Character Dining Overkill?

[brooklynnbaby]

I think I already know the answer, lol. But in my defense, this is the first trip for ALL of us. So, I'm doing what I can. It'll be me, DH, and three DDs... 7, 5, and 3. We do NOT plan to get Park Hoppers unless I can find them for a great price.

Some of these are double-booked because I got lucky and found reservations for some hard to get meals - we just booked a week ago. And still not sure which ones to give up (on the canceled ressies post, of course ).

That said, I'm not having tons of luck getting dinner. The earliest ressie I could get at any place we wanted is 8:25pm.

We'll have at least six nights of meals, maybe seven.

Breakfasts:
Tusker House
Chef Mickey's
Crystal Palace
Askershus

Lunches:
Cinderella's Royal Table (debating this or Akershus because of 2 TS vs. 1 TS)
Mama Melrose (not really excited about this one...)
50's Prime Time
Whispering Canyon
Liberty Tree Tavern (1:30 ressie on the same day at Wishes Dessert/MVMCP)
Askershus

Dinners:
1900 Park Fare

 

[vicki_c]

To me, a first trip is a good reason to NOT have so many character meals. There's so much to do outside of eating! I would cut some, and I would definitely cut 1 of the 2 Akershaus meals, maybe choose either Akershaus or CRT from the ones that are left.

Aside from choosing where I really want to eat, I then pick restaurants that are convenient to where I plan on being that day. So I would focus on that aspect of it vs. anything else as a starting point. This is especially important if you don't want to pay for hoppers.

But, yes, IMO, I think you have way too many character meals - some people like that, but we usually do 1-2 per week long trip.

PS - I just realized that you need to cut out 1/2 of those if you have 6 nights of dining credits on the regular DDP. I'd definitely start slicing on the character ones, then!

 

[Guatemommy]

We are doing a lot of character meals but not as many as you - no doubles for us. DD is 4 and its her first trip. We have never done a character meal (or any TS meal) before as I always went short, commando trips till now.

We are doing:

Akershus princess dinner
GF Cinerella dinner (after BBB)
Crystal Palace breakfast
Chef Mickey breakfast
Cinderella Royal Table dinner (may still cancel this)
Tusker House Breakfast
Playhouse Disney Lunch (if we can get Fantasmic package)

This way DD will have her fill of princesses and characters and we won't be spending hours of time on line at meet and greets.

We are there for 9 nights on free DDP and also have ressies for Ohanas. If I can snag Le Cellier, I will prob remove Playhouse Disney.

Plus, if DD is satisfied with Cinderella at GF, we may cancel CRT as that is 2 TS but we will wait till we are there to decide before cancelling. There are a few DTD spots we want to try, but this trip is all about DD, so we will see.

Personally, I would not do doubles of any as there is soo much to try and I want to keep food limited to our free plan and not buy too much OOP.

 

[brooklynnbaby]

Thanks for your input!

I guess I should clarify a bit. By "doubled up", I mean I have, just as an example, breakfast booked at two character breakfasts... and need to decide which one to cancel. Make sense?

Ideally, I'd have been able to get CRT at the end of our trip so I'd have time to cancel if we got our fill of other Character meals. But right now, that's our first meal of our trip and no other spots available. I hate that it eats up 2 TS credits.

 

[IloveDisney77]

I thought I'd give my 2 cents...well maye 3. In terms of the number of character meals it all depends on what you want your first Disney experience to be. I'd gone to Disney my entire live (am 38 now) but my DW and DD5 had never been. My daughter, a princess fanatic, I knew would be more enthralled with meeting the princess/characters than doing the rides and seeing the shows(she was 3.5 at the time so there was a fair amount she couldn't ride). This trip was solely about her...well with the exception of some nice dinners for my wife and I while we put our daughter in the Neverland Club and Simba's Clubhouse.

Only you know your daughters the best...will they get more out of the character interaction or doing stuff around the park...now I do want to point out that the Princess are everywhere around the parks (especially MK and Epcot) and the interaction with them at their respective locations is usually better (as well as the pics) than you will find in the restaurants...Just something to think about. My Daughter loved all the character interaction at the meals but even more so around the parks. When I used to go, it was hard to meet/find characters...that is soooo not the case anymore...they are everywhere. Just be prepared to wait in line if you go during a busy time...we don't so lines for them are non-existent.

We did the following character meals and it wasn't overkill for us at the time:

Breakfast:
-Cyrstal Palace,
-CRT pre-park opening
-Tusker House
-O'hana (we were at Poly so that was an easy one)

Lunch
-Akershus
-CRT (yes we did it twice...my daughter is spoiled)

Dinner
-1900 Park Fair (We really didn't like it...strictly our personal experience...Others love it, do it, try it, see them dance!)

We also ate at Cal Grill, Le Cellier, Jiko, Liberty Tree, Whispering Canyon, and others...all good!!! Some (Jiko/Cal Grill) VERY good.

Personally, I would cancel Mama Melrose...it is fine if your stuck doing it tied to Fantasmic Meal but outside of that, I would pass...it isn't bad, don't get me wrong...just not really good.

Those are my thoughts...no matter what you decide you'll have a great time. Just remember, slow down, realize where you are, and really watch the expression on your children's faces as they see different things for the first time...for me, it was seeing my daughter's face light up when Spectro went by...as a grown man who loves disney...I started to cry...amazing experience...ENJOY IT!!! There is only 1 first time shocking I know!

BTW...I don't think you'll find any better deal on the hoppers...they are a standard $50 per ticket (actually 53 and change with tax).

 

[Chelley00]

We usually do one character meal a day, minus one or two "adult" meals depending on how long our trip is. We LOVE character meals and like sitting and relaxing while letting the characters come to us and not having to wait standing in a line.

Just an FYI, I think Disney is cracking down on double booked reservations and people have mentioned things getting canceled, so you might want to make a plan soon before you lose something you didn't want to lose.

 

[Melanie B]

I suggest that you don't "double" book. Many people are looking to get ressies and you're taking up two. Also there have been reports that double bookings have been flagged and canceled without notifying the person. Just a friendly heads up that this can happen.

 

[IloveDisney77]

I suggest that you don't "double" book. Many people are looking to get ressies and you're taking up two. Also there have been reports that double bookings have been flagged and canceled without notifying the person. Just a friendly heads up that this can happen.

If you re-read one of the other posts from the OP, I don't think she is double booked on the same day. I think she is referencing she booked a couple of different character breakfasts on different days and is trying to figure out what she wants....perfectly acceptable.

Also, it is renegade CM's, when people are calling in for assistance, that notice and will cancel true double bookings. For those that have them, don't call in

 

[clc053103]

Are you sure that your DC's like characters? My DS doesn't like them,and his cousins are bored with them- a trip including more than 1 character meal is too many for us! If you go to one and find your DC react poorly, you are now stuck with ALL those character meals!

 

[Melanie B]

If you re-read one of the other posts from the OP, I don't think she is double booked on the same day. I think she is referencing she booked a couple of different character breakfasts on different days and is trying to figure out what she wants....perfectly acceptable.

Also, it is renegade CM's, when people are calling in for assistance, that notice and will cancel true double bookings. For those that have them, don't call in

Ah yes. I see that now too.

 

[ekatiel]

We went on our first trip in May of '09. My Ds's were almost 5 and almost 3 at the time. DS5 would ask each morning, "Who are we eating with today, Mama?" He LOVED the character meals, and could have eaten at a chracter meal for every single meal of the trip!! We're headed back for our second trip in December. So far I have Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, Tusker House (breakfast w/ characters), and Akershus booked as our chracter meals for the trip. If your kiddos like chracters, I'm of the mindset that you can't book too many! --Katie

 

[brooklynnbaby]

Just an FYI, I think Disney is cracking down on double booked reservations and people have mentioned things getting canceled, so you might want to make a plan soon before you lose something you didn't want to lose.

Yeah, I've read about that... but I don't have any double-booked in that sense. I do have two spots at Akershus for different meals, but we will only do one - just not sure which one yet and I'd like to decide.

I really appreciate everyone's input!

 

[scribega]

We love going to character meals. This is what we have for our upcoming 7 day/6 night trip with our DS3 & DD6:
Hollywood & Vine
Akershus
Chef Mickey
1900 Park Fare
Crystal Palace

This gives us a wide range of characters. To me, Chef Mickey and Tusker House are similar characters different outfits. Akershus and CRT is similar characters different setting. Our only other TS meal is La Cellier.

 

[shannonstar]

Last year we did:
Chef Mickey's
1900 Fare Park
Tusker House
Hollywood & Vine
Cinderella's Table
Crystal Palace
Garden Grill

We did end up cancelling two others, Ohana's and Akershus, but only because my son was princessed out and Ohana's didn't really fit into our plan for the day.
My DS6 at the time was more than happy to eat with the characters each time. It didn't seem like too much to him and so this year will be similar.

NOV 2010
Garden Grill (his choice)
Tusker House (his choice)
Hollywood & Vine (so he can be 1st at Jedi Training)
Crystal Palace (his choice)
Akershus (so mommy can still see princesses)
Ohana's (he wants to see Stitch)
Cape May Cafe (have heard it's quiet and a good alternative to Chef Mickey's)

My son said he would rather eat at a restaurant and have the characters come by than have to wait in line to get their autograph when he could be on rides or watching shows.
So, I guess to him (and us) there is no such thing as too many character meals.

Now if only Disney would add a Pixar character meal, and a Jungle book one for my DH, we wouldn't have to wait in any character lines ever.

 

[ratlenhum]

We love character meals. We're going next week and doing CRT, Donalds Safari Breakfast, Akershus and CP. I'd do more but they don't fit in our plans.

CRT is for dinner. I have an 8 year old boy and we're doing it because I want to eat in the castle. I'd dressing him up as prince charming. Poor kid

I love doing breakfast meals. We always do them at the ones in the parks, and get a time that will have us finishing just about time for the park to open. This way we are in with no crowds, get great pictures in the park, get character pics, and we're done and in the park before the crowd gets in the gate.

 

[PoohsFan1]

To us you are not doing too many character meals, but you are talking to a family who would much rather do character meals than to stand in line to get the same character's autographs and pictures. For our trip in September we are doing Akershus breakfast, 1900 Park Fare Breakfast, Cape May Cafe Breakfast, CRT dinner, Crystal Palace Breakfast, and Tusker House Breakfast.

However for you, I think you may want to consider either doing Akershus breakfast or Akershus lunch, doing both may be a little overkill. Personally we love the breakfast over lunch or dinner. Also, another great breakfast that you don't have mentioned that is a Disney Gem is Cape May Cafe Breakfast at the Beach Club. There you will see Minnie, Donald, and Goofy decked out in their beach attire. Also the food is always hot and fresh and the service is one of the best. Have a great first trip.