Character meals

[cajunlace]

I will be having to make my advanced reservations on April 1. My children are DS (6) and DD (3) and they want characters but where to find and dine with them? Which characters meals are the betters one as in chacters themselves and time to go? We are in the dining plan and this is our first trip so I am hoping to make it memorable for them.

 

[mickey&minniealways]

your kids are young so the last seating of the day at the crystal palace is out. This has been some of the absolute best interaction IMHO. Our next favorite is LTT in Liberty Square in the MK. The character meal is at dinner. It is a thanksgiving meal served family style and you are seated at big tables with other families. In 2005 it was Minnie, Gooffy, Chip and Dale. We had one of our best experiences. Wear a character hat or shirt though. That can really get them going. Goofy especially will ham it up. He stole my sons goofy hat and played keep away with Chip and Dale. DS was a bit older at the time and played into it. I think the characters know though who they can get away with certain things.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Fantastic character interaction at Chef Mickeys dinner but the food was terrible. We are trying the breakfast there in 11 days.

Cape May breakfast has amazing character interaction if you go very early. The place is ust about empty so you get a ton of attention from the characters.

Princess Breakfast, again if you go very early the Princesses are all over ya....DH loved it!

 

[EnchantedPrincess]

We had the best character interaction at Chef Mickey early in the morning. We had the first ADR of the day, and the place was empty...and we had the whole gang at our table interacting with our kids for quite a while - Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy!

 

[Luv4Disney]

Chef Mickey's, LTT and Crystal Palace. We also really like CRT.

 

[TiggerXx]

1900 Park Fare definitely has the best food. I'm not a fan of the Crystal Palace or CRT. Next best one would be Chef Mickey's. Not the best food, but the most entertaining.

 

[tiger4me2]

your kids are young so the last seating of the day at the crystal palace is out. This has been some of the absolute best interaction IMHO. Our next favorite is LTT in Liberty Square in the MK. The character meal is at dinner. It is a thanksgiving meal served family style and you are seated at big tables with other families. In 2005 it was Minnie, Gooffy, Chip and Dale. We had one of our best experiences. Wear a character hat or shirt though. That can really get them going. Goofy especially will ham it up. He stole my sons goofy hat and played keep away with Chip and Dale. DS was a bit older at the time and played into it. I think the characters know though who they can get away with certain things.

They sit you with others? Is this new? We ate there this past December 2007 for dinner & had a table to ourselves & didn't see any one else sitting in a long table unless they were a lot of people eating together. Not doubting you . Now the German resturant you sit with others? Could have changed things maybe

 

[ChefColette]

I like Crystal Palace the best, for breakfast. Also, if your DS doesn't mind the "gilry" princesses, I also really like the breakfast at Akershus.

 

[memobrien]

First I would say which are their favorite characters. Because you don’t want to miss those. The more excited they are the more the characters will play off of it. We went in Jan and basically did a character meal a day, because that was totally the mission my DD (5) had. She wanted to see Characters!!! My DD is a morning girl for sure. She is usually in bed asleep by 7:30pm. So we did mostly breakfast because she was fresher. Here is a run down of what we did:

CRT – for breakfast. My DD loved the princess interaction and the food was good. My mother had the cold alternative breakfast and is still talking about it.

O’hana best friend breakfast – this was great interaction. Lilo kept coming over to my DD, I think that it helped she had a Lilo and Stich outfit on. Hehe At one point she walked my DD around to show off the outfit. My DD was just besides herself with the attention

Chef Mickey’s for breakfast – this was our least favorite meal of the trip. The food was so-so. But also the character interaction was so rushed that they barely took pictures. Infact I had taken a pic of my daughter but my daughter wanted to take a pic of me with Donald and he walked away before she could. She was actually pretty upset that Donald ignored her.

Playhouse Disney Play and Dine for breakfast– This was one of the best. The character interaction was great. They had people that came out and sang and danced with the character. The characters danced with the kids as well as going around the tables. She just loved this one. To be honest she was so into the characters I don’t remember the food much. So clearly it wasn’t bad.

1900 Park Fare for dinner – she LOVED Cinderella and the Prince. She was even asked to dance by the Prince so this was a big hit. Personally I think this was one of my favorites because the step-sisters and mother were HYSTERICAL!!!! My DD was freak out by the stepmother because she thinks she is scary from the movie. So didn’t want to talk to her. But the funny thing is that she kept initating her “nasty” faces behind her back. So the stepmother kept playing that up and it got pretty silly. My DD had a BIG bow in her hair like one of the sisters, so she just loved that and kept coming over to my DD to say how much she loved it. That sister has a big bow in her hair. Also the food was VERY good!


maura

 

[Jack&Ryan'smom]

When we went in Sept. my boys were 6.5 & 2.5. We did Crystal Palace for breakfast for 1st thing in the morning! It was great! The boys loved it and they got into the park before opening so their 1st walk down main street was ver memorable because the park was still quiet! Godd Breakfast and great character interaction!

They also loved Play & Dine for breakfast at MGM. Breakfast was so/sp but again, character interaction was great! Lots of dancing & music!

There favorite was Chef Mickey! We did dinner since we had done 2 breakfasts already. Food was so/so but you couldn't beat the character interaction! They had so much fun I don't think they ate a thing!

 

[Steelersfan]

Here is what we would recommend:

If they like princesses, definitely do breakfast at akershus in Epcot. The food is very good and everyone will like it. The service is good and the princess interaction is great. When we were there we saw Belle, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Mary Poppins and someone else I can't remember. No Cinderella though. It is only one credit to go. I'd go do every character breakfast at about 1/2 hr to 45 min before the last booking for breakfast. If you do, the place starts to empty out and it is almost like you have the characters for yourself, plus they do not stop bringing out fresh food.

We also liked for breakfast (in no particular order):

1. the playhouse disney play-n-dine at Hollywood and vine (MGM). This is good if the kids like Jo Jo, the Einsteins, etc. There was a loaded buffet with anything you could want. I bet the characters came over at least 5 times and stayed A LONG TIME. My daughter loved it.

2. Breakfast at The Crystal Palace in MK. Everyone loves Pooh and friends. Again exceptional food... they'll make you omlettes and everything here... and great character interaction. Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, etc. Wonderful. We did this one even before we had our daughter.

Again, we like a breakfast around 10:15-10:30 or so. You will be able to go to the park early and ride the popular things then go eat as the kids start to get tired. Or, you can sleep in a bit. We tried to book the breakfasts the day the park opened early. It worked out great.


For dinner try Chef Mickey's. Here you can see all the "big guns" like Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, etc. We booked for the 1st available seating (5:00 I think) and had great character interaction. The only problem there is that everyone rushed the food line and was acting like they never ate. Maybe booking a little later would resolve this. We liked the food here and have no idea why people complain.

If you have kids, the character meals are the way to go.

Here is my dining review from this summer if it helps. I have pics of the food items from these restaurants included.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1531687

Have fun!

 

[mickey&minniealways]

They sit you with others? Is this new? We ate there this past December 2007 for dinner & had a table to ourselves & didn't see any one else sitting in a long table unless they were a lot of people eating together. Not doubting you . Now the German resturant you sit with others? Could have changed things maybe

This was in 2005 it could have changed since then. We are going late April so I guess we will find out then.

 

[PrincessDisney96]

Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace.

 

[Joanna71985]

LTT you only eat with your own family. You don't share with anyone else.

 

[punkin1763]

Ditto what everyone else has said - Chef Mickey's, Liberty Tree, and Crystal Palace. We also like Play & Dine and Akerhaus. Last year we had breakfast at O'Hana's at the Contemporary and really loved the interaction with the characters.

 

[Pirate at Heart]

Chef Mickey or Crysal Palace are both alot of fun with little ones.

Have a great trip!

 

[acmomma]

Hey SteelersFan just read your review, Thank you so much my DD3 and I both
have Celiac. We have been to disney before but not since we were aware we have this disease. We are going in December and I have been very worried. I really wanted to do a few Character meals but buffets are usually not usually celiac friendly. I feel better now. Thanks.

 

[famouschinesec]

We will be going in early November. Family of 4, two teenage girls. I also am trying to decide on a character meal. Went 2 years ago and did Chef Mickey's for breakfast. Everyone enjoyed. The main character my kids want to see is Minnie. Wouldn't mind princesses. Need help in choosing between Chef Mickey's for dinner, Liberty Tree Tavern, Park Fare Breakfast, or Mickeys Backyard BBQ. On the face of it LTT seems like the best bet, but the food seems sort of bland. Being teenagers, they eat a wide variety of foods. Stouffer mac and cheese? Yuk. The lunch menu seems better. Are there characters at lunch? Any and all input would be appreciated.

 

[disneymom0104]

We did a few Character meals last year and were pretty pleased with all of them.

Akershus breakfast- loved it- my girls are huge princess fans.

Cape May Cafe breakfast- it was okay- we were at the end of the line for meeting characters and they were ready for a break by the time they got to us.

1900 Park Fare breakfast- by far our favorite. My girls are HUGE Mary Poppins fans and this was the highlight of the trip. I thought they had the best breakfast buffet as well.

Crystal Palace for lunch. It was good, but again we were at the end of the line for the characters and felt we were cut short a couple times.

I already have my ADRs in hopes for free dining in Sept. and have repeated Akershus, 1900 Park Fare and Crystal Palace. I also have Hollywood and Vine scheduled for lunch and Chef Mickey's for breakfast. We love the character meals, though, and it makes it nice not feeling the need to stand in lines to meet everyone in the parks.

 

[goldie_ears4]

At Chef Mickey's do you get the chance to interact with all characters there? And about how long should I plan on staying (we have a breakfast ADR)?