Character Dining Question

[rachel09985]

Question..

I am going to Disney with my boyfriend's family in September. He has a three year old nephew and the three year old and parents will be going to a couple of charachter dining restaurants that i don't really want to eat at. Do they have a policy of going in and not eating but just sitting with the diners and watching for like 10 minutes?? I really want to see him interact with the characters but don't want to eat there. Not really sure what they would say about that. Thanks!!

 

[vicki_c]

At the buffets/fixed price meals, if you're there, you're paying. They would have no way of making sure that you didn't eat anything from the buffet, so they will charge you.

As for the 10 minute thing - I suppose you could ask at the podium if they would let you in for a few minutes, but I'm thinking they won't. Same reason - once you're there - how would they know that you wouldn't be helping yourself to the buffet? But you could always try and see what they say.

 

[cnjmom]

The other problem would be that you'd have no way of knowing how long you'd wait to see any character interaction. We ate at three characters meals last week and in our experience, the character visits didn't start right up. I don't think any of them visited in the first 10 minutes. You might be waiting around 20, and that would just be for the first one of 3-5 to stop by.

 

[Tinkerbella001]

You could be on the reservation with them, and then just tell the server you don't feel well and are not going to eat. If they have a problem with it they might just ask you to leave. I think they won't if everyone else in your party is eating. This happened to me at Cape May...only I really was ill. They did not charge my DDP credit. Of course it was left over at the end cuz I didn't go eat anywhere else solo...

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I think if you just popped in after they were eating but don't sit you might be able to stay a minute. You would have to ask them at the podium if they would let you. But since it's a buffet they might not let you. This is a hard call.

 

[catne]

I've seen people turned away in similar situations -- once it was the grandparents who just wanted to come in & take the grandkids' pictures with the characters -- they even had the confirmation number for the resort restaurant the grandparents were eating dinner at an hour later -- but still were told no, sorry they couldn't come in to the buffet without a seat, and they would be charged for the seat even if they didn't eat. Another time it was a dad arguing that he should not be charged for the two kids who slept through the whole meal -- one toddler in a stroller (which I don't thing they charge for kids under 3 anyway) but the other was a 7 or 8 year old that fell asleep at the table & slept curled up on the bench seat. Sounded to me like they were charging him, regardless.

Doesn't hurt to ask, just be prepared for it to go against you, maybe.

 

[rachel09985]

Thanks for the great advice everyone! I kind of figured it would be that way. At least I get to see him at Chef Mickey's (at least I hope so!!!)

 

[xchristinax]

When me and my boyfriend went for the first time in November, he REALLY REALLY wanted to see Piglet. I kept asking around where we could find Piglet and they kept saying the main spot would be the Crystal Palace. So we went up to the door and asked if we could just meet Piglet. At first, she said no, but we told her it was our first time to WDW and she personally took us in to take pictures with Piglet and then we left. It was so awesome of the CM to do that. We were in and out in about 3 minutes. Very cool.