Character dining for 5 adults?

[ktcov]

DH & I are talking his parents the 1st week of April & his sister is tagging along. Fort Wilderness Cabins & DDP for 5 days. I was trying to plan ADR's & wanted to do at least 1 Character meal. They are not into it. They are actually giving me a hard time about over planning.

How 1 breakfast & 1 dinner ADR is too much, I dont understand.

Do you think adults have as much fun at Character meals as kids?

 

[BabyPiglet]

Honestly....

Not as much fun, but once they get into the Disney vibe, they'll probably love eating with the characters. It takes a little bit of a nudge for adults to have fun with the characters though.

 

[mnasmom3]

Maybe you can compromise and do own character meal. I enjoy them, but it's watching my kids with the characters that I enjoy. I'm not sure I'd do a character meal on my own. I've seen many an adult having a great time though.

 

[disnut8]

Try one of the 'low keyed" character meals. Like 1900 Park Fair. It's not the napkin waving, kids all around, sounds of MICKEY HE'S HERE! type thing. Don't take them to any meal where they can't recognize the characters (ala Hollywood and Vine - who the heck are they?) We are two adults, no kids and the only character meal I would consider (after "suffering" through Chef Mickey for a one year old who didn't even know what was going on) would be 1900 Park Fair. We took two very resentful teenage boys (not mine) and they loved it. Well, not maybe "loved it" but they tolerated it and didn't sulk the whole time.

My secret? Don't tell them it's a character meal. When you get there say "Oh! That's right! Now I remember! I'm sorry but we have no other choice since we can't get any other reservation"

 

[laughinplace199]

DH & I did a few character breakfasts before we had kids. However, if I were eating at WDW without kids, a character meal would not be on my list of ADR's - at least not for dinner. The food at character meals can be decent, but I wouldn't describe it as fantastic. If I'm going to eat at WDW without kids, it would be at Jiko, Cal Grill, or somewhere like that.

If you really want to do a character meal, could you do one with your DH and then meet up with the rest of the group after? Or maybe convince everyone that getting an 8:00 AM ADR at one of the character breakfasts in the parks is a great way to beat the crowds.

 

[Allison]

We had a table of 5 or 6 adults sitting next to us at Donald's Safari over the Christmas holiday. They were having a blast. It was so fun to see them interacting with the characters. One of the guys acted like he was proposing to Daisy in front of Donald. You should have seen the reaction that got. It was a hoot. They were a really fun group and seemed to be having a great time.

 

[Aliceacc]

In the real world, planning where you were going to have dinner in 180 days WOULD be just the tiniest bit... shall we say "type A"????

But Disney isn't the real world. If you want a sit down dinner, you need to make those ADRs early.

I say make them-- give it your best shot. Once they go into that first restaurant and hear walk-ins being sent away, you'll have their undying gratitude.

 

[TexasTodds]

from Aliceacc:
But Disney isn't the real world. If you want a sit down dinner, you need to make those ADRs early.

I say make them-- give it your best shot. Once they go into that first restaurant and hear walk-ins being sent away, you'll have their undying gratitude

.

I totally agree with this!

We just got back from a week at WDW with my MIL , who is NOT a planner (Good! I don't like the competition!) I don't think she ever understood why I was killing myself to make our ADR's and plan for each day. When we got the the parks, there was always a board by guest servies that indicated what was still available each day...VERY limited choices, if any. I made sure I pointed this out to her. I think she was grateful to not have to stress over it, and was continually amazed to walk up to a restaurant, even if we were early and say the magic words...I have a reservation!

I would go ahead and plan your days, and even make MORE ADR's (of course, I would certainly space them appropriately), if they are not doing any of their own planning.

As for low-key character meals, Tusker House (we went for Breakfast) would probably be a good one, and also Garden Grill. We did have kids with us, but these were pretty calm (ok...at TH they did have the celebration dance thing, but you wouldn't HAVE to do that!)