Character Meal Questions

[caimakale]

I have some questions on character meals. In the past we prepaid for all of our meals with getawaytoday.com. Now we have AP's and intend to use the discount instead.

When I prepaid in the past with getawaytoday, the price included the food, taxes, & gratuity. We would show up, eat, hand them the ticket and leave. Does this change when I pay in person? Is it still 'one price that covers all of it' type of a situation?

EDIT...This is very important to me, I need to save all the $$$ I can. I am estimating it will run my family of 5 about ~$1,000 for our 8 days in disneyland and 2 days in San Diego for food. We have 4 character meals and the BB planned, I don't want to pay gratuity twice if I don't have to

 

[tmatthews]

At Goofy's Kitchen it was a set price for each and tax and gratuity was included in the end bill....I spent 8 days there with a family of 5 and spent approx. 1000 in food alone! One character meal only....in san diego ate a homestyle buffet by our hotel in mission bay which was great...$40 and we all ate! Other places we ate included Rainforest, Dave and Busters, Outback, and Coco's. What killed me was eating on the fly....who wants a churro, who wants popcorn, who wants ice cream....much better to sit down and eat! Oh and can I tell you how much you don't need those fancy cups that they sell and seem great there!!!!???? Now what do I do with a huge Shamu, Panda, Spongebob, and Rainforest light cup??????

 

[got2travel]

Your gratuity is automatically included. It will be clearly itemized on the bill.

 

[caimakale]

What killed me was eating on the fly....who wants a churro, who wants popcorn, who wants ice cream....much better to sit down and eat! Oh and can I tell you how much you don't need those fancy cups that they sell and seem great there!!!!???? Now what do I do with a huge Shamu, Panda, Spongebob, and Rainforest light cup??????

I didn't add any of the eating on the fly into my estimate. I know that will add up too. I know what you are talking about with the huge shamu lunch pail, the shamu cups, the mickey cups, the large disney drink cups. We threw away all of the disney lunch pails (they were orange when we were there) that the kids food came in. It would be nice if they would chop a buck or two off my bill and just put the food on a plate instead of in the lunch bucket!

 

[pindecisive]

Do you still get that button with your character meal?

Yep...they sell those water bottle holders...that don't hold much of anything. My friend's kept falling out when she tried to use it.

 

[caimakale]

Do you still get that button with your character meal?

Yep...they sell those water bottle holders...that don't hold much of anything. My friend's kept falling out when she tried to use it.

Last time we ate at Ariels Grotto (May of 2006), they handed out buttons. I can't remember our last trip in February, it was a blur to us (it only lasted a couple days).

There are a couple dining places that will give you a collectors pin (for those pin collectors out there), but I can't remember the locations and exactly how to get them. It might be for AP holders or Disney Visa holders...I'm not sure?

 

[tmatthews]

didn't get button at Goofy's!

 

[DangerMouse]

Do you still get that button with your character meal?

I got a button at Minnie's at the PPH and Storyteller's at the GCH. No button from Goofy's.