Character Dining

[Harleybella]

Which character dining would be the best for a 2 year old and Will take a meal credit from a dining plan?

 

[Robo]

Which character dining would be the best for a 2 year old and Will take a meal credit from a dining plan?

I'd choose from MK's Crystal Palace or the Contemporary Resort's Chef Mickey's.

Crystal Palace has Pooh and friends.

Chef Mickey's has, of course, Mickey,
plus some or all of the following: Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and/or Donald.

 

[Newsies]

Definitely either Hollywood and Vine or Chef Mickey's! Both of them are great for small children.

 

[kimieko]

I would say Hollywood and Vine for Disney Jr or The Garden Grill. You seem to get a lot of time with the characters at the Garden Grill. They all came around 3 times each. (Mickey, Pluto, Chip & Dale)

 

[minnie mum]

Definitely Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends. Usually the least intimidating characters for Littles who may be shy around 6ft tall characters.

H&V if they've been exposed to the characters there. Chef Mickey or Tusker House for Mickeys gang.

 

[crystaldawn]

All of our kids loved the Crystal Palace when they were that age (iut's actually still a tradition to go every trip). We also liked Hollywood and Vine for the disney junior characters.

 

[disneyhooper]

Th breakfast at the Polynesian hotel with LILO and stitch is great

 

[BudgieMama]

My vote would be Tusker House! Lovely place, meet the gang and delicious food.

 

[heywagners]

Really depends which characters your kids know/like. Mine never got into Winnie the Pooh, so we've never done Crystal Palace. They love Chef Mickey, because it's all the "main" characters. We also like Tuskar House, but we don't do AK on every trip, so that's not always an option. We did Cape May Cafe breakfast last year and that was good, too. Again, it's the big characters - Goofy, Donald, Minnie.

Find who your kiddo loves to watch on TV and then find their meal!

 

[jacknsally19]

When my daughter just turned 2, we did Chef Mickeys. At the time, she was completely obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so she loved seeing all her fave characters but also that there were Mickey pictures everywhere! At 2 3/4, we did H & V - she was a huge fan of Doc McStuffins and Jake so she LOVED that one. I would totally suggest one of those two depending on your child's interests.

 

[ErinCat]

We always loved a before park opening breakfast at Crystal Palace. If you plan on going to WDW multiple times as your child grows consider going to a meal where you could get the same picture over the years.

 

[Dismama2boys]

Crystal Palace or Chef Mickeys. My littles only knew the traditional characters (and even then it was iffy) so H&V was out for us. But they LOVED the two I mentioned. We also did 1900 PF (breakfast), and they had a great time even though they didn't know all of the characters.

 

[roxymama]

Crystal Palace was our first meal with a 2 year old. Even though she did not know the characters really we1l other than Winnie the Pooh, she loved the big cuddly and not scary animals. She quickly learned that this was Eeyore and Tigger etc and still talks about meeting them.
I think the Pooh characters seem like big stuffed animals almost.
She did great later in the trip at Tusker House, but by then she had already met most of the Fab 5 inside the MK park.

 

[kcpinwdw]

At 2 I think it depends on their comfort with characters. Characters are usually good at judging if a kid is freaking out. Do a character interaction before your meal if they have never met one to see how they react. On our trip at 2.5 my twins were total opposites... son loved everyone and daughter was NOT HAPPY about characters coming near her (but loved to see them from afar). Her wishes were respected everywhere except at H&V, where she was surprised, and we got this lovely photo with Sophia...


Our next trip she was a 2.75 and was a character PRO, and gave everyone hugs... there was 5 months between our trips and a total 180 in terms of dealing with the interactions. Here they are just a few months later at CRT... much happier!

 

[PurpleKomodo]

That picture with Sofia was priceless! My kiddo (2.75) loved Hollywood and Vine! We did Chef Mickey's but were not impressed. I felt like the character interactions were not good and the food was just so-so. For the classic characters I would rather do Tuskar House or The Garden Grill. We also like Crystal Palace and my kiddo liked those characters quite a bit even though he is not really that into Winnie the Pooh. I still kind of wish we had done a princess meal because DS loved them! But the older child (my 10 year old nephew) on the trip was clearly way too old and cool for a princess meal. Oh well, next time.

 

[shaycamp21]

On our last trip when my youngest dd was 2 1/2 we went to H&V, Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace. She was a little afraid of the characters at first but would take pictures with the character as long as a family member was with her but by the last meal at Chef Mickey's she did take a photo with Donald by herself. All of our character experiences were good.

 

[Harleybella]

Thanks Everyone!! Now I need to see if I can find reservations!

 

[Nancyg56]

I would not rule out Garden Grill. This meal is an AYCTE meal and is pretty quiet when compared to the other character meals. My DGD loved CHip and Dale coming to the table.