Character Meals

[*~Shorty*MoMo~*]

Hello!

My family is taking a trip to Disney World at the end of this year and I was curious on everyone's thoughts on the best character dining experience for breakfast?

I'm in charge of choosing the one character breakfast we do and I just can't decide! They all seem to have their share of good and bad reviews. So if you could only do one character breakfast on your trip, which would it be?

I'm not sure if this changes things.... but my mother and I are vegetarians (we still eat eggs, dairy, cheeses etc...) but my father is a huge meat eater so we'd like a place that accommodates both with good choices.

As a side question, do you get good character interaction at Cinderella's Royal Table? We're considering this for dinner one night.

Thanks!!

 

[Reddy]

I have boys so princess isn't our thing
we did Chef Mickey & Pooh
basicly I would go to see the characters - which ones do you really want to see??

 

[shawnh199]

Character interaction was pretty good at CRT - we did breakfast there for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

Our favorite character breakfast is Tusker House - the buffet is huge with lots of different foods to choose from. Fun characters here.

If you are looking for a breakfast with princesses I would try Akershus. It has the traditional breakfasts foods - eggs, bacon, sausage - but also has this delicious cheese potato casserole (my favorite). There is also a cold buffet with pastries, fruit, cheeses, and salmon. Character interaction here is better (IMO) than CRT. We have done Akershus for breakfast 3 times now and will continue to do it each trip on our Epcot day (we do pre-rope drop ADR's).

 

[photo_chick]

If we could only do one? O'hana. Gotta see Stitch and Mickey. But I'd sure miss those potatoes at Akershus (they are not entirely vegetarian friendly though). O'hana has a really great fruit selection. It was one of the best of any of the places we ate and my husband's favorite part of that meal.

 

[everythingALICE]

I'm vegetarian, and I really enjoy the Crystal Palace buffet in MK, featuring Pooh and friends. There's a huge spread, and plenty of vegetarian options. There will definitely be meat for your dad, but you and your mom will probably have more options than at a meal that's served family style.

I'm pretty excited to try Tusker House for breakfast though, as their lunch buffet is very veggie friendly.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

We've done most of the character meals. For breakfast we like Crystal Palace, Cinderella's Royal Table, or Akershus. Tusker House is a little cramped and too noisy for us and we recently went to Ohana and I wasn't that impressed with the food.

For dinner I would chose one of the buffets instead of CRT since the people in your party have varying food preferences. Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, or 1900 Park Faire are all pretty good in our experience.

As far as character interaction, it really is hit or miss. We've been to CRT twice, once for breakfast and once at lunch. One time we had a wonderful experience with the characters and another we felt very rushed.

My only advice is when booking try not to have an ADR that is close to the end of the meal time frame. For example when we have had late breakfasts the characters have seemed rushed.

Good luck with your decisions.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I personally think Chef Mickeys breakfast is gross. I honestly still dont understand how you can screw up breakfast. They sure managed to do it. Crystal Palace is a good choice....so is Tusker house. Tusker house is actually one of my faves. By far the biggest selection/variety i've seen yet. Although I do adore Ohana, since your a vegetarian i wouldnt recommend it.

 

[jlk806]

Chef Mickeys is our favorite character meal! We didnt like Tusker House (we've done it twice) and there are only 3 characters actually circulating tables and they are really rushed, and the service wasnt great last year either. At Chef Mickeys there are 5 characters circulating, so we got great interaction Minnie actually came to our table twice! (And we werent there an extremely long amount of time either). Chef Mickey's is our sons favorite restaurant, hands down!

 

[WDWPolyFan]

We really like Chef Mickey's for breakfast. The Crystal Palace is great too...especially before the MK opens to the public. You can get a picture in front of the castle without anyone else around. Ohana is good too. For our next trip, we are considering that one the morning before our flight home. Cape May Cafe breakfast over at Beach Club is really good! The food was great and the characters (dressed in beach gear) were awesome!

 

[jandm]

We did breakfast at 1900 Park Fare...The food was so delicious!! The characters were Pooh, Tigger, Mad Hatter, Alice & Mary Poppins. I wasn't impressed with the character interaction. We had heard that the Mad Hatter was a riot, but the one we got wasn't very good at all. Mary Poppins was extremely rushed, we actually had to call her back to sign the kids' autograph books. But, the food was wonderful.
We also did breakfast at CRT. That was our kids' favorite! The princess's spent a good amount of time and the food was very good. It was a great experience.
Next time I'd like to try Tusker House and 'Ohana.

 

[*~Shorty*MoMo~*]

Thanks for all the great replies!!

We made reservations to stay at the Contemporary Resort today and it was decided we'd do two character breakfast's, one at Chef Mickey's and another somewhere else.

I think I'm leaning toward Akershus because of the princesses since were definitely not going to CRT..... I just can't seem to say no to 1900 Park Fare though, I've heard the Mad Hatter is really funny!

 

[Linda T.]

We have done Akershus, Crystal Palace, and Chef Mickey's for breakfast. By far, Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends is our favorite. Gettint into Magic Kingdom before it opens and walking down mainstreet with no one around is an awesome experience, too. We did Akershus last year, and we did not like the meal at all but character interaction was awesome!!!!

 

[one2admire]

Our favorite as far as food and character interaction was O'hana. We also really liked Tusker House too. TH had the largest selection and the food actually tasted good. With the vegetarians in your group TH may be a good option. Chef Mickey's was our least favorite, good interaction, terrible food. We only go there for the interaction.

 

[*~Shorty*MoMo~*]

Well it turns out Chef Mickey's is all booked up for breakfast the days were there so instead we got reservations for Crystal Palace at 10:10 and Akershus at 9:45. Are either of these to late? I know the breakfast for CP ends at 10:30 and I'm worried we'll be rushed and won't get much food let alone any character interaction. I think we could snag a 9:20 reservation 1900 Park Fare that day would that be better?

Also wondering how the breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe in Animal Kingdom is? We're either eating there for breakfast one day or eating at Cape May Cafe but the only time we could get a reservation for Cape May Cafe seems a little to early for us.... (were very lazy on vacation!)

 

[Agri]

My favorite breakfasts are at Crystal Palace, Boma, and Cape May. They both have a lot of variety and vegetarian options.

The food at Crystal Palace is a lot like the food at Chef Mickey's, but they have a few more unique items and its not as loud and rushed at CM's. We've eaten at CM's twice in the past year for breakfast and once for dinner and none of the experiences were particularly worth it. The characters even rushed us - Minnie got visibly irritated when my mom had trouble with the camera even when I tried to make light of it as to not upset my mom. (Minnie kept pointing at the button and at one point put her hand on her hip like my clearly elderly mother was doing it on purpose.)

 

[Freezing Cold B]

Chef Mickey is already booked? Wow. I remember a time you could make a reservation at Chef Mickeys when you arrived. Although, we found the last few times we went we weren't able to. It is the BEST character breakfast.

Crystal Palace is great too. Sorry, can't answer your time question though.

I've never eaten at Akershus, but several of my family member did eat there once a few years ago. I was told the food was awful.

Let the restaurants know you are a vegetarian in advance. They will accommodate you. I've been a vegetarian for 14 years now and never had trouble.

 

[happytexasmom]

1st vote goes to Tusker House in Animal Kingdom and coming in as a close 2nd is Ohana at the Polynesian Resort