Character dining - what am I missing?

[tentaguasu]

I've been to Disney twice in recent years and have an absolute blast.

One thing I've never done is character dining. Everyone seems really hyped up about it, but I don't quite see the attraction.

What makes it special, fun, or unique? Or is it simply the opportunity to have a character wandering around at the meal?

As an adult, I enjoy the characters, but it's not a big deal to me. My younger son might enjoy it...

I guess I want to know - am I missing out?

 

[Jerseyguy's Wife]

We do character dining because our boys want to see the characters and interact with them, and we are unwilling to wait in lines to do this. While you can't see every character this way, you can see lots. My boys love having breakfast "with" Stitch and being in the parade. Do I need to have breakfast with Mickey? Nope. But I would miss it if we never did it again. I recommend trying it at least once, especially if you have younger children.

 

[IndySam]

It's a good way to get character pictures without waiting in line. And they usually provide a litle bit of enertainment for the kids during the meal. The Pooh characters lead the kids on a parade through the Crystal Palace, for example.

 

[tentaguasu]

The Pooh characters lead the kids on a parade through the Crystal Palace, for example.

I think my kid would enjoy that.... where can I get more info?

 

[Wadecool]

We have breakfast at CRT one day and breakfast at CP another day. DD3 is going to lose her mind!

 

[IndySam]

One other hidden benefit - you can book a character breakfast at Crystal Palace, Tusker House, Akershus, Cinderella's Royal Table, and Hollywood & Vine and get into the parks up to an hour before they open up to everyone else. Gives you a chance to beat the crowds and get some great pictures.

 

[dolphindan1]

One other hidden benefit - you can book a character breakfast at Crystal Palace, Tusker House, Akershus, Cinderella's Royal Table, and Hollywood & Vine and get into the parks up to an hour before they open up to everyone else. Gives you a chance to beat the crowds and get some great pictures.

perfect advice...we always schedule and hour before park opening...we get to get into an empty park snap pics, meet characters, get a good meal, and be ahead of the Rope drop crowds...also the big breakfast really elimiates lunch for us so we eat a early dinner and good for the day...

Our favorite is Donalds breakfast at Tusker house at Animal Kingdom...Also Cinderella's Royal Table is in the castle in Magic Kingdom...cant beat that

 

[LaurenT]

I think my kid would enjoy that.... where can I get more info?

Just go to disneyworld.com and click on dining and then search for character meals.
We always do a couple. One is ALWAYS Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. The food is very good, the characters are dressed in safari gear which is really cute, Goofy hands out instruments and leads the kids in a parade, and we get 8:05 am ADR's - so we finish leisurely and walk out of the restaurant before rope drop and when it's time, we stroll right onto Kilimanjaro Safari - we've been in the first truck out a couple of times.

 

[CathieArms]

I've been to Disney twice in recent years and have an absolute blast.

One thing I've never done is character dining. Everyone seems really hyped up about it, but I don't quite see the attraction.

What makes it special, fun, or unique? Or is it simply the opportunity to have a character wandering around at the meal?

As an adult, I enjoy the characters, but it's not a big deal to me. My younger son might enjoy it...

I guess I want to know - am I missing out?

My kids (15 and 5) really enjoy the character meals. They're just plain fun, and it give them (really the little guy) a chance to meet the characters without having to stand in line to do so. There's nothing worse than standing in line while everyone else is doing Space Mountain!

 

[jpolak]

I think my kid would enjoy that.... where can I get more info?

Here is a link with some good info:http://allears.net/din/cb.htm

 

[mom2rtk]

We also love the character meals before park opening. But having one mid-day has its advantages too. It's a great way to get off your feet in the air conditioning (or heat as we discovered in December!) but stay in the park absorbing Disney magic!

Our new tradition is to visit the Magic Kingdom the day of a party (Christmas or Halloween) and have dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table. It breaks the day into 2 parts for us and gives us that rest time to regroup for the evening ahead. We take the earliest seating so we're out before 6. We grab our wristbands, get some photos in front of the castle then stake out our first party destination!

 

[Suellen]

We feel like this:

We are going to eat anyway. The kids are going to want to meet the characters anyway. Why not do those two things at one time. This way we aren't spending park time waiting in line to see characters.

I also dispute the fact that character meals take longer than QS meals. Not with my kiddos. It is a wash either way.

 

[Disney Crazy Debbie]

I love doing the character meals and even though my son was 16 the last time we went he still enjoyed the meals and getting his picture taken with the characters. Besides, I just like to watch the little ones meeting up with their favorite characters...it's magical!

 

[imthatgirl]

I guess I'll be the only one....you're missing mediocre(at best) food at messy buffets.

But yes you do meet the characters. And you pay for that, not the food. With small children it is certainly something to experience.

 

[imthatgirl]

I also dispute the fact that character meals take longer than QS meals. Not with my kiddos. It is a wash either way.

I will agree with this. they don't take longer, because it's a buffet. With the food already sitting there waiting for you you possibly save time.

 

[twinspluscade]

We only do the character meals because we have kids who want to see those particular characters, and I hate having to wait in line in the parks to meet them. The character meals just make it easier.

If we didn't have young kids, I wouldn't bother with them, but that's just me.

 

[MissSkellington]

Well for us, our DS has Asperger's and being able to allow him to interact with some of the characters in a more relaxed setting (rather than gathering in the mob out in the park) is a def. bonus for us and him...you get more one on one time, they goof around and often play around with the kids in ways that being in the park and rushed thru a line of guests won't allow.

Last year in Disneyland at breakfast, DS asked Minnie if he could have a balloon, so she took him by the hand, they went off together to get him a balloon and she walked around with him hand in hand for a good 5-10 minutes in the Plaza Inn, just being sweet and playing...an experience he wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

That alone makes it worth the cost of the meal.

 

[MelissathePooh]

I guess I'll be the only one....you're missing mediocre(at best) food at messy buffets.

But yes you do meet the characters. And you pay for that, not the food. With small children it is certainly something to experience.

You aren't the only one. The food is inconsistent as to quality. Whether or not you get good character interaction often depends on the time of day, size of the crowds etc...

Our last meal at CP was passable at best. We basically got a "drive by" picture of the character. They mostly waved hi, leaned in for a photo and waved bye. We made it throught 3 of them and because of timing and breaks had to wait 20 minutes for Piglet - he was the last to cycle by. The fewer characters the longer the potential wait.

My kids like the "parades" and game type things sometimes, but mostly they don't care.

We typically do at least 1 character meal, but given the continuing decline in interaction and food quality and increase in price, we've about done.

I will say Tusker House was one of the worst experience we have EVER had at any meal at WDW. I'm sure it was just the particular day and I know most people have had really good experiences there, but we were not so fortunate.

After waiting 45 minutes past our reservation time we were finally seated. The characters were apparently past their time and tired. Not only did we get really crappy drive by visits. Mickey skipped us all together. I mentioned it to our server and he came back out to see my kids. Mickey was an a$$ - he stood there with his hands on his hips. We took a picture with my kids next to him - no hugs and as he walked off he made a gesture to illustrate that he was done. Which my son saw and asked if Mickey was mad at him. Fortunately a manager was there and saw what happened. I was about to explode. The other guests in our area were having close to the same experience, but everyone was shocked at Mickey.

I'm not sure what happened to Mickey that day, but we were given a Guest Recovery card and HUGE apology by the manager. Mind you we didn't ask for it - I was impressed. It was basically a card that would have given my kids FOTL to anything in the park they want. She asked ds what he wanted most. He replied "For Mickey to feel better I'd like to see him again." So eh gave us a FOTL pass for all the characters in AK that day.

My point in that long story is this - be aware of the times you schedule your meals if they aren't character meals all day.

 

[sharadoc]

perfect advice...we always schedule and hour before park opening...we get to get into an empty park snap pics, meet characters, get a good meal, and be ahead of the Rope drop crowds...also the big breakfast really elimiates lunch for us so we eat a early dinner and good for the day...

Our favorite is Donalds breakfast at Tusker house at Animal Kingdom...Also Cinderella's Royal Table is in the castle in Magic Kingdom...cant beat that

We found that a big breakfast in the summer doesn't work for us! We're full and going out into the heat just makes for a sluggish day. We had to go back to the room to relax instead. Our preference is a late breakfast/early lunch or dinner.

We had a bad experience at Tusker House in December, too. The characters were rushing by and barely stopped. Goofy was nice though and spent a little time, although we kind of forced him to. Daisy was the reason we went, and DD was so excited to tell her that we had a cat named Daisy. The duck didn't even acknowledge it! She just posed and walked away. DD was SO disappointed but I told her that she had her expectations too high. By the time we left, they were putting out lunch, so we could have had two meals for one price!

 

[MelissathePooh]

Last year in Disneyland at breakfast, DS asked Minnie if he could have a balloon, so she took him by the hand, they went off together to get him a balloon and she walked around with him hand in hand for a good 5-10 minutes in the Plaza Inn, just being sweet and playing...an experience he wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

I agree that the Disneyland character meals are outstanding! We were there in November and had all 3. Each was remarkable at the amount of time and interaction the kids got with the characters. There were also several characters at each meal. Don't even get me started with the food quality and how much better it was...

We went to Minnie's at The Plaza and were the first family - just by happenstance. Minnie and about 3 other characters walked my kids in by hand. The pulled out the adults chairs, played with the kids - went and got more characters to come out and over to play. The characters goofed around with each other. We probably had 10 minutes of interaction with them before our meal even started and still had visits from them as they made rounds again. Even though we were first, the characters were as playful and interactive with other guests as our family. It wasn't just about posing for pictures. It was an incredible experience.

Goofy's Kitchen and Storybook Tellers Cafe were every bit as nice great. Not sure if that is what made this last round of WDW character meals seem so corporate and cold or what, but there is no comparison between the two. None of the WDW character meals come close to DLR.