Character Dining for 4 boys

[travelingmom4]

I'd appreciate your opinions/help with this. I've been considering reserving a character dinner (don't want to mess up touring plans with breakfast) and was wondering what are your favorites or you would recommend for 4 boys, age 14, 12, 7 and 5. But they would think it a cruel joke if we went to a princess one, so those are not an option, although I still think they'd get the most attention if we did!!

 

[caitlinnf]

I haven't been, but have heard great things about the interaction from Chip and Dale at Garden Grill. That might be a fun one for the boys.

 

[wdwrich]

Garden Grill has been mentioned by a PP, but with the 4 boys I'd also consider Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. I'm not a big fan of the food there at dinner, but the boys will most likely love the monorails gliding overhead during the meal.

 

[firstwdw]

I agree with Chef Mickey's-you also get the most characters there. We are doing Chef Mickey's on our departure day for breakfast since park tickets are not needed. I know you said dinner but we like the breakfast foods better and so in the past we've scheduled an 11:00 breakfast at Chef Mickey's on a morning when Magic Kingdom opens at 8 for early morning hours. That way we get a good amount of touring in the morning and we are ready for a break-plus you can walk to/from the Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary.

 

[travelingmom4]

ok thank you for the suggestions! I never considered doing a breakfast the last day, but we driving out so we might as well have one last moment with Mickey before we leave, thanks for the great idea!!

 

[DreamerWDW]

I would also say Chef Mickey's for either meal you choose. It's always fun!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Our son, on his 13th birthday trip, very much enjoyed the character dinner at Crystal Palace. Its the Pooh family of characters (Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore & Tigger)....so no princesses .

If you would consider a character breakfast, I would also highly recommend the Ohana Best Friends Breakfast at the Poly. Beautiful surroundings, no princesses (Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch), and the meal is served family style (brought right to your table) so its very relaxing too. Its still my DS's must-do meal on each trip, even though he's almost 18.

 

[DLFT]

Another vote for Garden Grill...in my opinion better atmosphere and food as far as dinner goes. If you're thinking breakfast Chef Mickey's is still a safe and fun choice.

 

[ttintagel]

kennythepirate dot com has a list of al the character meals. You can go there and see which one has characters they all like.

 

[SGMCO]

I think Ohana Best Friends Breakfast at the Poly is one of the best.
Also, Donalds Safari Breakfast at the Tusker House in AK. Both have very good food also. We Had dinner at Chef Mickey's and was extremely loud and food was not good at all, maybe breakfast is better. Very busy place. Garden Grill food was also lacking, but if you like school cafeteria food, that's what it reminded me of, but alot of people like it.

 

[pixarmom]

We have three boys - ages 14, 13 and 6. We've been taking them to WDW relatively frequently in recent years, and we've been doing character meals at WDW frequently since our youngest son was a year old. Since that time, their unanimous favorite character meal at WDW has been and continues to be Garden Grill.

Everyone loves the characters (Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale) and the unique nature of the restaurant with the rotating scenes from the land. We always request a booth on the lower level and that makes the whole experience far more relaxing than any other character meal on property. We love the fact that the food is served family style and comes to the table, so no need to juggle plates or get back to your table for character visits. And the character interaction has been the best we've seen at Disney - at all our boys' ages from the baby years to the teen years! And in our opinion, it's the best quality food of any character meal at WDW - not signature dining by any means, but better than most buffets. Part of the reason I enjoy it so much is that the salad and the bread is really good - always fresh and many of the ingredients are from the Land. The rest is fine, but the salad and bread are highlights (along with the sweet potato fries from the children's selections!)

Over time, we've taken the boys to Chef Mickeys for breakfast and dinner, Ohana breakfast, Tusker House breakfast, Crystal Palace breakfast, Hollywood and Vine breakfast, Akershus dinner, CRT dinner and breakfast, Cape May breakfast - many of these multiple times. We're moving toward more signature dining and non-character meals at this stage, but Garden Grill is the last character meal standing and always on our rotation!

 

[DizneyLizzy]

I took two boys (5 and 7) to Tusker House this summer, and they loved it. Mickey, Goofy, Donald, Daisy. We all had a great time, and the food was actually good.

 

[melissac]

My DS(12) votes for Ohana's breakfast everytime. Loves Stitch and gets to see Mickey too.

 

[cjj23]

Ohana

 

[cheesemouse]

I'd suggest Chef Mickey's, Garden Grill, or Tusker House. We have done all 3 of them and they were all fine. The food isn't outstanding and the atmosphere is a little bit crazy, but that's what we found all character meals to be like. It can't be helped with people in and out of their seats for pictures so much!

 

[jenjersnap]

I'd suggest Chef Mickey's, Garden Grill, or Tusker House. We have done all 3 of them and they were all fine. The food isn't outstanding and the atmosphere is a little bit crazy, but that's what we found all character meals to be like. It can't be helped with people in and out of their seats for pictures so much!

Ditto. We did all three in the past couple weeks. All were fine. TH is the overall favorite, but, after a several year break, my crew was surprisingly happy with CM. GG has always been my oldest's favorite because he loves the ride it revolves around, Living with the Land, and I enjoy the relative peace of family style, but...Having more buffet options works best for us because the limited menu is hit or miss at GG.