Character meal and photos ?

[jimmytammy]

Recently, friends of ours ate at Cindys for breakfast. They told us how the experience there had changed and now they MAKE you buy the photos. I read somewhere else that this is true of all character meals. Can someone clarify if this is true or not at all character meals?

 

[daisyduck123]

We just ate at Chef Mickey's & 'OHANA in May.

The picture packages there are definitely optional.
The new packages are $31.90.

 

[princess mom of 4]

I don't know about other places, but at CRT the picture is included in the price of the meal!

 

[MiaSRN62]

Chef Mickey's offers an optional photo/package. But you can take as many as your own photos as you want.

 

[kimis]

I am curious how can they make you buy a picture unless it is included in the original price? Keep me posted. thanks

 

[PrincessMinnie28]

I believe there are some character meals that don't have the option of formal picture packages at all. For instance, we ate breakfast at 1900 Park Fare on our trip in May. The breakfast has Pooh, Tigger, Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Mary Poppins. We didn't see any photographers throughout our breakfast. Obviously, you were more than welcome to take your own pictures, which we did, but it might just be the "biggies" that offer picture packages.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We went to CM and Princess Breakfast and they took the girls pictures and later in the meal came around and asked if we wanted to buy them...they did not make you do anything.

 

[mom2LLN]

At Chef Mickey's and Akershus they take a picture as you are waiting to be seated. During your meal, someone will come to your table and ask if you would like to purchase the package. I believe the package is around $30.

 

[bradk]

at CRT, which the OP was asking about, it's included in the cost of dining there. there is no additional charge for the photos. as it is, they're raising the prices later this year.

 

[MiaSRN62]

bradk says :at CRT, which the OP was asking about

I did see that bradk, but the OP also stated this :

I read somewhere else that this is true of all character meals. Can someone clarify if this is true or not at all character meals?

So I think that is why some of us are giving our experiences with other character meals/restaurants as well. I have never heard you "had" to buy the photos----though with the upcoming price increase for CRT (as you mentioned), you'd think they'd throw a picture in there for free.

I know they used to give out a free family pic at MNSSHP and MVMCP events----that's over now. You have to pay for the pics now. So who knows ? On the 7 night and longer disney cruises, there used to be a character breakfast where you could get pictures with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale. Now that's over as well as of a couple months ago. Now the characters don't even come to the table.

So my point is....who knows.....disney is always changing things. Not always for the best.

 

[bradk]

CRT doesn't charge explicitly for the photos. if they did, you would have heard about it many times over by now. I ate there in late May and it was included. Maybe what the OP's friends mean is that the price was increased (as of Feb 2006) to include the photo package, which does force it in a sense.

other restaurants do sell the photo separately. they don't build it into the cost of dining there however. they don't force it.

all restaurant photos (whether purchased or pre-paid) can be added to photopass though. CRT even has special borders.

last year, MNSSH and MVMCP didn't have free photos, but by then, photoCD had been introduced. instead, they offered prints for 50% off (essentially BOGO). it turned out however that the 50% applied to ALL of the disney photopass photos, not just those from the party (might be fixed by now).

my apologies for misconstruing the topic. should be clear now?

 

[MiaSRN62]

my apologies for misconstruing the topic. should be clear now?

No apologies needed bradk........I did know about the 50% off the Photopass pics.
But still..... getting that free family pic was a nice perk for those hard ticket events. Eventually, with disney, all good things come to an end

 

[amery]

Cindy's includes the photo package as part of the price thus giving you no option to not get the photos and therefore a lower price.

At all other places, we were always given the option to purchase the photos.

 

[jimmytammy]

Thanks for all the replies! We have eaten several character meals including Cindys on 3 occasions. I know there and CMs they do take the shots ahead of time, but we only purchased them each once. We will be dining at CMs, LTT and trying Garden Grill for the 1st time in an upcoming trip, not so much for the characters as for the meal itself(though dining with Mickey is a plus ). So we just wanted to make sure we werent going to be forced to have to buy all these pics just for the sake of eating

 

[bluejaygirl]

Thanks for all the replies! We have eaten several character meals including Cindys on 3 occasions. I know there and CMs they do take the shots ahead of time, but we only purchased them each once. We will be dining at CMs, LTT and trying Garden Grill for the 1st time in an upcoming trip, not so much for the characters as for the meal itself(though dining with Mickey is a plus ). So we just wanted to make sure we werent going to be forced to have to buy all these pics just for the sake of eating

I just ate at LTT and Garden Grill and neither one even took pro pictures, so it wasn't an option!