Character Meals...

[mskani]

We leave for sunny California in just over five weeks! My dh just announced that he wants to do a character meal.

How good is Goofy's Kitchen? Is it worth it? We've done character meals at WDW and have been mostly satisfied with them. My kids are now 9 and 7 and they have not expressed any interest in doing a character meal. Should we skip it or do I indulge the "big guy?"

Thanks!

 

[gene751]

Indulge him! It's his vacation too.

You really think we all go to DL for our kids? Whatever!

 

[AFMom]

Our boys are 7 and 8 and loved Goofy's kitchen and Ariel's Grotto. If you're going to Goofy's, though - I'd either get a reservations for opening (we went at 7am and had a great time, but it got really crowded and hectic after that and people were waiting forever to get seated), or go later for brunch. Ariels we went for lunch at 1:20. Took about 20 minutes to get seated but we had a party of 12 people - so that always takes longer! They both had a lot of character interaction. Ariel's had better character fun, Goofy's had better food!

 

[Amy&Dan]

I actually like Goofy's best for dinner. If you can get there really early and still be done by the time the parks open to take advantage of low crowds in the morning that is one thing. Otherwise I would go at dinner. It is more expensive but the food is really good. I have yet to have a character meal at WDW that I liked as well as Goofy's. They have a really big variety of characters. My kids are 8 and 10 and love the character meals especially Goofy's!

 

[swimrsal]

We did Goofy's kitchen last Tuesday at 7am. We got there about 10 minutes early and were the second group seated. The Buffet is huge and has both lunch and breakfast like items. Everything from Enchiladas to peanut butter & jelly pizza to chocolate cake and gummy worms. There were a lot of interesting a fun selections. The interaction was excellent! We saw Chip, Dale, Goofy, Mary Poppins, the Mad Hatter, Donald, Balou - it seems like there were more but that's all I remember right now.

On Wednesday we did the character breakfast at Storyteller's at the Grand Californian. My husband thought the food was better, but there wasn't as much selection and no mickey waffles, etc. We saw characters there from Brother Bear who we didn't know - but chip & dale were there too and a monkey from Tarzan. The bears were really quite a lot of fun with our ds.

We tried to do Ariels Grotto. We had an 11:30am Priority Seating. We got there at 11:25 and waited to be seated until 12:15. They were very very unorganized. There weren't even that many people, they just weren't seating anyone for a long time. We ended up leaving just after we sat down because by then our 21 month old was getting to tired and to be honest the menu didn't look good at all! The appetizers were chicken noodle soup, some other kind of soup and a green salad. Since when are those appetizers, lol - oh wait, maybe in the 50's! lol!!!

It really was a lot of fun! Do Goofy's for sure!!!

-Sally
Disneyland May 9-13, 2005

 

[Amy&Dan]

A word about Ariel's Grotto which is now called Cap'n Mickey's. The best time to do that one is in the evening. For some reason they always do seem disorganized at lunch, we left one time too because even though we had a ps it was taking forever. Dinner is much better and we enjoy sitting outside and admiring the lights of Paradise Pier (if you can go late enough when its dark). If its not dark yet, sit inside because the sun sets and whoever is sitting, facing Paradise Pier will go blind from the brightness! It is fixed price menu with maybe 7 or 8 selections which start you out with soup, then the main course then a dessert. It's not all you can eat and the food isn't as good as Goofy's. However, when we have been at dinner, when it's dark we love it. It's also cheaper than Goofy's.

 

[crazymomof 4]

I agree! Do Cap'n Mickey's at night facing the PP! It is really cool and one viewer has said that if you time it with the EL parade that is even neater. Goofy's would be the second choice. Or do both!

 

[CalGal]

There was a poll on character breakfasts on this site recently. Goofy's won by a landslide. I definitely believe that a character meal completes the trip, and should be included if you can afford it.

Like one of the other posters, I prefer NOT to do a character breakfast, since I like to take advantage of the low crowds in the morning. My favorite time to go is at lunch time. It's relatively relaxed, and I am usually ready for a break from the parks at that time. GK and Ariel's offer character lunches and dinners. The food at GK is good for a buffet, and offers a nice selection for everyone's taste. I think the character variety and interaction at GK is outstanding. IMO, the food quality and variety at GK was much better than at Ariel's/Captain Mickey's. Ariel's is not a buffet. The deserts were good at Ariel's, but the other dishes seemed boring to me and offered few choices, especially for adults who like to steer away from high fat dishes.

Go for Goofy's; you won't regret it. My DS is now 14; he's outgrown characters somewhat, but not GK!

 

[pxlbarrel]

We always do Goofy's Kitchen when we go to Disneyland. We've seen some pretty interesting changes over the years. Interestingly enough, the last time we were there, Goofy wasn't the one we had our photo taken with...it was Pluto. They allowed us to take a photo with our own camera so that was good.

We've also done the character breakfast at the other hotel...ugh, I have a brain cramp right now. I can only remember the old name for it...Pan Pacific...ugh..Palisades is it? Anyway, it doesn't seem as hectic as the other character meals. It was Minnie and Friends or something like that. (My memory has disappeared for the day.) Don't know if they still have it. One of the few places I've seen Daisy Duck. And we did the breakfast on the day we were leaving. That meant we weren't rushing to get to the park and we had a nice, calm but character filled meal before leaving the happiest place on earth.

We also got character meal buttons so I hope they're still doing that.

 

[mskani]

I'll call later this morning for breakfast ps.