Character Dining

[l4dyj8]

We usually do Ariel’s Grotto for my eldest daughter’s birthday. We aren’t fans of buffets and I like that we are able to meet characters here. We have enjoyed the photo opp with Ariel upon arrival. Do the other character meals do this too? We have only done PCH grill/Surf’s Up (2017) And had a photo with Mickey. But do they do this at Goofy’s kitchen, Storytellers or Plaza Inn?

Any recommendation between the 4? I understand that PCH and Storytellers is slightly different now.

(This will be for our almost 3 year old. She loved the characters at PCH Grill and I was pleasantly surprised by the food.)

 

[ExcitedMama]

Goofy’s always does the photo op with the fun kitchen background. I think it might alternate between Goofy and Mickey now, I think it’s Mickey at night, which is when we go. At Minnie’s it’s her but not a fun background, just outside. My DD was thrilled that Minnie was at Goofy’s when we went. Generally only the character in the name is guaranteed. I’ve only done Goofy’s and Minnie’s but I’ve heard such great things about Storytellers that I made a reservation for it on our upcoming trip. So far my kids prefer Goofy’s and we always go there on arrival night. It’s the only character dinner and it’s at the hotel so it’s great when you don’t go to the park. The food is just ok but my kids love the treats and charcters. Personally I thought the character interaction was better at Minnie’s. Hook really hams it up and there’s a bigger variety and more charcters. I was not impressed by the food though. Goofy’s was just the five fuzzy charcters but Minnie’s was also the Pooh charcters and the Fairy Godmother plus Minnie. It might depend on if there is a favorite you want to see. If you don’t care for buffets you can skip them altogether and still find the characters in the park.

 

[scrapfrfun]

We usually do Ariel’s Grotto for my eldest daughter’s birthday. We aren’t fans of buffets and I like that we are able to meet characters here. We have enjoyed the photo opp with Ariel upon arrival. Do the other character meals do this too? We have only done PCH grill/Surf’s Up (2017) And had a photo with Mickey. But do they do this at Goofy’s kitchen, Storytellers or Plaza Inn?

Any recommendation between the 4? I understand that PCH and Storytellers is slightly different now.

(This will be for our almost 3 year old. She loved the characters at PCH Grill and I was pleasantly surprised by the food.)

From what I have read on another blog, there is no Photopass opportunity at the new Mickey's Tale of Adventures (Storytellers). This is the only one out of the locations you listed that does not offer the Photopass. My 20 yr. old daughter and I have reservations Tuesday morning, she went last year with another family and raved about the food (different priorities when you get old). It is also recommended that if you want the most character (variety) interaction to do Plaza Inn.

 

[disland7]

At storytellers I’m pretty sure you can order off of the menu instead of the buffet. The food there is definitely the best out of the 4. I find that I am satisfied with all the breakfast buffets but we were a little disappointed with the dinner option at Goofy’s when we did it a few years ago.

 

[l4dyj8]

Thank you for the tips! My eldest DD has food allergies so it’s another reason buffets aren’t ideal.

I’ve heard mixed reviews on Goofy. We went years ago before we had kids. We didn’t care for it but it was also an odd hour. Our nieces didn’t get to see all the characters so it was disappointing. I was tempted to try again.

Plaza Inn seems to be booked the morning we’d like to go. I might try calling. Or just do Storytellers and find a photo opp elsewhere.

Thank you again

 

[agamble]

We had dinner with Goofy and friends this June. I was a bit nervous because I had read some poor reviews. We had a good time though. The food was fresh. It was aimed at kids, but there was plenty of fruit and veggies too. We don't eat meat and still found plenty to eat. The character interaction was great. We got our picture with Chef Mickey and then Goofy, Minnie, Chip, Dale, and Pluto all visited our table. Some visited more than once since we were there a while. They seemed to have a good rotation set up and it didn't look like they were missing or skipping tables at all. We would go again.

 

[Jimsig]

We did the PCH Grill for breakfast just over two weeks ago on a Sat and it was Donald as you walked in with the photo pass op. The other characters walk around.

We had a great interaction with both Stitch and Daisy. Daisy was at our table signing my daughters book and Stitch saw my camera was on and sitting at the table and because his mischievous self. He kept it on the table and started snapping a few shots of Daisy, but from the hands down. Daisy saw this and knelled down to make the shots better, Stitch then came around and took a selfie of him and Daisy. It was great and took less then an hour from getting there checking in and being done and we only waited less then 10 min to get seated after checking in.

We did Storytellers for breakfast a week ago on a Sunday and there is no photo op as you enter. They characters all walk around for pics and autos.

For us where we were seated we actually had a few of the characters go right by us, I think they may have thought they had already gotten us. Minnie was about to get to us when the "walk around" with the kids started. When they resumed they started on the opposite side of the restaurant. For Mickey he was about to get to us but Dale came over to us again as my 9yo daughter had gotten her birthday cupcake and was was joking with her that he wanted to eat it. Mickey saw Dale with us and kept walking to the other side of the restaurant as he was done with our section, can't blame him for that though I was hoping for another rare double meet As we had already been there over an hour and had been done for quite a while I went over and asked the handler explained what happened and she gladly sent Mickey over to us and he was great. In the end it was a long meal that took over 90 min from check in until we were done and we only waited less then 5 min to get seated. I would say the last half hour was waiting for the last 3 characters to come by and it would have been longer if I had not asked for Mickey.

We, DD and I, liked both and would probably do both again in the future.

 

[Bluewild79]

We ate dinner at Goofy's kitchen less than two weeks ago and it was great. There was a variety of food but not a ton of options. Everyone found something they liked. My kids LOVED the dessert selection and the fact that I let them have a Shirley Temple. We took a photo with Chef Mickey at the entrance then saw Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale and Minnie during dinner. They do a dance parade thing every 30 minutes which my kids adored. It took us about 90 minutes from start to finish because we wanted to see the characters multiple times, which we did! My kids loved it and definitely want to go again on the next trip. We were there at 5 pm and had little to no wait to be seated. There was definitely a crowd later in the evening.

We also had breakfast with Minnie on a Thursday during magic morning. The only time we saw Minnie was at the entrance when we took photos. There was a lot of food to pick from and everything tasted delicious especially the Mickey waffles with Bananas Foster. SO YUMMY! We had marvelous character interactions with Chip, Dale, Eeyore, Tigger, Max, Rafiki, and Captain Hook. We had to track down the character handler to get Pooh to come to our table and we waited 15 minutes for him to reappear but it was worth it. The toddler loves Pooh! We also saw Honest John at this breakfast but my kids were afraid of him so we didn't do any interaction with him. We had so many character interactions we had a hard time eating enough food, ha! Thank goodness they don't charge for toddlers. My 2 year old literally ate one bite of yogurt and drank milk. The rest of the time he was glued to the characters especially Chip and Dale. I have the most adorable photo of him and Dale touching noses....a huge deal since he was desperately afraid of them at first. We took about 90 minutes to finish our meal and the time just flew by. This was a fantastic experience and we'd definitely do it again.

Our friends who were there with us did the Donald Duck breakfast instead of Minnie. They LOVED it and thought it was a great experience. I am aiming to do this meal next time we go.

 

[julieheyer]

We ate dinner at Goofy's kitchen less than two weeks ago and it was great. There was a variety of food but not a ton of options. Everyone found something they liked. My kids LOVED the dessert selection and the fact that I let them have a Shirley Temple. We took a photo with Chef Mickey at the entrance then saw Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale and Minnie during dinner. They do a dance parade thing every 30 minutes which my kids adored. It took us about 90 minutes from start to finish because we wanted to see the characters multiple times, which we did! My kids loved it and definitely want to go again on the next trip. We were there at 5 pm and had little to no wait to be seated. There was definitely a crowd later in the evening.

We also had breakfast with Minnie on a Thursday during magic morning. The only time we saw Minnie was at the entrance when we took photos. There was a lot of food to pick from and everything tasted delicious especially the Mickey waffles with Bananas Foster. SO YUMMY! We had marvelous character interactions with Chip, Dale, Eeyore, Tigger, Max, Rafiki, and Captain Hook. We had to track down the character handler to get Pooh to come to our table and we waited 15 minutes for him to reappear but it was worth it. The toddler loves Pooh! We also saw Honest John at this breakfast but my kids were afraid of him so we didn't do any interaction with him. We had so many character interactions we had a hard time eating enough food, ha! Thank goodness they don't charge for toddlers. My 2 year old literally ate one bite of yogurt and drank milk. The rest of the time he was glued to the characters especially Chip and Dale. I have the most adorable photo of him and Dale touching noses....a huge deal since he was desperately afraid of them at first. We took about 90 minutes to finish our meal and the time just flew by. This was a fantastic experience and we'd definitely do it again.

Our friends who were there with us did the Donald Duck breakfast instead of Minnie. They LOVED it and thought it was a great experience. I am aiming to do this meal next time we go.

Thank you for this info! I’m toying with Minnie’s breakfast so we can get all the characters in one spot! Love chip and dale and would really like to meet and greet them at breakfast rather than wait in line later in the day. Thank you again for sharing your experience!

 

[smartlabelprint]

I’d be also recommend Minnie’s. Request an indoor table. If you go on a Magic morning day when you don’t have a mm you may be able to get in the park a few minutes early. We did.

We barely had enough time to eat also. But we had an adorable 4 month old and all the characters swarmed her.

It’s easy to get missed by characters here. Mention it to a handler right away I’d youve missed someone.