Character Dining: best and worst?

[Banana Pancakes]

Please tell me your favorite/least favorite character dines based upon both food and interaction/experience. It's our first trip and there are so many choices!

 

[eastendlights]

Best-Garden Grill and Cape May Café for breakfast, Tusker House, Garden Grill and CRT for lunch, Garden Grill for dinner (same menu as lunch)
Worst-Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's-any meal

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Worst for me was breakfast at Cape May Cafe, followed by breakfast at Chef Mickey's, best for me is breakfast at Crystal Palace, followed by any meal at Tusker House, Akershus, or Cinderella's Royal Table.

 

[honeybunches]

Best- Garden Grill dinner
Worst - CRT (but being in the castle was worth it)

 

[Coconuts]

Our favorites:

TH - good food selection, delicious juice, fun character interaction with a parade, but can be crowded and hectic

CP - fantastic location, pretty room, omelet bar, kid size buffett table, puffed French toast is yummy

Akershus - a girl's dream if she likes princesses, cheesy potatoes are delicious

 

[TheRustyScupper]

OUR WDW CHARACTER MEAL & BUFFET RANKINGS (*rev: March 2016*):
Results are listed from best to worst
Best Food (quality first, then variety):
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Ohana
. . . Garden Grill
. . . Tusker House, breakfast-Lunch (moved from #1 Spot due to menu changes)
. . . Garden Grove Swan-dinner
. . . Akershus Royal Banquet
. . . Tusker House, Dinner
. . . Cape May Café
. . . Hollywood & Vine
. . . Crystal Palace
. . . Cinderella Royal Table (since new menu)
. . . Chef Mickey's
Best Character Interaction (time with guest first, then friendliness):
. . . Tusker House, Breakfast-Lunch
. . . Akershus Royal Banquet
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Garden Grill
. . . Tusker House, Dinner
. . . Ohana
. . . Garden Grove (Swan, dinner)
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Chef Mickey's
. . . Cape May Café
. . . Hollywood & Vine
. . . Cinderella Royal Table
. . . Crystal Palace (barely enough time for a photo)
Best Atmosphere (surroundings and ambiance):
. . . Cinderella Royal Table
. . . Tusker House, Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner
. . . Akershus Royal Banquet
. . . Ohana
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Garden Grill
. . . Crystal Palace
. . . Hollywood & Vine
. . . Cape May Café
. . . Garden Grove (Swan, dinner)
. . . Chef Mickey's
.
NOTE1: Results are listed from best to worst. Overall, Tusker House wins due to best food and the length of time the characters stay at each table. A close second is 1900 Park Fare. By far, Chef Mickey's is the loser, due to mediocre character interaction and almost terrible food quality. The very distant second worst is Cinderella Royal Table, for brief time at tables by characters and the new menu. For non-character breakfast buffets, we prefer The Wave (CR) or Trail's End (FW).

 

[SouthernBuckeye]

Best: Cape May breakfast, Tusker House
Worst: Cinderella's Happily Ever After was the worst we've had. The food wasn't very good and unfortunately we were in the small room off to the side. Others seem to really like it, so maybe we just got an off night. It was just Prince Charming, Cinderella and Lady Tremaine. Tremaine was fantastic! She was the definitely the highlight.

 

[Candycane83]

OUR WDW CHARACTER MEAL & BUFFET RANKINGS (*rev: March 2016*):
Results are listed from best to worst
Best Food (quality first, then variety):
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Ohana
. . . Garden Grill
. . . Tusker House, breakfast-Lunch (moved from #1 Spot due to menu changes)
. . . Garden Grove Swan-dinner
. . . Akershus Royal Banquet
. . . Tusker House, Dinner
. . . Cape May Café
. . . Hollywood & Vine
. . . Crystal Palace
. . . Cinderella Royal Table (since new menu)
. . . Chef Mickey's
Best Character Interaction (time with guest first, then friendliness):
. . . Tusker House, Breakfast-Lunch
. . . Akershus Royal Banquet
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Garden Grill
. . . Tusker House, Dinner
. . . Ohana
. . . Garden Grove (Swan, dinner)
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Chef Mickey's
. . . Cape May Café
. . . Hollywood & Vine
. . . Cinderella Royal Table
. . . Crystal Palace (barely enough time for a photo)
Best Atmosphere (surroundings and ambiance):
. . . Cinderella Royal Table
. . . Tusker House, Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner
. . . Akershus Royal Banquet
. . . Ohana
. . . 1900 Park Fare
. . . Garden Grill
. . . Crystal Palace
. . . Hollywood & Vine
. . . Cape May Café
. . . Garden Grove (Swan, dinner)
. . . Chef Mickey's
.
NOTE1: Results are listed from best to worst. Overall, Tusker House wins due to best food and the length of time the characters stay at each table. A close second is 1900 Park Fare. By far, Chef Mickey's is the loser, due to mediocre character interaction and almost terrible food quality. The very distant second worst is Cinderella Royal Table, for brief time at tables by characters and the new menu. For non-character breakfast buffets, we prefer The Wave (CR) or Trail's End (FW).

@TheRustyScupper im not OP but I wanted to ask you which 1900 Park Fare meal is better? Breakfast or dinner? Thanks!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Best: Cape May breakfast, Tusker House
Worst: Cinderella's Happily Ever After was the worst we've had. The food wasn't very good and unfortunately we were in the small room off to the side. Others seem to really like it, so many we just got an off night. It was just Prince Charming, Cinderella and Lady Tremaine. Tremaine was fantastic! She was the definitely the highlight.

Do you mean 1900 Park Fare? CRT is in the castle and is all princesses, the prince and Lady Tremaine are at 1900.

@TheRustyScupper im not OP but I wanted to ask you which 1900 Park Fare meal is better? Breakfast or dinner? Thanks!

I liked breakfast better there. The character interaction, though different characters, was good at both meals, but I thought the food was better at breakfast.

 

[Arielismyfave]

We ate at Crystal Palace PPO, CRT lunch, Chef Mickey brunch, Garden Grill PPO our last trip.

Favorite was Crystal Palace, and we would do it again in a heartbeat! Walking down empty Main Street and getting those photopass pictures was amazing. The character interaction was great and the food was pretty good for buffet.

Garden grill was good. The characters made it around several times, and we had our fill of the delicious food. It was nice to go right to Soarin afterwards and have a minimal wait.

Chef mickeys was good. It took awhile for all the characters to make it around, but we went prior to MVMCP so we weren't in a rush per se. The food was pretty good too.

CRT was eh. Eating in the castle was nice and I'm glad we did it, but we will not return. The character interaction was great, didn't take long at all for them to circulate to each table. The wishing star and sword were nice souvenirs. However the food was not good at all.

 

[melana]

I would say my favorites (because it is hard to choose between the two) would be CRT and 1900 Park Fare. We did these our first trip about 7 years ago and I have had a hard time finding a place to top the experience and the food. The only place that came close to this was O'Hana last year.
Worst- Tusker House lunch- two trips ago (2 years). Something was just off about the food. The character interaction was great but the food was just a little off. We had been there before and it was great but the second time around no so much. Doesn't mean that if I try it again I will have a different experience.

I haven't done a lot of character meals while at WDW. My niece is outgrowing the characters and it seems each trip we have leass and less character experiences. .I really want to try some others and hopefully will get to do that when I go by myself in December. I have no apologies for being 38 years old and still enjoying meeting the characters!! I can't go a trip and not see Pooh or Eeyore!!

 

[SouthernBuckeye]

Do you mean 1900 Park Fare? CRT is in the castle and is all princesses, the prince and Lady Tremaine are at 1900.

Yes, 1900 Park Fare. I wrote the name of the dinner, Cinderella's Happily Ever After, since the Supercalifragilistic breakfast at 1900 Park Fare is a totally different experience.

 

[Banana Pancakes]

Thanks so much for all of your detailed replies!!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

@TheRustyScupper im not OP but I wanted to ask you which 1900 Park Fare meal is better? Breakfast or dinner? Thanks!

Dinner character interaction is good. The highlights are the dinner ugly-step-sisters. They are usually a riot - and I seldom give such accolades.
For little kiddies, I would gladly trade the mediocre dinner food quality for the character interaction. It seems the food is not as kid-friendly as breakfast.

 

[Candycane83]

Dinner character interaction is good. The highlights are the dinner ugly-step-sisters. They are usually a riot - and I seldom give such accolades.
For little kiddies, I would gladly trade the mediocre dinner food quality for the character interaction. It seems the food is not as kid-friendly as breakfast.

Thanks @TheRustyScupper I may reconsider my plans and fit that in for dinner!

 

[Mattysmom]

Kids looking forward to Chef Mickey and H&V.

 

[scurvyfreedman]

Obviously it depends on the ages of your kids. The parade of Pooh and friends at Crystal Palace was one of the highlights for my daughters when they were 5 1/2 and 2 1/2. For breakfast the food was solid and good for picky eater kids. They also loved lunch at Tusker House for the characters, but hardly ate a thing. The Disney Jr. characters were different three years ago at Hollywood and Vine. Jake and Handy Manny were the same, but they would have greatly preferred Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First who are there now. We waited 1.5 hours to meet Sofia instead. Food at H&V was mediocre at best and despite ADR, we waited 40 minutes for a table. The breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table was not as good as many report. I was disappointed. For the kids, the experience was great. It was like endless Princesses stopping by.

We're going back when they are 8 1/2 and 5 1/2. Only doing Askershus for characters unless you count BoG for dinner to see the Beast.

 

[Beamerball]

We preferred Ohana! The character interaction was fun, love stitch. We also liked that it was family style and didn't have to keep getting up and down for a buffet. The breakfast food was good, although I wish they had Tonga toast. But the juice is amazing!

 

[goofy4prez]

My favorites for character dining are:

• Cape May - very good and non rushed. They do make their way around pretty easily.
• Crystal Palace - They may take a bit of time for all of them to get to the table, but it has not been rushed and love Pooh and Friends. Absolutely love the breakfast lasagna.
• Tusker House - The food is average for a buffet (big complement) and the characters are a lot of fun. Nice place to see Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Daisy. And the place is not a mad zoo like Chef Mickey is.

My least favorite

• Any character buffet that is a lunch/dinner... Not one of them is something that I care to eat.
  • The worst of the worst- CHEF MICKEY... I won't even go there for breakfast; most miserable food I've tasted in WDW and near the top of the list anywhere including Golden Corral.

 

[Shellyb84]

Our favorite is lunch at Crystal Palace. The food is the best of the buffets we've been too, and Pooh and friends are great. I've heard their breakfast is great and am really trying to get a reservation for breakfast in July! 2nd favorite is TH breakfast.

For the worst, I would say it's a tie between H&V and CRT.