Character Lunches

[dnamertz]

Do any of the Character meals take place at lunch, or do they only do breakfasts or dinner? We'd like to do one of the character meals, but I'd rather be on rides during the morning?

 

[vpalmer]

Do any of the Character meals take place at lunch, or do they only do breakfasts or dinner? We'd like to do one of the character meals, but I'd rather be on rides during the morning?

There is only one true character lunch and that is Ariel's Grotto. You can eat a late breakfast at the character breakfasts but the only one that serves all lunch foods is Ariel's Grotto.

 

[pixiewings71]

You can also do brunch at GK but I truly believe that AG has much better food.

 

[Aurora&Prince]

Ariel's Grotto does lunch. I actually just did a lunch there last week and it was great! It was a 2 o clock lunch and it was right when all the princesses came out at the end of the afternnon so it was perfect. The food was great too. It is basically the dinner menu but with better pricing!

 

[DisSarahK]

Ariel's Grotto does lunch for sure--we've done it. We did Minnie and Friends as a late breakfast--we used it as our lunchtime meal, but it was breakfast food.

 

[Sherry E]

As everyone else has said, Ariel's is the only actual character lunch. They used to have a character dinner too, but it was changed when World of Color came on the scene. Ariel's is really the only safe bet for an official character lunch.

Goofy's does have a huge buffet with tons of choices (including a mix of breakfast and lunch-y items), and on some days it even closes at 2 p.m. Some days it closes at 1 p.m., and sometimes at 12:00 p.m. It all depends on which season it is and which day of the week it is. You'd have to check with the Dining number to find out if the day you are interested in is a 2 p.m. closing day or a noon closing day - or somewhere in between!

And even then, you'd want to get to Goofy's at least 45 minutes to 1 hour before the stated closing time because you don't want to miss the characters or the fresh batches of food that are put out. The characters start to slowly trickle out and the chefs stop replenishing the food somewhere in that last 45 minutes before actual closing time, even though guests are allowed to stay and finish their meals.

In other words, it may be a 2 p.m. closing day at Goofy's, but you wouldn't want to show up at 1:30. And if it were a noon closing day, I wouldn't want to show up any later than 11:15 a.m., and that would be cutting it really close.


ETA: Goofy's used to have an actual, separate lunch meal in the old, old days - when it was in a different part of the DLH. When they switched locations, they got rid of the lunch - I guess that must have been the least popular of the 3 character meals.

What I wonder is, now that all this stuff is happening at DLR and especially at DCA, and it seems like DLR is going to really treat itself as more of a vacation destination for people all over the country/world rather than a place for mostly locals, will they finally add in another character lunch to one of the existing meals, or will they add a completely new character meal somewhere?

 

[smile4stamps]

I hope they come out with more Character lunches... I don't like to use precious morning park time in a restaurant but I also love Character meals so what is a girl to do?!?!

 

[Sherry E]

I hope they come out with more Character lunches... I don't like to use precious morning park time in a restaurant but I also love Character meals so what is a girl to do?!?!

Paula - I wouldn't be at all shocked if we end up seeing something new on the character meal scene in the next couple of years. I would bet that either the existing meals will be tweaked - maybe different food will be included with the usual selections or all-new characters will begin to appear - or they will add in an entirely new character meal somewhere. They could take one of the existing meals and keep it in the same location, but totally change the characters and food. They've done that a couple of times over the years, it seems (Ariel's Grotto used to be a Captain Mickey theme).

Perhaps DLR will decide to add in an official lunch or dinner at some place other than Ariel's. Goofy's is a place that is dedicated to character meals only - it is the only place out of all 5 character meal restaurants that exists solely for character meals at this point. So I have no idea why they don't just add in the separate lunch meal there, like they used to have back in the '90s.

At the same time, even though the PCH Grill operates as a regular restaurant in the post-Surf's Up hours, it is often not busy. I think people don't want to travel out of their way to go to the PPH and eat if they don't have to.

So I think that what DLR should do is either have a character lunch at PCH Grill in addition to the breakfast, just to lure more people over there more often, OR they should take that space that was formerly used for Yamabuki and make that like Goofy's - in other words, a place that exists only for character meals in the PPH. Then they could have another character dinner in a place that only holds character meals.

DLR needs at least one more option for a character dinner besides just Goofy's, just to offer people a choice. And there should be another option for an official character lunch aside from Ariel's, just in case people have no interest in an all-Princess meal!

So much is changing at DLR. In addition to all the work going on at DCA, there is possible talk of revising the AP system, there are eventually going to be some changes to the onsite hotel reservations bookings, there are increasing changes to the menus at various restaurants around DLR, there is major stuff happening at the Disneyland Hotel.....I think it's inevitable that the character meal landscape will change in some way in the not-so-distant future too.