Character Dining

[AJPPGH]

I will be going to WDW in January and staying for 4 nights at the Poly. I have 2 sons : one is almost 3 and the other is 5. I am just wondering what are the best character dining experiences to book for them. Also, how many does the average family typically do while at the resort?? Is it a one time thing or do you shoot for one a day?

thanks
AJ

 

[swillis]

I took my kids in May 06 for our first trip together. They are older (9,11) we did 2 character meals. Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern in the MK. This was a great meal. It was a family style sit down meal. They bring turkey, ham and steak with mashed pot, stuffing, veggies, lots of bread. It was a wholsome, delicious, stick to your ribs kind of meal.

The characters were great! (Chip and Dale, Goofy, Minnie) all dressed in early american costume. They moved through quickly, but spend a good amount of time at each table.

We also did Crystal Palace breakfast. This was a buffet. Our experience here was not as good. The food was just "ok" although there was plenty to choose from. With the buffet, you always worry a little if you will miss a character while waiting in line.

The character interaction here was slow...very slow. It took us almost an hour to wait to see all the characters. In fact it was such slow going that one of the Cast Members gave us a fast pass good for any ride, to apologize for the long wait. It is still worth it though, especially if you love the Winnie the Pooh characters (eyore, piglet, tigger and pooh)

 

[Kim1964]

Our favorite has been dinner at Chef Mickey. There are a lot of characters (Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Goofy, Donald), and the buffet selection was varied, though I'd rate food quality as average. The dessert bar is pretty good.

Our second favorite is the breakfast at the Cape May at the Beach Club. Minnie, Chip or Dale, and Pluto were the characters the day we went. It's also buffet, and not bad. There's a great yogurt bar with lots of yummy toppings.

We did those two in August. Next year we are going for another week, and the plan right now is Chef Mickey for my birthday dinner, and probably the Garden Grill at Epcot for lunch one day. We like to spread them out and have one near the start of the trip, and then one toward the end. Two is about our max per trip.

 

[hilaryjudsong]

We took our DD when she was 2 years old. She loved Pooh & Friends at Crystal Palace. Chef Mickey's is great too. The food is good and the characters do move around the tables quite frequently. We are going in May and plan to focus on the Princesses as we have 2 DD's ages 3,8. Have fun!!!

 

[AJPPGH]

thanks Everyone! I think that I will go for 2 char meals. Is it tough to get reservations? (we will be there 3rd week of Jan and we are also early eaters ) I was wondering if I should call now or can I wait to get there. My only concern about making reservations before the trip is that I don't want to be locked into things with the boys as they are still young and "unpredictable"!

 

[Kim1964]

Call now. Really. They fill up and it would be lousy to wing it and have a couple of very disappointed kids on your hands.

 

[nancy drew]

we have done crystal palace and liberty tree for the last 2 years. liberty tree is a better overall experience, but if you have a pooh lover i recommend crystal palace.

we also did the breakfastosaurus thing at animal kingdom. it worked out well, because by the time we were done eating it was just about time to get on the safari (one member of our group went and got fastpasses for us while the rest of us went to be seated at the table, i highly recommend doing this if you do breakfastosaurus). the breakfast buffet was pretty good, and the kids loved seeing mickey, donald, goofy, etc in safari gear at breakfast.

we had the dining plan, so we did one character meal a day. if we were paying out of pocket im not sure we would have done so many, but with the young kids its really worth paying to do whatever you can afford. my kids are very young (dd was 2 and ds was 7 months when we went) so the characters were as important as the rides. my dd (now almost 3) still talks about meeting her favorite characters every single day.

 

[kellia]

How much do these cost? Is there a list somewhere of all of them and who to contact to make reservations? Thanks!

 

[RunningthruDisney]

I agree; Call Now

My sister and I wanted to do two character meals, MGM Playhouse Disney and Chef Mickey's. (My nephews just turned two and they LOVE Rocket AKA Little Einsteins) My Mom told use that they are little and we should only do one so we picked Playhouse Disney. When we are both upset and have be trying to get Chef Mickeys for our first night but it is not happening. So as I said my advice is to call ASAP. If the kids are having a lot og fun you can cancel. Also try to get breakfast this way you can start the day with a meal.

 

[Order66]

We took our six year old twin boys in May and did 2 character meals. http://www.allears.net/din/cb.htm has info about the place, food and price for all the available character meals. I used that to decide because my kids are picky and don't have a large menu of foods they like. We had to put Crystal Palace on one day because one son is a Piglet nut and going to Disney and NOT meeting Piglet was out of the question. We did dinner there and the food was so-so and not "plain" enough for my kids but we found enough for them to eat. The best part for my son was that (at least at the time we were there) Piglet stayed in the middle while Pooh, Tiger and Eeyore made rounds through the tables. So he got plenty of Piglet time.

I also decided one breakfast and it was between Chef Mickey and Ohana with Stitch. Either or would have been fine probably. I let the other son decide since his brother got Piglet and he chose Stich. Breakfast was quite good and the character interaction was good as well. I think my husband ate more mickey waffles than the kids. They got to see all of them twice and march in the conga line.

Make reservations as soon as you decide what days you'd like to be doing what. We decided on our trip basically last minute and I was able to book what I wanted about 6 weeks out. I didn't get the exact time I would have liked for dinner, but it was close enough. We planned to do MK on a magic hours day so that was easy to make Crystal Palace reservations for that day. The breakfast we chose on our 1 non-disney day so we could take our time and not have to rush off to anything else.

 

[LaraK]

We love character meals and are doing five on our upcomming trip....Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Donald's Breakfastasourous, Cinderella's Castle and 1900 Park Fare. All are breakfasts except 1900 Park Fare. Our ADRs are all an hour prior to park opening to give us time to get to the interior rope drop at opening.

 

[hilaryjudsong]

Definitely make ADR's before you go. Donald's Breafastasaurus is great. Keep trying for Chef Mickey's, you won't be disappointed. Have fun!

 

[tanyaandallie]

You have to get reservations now. Otherwise will not likely get in.

We just returned and did 3 character meals. We had breakfast at Chef Mickeys. I liked it. I think I would have liked it a lot more if my kids were not terrified of the characters. Regular breakfast food, nothing earth shattering. Organized, characters move quickly.

We also did Hollywood & Vine with Jojo, Goliath and the Little Einsteins. Did not like it at all. It was total chaos in there and I was not impressed with the food. We waited forever to see any characters. The characters would just get moving from table to table and then they would have to go do a dance. And then they would take a break. Then they would come back out and start pics and autographs again. We ended up leaving before we got all autographs b/c it just took way too long. Will not ever go back there.

We also did Cinderella's Royal Table. I'm thinking you might pass on that one!

When we went in 2003 we had breakfast at Ohana's. Perhaps we just ate a ton of bad food that trip, but it was our best meal there. The food was great, the character interaction was fantastic. We really enjoyed it. In fact, I liked it better than Chef Mickey's. I also really like the idea of family style meals vs the buffet. Our kids are 3 and 1.5 so dealing with the buffet is a huge pain. If/when we go back I think we will hit Ohana's again.

IMO 3 character meals was too much for us. I think 2 would have been better. They take a long time and very very stimulating for already overstimulated kiddos.

 

[kaysmommie]

We average about 3 character meals on a 8 night stay. Since your staying at Poly defiantely check out the 'Ohana character breakfast. It has Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. It was one of the best breakfast we had all week and it was nice and quiet and relaxing. Compared to Chef Mickey's which is crazy and loud. We alwayd do a Princess meal but since you have boys I won't tell you about them. Crystal Palace at MK is great character meal too, and it's breakfast lunch or dinner. The character are Pooh and friends. Also I reccomend Garedn Grill in the Land at Epcot which is also very nice with lots of character interaction.