Character Dining and best days to spend at the park

[mpadilla89]

We have done Goofys Kitchen a few times for Dinner and will Probably do it again next time we go.

We will be going in December during the Christmas holiday for 3 days at the park. We will have a 5 year old who has never been and a 10 year old who has been plenty of times but only done Goofys Kitchen.

We would like to do a one Character breakfast and one dinner. We could do two dinner instead. Daughter has always wanted to go to Minnie's Breakfast.

Which two would you choose and why?(not interested in Ariels Grotto)

We have not decided which 3 days to spend at the park. kids and I are off from Dec-23-January 6. Which days would you choose and what days would you do character dining? The only dates we do not want are tue-thur

 

[Geemo]

If we have EE/MM opportunity we like to do Plaza Inn after we hit several of the rides.
We'll book a CB for about 2 to 2.5 hours after park opening.

If we don't have EE/MM then I like to book a CB first thing when the park opens. With a reservation and a ticket you're able to get in through a special gate.

Geemo

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

The only character dinner is Goofy's, so if you want to two, breakfast is your only option.

If your daughter wants to do Minnie's, it's a good one. Definitely the most amount of characters. That said, if you didn't want to use to park time, Surfs Up at PPH would be good on departure day.

I don't have any advice on which days to go. Sorry.

 

[mpadilla89]

If we have EE/MM opportunity we like to do Plaza Inn after we hit several of the rides.
We'll book a CB for about 2 to 2.5 hours after park opening.

If we don't have EE/MM then I like to book a CB first thing when the park opens. With a reservation and a ticket you're able to get in through a special gate.

Geemo

I think that is what we will do Minnies after a MM After we get through some rides. Will probably do Goofys the night before we leave.

 

[mpadilla89]

We will be at the parks from the 22-26. We are hoping to schedule a late breakfast at Minnies on Saturday. We want to do Goofys Kitchen on Christmas eve.

Is it hard to get reservations for Christmas eve and do they do anything different or special during those days?

We are thinking about doing one more either Character dining or a lunch/dinner at a must do restaurant. Like BB(never been). If we do another character dining its either a breakfast at Surfs up or Storytellers or Lunch at Ariel's. I have ever wanted to go to Ariel's because I have heard the interaction is not that great & DD has never been interested. This year we are taking our Goddaughter with us who might appreciate it a bit more.

Between Breakfast at Storytellers or Surfs up or lunch at Ariel's Which has the better food and character interactions? Are they all considered Premium dining?

Or Should we go with a different restaurant to splurge on?

 

[ExcitedMama]

We went to Goofy's and Ariel's in 2014. I thought my DD would love Ariel's...but it was meh. The characters were fun at Goofy's but the princesses were not fun. They just went around the restaurant to the tables as if it was a choreographed thing with no deviation. My son loves The Princess and the Frog and tried to talk with Tiana but it was pretty uninteresting. I thought the princesses were more fun at the hall and in the park, like Aurora by the wishing well. Does she like the Tinkerbell fairies? They were really great at their pixieland place. I've heard great things about Minnie's so I'm going to try that on our next trip.

 

[Winnowill]

We've done Ariel's twice and have never had a complaint about our interactions with the princesses. Or the food. But it's been two years since the last time and I don't really remember much about the food other than that it was perfectly acceptable.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Our last experience with Ariel's was bad, so we won't go back. Interaction wasn't great, service was worse and Ariel wasn't there for the picture (we had Cinderella instead).

We love Surfs Up. The food is decent and the interaction is great! It's also not very crowded, so my kids get lots of time with the characters. We prefer the food at Storyteller's and the interaction is also good, but lesser known characters.

 

[mpadilla89]

We went to Goofy's and Ariel's in 2014. I thought my DD would love Ariel's...but it was meh. The characters were fun at Goofy's but the princesses were not fun. They just went around the restaurant to the tables as if it was a choreographed thing with no deviation. My son loves The Princess and the Frog and tried to talk with Tiana but it was pretty uninteresting. I thought the princesses were more fun at the hall and in the park, like Aurora by the wishing well. Does she like the Tinkerbell fairies? They were really great at their pixieland place. I've heard great things about Minnie's so I'm going to try that on our next trip.

DD is a bit grown out of her Princess/fairy phase, but she still loves seeing them around. She loves chip and Dale and finding new characters we have never seen. Goofys always has the same characters but it is a must for her and DH. She has always wanted to do Minnie's but we never wanted to waste precious morning park time. We are now much more comfortable with our way around the park and have been enough times to give up some park time.

We are for sure doing Minnies and Goofys just don't know what other one to add.

DH wants to do Storytellers, DD wants to do Surfs up, our guest would probably like Ariel's and I want to to a nice sit down table restaurant.

Decisions....

 

[mpadilla89]

Our last experience with Ariel's was bad, so we won't go back. Interaction wasn't great, service was worse and Ariel wasn't there for the picture (we had Cinderella instead).

We love Surfs Up. The food is decent and the interaction is great! It's also not very crowded, so my kids get lots of time with the characters. We prefer the food at Storyteller's and the interaction is also good, but lesser known characters.

unfortunately this is what i have heard mostly from Ariel's. When we have met any princess outside it has been great they love to chat with DD. If we are paying for a character meal i would expect them to spend more time and have more conversation with the kids since they can actually talk unlike many of the other characters.

Goofys characters are always the same but they have always spend a lot of time at our table playing and dancing and it never feels rushed which is why we keep coming back.

 

[mpadilla89]

UPDATE:
We decided on Plaza for breakfast one day, storytellers for brunch the next and Goofys for Dinner on our last night.

When going to storytellers can we go though DCA entrance? we have actually never been inside GCH.

Any other recommendations for lunch and dinner when we are not doing character dining.