Character meals-breakfast, lunch or dinner?

[monkey0816]

I'm starting to plan for our trip next year w/ our 5 year old daughter and we will be doing a few character meals. I was wondering if there are any character meals that you would (or would not) do for certain meals. Like, it seems like I usually hear about people doing breakfast at CRT--is it much better (more characters, etc) than doing lunch or dinner there? What are your reasons for doing breakfast or lunch or dinner at the character meals that you choose? Thanks!

 

[StacyMarie]

We did CRT for lunch last year and my teen daughter LOVED it! We spent time with Cinderella, Belle, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White and took pictures with all! It was great! We are doing it again this year!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Chef Mickey's : I would pick breakfast over dinner. Their dinner choices just aren't up to par with what they used to be.

Crystal Palace: Breakfast or dinner. We went for lunch in Feb. and it was good. But, there are more selections offered at dinner. We won't do lunch there again.

CRT: We prefer the lunch to breakfast. We just like the food selection better. Would love to try dinner now that it has the princesses.

Two that we really want to try someday: 'Ohana and Norway breakfasts

 

[aidandmommy]

CRT is a must we are going for dinner
Chef Mickey
1900 Park Fare

 

[Liz&Griff'smom]

We ate lunch at CRT last year and loved it. We have eaten at all of the princess meals and this is by far our favorite. The food and the character interaction is great.

I prefer breakfast at Chef Mickeys to dinner. I just love those mickey waffles. It is also a great way to start your morning with all the classic Disney Characters. Magical!

 

[rhondag508]

I chose (only based on research and my plans) CRT for breakfast (so we can be there at or just after rope drop in fantasyland and because the stuffed French toast sounded good).

I chose Chef Mickey's for dinner (despite the awful dinner reviews) because we are going to use it as a fun break at 5 pm before doing MNSSHP after a day at MK.

I chose lunch at Akershus because we want to snack at the Food and Wine Festival at night or (if the food is too odd for us at Akershus-I'm just not sure-)we can snack all afternoon rather than constantly worrying that we won't be hungry for dinner.

We are doing 1900 Park Fare for breakfast for the Strawberry soup. I think dinner is a better choice due to the Step Sisters and Lady Tremaine, but it didn't work with our other plans.

 

[pixarmom]

We have three boys (pre-school to pre-teens) and we usually do our character meals at dinner time. Lunch would be our second choice.

We aren't big breakfast eaters, so we just eat something quick in our room before heading out to the parks. We arrive at rope drop so that we can take advantage of the lower crowds/minimal wait times and start collecting fastpasses. We make ADRs for later in the day so that we have a break when the parks are getting crowded and the lines are getting longer.

If your family needs a bigger breakfast, or has a different touring style, the breakfasts would work!

 

[monkey0816]

Thanks for the info and ideas

 

[clairemolly]

We usually do CRT for lunch and Crystal Palace for dinner (have never done breakfast at either). We have done CM for breakfast (dinner had gotten more poor reviews in the DIS), and it was okay but isn't one of our must-dos.

We liked both breakfast and dinner at 1900 Park Fare, although since we prefer mainly lunch or dinner with our TS for a cost/value reason with the DP we are only doing the dinner this time. Plus we are adding back in the Princess Breakfast at Epcot this year. My DD is turing 3 this trip, so we have 3 princess meals planned.

 

[Faldred]

With a younger child, I would be more hesitant about dinner character meals. It depends on the child, of course, but by then end of a long, tiring day, characters may just be "too much".

On the other hand, some children might find it the perfect tonic for being worn out.

We did most of our character meals at breakfast, primarily as a means for early entry to the parks, and breakfast was a big meal for our kids, who are used to entertainment for breakfast as well.

We did one lunch: Crystal Palace. We preferred breakfast there. Nothing particularly wrong with lunch, it's just breakfast was better.

We did do CRT for breakfast... I'd like to try it for lunch next time, to see the difference. (Maybe do AM EMH followed by CRT lunch and a more relaxing afternoon...)

As for Akerhaus... the lunch and dinner menus aren't particularly appealing to me, and unlike other pre-open ADRs, we weren't able to go early enough to be out in the park at or near rope-drop. Since we only had one Epcot day planned, it did put us a bit behind schedule (though we still did alright).

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

We usually do breakfast on a non-EMH day so we can be in the park before it opens. Breakfast is also less expensive (if you are paying OOP - it is the same number of credits on the DDP).

We like Crystal Palace for all meals, but we usually do breakfast before MK opens. We like Akershus for breakfast for the food and for being in World Showcase before it opens. We are doing breakfast at O'Hana this trip to see Lilo, Stitch, Pluto , and Mickey.

Garden Grill at Epcot is nice for dinner - good food and good character interaction - but it has gotten pretty expensive (I think it is over $30 for adults now).

 

[SmallWorld71]

With a younger child, I would be more hesitant about dinner character meals. It depends on the child, of course, but by then end of a long, tiring day, characters may just be "too much".

On the other hand, some children might find it the perfect tonic for being worn out.

When our kids were younger, we booked all our dinners (character meal or not) before 6 pm. Otherwise, they would have been sleeping in their food. We also found that it was good to have a mix of breakfast, lunch and dinner for our TS as opposed to all dinner. So I agree, timing is everything when dining with little ones.

 

[jdisnut]

I generally recommend having your character meals at breakfast. Most of these restaurants specialize in character interaction and atmosphere, not food. It's a lot tougher to mess up eggs and pancakes than fish and prime rib. If you can get your group up early, the best plan is to have your meal around 8 a.m. so you can still make rope drop at the parks!

 

[Fairywings]

I remember my very first disney trip. I was 7 at the time,and we went to Akershus for the Disney Princess Breakfast. It was awesome! We saw all the princesses except Ariel, and the food was great. This is the character breakfast to go to if your little girl loves the princesses! On my second trip, we went to Cinderella's Royal Table for lunch. It was good,too, and some of the princesses were there, as well as Mary Poppins.

 

[merger]

We always eat an early breakfast at Akershus. We get in Epcot before the park opens and get great photo ops on our way to Norway (we are usually there just after Epcot Flower and Garden is over).

 

[topmonkeygirl]

I like doing character dinning for breakfast. We aren't tired, make-up looks good, clothes are clean and at least some what not wrinkled, we're hyped up and excited to start the day. By the end of the day we just want to sit, relax, eat, then go to bed. We don't do the nap thing during the day so by time dinner comes around we're pooped.