Character Dining Help

[wheredreamsbegin]

My DD5 and DD3 want to eat with so many characters! I'm trying to squeeze in as many character meals as possible while also trying to eat the best food. We definitely want to eat with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald. If possible, I would like to try to cover all of these characters in two character meals. We are considering meals at Chef Mickey's, Cape May, and Tusker House. Any thoughts? Which restaurants have the best character interaction, atmosphere, and food?

Thanks!

 

[KatMark]

We've only done Chef Mickey's (although we are trying Cape May Cafe this year so we can see Chip and Dale). We always had GREAT character interaction at Chef Mickey's.

 

[mom of princessx2]

Have not done any of the ones you mentioned but did do Garden Grill. Includes farmer Mickey, Pluto and Chip & Dale. It is nice atmosphere (resturant slowly revolves over The Land in Epcot) and is a bit more quiet than others. Character interaction was great. Of course we also did 1900 Park Fare for Cinderella. That was good as well and nice to visit GF.
I don't think you could go wrong with any of them.

 

[CTKris10]

Chef Mickey's will be GREAT for your little ones. It is very nicely themed, and they have a wonderful ice cream buffet with every topping imaginable! I absolutely love the atmosphere, and it is by far my favorite character meal!

Cape May is another great place because it isn't very well-known. The characters spend a very long time at each table, and the interaction is priceless. Cape May covers their table tops with paper, and the characters usually grab crayons and color with the kids. If you're looking for a low key character experience, this is a great meal. We usually go for breakfast, but their clam bake is good too, and this is coming from somebody who doesn't eat any seafood!

I haven't been to Tusker house since it was called Donald's Breakfast-o-saurus, but it is fun to see the characters dressed up in safari gear. Since they only served breakfast when I went, it tended to be very popular and felt a little rushed.

 

[ILuvCrush]

Chef Mickeys is the best.. you'll get Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald all in 1 stop!...
If you're going prior to 09 then Liberty tree tavern is good too... no Mickey or Donald but you do get Chip and Dale.

Crystal Palace at MK is great for the 1000 acre wood crowd..Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet any time of the day..bfast, lunch or dinner... just be warned...it's a little uncomfortable to eat bacon with Piglet around

The food is good at all 3... they're my top picks for Princessless character meals!

paula

 

[RllngRckBrw]

In my opinion Chef Mickey's dinner cant be beat for all of your criteria. I really enjoyed the food and it was very interactive.

 

[maddymae'smom]

I agree...Chef Mickey!

 

[divawife]

Chef Mickey for dinner and Crystal Palace for breakfast. The Palace covers all the Pooh characters, is really bright and beautiful and the buffet is great-something for everyone. Chef Mickey-ask to eat in the main area when you get there even if you have to wait for a table. The side area (near the buffets) are ok but get the main if you can.
At Chef Mickey ask the photographer to take your pic with your own camera in addition to the one she takes in front of the big Chef Mickey plate (no characters in the photo but it is cute) then you don't have to buy the picture.
It doesn't matter where you sit in the Crystal Palace it is all good. There is even a little parade that your kids can participate in.
Those are your best bets if you need to only do 2 table service character meals.

I chose them because Crystal Palace is already inside the MK and Chef Mickey is a monorail ride away from MK

 

[divawife]

Are you doing any Princess meals? You have 2 DD's right? Are they bringing any princess outfits with them (Hint Hint). If you can't get the castle or don't want to do 2 TS go to Princess Storybook breakfast or lunch in Norway in EPCOT(Cinderella maybe will be there but maybe not) or Grand Floridian for dinner with Cinderella.

 

[wheredreamsbegin]

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to help me sort all of this out! I am enjoying reading everyone's opinions/suggestions. Please keep them coming!

We are doing a princess breakfast (hopefully!) I'm going to try for CRT. We ate there on our last visit to the World and loved it! The girls enjoyed walking through the park dressed as princesses and it was fun to see Snow White comment on their dresses! (They were dressed as Snow White.) Because we did enjoy CRT so much, I'm afraid to try any other princess dining experience. My daughter wants to eat with as many princesses as possible. If anyone can share thoughts on the other princess meals, I would appreciate that too!

Thanks again!

 

[wheredreamsbegin]

I would love to know more about the breakfast at 1900 Park Fare too.

 

[wheredreamsbegin]

Crystal Palace at MK is great for the 1000 acre wood crowd..Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet any time of the day..bfast, lunch or dinner... just be warned...it's a little uncomfortable to eat bacon with Piglet around

paula

Now how in the world am I going to be able to eat bacon at CP!

 

[wdwmickey]

We ate Christmas breakfast at the princess storybook meal in Norway. Belle (in her red velvet ballgown) greeted us at the door and we had our picture taken. Aurora, Jasmine, Mulan, and Cinderella. The food was great!! This was DD 12s favorite meal of our trip. You eat inside a castle (not THE castle), there is a buffet with pastries and fruits, they serve the hot food (eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon) family style and will bring you as much as you want. The princesses spent a few minutes with us. We had so much fun

 

[Mickeyistheman]

You might also want to try the Character Breakfast at the Animal Kingdom

They have Donald, Mickey, Pluto and Goofy and from the last time that I had went that was the only place to see Donald and it was a blast. Food was great as was the ambiance.

Good Luck!

 

[gigi1313]

if mega-princesses is your goal, then go for akershus in norway... any meal, although we prefer the latest breakfast (so we can ride soarin' w/ no line!)... there are usuallly half a dozen "princesses" there (in quotes 'cause i don't consider mulan, wendy or mary poppins princesses LOL)

 

[ceese]

Just got back last week from the world. Our character meals were at Chef MIckey's and 1900 Park Fare. Cinderella and company was wonderful!! Great food great server great interaction. Chef Mickey's for us was a great disappointment. They are re-doing the Contemporary so it's kinda in upheaval before you get in. Once we did we saw our waitress like 3 times and she got 3 of the 4 drinks wrong. Also, it was like pulling teeth to get to see Mickey and Donald. We had finished our meals and were ready to leave but our dd's would have been very disappointed so we waited. hopefully ours was the exception.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

My DD5 and DD3 want to eat with so many characters! I'm trying to squeeze in as many character meals as possible while also trying to eat the best food. We definitely want to eat with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald. If possible, I would like to try to cover all of these characters in two character meals. We are considering meals at Chef Mickey's, Cape May, and Tusker House. Any thoughts? Which restaurants have the best character interaction, atmosphere, and food?

Thanks!

We have done them all.
Definately do chef Mic's
Tusker in Ak very nice
and Cape May is at Beach Club
So they are both good Cape May is more on the quiet side but very nice.
You won't go wrong with either one.

 

[divawife]

I have not been to 1900 Park Faire at the GF but want to next time. I understand the dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming (don't see him very often!), the "evil" stepsisters and mom is very good. And you will see Cinderella.

Norway Princess Storybook is a great experience but...Cinderella only shows up once in a while and not for the main picture. It seems that Belle in her formal yellow gown is the picture more often than not but I have heard Ariel in her gown (and legs LOL!) sometimes is the picture princess. So if Cindy is your goal better off with CRT or dinner at Park Faire (lunch at Park Faire is not Cinderella). I believe the picture package is already paid for like CRT.

Norway has gotten a bunch of differing reviews. We went for lunch. It drives me crazy when people call the food "wierd" because it is different. I happen to love smoked fish so the apps buffet was my dream. Basically the appetizer buffet has "regular" stuff like Mickey pasta salad, mild cheese, some salami, regular lettuce salads but it also has smoked herring and lox. The lunch items are fine-the salmon sandwhich was very good if you are not experimental. The waitstaff was very nice, from Norway and the dessert is very good also. If your family is not into something a little different than go for breakfast. You will be safe with the food items.

If you sit in the main area (and you may have to wait for that) it feels and looks more like a castle. However, we sat on the side and it was just fine. You just wouldn't have a clue you were supposed to be in a castle.
The princesses were terrific, we saw Cinderella (yep the big cheese herself was going table to table), Ariel in gown, Jasmine and Sleeping Beauty.
They were all gracious and stopped for a long time.

Here is the thing-we had early lunch ADRs at 11:20 am. We had to wait a short time for them to clean up breakfast-they do it in rotation, the have late ADR breakfast people still in the main room as they clean up the side room for the early lunch ADRs. We had time to change the girls into their costumes and pose for some pics before we were called in. We did eat in the side room but really it was fine. I wouldn't be upset about the side room esp if your emphasis to the girls is the princess experience rather that the castle.

I would suggest the Norway breakfast or lunch but get an early lunch. After we went in it really started to get very crazed out in the check in area and when we left it was the height of the lunches and we could barely get out the immediate area.

We are not early birds so we got to EPCOT around 10:00 am, ran to get Soarin FP, went quickly into the Nemo ride and then went to Norway going left towards the World Showcase.

Also, I already wrote about this but breakfast at the Crystal Palace was one of our highlights. ADR was at 9:20, we had to wait for about 15 minutes but you can take pictures by a fence right in front of the check in area because it has a great shot of the Castle behind you. It is bright and cheerful which is great in the morning. I found the breakfast buffet to be very good, if something wasn't hot or almost gone just mention it and more will appear. The characters had handlers which was very helpful so that they don't get monopolized. They were lots of fun and very patient.

BTW we had very late ADR for Chef Mickey- at 8:20 pm! I found that these off times work pretty well.

 

[wheredreamsbegin]

Wow! These boards really are fantastic! I can't believe how much information someone can get just by asking a couple of simple questions.

I am thinking that we will try to do Cape May, Crystal Palace, 1900 Park Fare, and Tusker House for breakfast. We are going to try to get to Hollywood and Vine for lunch. Now I have to decide what to do about the princesses and Chef Mickey's. That's a lot of character meals. Anybody think this is too many?

 

[gigi1313]

imo it's not too many character meals, but you may get sick of buffets... they all begin to look alike, and as the mom i rarely get to eat my buffet food when it's hot (helping kids, potty trips, autograph books, photo ops, etc...) ergo, i prefer family style like norway, garden grill, ltt, 'ohana breakfast (w/stitch)...