Character Meal - Where?? How Many??

[lflax]

In the past, we have done Chef Mickey's and Garden Grill for our character meals. We were thinking about trying some place else. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of which ones they liked best. Also, for a 7 day trip, how many character meals would be considered too many? We typically only do one in a 5 day trip. I just want them to remain as something special.

 

[summermac]

We are hoping to do Crystal Palace for breakfast and 1900 GF for dinner. I think we will do one more but not sure where. It may be Ohana for breakfast.

 

[islandchick779]

We're staying a week and we are doing 2 character breakfasts; one at Crystal Palace and the other at Tusker House. Only 11 more days to go!!!!

 

[Cdnmom2001]

We are doing the following

Chef Mickey's for Arrival night dinner
Crystal Palace breakfast (mid week)
Ohana's Breakfast on our last day in the parks

 

[photomama]

Can't wait to see responses. We are taking our first trip and have (3) planned. I too was thinking that might be a be much?!?!

we are doing 1900 Park Fare our 1st day

Chef Mickey's on the 3rd day and

Ohana's on the 5th day.

 

[Disneydonnam]

This trip we are doing more then usual. We are taking my twin 6 yr old nieces. This will be their first trip and I want them to get as many pictures and autographs of all the characters. We are doing
1. Cinderella's Royal Table
2. Crystal Palace
3. Chef Mickey
4. 1900 Park Fare
5. Beach Club
6. Hollywood&Vine

 

[Faldred]

Where? Just about anywhere -- there's one (at least) character meal in each park, and at several of the resorts.

How many? Completely up to your taste. We're going 7 nights on DxDP, so with credits to burn, we're doing a character breakfast every day. Some people might find that too much, but I'm not one of them. (Obviously.)

We're doing: Crystal Palace (MK), Akerhaus (Epcot), Hollywood & Vine (DHS), Tusker House (AK), CRT (MK), and Chef Mickey's (Contemporary).

 

[bangzoom6877]

We loved Crystal Palace dinner. Hollywood & Vine breakfast was great too with the little ones.

How many character meals you do depends on your specific tastes. We have 2 small kids, but we did 5 character meals on a 5-night trip in July. People told me this would be overkill, but we did ones with all different characters (except that Minnie, Goofy & Pluto were at LTT at the time AND CHef Mickey's). We did:

-1900 Park Fare dinner (Cinderella & Company)
-Crystal Palace dinner (Winnie the Pooh & Friends)
-Chef Mickey's breakfast (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald)
-Hollywood & Vine breakfast (Little Einsteins and Jojo's Circus characters from Playhouse Disney)
-Liberty Tree Tavern (Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip & Dale)

So we did a lot, but wanted the kids to see all their favorite characters without waiting on long lines in July Florida heat. It worked out very well. My kids were not scared of the characters and they loved them! I know some people whose kids are older than mine yet can't handle meeting the characters because they get scared. This is very individual. We will probably do the same amount of character meals on our next trip which will be 10 nights, once again so the kids can see all their favorites. We enjoyed the food at all the above places too.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Character Breakfast at the Beach Club. We did it a couple times last yr!

 

[Tammy296]

We're doing Crystal Palace and 1900 Park Fare this run.

I'm still trying to reserve the Garden Grill - how was the food - any good? It must have been just so-so if you are not going back this trip? I'm interested in hearing.

Thanks!

-T

 

[PoohsFan1]

We are going for 9 nights in March and are doing 3 character breakfasts....they are:

- Akershus Breakfast in Norway (second time here, love this breakfast)
- Donald's Breakfast Safari in AK (first time)
- Goofy's Beach Club Breakfast at BC (first time)

What we have done in the past and have really enjoyed:

- Chef Mickey's for Dinner
- CRT for Breakfast
- CP for dinner
- LTT for Dinner (when they had the characters)

 

[ROEDISNEY]

CP & Cape May are good.

 

[princess lovers mom]

we find character meals a great way to see the main characters without having to wait in lines....when the kids were littler we would often do 5 ina 7 day trip -

then my only problem was when I schedlued too many early breakfasts...toward the middle of the trip it is nice to be able to have the option of sleeping in if needed rather than getting up for another character breakfast (although the kids loved them!!)


so i would suggest looking at the options and get 3 or 4 picked out...if you are doing TS anyway it is easier for a kid to sit through a character meal than "just sit" at a TS meal..

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Character meals are teh best!!!!!!!!!!!

For us we love to do LOTS of them. We have an 8 day trip and are doing 6 (Ohana's dinner is entertaining but not character).

1900 PF dinner
Ohana's breakfast AND dinner
LeCellier
CRT
Akershus
CP
CM

For US we can dine anywhere while at home but you don't get character meals except at WDW! While at WDW I want teh full on experience. Character meals are one of them for US. I live in NJ (squashed between NYC and Philly) and can get fine dining anytime I want. If DH and I ever go alone we will do more fine dining and maybe just 1 character meal but while we go with kids we will immerse ourselves in the magic.

Also we like to kill two birds with one stone. We eat and meet characters. I refuse to wait in long lines to meet characters.

 

[lflax]

We're doing Crystal Palace and 1900 Park Fare this run.

I'm still trying to reserve the Garden Grill - how was the food - any good? It must have been just so-so if you are not going back this trip? I'm interested in hearing.

Thanks!

-T

Garden Grill had good food. The character interaction was also good. My DS was not feeling well that night. That may have taken some of the fun out of it for us.

The restaurant revolves as you are eating. That to me was a little distracting. You are seeing the top of "Living With the Land". We kept feeling like we had to look over the edge to see what was going on in the scenes below while we were eating. Also, we were seated right be the swinging kitchen door. That too was a distraction.

For me, part of the fun of the character meal is in seeing the characters "work the room." The way we were seated - it just seems like they "appeared" at our table. The circular setup of the restaurant did not allow you to see very well when they were coming nearer. Maybe that was because there weren't other tables near the kitchen door. We were the last on the end. To me, it just seemed to take away from the fun.

Long story - short - the food was good, characters were good - but just did not seem to have the fun that Chef Mickey's did for us!! CM would definitely be a do-again for us. But thought about trying something different this time. We have done CM twice, and would do it again.

 

[PoohsFan1]

For US we can dine anywhere while at home but you don't get character meals except at WDW! While at WDW I want teh full on experience. Character meals are one of them for US. I live in NJ (squashed between NYC and Philly) and can get fine dining anytime I want. If DH and I ever go alone we will do more fine dining and maybe just 1 character meal but while we go with kids we will immerse ourselves in the magic.

Also we like to kill two birds with one stone. We eat and meet characters. I refuse to wait in long lines to meet characters.

I can't agree with you more....we live right outside of Chicago and we too have many wonderful choices for fine dinning. So when we are at the World we LOVE to immerse ourselves in the magic. And like you said, it is like killing 2 birds with one stone. There is nothing like sitting down and having Disney Food and having your favorite characters coming to you, instead you going to them....I am ALL for it

 

[MJAJmom]

We love character meals!! My boys think it's great to eat with the characters, plus it's a special part that only Disney offers. We like TS meals so that fits for us. Since you gotta eat - why not eat with characters!!

For our 6 day October trip, we did 7 meals - H&V bfast, Tusker bfast, Ohana bfast, Cape May bfast, Chef Mickey dinner, LTT dinner, CP lunch. We are up early and I like to schedule an 8am ADR inside the park before it opens. We never tire of them or feel we are overusing character meals. (see my trip report for more details on the meals and pictures of characters)

Next time I'd like to try 1900 park fare bfast, garden grill dinner and CRT bfast. I make sure we have 1 character meal per day, more if the schedule fits.

Have fun planning!!

 

[Stitch_Is_King]

We love to do the character meals and it is just me and DW. As far as how many, do as many as you want. We are going for 13 nights and are actually going to do five of them.

Chef Mickey's - Breakfast
Ohana - Breakfast x 2 (Our favorite)
CRT - Breakfast
Garden Grill - Dinner

 

[TxRabbit]

Character meals are great fun! We're going for 7 nights in June and hope to get:

Tusker House breakfast
Akershus Lunch
Supercalifragilistic Breakfast
Chef Mickey's Breakfast

Which will all be new to us.

In the past we have done and enjoyed:
Cape May Cafe breakfast (AWESOME! character interaction)
CRT Lunch (again, we had GREAT characters)
CP Lunch
CP Dinner

The way we figure, you have to do what gets your crew excited. Whatever that is.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We did five character meals in 6 days on our January trip. If we ever do it again, we'll schedule one per day.....we loved , loved , loved! the character meals. They just totally embody the magic of Disney as far as we are concerned.

We ate at Ohanas and Donald's Safari Breakfast for breakkie, and Chef Mickeys, Crystal Palace, and 1900 Park Fare for dinner.

All were fantastic. No complaints anywhere!

Our favourites were Ohanas for breakfast and Crystal Palace for dinner.

That said, all five are on a "do again" list for any future trips.

We are just the kind of family who would rather enjoy the antics of the characters and a good-ole buffet that will fill everyone regardless of their tastes than some of the more "fine dining" establishments. But that's just us!