Character Meal Opinions needed

[quiltymom]

I'm contemplating doing one character meal with my kids, and I'd like your opnions/experiences to help me figure out which would be the best for my kids! They are DD 9 & DS 13.

Anyway, it would either be Goofy's Kitchen for lunch on our arrival day or the PCH Grill Surf's Up breakfast on the day we leave (we will not be visiting parks either of those days). I'd love to be able to see Mickey, but other than that it really doesn't matter. DD will be thrilled no matter what and I'll be lucky to get any photos of DH with any character. (There is always bribery, of course. )

I guess I'm looking for impressions of food and overall experiences.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Sherry E]

I'm contemplating doing one character meal with my kids, and I'd like your opnions/experiences to help me figure out which would be the best for my kids! They are DD 9 & DS 13.

Anyway, it would either be Goofy's Kitchen for lunch on our arrival day or the PCH Grill Surf's Up breakfast on the day we leave (we will not be visiting parks either of those days). I'd love to be able to see Mickey, but other than that it really doesn't matter. DD will be thrilled no matter what and I'll be lucky to get any photos of DH with any character. (There is always bribery, of course. )

I guess I'm looking for impressions of food and overall experiences.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

I would say stick with Surf's Up because you want to see Mickey. That's the only place where you can find Mickey at a character meal, and people really love it there. It's a smaller buffet than Goofy's, but people say the character interaction is great and the food is said to be very good.

Goofy's has a huge buffet with a lot of choices, which may go over well with your family, but they don't have an official lunch. Some days they close at 12 p.m., some days they close at 1 p.m. and some days they close at 2 p.m. You don't want to get there too close to whatever the closing time is for that day because the characters start trickling out and the chefs stop putting out all new fresh batches of food.

Goofy's is a longtime favorite of mine (going on 20 years of eating there!), but you will get varying opinions and experiences on all of the character meals from people on this board. Some folks will say one place wonderful; others will say it's awful. Much of it is very subjective, I think - what one family loves, another family thinks is horrible. Also, some places have 'off' days while other character meals are thriving. Then the ones which were thriving suddenly have off days while the ones that were not great are now ahead of the game! It's a constant back and forth/up and down with food quality and service quality, I think. It happens with all the restaurants in Disneyland, not even just the character meals!

 

[quiltymom]

Thanks for this! It'll help knowing where Mickey shows up.

And yeah, I figure so much when I posted this. But I always do like to hear other's opinions, just because.

 

[tndislvr]

We went to Surf's Up, Goofy's Kitchen, and Minnie and Friends (but it is in the park). Our preferences in order were Minnie and Friends, Surf's Up, then Goofy's Kitchen. While many rave about GK it was our least favorite. Surf's Up had great character interaction and the food was very good, too. If you were going to a park the day of the meal I would suggest Minnie and Friends most of all (but unfortunately no Mickey there). The food was by far the best here and the character interaction was great (and lots of characters). Hope this helps!

 

[OrcaPotter]

I haven't gone yet, but I spent a lot of time researching opinions before making the decision of which character meal to invest in (invest, because it's a bucket load of money!)

First you have to consider your priorities. You mentioned Mickey, so Surf's Up is apparently the choice if you want to dine and meet him at the same time. My priority was food quality, and the most opinions swayed toward Goofy's Kitchen. For some, the priority is the number of characters, so Minnie and Friends appears to be the best place for that. If you want princesses, Ariel's Grotto is the place to go. There are some other options, but those were the ones that popped the most as far as opinions.

Personally, I don't mind only seeing a few characters as long as the food is really good and the characters give you more attention than a pat, hug, and pose for a photo. I'd rather have that than being interrupted constantly from eating. We're doing Goofy's the morning after we arrive just before we hit DL for the first time, so we're super excited to start off our vacation on such an exciting note!

 

[DizNee Luver]

I have pictures from both Goofy's & Surf's Up (including food) here:

Goofy's Kitchen: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2376961&page=56 Starts post #828

Surf's Up: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2376961&page=80 Starts post #1200

Hope that helps!!!

 

[agem73]

The selection was very small, the food was cold. It was a chaotic mess, and we were there on a Wednesday night. It was not worth the money at all. Just my experience.

 

[Vala]

The selection was very small, the food was cold. It was a chaotic mess, and we were there on a Wednesday night. It was not worth the money at all. Just my experience.

Have you done any other character meals? Just curious because unless you're looking for something specific or are limited due to allergies small food selection isn't exactly what would spring to my mind for Goofy's.

Unless I missed a major change the choices at the other meals were a lot more limited.

 

[Sherry E]

Have you done any other character meals? Just curious because unless you're looking for something specific or are limited due to allergies small food selection isn't exactly what would spring to my mind for Goofy's.

Unless I missed a major change the choices at the other meals were a lot more limited.

^^That's what I was thinking! Whether or not people enjoy a particular character meal or feel it is worth it is a separate thing, of course, but it's a known fact that Goofy's has the largest selection of food (a serve-yourself buffet) out of all the character meals at DLR (hence, the higher price). It's quite bountiful, in fact. While I have not done the Goofy's dinner in a while (their breakfast is my preference), unless they have suddenly cut way down on the number of dishes they put out - which is possible, given the fact that other things like pineapple spears and gingerbread cookies have gotten smaller in size at DLR - I would not consider it a small selection of food.

 

[Mama Who]

We really enjoyed Goofy's but as others have said, no Mickey. We saw Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip, One of the Cinderella girl mice and The Fairy Godmother last week. Unfortunately, DD was not having it with any of them except the FG. Oops! But the food was good (not stellar fine dining but nice enough) and the service was excellent. The characters were also good about attempting to engage but then backing off when DD was freaked out.

If you decide Mickey can be seen later on at Toontown or something, Goofy's is a good time. And as to selection, we went about 5 years ago and we went last week and the number of dishes had not decreased. I guess small may be subjective?

We ate at Ariel's, but not with the Princesses. It's gorgeous, though and the food was quite good.

 

[asianway]

^^That's what I was thinking! Whether or not people enjoy a particular character meal or feel it is worth it is a separate thing, of course, but it's a known fact that Goofy's has the largest selection of food (a serve-yourself buffet) out of all the character meals at DLR (hence, the higher price). It's quite bountiful, in fact. While I have not done the Goofy's dinner in a while (their breakfast is my preference), unless they have suddenly cut way down on the number of dishes they put out - which is possible, given the fact that other things like pineapple spears and gingerbread cookies have gotten smaller in size at DLR - I would not consider it a small selection of food.

Ill go you one better, its the best selection of all domestic Disney Parks. Being from Florida, we only wish Chef Mickeys or 1900 Park Fare was as good as Goofy's Kitchen. We eat there twice every trip.