Character Dining: Which is best?

[ldagenhart]

Hello!

We're taking our 2-year-old boy to Disneyland for his 3rd birthday in October. We want to do a character dining....but I'm unsure which one to choose.

We will be staying at PPH.....so we could do Surf's Up breakfast. But do we get better characters at Goofy's Kitchen or Minnie and Friends?

Any experiences or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Depends on who you'd like to possibly see. The food for the most part is pretty equal....hits & misses at all of them.

Goofy's Kitchen we've seen: Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Baloo, Brer Fox, Alice, Jasmine & Aladdin

Surf's Up with Mickey we've seen: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, & Stitch

Storyteller's Cafe we've seen: Chip, Dale, Meeko, Kenai, & Brer Fox

Ariel's Grotto we've seen: Ariel & then 4 more princesses

Minnie & Friends we've seen: Minnie, Chip, Dale, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Fairy Godmother, Capt Hook, Peter Pan, Alice, Rafiki, Max & Honest John

Great way to get some character interaction without standing in long lines.

Goofy's Kitchen tends to be the bigger meal with a huge buffet, a little louder & sometimes we've had rushed interactions. The characters come to your table.

Surf's Up is a smaller buffet that offers up lots of character time. With less people, you sometimes have the characters come by multiple times during your meal.

Storyteller's Cafe was buffet or off menu food with the characters coming by once during our meal.

Ariel's Grotto is served family style. You meet Ariel when you make your way downstairs & then they have a small presentation as they introduce the 4 princesses that come around to each table.

Minnie & Friends offers a decent sized buffet (but avoid the premade scrambled eggs....yuck). The characters come around to the tables. We enjoy sitting outside & people watching during our meal. (this one is on Main Street in Disneyland)

 

[joelybelly]

We have never done any character meal and have the minnie and friends breakfast this july! Im so excited about it!!! I have heard so many good things about it!

 

[rowan1813]

I have done all of the character meals except for Storyteller's Cafe and I have to say the most personal interaction was at Surf's Up. This was before Mickey took it over, so I'm not entirely sure how it is now, but Lilo, Stitch, and Pluto came to our table quite often because there weren't as many people demanding their attention.

If you are looking for the largest amount of characters at a meal, then go for Minnie's. I have been there going on 3 times now, and the characters that I have seen are just amazing. There are a lot of characters that you normally don't see in the parks walking around. Fairy Godmother is there, White Rabbit, Gepetto, Honest John (the fox from Pinocchio), Captain Hook, Eeyore, and Rafiki, just to name a few. The last time we were there, Gepetto and Captain Hook played with myself and DB so it was fantastic. Definitely a character meal that I will go to everytime I got to DLH.

 

[nickeymouse]

I am doing the Goofy's, Minnie's, and Ariel's for the first time this year...quite excited now lol

 

[bluegrizzlies1]

over the yrs we have done all of them

minnie and friends we like the best like the location too seems to be more characters to see

lilo and stitch was good too

we are going to do the princess this time in july its been a few yrs

 

[olmosa]

I've done Minnie & Friends twice at the Plaza Inn on Main Street and loved it both times! You definitely get a ton of characters walking around to each of the tables to take pictures and sign autographs and there isn't the unrelenting mobs of kids that you'd expect! The food is good and the staff is friendly...

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Our favorite is Minnie and Friends at the Plaza Inn. Great food, great location, and great interaction! We do this one every time because it's ALWAYS a positive experience. We've done goofy's a number of times and seem to be disappointed each time.

If we happened to be staying at PPH we would probably give Surfs Up a try, I've heard great things about it.

 

[I❤MICKEY]

We just got back and did the breakfast at Minnie's. It was awesome.

Here's a tip - when we made our reservation the agent recommended we get the first appointment of the morning. We were the first people in. Minnie was actually standing by our table and we had a good 5 minutes before anyone else was even in the restaurant.

Lots of characters -- obviously Minnie. Also, The Fairy Godmother, a penguin, Captain Hook, Tigger, Eyeore, Chip, Dale and Gheppeto. Donald was coming out just as we were leaving.

The Fairy Godmother was awesome. She asked my kids names. My son wasn't wearing shoes and she made a joke about him being to young to lose is shoes. She was awesome. Made another round to our table later and remembered both kids names.

 

[skiingfast]

You definitely get a ton of characters walking around to each of the tables to take pictures and sign autographs and there isn't the unrelenting mobs of kids that you'd expect! The food is good and the staff is friendly...

#1 reason to do character meals.

Lots of characters -- obviously Minnie. Also, The Fairy Godmother, a penguin, Captain Hook, Tigger, Eyeore, Chip, Dale and Gheppeto. Donald was coming out just as we were leaving.

This is exactly what makes Minnie and Friends stand out. Sure I love the Big Five and Princesses that make up 80% of the characters at character meals. But the variety of friends with Minnie is incredible.

 

[cyclenut]

This is exactly what makes Minnie and Friends stand out. Sure I love the Big Five and Princesses that make up 80% of the characters at character meals. But the variety of friends with Minnie is incredible.

Completey agree with this. I would choose the Minnie and Friends in a heartbeat. Much better interaction with the characters and more variety. I also agree with the tip to go early. The place is much less crowded and they still bring out the characters, so they spend more time at your table.

Our kids are older now so it has been awhile since we've done these, but they still talk about the time the Tigger spent with us. You just can't get that by standing in line for pictures.

 

[misty7260]

We were at dl in May and did 3 character meals, Ariels, MInnie's and Goofies.
I loved MInnie's Breakfast, tons of characters and they made sure to stop and visit each table, mutiple times, because it wasn't super busy.

My youngest was nervous and shy with the characters in the costumes and hid a lot, but they all gave her a quick hug, or pat on the head as they passed. Eyore "commented" when I told him she was sort of ho hum that day, it was really cute.


We liked the others as well, but the interaction and number of characters can't be beat at Minnies.

 

[ktlm]

We did Minnie's and Goofy's last week. Both were great. We did Minnie's at 10:00 a.m. We saw 11 characters, including Minnie, Max, Captain Hook, Tigger, Fairy Godmother, Dale, Rafiki, Pete the Penguin, Alice, MadHatter, and I can't remember the last one. We had to buy a new autograph book after that one. We had a hard time eating because there was rarely a minute that there was not a character at our table....we loved it! The character interaction was great too. Goofy's we saw 7 characters, Goofy, Pluto, Snow White, Aladdin, Chip, Dale and Minnie. We ate there at 5:00 when they opened. It was a great time because the tables were just slowly filling up so that characters did not have that many people to see at the beginning, so they spent a lot of time playing with DD (5). We also had a table next to a ledge and every time the characters passed behind us, they would stop and pat or kiss DD or try to surprise me) We have eaten there in the past when it was a little more crowded and while the characters were still good, that time Minnie's was better. This time it was a toss up between the sheer number of characters at Minnies, and the great interaction we got at Goofy's.

 

[Caseystigger]

Minnie & Friends is our favorite... you can buy the pictures they take before you are seated, good selection of food tons of characters!

 

[pinktink83]

If you don't have your heart set on certain characters, I prefer Minnie & Friends. Its the only one inside the park, and I don't want to waste time walking in and out of the park. Plus, I like breakfast buffets.

 

[oumagic]

One thing I would like to add: think about your own kids and their preferences. We will be doing Minnie this year, but last year Ariel's was my daughter's favorite. Last year, she was still in the stage of being scared of the "characters" but the princesses did not scare her at all because they were "real people." Anyway, we did Storytellers and liked it (my son's favorite, he was 7) and Ariel's and liked it (daughter, turned 5 that day). We will be doing Minnie breakfast (and maybe PPH breakfast) this year and an Ariel dinner.