Character meal?

[justme0729]

I think I remember reading there was a character meal that you could sign up for on the cruise. Is this true? When do you sign up and what characters are there?

 

[m3owbox]

You can sign up online. I just did it at the beginning of the month on the Magic. There was Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.

 

[TestingH2O]

It depends on the cruise. The character breakfasts are only available on cruises 7 nights or longer. Sometimes there is also a requirement for a certain number of sea days or late port days.

You'll find it under on board activities if they are offered on your cruise.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

I think I remember reading there was a character meal that you could sign up for on the cruise. Is this true? When do you sign up and what characters are there?

For our upcoming Fantasy cruise there is a Disney Junior breakfast on 2 different mornings. From my understanding the characters will be Jake, Sophia, Doc Mcstuffins and Mickey. Not sure if Minnie is there too.
We signed up for it online. The first sea day all the slots filled up really fast, but we later saw another character breakfast on the Grand Cayman day when the ship arrives in port later.

 

[justme0729]

We will be on a 5 night cruise so I am thinking maybe there won't be one then?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

It depends on the cruise. The character breakfasts are only available on cruises 7 nights or longer. Sometimes there is also a requirement for a certain number of sea days or late port days.

You'll find it under on board activities if they are offered on your cruise.

Time was that everyone onboard was assigned to a specific Character breakfast, based on your dinner seating. That meant, logistically, DCL had to allow pretty much a full morning to each day's seatings (6 seatings = 3 mornings). Then the cruise had to be a 7 night and longer with at least 3 sea days (or 2 sea days and one late port day) to fit them all in.

With the change to tickets, and only those people actually interested in going filling the space, while the 7 night and longer thing is still in effect, there's no requirement for 3 sea days. In fact, I believe I read that there were some Character Breakfasts on a port day.

We will be on a 5 night cruise so I am thinking maybe there won't be one then?

I believe you're correct.

 

[LAX]

With the need to sign up, does this mean space is limited and interested families may potentially get shut out when space runs out? That maybe another reason to book on opening day?!

LAX

 

[Dug720]

With the need to sign up, does this mean space is limited and interested families may potentially get shut out when space runs out? That maybe another reason to book on opening day?!

LAX

Yes, the dining room space is limited.

But when you book the cruise has nothing to do with signing up for things. THAT timeline is based on your Castaway Club status. Concierge and Platinum cruisers get first crack, then a few days later Gold cruisers, a few days after them Silver cruisers, and a few days after them first-time cruisers.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

With the need to sign up, does this mean space is limited and interested families may potentially get shut out when space runs out? That maybe another reason to book on opening day?!

LAX

Well, I believe, while they typically start out with one character breakfast, if it fills, they've been adding at least one more. Not sure how many they can add, though.

So you don't really get a whole lot of selection as to when if you want to reserve tickets for it.

 

[LAX]

Yes, the dining room space is limited.

But when you book the cruise has nothing to do with signing up for things. THAT timeline is based on your Castaway Club status. Concierge and Platinum cruisers get first crack, then a few days later Gold cruisers, a few days after them Silver cruisers, and a few days after them first-time cruisers.

That's bad news for my kids! We are all total DCL newbies (still in planning stage for our 1st ever).

LAX

 

[Dug720]

That's bad news for my kids! We are all total DCL newbies (still in planning stage for our 1st ever).

LAX

We were all there once! Don't give up!

 

[ciniminis]

We were on Fantasy (Western Caribbean) and got tickets for the character breakfast on Grand Cayman day - characters were Jake, Sophia, Doc McStuffins and Mickey as someone mentioned above, and it was held in Animator's Palate. The food was awful! I can guarantee that any supermarket box mix for pancake or waffle would have tasted better. And there isn't a big selection like Cabanas or one of the MDRs when they're open for breakfast. The up side is that of course you get to sit at a table for characters to come to you, and I do appreciate the rare opportunity to get a picture of my parents with Mickey Mouse (no way they would wait in line for it). But as we came out of the character breakfast and walked past Royal Court, the food in there looked so much better than what we had!

I'll also note that there were no Shutters photographers present, so you'll need to bring your own camera if you want pictures with the characters. Each character has a helper CM who would be happy to take a picture of your group with your camera. My mom swears that one of the helper CMs (Mickey's maybe?) looked just like Aladdin from the show...