Character dining question

[kellia]

We are staying off site, but I was wondering if we can go to the character dining on our 'off' day. How long do the meals last? I hate to waste time from the parks! Are they all located inside the park, or are there some that are outside?

Please forgive me, I was at Disney for 1 day 15 years ago, so I know nothing about it and looking over all of the info is a little overwhelming! I thought I saw somewhere that you could go to some restaurants and if you just went for the meal, you didn't need a parkticket and you would get parking validated?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Bob P]

Hi,

Here is a complete list. There are plenty of charcter meals that are not in the parks.

http://allearsnet.com/din/cb.htm

You'll want to make an ADR for any character meal. People have been making ADRs for February since August, so the prime times may be booked solid.

I would allow about 45 minutes to an hour, though you can certainly rush through it if you have to/want to.

 

[3DisneyKids]

allearsnet is the best site, agreed.

There are several character meals at resorts, though I would give yourslef about 60 - 90 minutes for the meal, plus transportation time. Of course, it all depends on crowd levels and on how leisurely you like to spend at the table, but I don't think we've ever had a character meal that lasted less than an hour.

 

[twinspluscade]

I think--but I'm not 100% sure--that for a character meal inside the park you would need park tickets to get in. But...there are several that are outside the park. Two that I hear mentioned quite a bit on DIS are "Chef Mickey's"--located at the Contemporary resort--and 1900 Park Faire--a Cinderella dinner at the Grand Floridian. We've never eaten at either, but plan to our next trip.
I'm not sure how they do that with parking--we stayed on-site our last trip.

Kelly

 

[Bob P]

I think--but I'm not 100% sure--that for a character meal inside the park you would need park tickets to get in. Kelly

Yes, that's correct.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

You can have breakfast or dinner at Chef Mickey's -- so you could either begin your day earlier or end it later and still not miss much time at the parks.

 

[ndgqmiller]

The character meals really made our trip. My husband did not want to go to any of them. Thought they were a waste of time and money. We are planning our next trip and he has already booked three. Here's my favorite.
Chef Mickeys and Liberty Tree
I want to go to 1900 and Crystal Palace. If I were you I would try to go to atleast one. Have fun!

 

[kellia]

Thanks everyone!

I got our reservations with Chef Mickey for breakfast our first day there. Hope that isn't too much to hit them with first thing, now I am debating on if I should change it! LOL, I have to overthink everything!

 

[LaraK]

We love character meals and are doing five our next trip. One of the nice things about the meals is that you can eat and meet characters (thereby negating the need to wait in an hour long line to see those characters in the parks). Chef Mickey has a great breakfast, enjoy!

 

[sgmom]

Out of our ADR's, everyone loved the character meals the best. And since they are buffet, you should be able to accomodate every eater.

We had booked the Chef Mickey's for dinner, but because of a conflict to go to Hoop Dee Doo, we had to cancel it. However, we had a 11:30 lunch at Crystal Palace with Pooh and Friends and dinner at 1900 Park Fare with Cinderella. Our entire group (9 of us) loved both of these! Do plan to be there at least an hour, as each character makes their way to your table. They have a set direction to go to ensure they hit all tables, but are good about going right to the little ones, signing autographs, posing for a photo, etc.

DD2.5 kept looking around for Prince Charming and asking "when is my prince coming?"

 

[3DisneyKids]

Thanks everyone!

I got our reservations with Chef Mickey for breakfast our first day there. Hope that isn't too much to hit them with first thing, now I am debating on if I should change it! LOL, I have to overthink everything!

I LOVE starting our trip this way! We don't do a park on our arrival day (too tired from all the travel), but going to a character meal gets us immersed in the magic right away!

 

[crisi]

Thanks everyone!

I got our reservations with Chef Mickey for breakfast our first day there. Hope that isn't too much to hit them with first thing, now I am debating on if I should change it! LOL, I have to overthink everything!

How old are your kids? Some kids - particularly in the two - four age range, can be spooked by characters. For kids that you suspect might have that problem, its probably a good idea to delay a charater meal until later in the trip - that way you can cancel if you have a "screamer."

We had a three year old "character avoider" - which meant he just didn't want to get close to them. We have lots of pictures of his sister hugging Minnie, while his Mom holds him and he looks the other direction trying to ignore the huge mouse.

 

[KimK2006]

You said you made reservations at Chef Mickey's the first morning you are there. Are you going to go to a park after breakfast? If so, keep in mind that the mornings in the parks are the least crowded time of the day. You might want to re-schedule for a breakfast or dinner on an "off" day. We either do Chef Mickey's on the evening we arrive or an "off" day for dinner. (We choose dinner so the kids can sleep in on our "off" day.) Also, if you go on your "off" day, you can also enjoy the shops at the Contemporary Resort and take the Monorial for a ride around the loop. My kids love this!

You will love Chef Mickey's! My kids are 11 and 7. We go there every year and they never get tired of it.

1900 Park Fare is also really good. My daughter (11) loves it, but my son (7) isn't into the "Princess" thing.