Character Meals

[cwasil]

We are finally going to start booking everything this upcoming Friday and I'm wondering if there are any Character Meals that stand out with you on being the best.

We'll have 7 days at the parks so we will be visiting all (4) parks so we should be able to visit any of them.

In looking at the reservation system it looks like I'm a bit late to the game but nothing I can do about it now. I'll just try and get the best ones I can at this point.

My feeling on the whole Disney dining experience is that if it isn't a character meal then it's just food like I can get anywhere else. Breakfast will be at the house, before we head off to the parks and lunch and dinner will be something simple along the lines of cheeseburgers and such. If we want a nice meal I have no problem dropping $70 on steaks and grilling them at the house vs. the ridiculous prices they charge at Disney. Character meals are different...to a point at least. I can't really justify dropping $250 for a Cinderella meal (it doesn't really matter since it's booked up anyhow for my dates) however these are the once in a lifetime episodes that get etched into your mind forever so I'd like to get to several of them. I know my 6 and 7 year old will love them while my 15 month old will probably scream bloody murder.

I have an idea what I'd like to do but wonder if there are any new "surprises" for me since it's been about 8 years since I was last at Disney World. Thank you.

 

[msmama]

I like the Garden Grille in the Land Pavillion at Epcot. The whole restaurant rotates as you eat. Characters are Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale (in their farmers gear). I think the food is some of the best I've had at Disney, too. That said, it's been one of my favorite restaurants since long before they did characters there. Every time we've been there we see all the characters several times and it's someplace that doesn't "feel" crowded even if it may be. It's all you can eat, but not a buffet.

Honestly though, you're going to probably get as many different opinions on this as there are people!

 

[reneaterry]

I like the Garden Grille in the Land Pavillion at Epcot. The whole restaurant rotates as you eat. Characters are Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale (in their farmers gear). I think the food is some of the best I've had at Disney, too. That said, it's been one of my favorite restaurants since long before they did characters there. Every time we've been there we see all the characters several times and it's someplace that doesn't "feel" crowded even if it may be. It's all you can eat, but not a buffet.

Honestly though, you're going to probably get as many different opinions on this as there are people!

I second garden grill. The character interaction is awesome! Our dd was asleep the first time the characters came by. They came back around a second time for pictures once she woke up and chip stopped again because she had just woke up and wasn't happy when he came by the second time. The third she was happy to see him. It wasn't like that at any other location.

 

[pocomom]

We are finally going to start booking everything this upcoming Friday and I'm wondering if there are any Character Meals that stand out with you on being the best.

We'll have 7 days at the parks so we will be visiting all (4) parks so we should be able to visit any of them.

In looking at the reservation system it looks like I'm a bit late to the game but nothing I can do about it now. I'll just try and get the best ones I can at this point.

My feeling on the whole Disney dining experience is that if it isn't a character meal then it's just food like I can get anywhere else. Breakfast will be at the house, before we head off to the parks and lunch and dinner will be something simple along the lines of cheeseburgers and such. If we want a nice meal I have no problem dropping $70 on steaks and grilling them at the house vs. the ridiculous prices they charge at Disney. Character meals are different...to a point at least. I can't really justify dropping $250 for a Cinderella meal (it doesn't really matter since it's booked up anyhow for my dates) however these are the once in a lifetime episodes that get etched into your mind forever so I'd like to get to several of them. I know my 6 and 7 year old will love them while my 15 month old will probably scream bloody murder.

I have an idea what I'd like to do but wonder if there are any new "surprises" for me since it's been about 8 years since I was last at Disney World. Thank you.

My two favorite so far were breakfast (cheaper than dinner)at Cinderella's castle- geting into thepark before opening IS magical and was worth the whole thing to me and Chip n dale's campfire (free) at Fort wilderness. My kids love chip and dale, it's FREE,(they have smores and hotdogs/snacks to buy, if you don't have your own) and they dance with you and you really get some quality time with them. When we were there in January there was hardly anybody there so we got a lot of attention.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

The 'Ohana character breakfast is a family favourite. Wonderful atmosphere, view of the castle, fabulous food, and fantastic character interaction. The meal is served family-style (all you can eat and brought right to your table) which is wonderful for those folks who are travelling with little ones! (and a great perk for those of us just feelin' lazy )

 

[ceecee]

We loved the Castle (DD was into Cinderella at the time). We have done O'hana which was fun, but DD preferred dinner with the coconut races. We did the Castle at Epcot and it was just ok food wise, characters were great (Princesses). We have done (Contempory) Chef Mickey's a lot (good food, fun and lots of character interaction). Garden Grill's food was good and moderate character interaction. We have done Liberty Tree (food is good) many times as well. Our favorite is Chef Mickey's by far due to great character interaction, good food and overall fun. Looking forward to Be Our Guest this year (I hear you need to call at the first day though). DD was in Beauty and the Beast Musical at school so she wants to do that, sadly she is getting older and doesn't get into the character meals as much as I do!!!!!!

 

[wiigirl]

The 'Ohana character breakfast is a family favourite. Wonderful atmosphere, view of the castle, fabulous food, and fantastic character interaction. The meal is served family-style (all you can eat and brought right to your table) which is wonderful for those folks who are travelling with little ones! (and a great perk for those of us just feelin' lazy )

x2 for Ohana

 

[mitchwebb]

Our only must do is Crystal Place with Pooh and friends. We do a late breakfast and it takes care of both breakfast and lunch for us. All three of my girls are huge Pooh fans. We have stopped doing other buffets because they are all Disney adults now and eat so little it just isn't economical, but they all have great memories of Cinderella Breakfast, 'Ohana with Stitch.

 

[girli565]

We loved 1900 Park fare at the GF. The Step mother and step sisters are the highlight of our evening there. They have made us laugh so hard we've cried on 2 separate dinners. They seem to love tables of all adults, which we usually are because we travel with our friends, and they even make some colorful jokes that have us rolling. My husband isn't the tallest man, he's about 5'9, and the step mother is quite stauesque, so when he got up to take a pic with her she looked down on him and said "oh, you're fun sized" LMAO!! Very fun.

But they are also just as much fun with kids, taking the sneering pictures and playing with the children. And the food is very good. Our favorite buffet meal on property.

 

[figmentfrenzymommy]

The 'Ohana character breakfast is a family favourite. Wonderful atmosphere, view of the castle, fabulous food, and fantastic character interaction. The meal is served family-style (all you can eat and brought right to your table) which is wonderful for those folks who are travelling with little ones! (and a great perk for those of us just feelin' lazy )

Also our fam fav, with hollywood n vine lunch close 2nd. Just got back from wdw and my 3 month old dd fell hard for oso! The food is actually really good too.

 

[dpswift]

Our favorite is dinner at 1600 Park Faire. The charactor interaction is assume.

We were not happy with our breakfast at Ohana because it took forever for the charactors to get through. We waited over an hour for Mickey and as he was about to come over another group called him back for a second time.

My kids liked Chef Mickeys when they were younger.

 

[teCh0010]

I think Tusker House breakfast is our favorite. We didn't feel rushed, and the food was good.

 

[momof1princess]

we have several favorite meals:

MK - Crystal Palace - we do lunch for the citrus-marinated flank steak (YUMMY!) and the pooh characters. who doesn't love winnie the pooh and friends?

EP - Biergarten - DH loves the pork schnitzel (i'll admit, it is darn good, but not as good as my DMIL's!). however, last time we ate there, instead of pork schnitzel, they had chicken schnitzel, and DH DESPISES chicken, so, we paid almost $100 for a meal he didn't even eat.

DHS - we don't eat sit-down meals here. this is usually when we go to the wilderness lodge for supper at whispering canyon cafe. the food is delicious, and the servers and CMs are hilarious.

AK - Tusker House - this is our favorite breakfast meal BY FAR. the buffet is awesome, and they have great character interaction.

Runners-up:
MK - Liberty Tree Tavern. although it's not a character meal anymore, the food is really good.

EP - Garden Grill. as others have said, the character interaction is really good, and so is the food.

DHS - none. i've been dying to try the sci-fi dine-in theater.

AK - none. i do highly recommend flame tree bbq for CS, though. LOVE their bbq!

 

[kkandaj]

Every character meal we've had--I've loved and so have our kids. I felt they were all the worth the money. We paid close to $200 for Askerhaus (Princesses in Epcot) but when I think of not having to wait in line for 5 different princesses, it was priceless.

We've done the following character meals and other than Chef Mickeys, would do them all again in a heartbeat. Chef Mickey's was really rushed and you can see all of those characters multiple times throughout the parks. Come to think of it, that was the only one we did that wasn't breakfast (and within the first 15 minutes of opening). Maybe that made a difference?

AK--Tusker House
EP--Storybook Princess
MK--Crystal Palace
Grand Floridian--1900 Park Fare--Cinderella and company**Definitely most entertaining because of the step-sisters and Lady Tremaine.