Character Meal before Cruise?

[dcassetta]

I thought the cruise forum would be the correct place to ask this question-

We are spending the night 11/25 at WDW for Epcot, cruise leaves 11/26, then we return to WDW 12/3-12/7.

I have too many character meals planned for our return trip, 1900 Park Fare and Ohana breakfasts are must dos for kiddo.

Should I schedule one for the 26th? Or will that be too hectic before the cruise? Other concern- I want the gingerbread house on the Fantasy to be a "wow" moment for him, so I don't know if going to the Grand Floridian first would be the best choice. As for Ohana- I was trying to stay away from MK until our return (staying tpv at the contemporary), that portion of the trip is going to be a surprise.

Thoughts?

Where are you staying on the night of the 25th? The reason I'm asking is because the 26th is going to be a pretty busy day at the parks, so parking at a different hotel for a character breakfast could be a challenge. Usually if you have a reservation for dining you can park at the contemporary or the Polynesian without a problem, but if their parking lots are full with guests, you might be turned away. I've always enjoyed the breakfast buffet at Cape May, any interaction with the characters there is been great. Ohana at the Polynesian is my favorite.

 

[bumbershoot]

DCL transfers leaving from the airport leave as buses fill, starting at around 9am. They do get there earlier than the transfers leaving from the resorts.

But I think a rental car is good. You are so much more in charge of what you're doing with the car. Make sure you have dollars and quarters for the tolls and some ones for tipping the car rental shuttle driver and the porters, and it's all good.

 

[21stamps]

Where are you staying on the night of the 25th? The reason I'm asking is because the 26th is going to be a pretty busy day at the parks, so parking at a different hotel for a character breakfast could be a challenge. Usually if you have a reservation for dining you can park at the contemporary or the Polynesian without a problem, but if their parking lots are full with guests, you might be turned away. I've always enjoyed the breakfast buffet at Cape May, any interaction with the characters there is been great. Ohana at the Polynesian is my favorite.

I'm not sure yet. Haven't booked that part of the vacation bc I've been going so back and forth. Originally planned on BWI, but just don't want to spend the money only to sleep. Then considered Pop, but unsure of the rooms. Now leaning towards the Swan.

I figured parking may be full, but we can still valet right?

Cape May would make the most sense since I'm trying to avoid MK area, it just doesn't solve my problem of too many meals post cruise lol

 

[21stamps]

Crystal Palace is an old family tradition for us and, for our November '14 Fantasy cruise, we went there for breakfast around 9:30 AM. After that, we spent another hour or so in Magic Kingdom before heading back to the hotel, picking up our luggage, and driving our rental car to the port around 12:30 PM. It was very easy without any stress. They had just set up the gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian the day before we arrived. It was a beautiful photo op, but the atrium at the GF is so gorgeous in itself that shopping and dining there made more of an impact on us. It was a wonderful morning and the perfect way to start the first day of our cruise. Seeing the gingerbread house on the Fantasy was another beautiful memory, and I honestly never thought of the connection between the two before reading your post. I wouldn't worry about that part at all.

Ironically, our departure in November '15, when we used the Magical Express, turned out to be a lot more stressful. We were staying at the Bay Lake Towers (with "theme park view" which wildly exceeded my expectations) and DCL left a message for us that the bus would pick us up at 11:30 the following morning. We had breakfast the Contemporary and then spent the morning at the park. When we returned at 11:10, the staff were calling our names and saying that the bus was about to leave and would do so if we were not ready immediately (even though we were 9 guests and had paid a small fortune for concierge). We had to run to gather our party and just made it at the last minute.

Many others prefer to get on the ship early, but I'd much rather spend the morning in the Magic Kingdom area and embark 1-2 pm.

Since it's our first time on DCL I really want to arrive early.

We also were disappointed with Park Fare. Unorganized, way too crowded, barely saw our waiter, food very sub par. But we love chef mickey's and go everytime we go to wdw.

This is disappointing to read. Was the character interaction good?

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We just stayed at the Swan last weekend and LOVED it!! Great room and a great price.

That being said - if you are renting a car, driving to the port and want to be at the port by 10:30 am, you would need to leave WDW by 9:00 am at the latest. IMHO, that's going to make waking up, getting everything in your car and then driving to another resort for breakfast REALLY hectic! Can you save O'hana for post cruise? If so, why not just eat at Garden Grove in the Swan? It's a character breakfast on Saturday mornings and you don't have to drive anywhere to get to it! It will most likely only be Goofy and Pluto, but the food is good! You would also, then, avoid the MK area for the post-cruise surprise.

 

[Hundredacre]

I hate to turn you off of Park Fare! If it is something you were looking forward to, you should try it. We were on a Grand Floridian binge and stayed there three years in a row up until two years ago when we decided to try something else. We missed it the first year we stayed at GF and were really looking forward to it the second year. Loved the idea of the theme and location. When we went, they were overbooked and disorganized, made us wait beyond our scheduled time and then when we sat down, we had no server. Someone finally came and said hi and brought the adults drinks but said she wasn't our server. She never came back with the kids' drinks and the kids were dying because they had to wait so long just to sit at a table. The characters started coming before the kids' drinks and they rushed through, just a quick picture. One of our kids was (as usual) totally uncooperative. We got food at the buffet, finally pulled someone aside to get the kids drinks and when the kids had eaten about two pieces of toast they wanted to go. Our "real" server brought us our bill before we had barely started eating! Unfortunately we get autogratuity with 6 people. Total waste for us. Maybe it was just a bad day.
As comparison... we go to Chef Mickey almost every year. It is almost always packed but they are organized and attentive. The characters have always spent a good amount of time with us- one year our problem child was taking sugar packets out of the holder and spreading them everywhere. We removed the entire sugar holder and he went and grabbed one off another table etc etc. Our server was not super friendly but very efficient and not happy with our child which I completely understood. All of a sudden Donald Duck came up and took all the sugar packets he could get and opened them creating a big sugar pile in front of our disobedient child. He was joining in with the disobedience and going further. Our server was really not happy! But our son was paralyzed. He could not believe Donald was more poorly behaved than he was. it was priceless. Mickey came over and shook his head at Donald. When they finally left, Pluto came over dancing. Just an example of our chef Mickey experiences! A lot of fun.

 

[dcassetta]

I'm not sure yet. Haven't booked that part of the vacation bc I've been going so back and forth. Originally planned on BWI, but just don't want to spend the money only to sleep. Then considered Pop, but unsure of the rooms. Now leaning towards the Swan.

I figured parking may be full, but we can still valet right?

Cape May would make the most sense since I'm trying to avoid MK area, it just doesn't solve my problem of too many meals post cruise lol

I think the answer to your valet question is probably. However there have been reports of people being turned away even from valet on busy days at the MK resorts.