Character Meals Besides Disney?

[61maris61]

Fairly new to these boards and can't seem to find a positive answer to this question:

Are there any accessible character meals (breakfast or otherwise) besides what Disney offers? We'll be in Orlando for 12 days (5 nights Wyndham Bonnet Creek; 7 nights Vacation Village Parkway). We'll do several Disney ones, but we're wondering what else might be available.

I've found some Universal options, which our 3 yr old DGD would love, but they all seem to involve either booking a room at Nick Suites, or paying admission to Universal.

Am I (like Pluto in some old cartoons), barking up the wrong tree, or do such things exist??

 

[Beemitchcowski]

The Swan/Dolphin..but that's still Disney

There is a Pirate themed Dinner http://www.mousesavers.com/dinnershows2.html#pirates

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

The Wyndham Lake Buena Vista resort (one of the Downtown Disney hotels) offers a Disney character breakfast (Goofy and Pluto only). I think all you have to do is call the hotel a week or a few days ahead of time to make a reservation and the breakfast is offered several times a week I believe. I was told that you don't have to be a guest at this hotel to be able to do the character breakfast; and it is very affordable. I am not sure about other non-Disney character breakfasts in Orlando though other than the character breakfast at Universal Islands of Adventure (Scooby Doo, Spiderman, Dr. Seuss characters) but that requires admission to the park. The on site Universal resort hotels (Royal Pacific, Portofino, Hard Rock) offer character dining on select evenings but you would have to call the hotels individually and get more details as I am not sure if you have to be a guest at those hotels to do the character dining nor am I sure what characters make appearances during those particular dining experiences. The Nickelodeon Suites Resort offers a character breakfast with Nickelodeon characters (SpongeBob, Dora, Diego, etc.) but you have to book a stay there in order to do the character breakfast. As the previous poster mentioned, there are some fun themed dinner shows in the Orlando area that might be worth looking into as well.

 

[Straitlover]

If you're planning on going to Seaworld, I think they have some kind of Dine w/ Shamu meal. It's in the park, though, so it requires park admission.

In addition to the Pirate thing soemone posted, there's an Arabian Nights place. I don't know if Medieval Times is still open or not. I know Dixie Stampede closed.

 

[AmyMB]

Hilton at Lake Buena Vista offers a Disney character breakfast on Sunday mornings. I'm not sure which characters they have though

 

[61maris61]

Appreciate the feedback on here. Since we're staying at WBC we figure we'll prob do 2 Disney character meals for our 3 yr old DGD - just thought there might be other options besides Disney, but apparently not, with the exception of Universal and Nick. Except for our 23 yr old DS, none of us would really care for Universal, although our DGD would love Dora and the other characters available.

I'm kind of surprised there isn't more available outside of the parks (Disney yes, everyone else no). Years ago when our kids were small we had a local restaurant that advertised "character" dinners. One week was Barney, but what they had was a purple dinosaur that looked nothing like Barney. Another week was Mickey Mouse, except the costume looked more like a drowned rat than a mouse - LOL!

We are considering a dinner show - personally I don't consider them character meals, which is why I didn't mention them before. But, again, thanks for the responses.