Character Meals..what to do what to do!?

[surfergrl31]

I am taking my children and my parents to DW for Halloween and since this is the first time I will be going with children I am lost as to how to plan our meals. I want to take the kids to some character meals, but I have a few questions.

1) Which ones have the best food? (I would hate wasting a TS on something with just okay food)

2) Is it really worth it for breakfast? (We are not big breakfast eaters so I'm not sure about this)

3) Do the characters come around during or after meals? (I'm really worried about getting my kids to eat so we won't be in the park 30 min later and hearing "I'm Hungry!" )

4) My ds will be turning 4 on Halloween the night were going to MNSSHP where would be a good place to take him to celebrate? Can you order special cakes there?

I'm trying to limit down the list so we can eat at some adult friendly places too since my parents are going with us so if anyone has suggestions for non character meals my parents and my kids would enjoy PLEASE HELP!!

~If you can't tell I am a planner, yes its a dirty job but somebody has to do it!~

 

[brad3640]

last september we took our DS 1 & 4 to Crystal Palace with pooh and friends. I thought it was great. I really enjoyed the food. We also took them to garden grill at epcot with chip n dale. The experence was cool, it was in the rotating restaurant and they loved the characters but the food wasn't all that great. We like you aren't big breakfast eaters so didn't do any of the breakfast meals. We are going back in september and are going to try hollywood and vine with the einsteins and jojo. and chef mickey. I've heard great things about that place. hope this helps.

 

[twinspluscade]

We did four character meals our last trip: Princess Storybook at Akerhaus, Crystal Palace, Liberty Tree Tavern, and Hollywood and Vine (Little Einsteins).

We are NOT big breakfast eaters, so all the character meals were dinner --with the exception of the H and V, which was for lunch.

I thought the best food was at Crystal Palace. A big variety, and they had the best desserts! Seriously, I would eat there based on the desserts alone. This was our favorite meal of the trip, food wise.

Akerhaus and Liberty Town Tavern food was "good". I would eat at both places again (and we are at Akerhaus again in Sept).

Hollywood and Vine buffet was not very good (in my opinion). Not a real huge variety. It reminded me of a typical buffet you'd get at Bonanza or Old Country buffet. However the character interaction here was awesome! Kids loved it.

This year we're also trying Chef Mickey (heard mixed reviews on this--sounds like the food isn't anything great) and Garden Grille (heard overwhelmingly postive reviews).

Kelly

 

[2Monkeys]

1) Which ones have the best food? (I would hate wasting a TS on something with just okay food)

It depends on how high your standards are...I have noticed from reading reviews here that our standards must be very low b/c we enjoyed just about every place we went! We thought Crystal Palace (lunch) was the best buffet. Food was very good and a good variety! We also liked Chef Mickey's as another character meal. For a non-character meal, we loved O'Hana's. We also did Mickey's Backyard BBQ - the food was pretty good, not great. The show was lots of fun.

2) Is it really worth it for breakfast? (We are not big breakfast eaters so I'm not sure about this)

We LOVED the breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table. We are not huge breakfast eaters either, but when we went they had a cream cheese stuffed french toast that was awesome! Plus, if we do breakfast we do it at around 10 or 10:30, so it is more of a brunch.

3) Do the characters come around during or after meals? (I'm really worried about getting my kids to eat so we won't be in the park 30 min later and hearing "I'm Hungry!" )

I was worried about this too! I think it just depends on where they are in the rotation whether they come while you're eating or not. My kids were way too excited and having too much fun to worry about food very much - and they ask for food A LOT at home (not that they always get it, lol!). But at WDW, they ate when it was time, and really didn't ask for much else. We also carried a few snacks around as well as gum & suckers, which we allowed them to have whenver - we are very relaxed on vacation!

I can't comment on the birthday cake thing, b/c I haven't done it. However, we went for my DD's 4th bday, and she got a special dessert at every place we went. We got her an 'It's My Birthday' button from the resort, and let her wear it all week. We also got VIP seating for the Beauty & the Beast show at MGM.

 

[Tam1067]

My kids all like Chef Mickey's. DH likes the food there, too. It's decent (not great) buffet fare. They have make your own ice cream sundaes for dessert at dinner.

My youngest likes Crystal Palace. If your kids are into Pooh, that's a good place to go. Food is also buffet and comparable to Chef Mickey's I think.

DD liked Akershus in Norway because she saw the princesses there.

We always do dinner for character meals because it seems a waste of valuable touring time to sit in a long breakfast and to spend so much on breakfast. Dinner works better for us. And the kids are usually tired enough from hanging around in the parks all day that they will eat.

And because those characters do come to your table, expect the kids to be excited. My kids do actually eat fairly well when we're there, though. I've found WDW to be sensory overload all the way through, so one meal isn't that different from the rest.

Non-character meals we all enjoyed include Kona Cafe and 'Ohana.