our reservation is for 12:20. I’m wondering if that would make it less chaotic?

I did this exact reservation back in January and it was definitely much less chaotic - they had closed down one entire side of the restaurant by that point and it was pretty quiet (by the time we left there was only a handful of other tables even still there). I will say, however, that our character experience was extremely rushed (the handlers were making it clear the characters needed to finish up by a certain time), so the interactions were not as good as we've had at other character meals. It was actually a little disappointing - they basically stopped at our table, posed for a quick picture, and moved on.

FWIW - Hollywood and Vine and Tusker House have been our best character meal buffet experiences.

As far as the buffet itself goes - my husband and I just took turns getting up when my son was smaller. At 3, he just walks the buffet with us now, no problem.

 

[Pluto777]

Hey folks. Does chef Mickeys & topolinos character breakfast price (I think 52 for kids over 10)? include any soft drinks?