Character Meals Super Thread!!

[tiffjoy]

We have never done PI or PPH for breakfast. After reading on here, most reviews are mixed. Is there one that is preferred over the other? Should I try AG for breakfast instead?

We have done Storytellers breakfast before and GK for dinner, as well as AG for lunch. I am looking for something different that has decent food and fun characters for the kids. My youngest LOVES princesses but she doesn't "need" to see them and the boys get a bit tired of all princesses all the time. So PP or PI seems like a better choice for all of them, but if the food is hands down better at AG, then maybe I should just do that anyway? So confused. Storytellers is nice but not a whole lot of characters, which kinda defeats the purpose IMO. Thank you for any help and for this very thorough thread!

We personally don't go to character meals for the food. I actually give my children breakfast before we go so that aren't that hungry (they are grumpy and don't enjoy the characters if they are hungry). They are 4 and almost 2.

We have done all but Storytellers (most of the characters there are unfortunately not recognizable to my kiddos). We love PPH. The character interaction is fantastic and it's never been crowded. I like the food, too, which is a plus. We have had Mickey and Stitch spend half an hour playing with our girls. It's such a great time, and I highly recommend it.

PI is another favorite for different reasons. It's very fast paced with lots of characters. We usually meet 10 or so characters there, which makes it very worth it to us.

AG is pricey for what you get, IMO. We thought the food was good, but the character interaction, the entire reason we go, was not great. Saw 4 princesses for maybe 45 seconds each, all just one time. Meeting Ariel at the beginning for a photo was nice. But you can meet all these characters in line at PFF. We'd rather do that, but we might return sometime as it wasn't horrible.

GK was awful. We met three characters, and we had to practically beg to get them to stop. The other few passed us by. The area was very awkward and big. The food was really good, but we wanted characters. There are good meals elsewhere, but character meals are for characters for us. We will likely never do that one again.

 

[wallawallakids]

We personally don't go to character meals for the food. I actually give my children breakfast before we go so that aren't that hungry (they are grumpy and don't enjoy the characters if they are hungry). They are 4 and almost 2.

We have done all but Storytellers (most of the characters there are unfortunately not recognizable to my kiddos). We love PPH. The character interaction is fantastic and it's never been crowded. I like the food, too, which is a plus. We have had Mickey and Stitch spend half an hour playing with our girls. It's such a great time, and I highly recommend it.

PI is another favorite for different reasons. It's very fast paced with lots of characters. We usually meet 10 or so characters there, which makes it very worth it to us.

AG is pricey for what you get, IMO. We thought the food was good, but the character interaction, the entire reason we go, was not great. Saw 4 princesses for maybe 45 seconds each, all just one time. Meeting Ariel at the beginning for a photo was nice. But you can meet all these characters in line at PFF. We'd rather do that, but we might return sometime as it wasn't horrible.

GK was awful. We met three characters, and we had to practically beg to get them to stop. The other few passed us by. The area was very awkward and big. The food was really good, but we wanted characters. There are good meals elsewhere, but character meals are for characters for us. We will likely never do that one again.

Thank you. That helps. We agree with you on GK. So maybe I will try PPH this time. Sounds like the character interaction is good there and that is mainly what we want. Thanks

 

[Ride Junkie]

We have done all but Storytellers (most of the characters there are unfortunately not recognizable to my kiddos). We love PPH. The character interaction is fantastic and it's never been crowded. I like the food, too, which is a plus. We have had Mickey and Stitch spend half an hour playing with our girls. It's such a great time, and I highly recommend it.

I agree. The Surf's Up breakfast at PPH is the best character meal we've been to (we've tried all except PI). The character interaction there is the best. Your kids will get a lot of one-on-one time, and they come around multiple times. It's less crowded and less expensive than the others, and the food is good. Definitely give it a try.

 

[mpadilla89]

Is a reservation at GK at 7:50 pm too late? They only have 5:30 and 7:50 for our party of 7

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Is a reservation at GK at 7:50 pm too late? They only have 5:30 and 7:50 for our party of 7

Before our last trip, I would have said yes, but last week we had a 8:10pm reservation and it was amazing! We will always go for a later time now. There wasn't anybody in the lobby when we got there, so Goofy danced around the Christmas tree with my kids. All of the characters in the restaurant came by and stayed for a long time. Alice even had a tea party on the floor with my kids! Some came back a few times. And the food was replenished & hot through out our time even though it was so close to their closing.

 

[mpadilla89]

I was just worried because I've read others saying that there weren't that many characters because they were almost closing or food wasn't being brought out. I think we might go for it But we are probably going to be there at 7:30 or is that too early for our 7:50 reservation ? I'm hoping they xan get us earlier

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I was just worried because I've read others saying that there weren't that many characters because they were almost closing or food wasn't being brought out. I think we might go for it But we are probably going to be there at 7:30 or is that too early for our 7:50 reservation ? I'm hoping they xan get us earlier

It's worth a try to get their early. All the food was replenished and the characters we saw were Minnie, Chip, Dale, Goofy, Pluto, Alice, Mad Hatter and I think one more.

 

[wamommy2four]

I am reading over this thread still but had a question. We are thinking that we might want to try the Surf's Up Character Meal at PPH. We have never done a character meal before. What would be the best time to come for the most character interaction. Early, middle or late seating? Does it matter what day of the week? We will be arriving on a Sat. but not going into the parks until Mon., so we could do a Sun. to kick off the fun.

Thanks for any advice! I will keep reading this thread for more info too.

 

[mrsashbaugh]

Had reservations for our family of 11 at 5:40pm on Monday, November 25, 2013. We arrived a little before our time and got seated pretty quickly after taking our picture with Goofy. We saw 2 characters in the first 30 minutes we were there. About an hour of being there we saw a total of 5 characters. We left at 7pm and saw all the characters that were there that night. We saw Goofy, Chip & Dale, Pluto, Alice, Mad Hatter, and Minnie. My daughter at 14 months was TERRIFIED of all the characters. We could not get her to take any pics with them because she was so scared. She was ever terrified of Minnie Mouse and she LOVES Minnie. I would say that I didn't quite love our experience there only because we had a huge group. Where we were seated was kinda awkward because we were up against the wall and with a big table hard to get up from and around to see characters every time they came. For my family that wasn't seating by the wall was fine for them. I think we probably would have had more interaction if we were a smaller group. A lot of their time was spent signing all the kids autograph books and taking pictures. As for the food I really enjoyed it. I love chicken nuggets and ate quite a few of them. The pizza was alright and so were the treats. My sister was very happy with her Gluten Free options. The chef took her around with some other Gluten Free people and explained their options and answered any questions they had. They even brought a warm brownie from the kitchen that was made for her. She said it was so good and melted in her mouth. My mom really enjoyed her plate and I believed had Salmon. Here are a few pictures of Alice trying to interact with my daughter.

Here are a few pics of our plates.

As we were leaving I thought, "ahhh, I forgot to take pictures of all the food!" I got a few from our plates but wanted to take pics of the buffet. If I get the chance I would love to come again with just my family to get more of the interaction and have my daughter not be so afraid.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

bump

 

[grumpy 12]

I can't decide which character breakfast would be the best. My son loves Goofy and my daughter loves Stitch. My question is which place would be better? Has anybody been the recently that can tell me the characters. I know they switch up all the time. We leave in 46 days so I need to get my decision made fast. We have never done a character dining so this is new to us. Thank you.

 

[mom2rtk]

I can't decide which character breakfast would be the best. My son loves Goofy and my daughter loves Stitch. My question is which place would be better? Has anybody been the recently that can tell me the characters. I know they switch up all the time. We leave in 46 days so I need to get my decision made fast. We have never done a character dining so this is new to us. Thank you.

You *might* see more characters at GK, but it's a busier restaurant and might require that you stick around longer to wait for them to get to your table.

In mid-December we saw Goofy, Chip, Dale, Minnie, Alice and the Mad Hatter at GK for dinner. At Surf's UP for breakfast, we saw Mickey, Minnie, Stitch, Daisy and Pluto. This was not the crazy busy place that GK was, so the characters had a bit more time and some came around twice.

Another consideration is what meal you want to eat. Surf's Up is breakfast only. We did GK for dinner on our arrival day, and it was nice to have some character interaction that day without being in the parks yet.

 

[Kristina4109]

Our last trip in October we did GK for dinner and Surf's Up for a late breakfast, really lunch. At GK we saw Goofy (of course), Pluto, Chip, Dale, Snow White, Jasmine and Minnie. Each character spent a nice long time at our table.

At Surf's Up we saw Mickey, Pluto, Stitch, whom we’ve never met before, Daisy Duck, and Minnie dressed as a lifeguard. The nice thing is, we got the last seating of the day so we were not rushed at all to leave - in fact, our waitress specifically told us to stay as long as we liked and take lots of pictures with the characters.

 

[grumpy 12]

Our last trip in October we did GK for dinner and Surf's Up for a late breakfast, really lunch. At GK we saw Goofy (of course), Pluto, Chip, Dale, Snow White, Jasmine and Minnie. Each character spent a nice long time at our table.

At Surf's Up we saw Mickey, Pluto, Stitch, whom we’ve never met before, Daisy Duck, and Minnie dressed as a lifeguard. The nice thing is, we got the last seating of the day so we were not rushed at all to leave - in fact, our waitress specifically told us to stay as long as we liked and take lots of pictures with the characters.

What time did you book for surf's up? Was the dinner good at Goofy's kitchen?

 

[Kristina4109]

Our reservation for Surf's Up was at 11:00 AM. We used EE to get into the park at 7:00 AM (yes, we are that freakish), took the monorail out of the park, and made the short walk to PP. Absolutely would do it again.

Dinner at GK was so good. Really expensive, but this was to celebrate my daughter's birthday. (Incidentally, did the same thing in June to celebrate MY birthday!) I'm very much into healthy eating, my husband is not, and my kid is super picky. We ALL found lots to eat. Highlight of my meal was a spicy shrimp ceviche. My husband got a Long Island Iced Tea and I got a glass of Pinot Noir and the entire bill came to $125.78. And we did NOT opt for the photo package this time.

 

[misdizadict]

I have eaten at GK and Plaza Inn. In my experience Plaza Inn was not only a much better value but we seen so many characters! At Plaza Inn we seen Goofy,Minnie,Winnie the Pooh,Fairy God mother,Tigger and more! The characters came almost immediately after us being seated. At GK we were there for an hour and only seen 2 characters and it was on a Monday morning at 9:30! The food was not as good as Plaza Inn and the price was very high. Maybe we came on an off day but paying over $100 for a mediocre breakfast was not worth it for us.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I have eaten at GK and Plaza Inn. In my experience Plaza Inn was not only a much better value but we seen so many characters! At Plaza Inn we seen Goofy,Minnie,Winnie the Pooh,Fairy God mother,Tigger and more! The characters came almost immediately after us being seated. At GK we were there for an hour and only seen 2 characters and it was on a Monday morning at 9:30! The food was not as good as Plaza Inn and the price was very high. Maybe we came on an off day but paying over $100 for a mediocre breakfast was not worth it for us.

It's so interesting to me because we've had the exact opposite experience. We've never had a problem with characters at GK and had our best meal there our last trip, which was a late dinner. We've had good breakfasts at Plaza Inn, but our last time there (Oct. 2012) was SO bad, I'm not sure we'll ever go back. After a huge seating snafu, it took 2 hours for a single character to come by and that was after going to the main handler 3 times (and watching them walk through the section next to us multiple times). We did see some characters, but they were rushed and by this time, people were coming in with their own food (patio seating) and using it like meet & greets, which nobody stopped. So frustrating!

And I disagree - Goofy's Kitchen food is so much better than Plaza Inn and has much more variety. Different strokes for different folks

 

[smiles33]

I have eaten at GK and Plaza Inn. In my experience Plaza Inn was not only a much better value but we seen so many characters! At Plaza Inn we seen Goofy,Minnie,Winnie the Pooh,Fairy God mother,Tigger and more! The characters came almost immediately after us being seated. At GK we were there for an hour and only seen 2 characters and it was on a Monday morning at 9:30! The food was not as good as Plaza Inn and the price was very high. Maybe we came on an off day but paying over $100 for a mediocre breakfast was not worth it for us.

Wow, I, too, am shocked by how opposite your experience was from our April 2013 experience. Yes, we had more characters at Plaza Inn, but the food was akin to bad elementary school cafeteria food. Barely palatable (and I ate it only because I didn't want to waste time eating again once we left the restaurant).

Goofy's Kitchen was literally 100 times better than Plaza Inn in our experience and we met with just as many characters. I wouldn't say I loved their food, but it was decent and a good value given the number of characters we saw, too.

We met Chip, Dale, Minnie, Tigger, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Fairy Godmother, and Captain Hook at Minnie's. We met the same number of characters at Goofy's, where we met Goofy, Aurora, Chip, Dale, Baloo, Pluto, Princess Mulan, and Rafiki.

 

[BayGirl22]

I've now done all the character meals but Surf's Up so wanted to weigh in with my comparison.

Goofy's we did last trip for breakfast. Thought the food was pretty good for a buffet setting and there were a few unique items like the PB&J pizza. Not great but a bit beyond your typical hotel breakfast. We had good character interaction, maybe ~8 characters. It was our kids' first character breakfast so I think we were not as used to the logistics yet. I'd love to try it for dinner next time, this time we wanted something different.

Plaza Inn we did both trips. I'd say the food is typical breakfast buffet. We had about 8 characters this time, so pretty good. I feel like its less organized, we saw Eeyore but he didn't make it to his table so we had to walk over and grab him on the way out. We always make a late morning ressie here and the characters kind of hang out after and dance around or pose. Kind of a nice bonus. I wish the picture was WITH Minnie, not just us standing alone.

Ariel's we did for the first time. We had 3 princesses plus Ariel: Mulan, Cinderella, and Snow White. The food was better than I expected from the reviews here. DH and I both had the lobster salad and the kids had the octopus hot dog and mac and cheese. Random, but I also liked that the kid packs there weren't the same paper menu as everywhere else, they included stickers which was nice. I really didn't expect to like it but I would do Ariel's again. I liked the photo opp here, unfortunately my Ariel-loving kids wimped out and are hiding in our pic.

Storyteller's we also tried since we were staying at the GCH. The nice thing is you can order off the menu, so the food was better and not as pricy. I had Huevos Rancheros and DH had banana stuffed french toast. However the characters didn't excite us, we saw Chip and Dale (whom we met also at Plaza Inn) and some bears and a racoon. We had watched Brother Bear in preparation but still not the most exciting characters for my kids. Also no photo package, which is a bummer for us since we get PP+. I would have liked a cute entry pic with Chip n Dale, not sure why they don't do that. I'm not sure we'd do this one again unless it was just for the food, just not Disney enough for us.

 

[grumpy 12]

Is the peanut butter and jelly pizza there at dinner too or just breakfast? I'm thinking maybe do GK for the dinner the first night since we won't be in the park that day and surf's up for breakfast. I really want my kids to see their favorite characters and since stitch is only at a breakfast I might have to do it this way.