Charater Dining top 7 for first timers

[Pirates life for me]

First trip for us bringing our 3 & 5 princess lovers. Question is that we will be there for 8 nights Sept 26 - Oct 4 and looking for top 7 Character dining. We will not get to the resort the first night until about 6 pm so we will use that TS credit for the castle plus another one.

Thanks for all your expert help

 

[teach22180]

Well, you say you're doing the castle, and I'm sure you'll see other princesses. I would suggest Crystal Palace for Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore as something different. Also, I recommend Ohana for breakfast with Stitch, Lilo, and it's also a place to see Mickey if you aren't anywhere else. Those are definitely our two favorites!

 

[bubblycoconut]

Our favorite ts breakfast was at Ohana. We loved it so much we are going again on our next trip. Chef Mickey's dinner was great too, more for the characters then the food though. We're trying it this trip for breakfast since the breakfast buffet is suppose to be better then dinner.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We did 5 character meals on our January trip.

Taking into consideration character interaction, food quality, and service, here's our favourites (in order):

1. Ohana breakfast with Lilo & Stitch
2. Crystal Palace (dinner) with Pooh & Friends
3. Donald's Safari breakfast at Tusker House
4. Chef Mickeys (dinner)
5. 1900 Park Fare (dinner)

That said, ALL of them were great!! We would recommend each.

 

[colinsdad]

1. Crystal Palace with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet- BF or Dinner (both great meals)
2. CRT - Breakfast (love the cream cheese stuffed french toast and its THE castle!)
3. 1900 Park Fare - Dinner (Cinderella's Gala Feast is extra good with the Step-Sisters, Lady Tremaine and Prince Charming all in attendance with great interaction)
4. Ohana - BF w/ Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto (great food, nice atmosphere, and a kids parade around the restaurant following the characters made this a great time)
5. Chef Mickeys - BF or Dinner (I'm not a fan of the dinner food, but the Fab 5 make it a must do for many families)
6. Donalds Breakfast Safari @ Tusker House (I haven't done this since it was moved from the Restaurantasouras location but I'm going to assume its the same)
7. Play 'n Dine at Hollywood 'n Vine - Breakfast (took my DS soon to be 5 at ages 3 and 4 here and he loved Jo Jo and Goliatiah which are now not even on PHD but were when we went. He loves the Little Einsteins too. Characters need to be updated, but the dancing and interaction with the characters is excellent. I wouldn't recommend lunch here and I only would go for my kids as the bf is average)

 

[Mommy2Jameson]

I was there last Oct with my 2 year old and 2 teens. We did a character meal almost every day as well! Our FAVORITE was

Donald's Safari breakfast at Animal Kingdom- This has your typical characters-Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy! The food and service was WONDERFUL. They even had Goofy pass out musical instruments and lead the kids on a little parade around the room!

Another GREAT one was:
Lunch at Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom - This has all your basic Winnie the Pooh characters. This is also a buffet and the food was excellent!

We also ate at Hollywood and Vine for lunch - The food was nothing spectacular-you're typical buffet, but it had the Playhouse Disney Characters which were a fave of my son's so we had to do it. The character's here also lead the children in songs/dances.

For the Princess Meals, we did both the Cinderella's Royal Table at magic Kingdom for breakfast and Princess Storybook Dining - Restaurant Akershus at EPCOT for dinner. There were pluses to both of these.

Princess Storybook Dining - Restaurant Akershus - The princess interaction was MUCH better here! We saw Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Aurora, and Cinderella here. They sat down at our table with us and really chatted with my 2 1/2 year old son. Jasmine was great and pretended to steal a sip of his pirate punch and everything. A few princesses even came back a 2nd time. We got tons of great candid shots. HOWEVER, we were not big fans of the food. It was a little too different for our likings. My 17 y/0 sister even ended up ordering a kids cheese pizza, because she couldn't find anything on the adult menu that she was willing to try.

Cinderella's Castle- The food here was much better- more your typical american kid-friendly food. However, we felt like the Princesses didn't spend much time with you. They'd pose for a picture and then leave. We felt much more rushed.

 

[courtlynne]

We just went to Ohana's breakfast and the Princess Storybook dining in Epcot and loved them both. A lot of people say they don't care for the food in Norway, but I really enjoyed it. The kids menu is the same as anywhere else and I had the chicken with risotto and asparagus, yum! The desserts were tasty too! The princesses were really nice if a bit rushed. Ohana's was awesome, really laid back and relaxing. It is nice to eat family style and not have to get up for a buffet and worry about missing characters.

 

[Camamile]

I loved 'Ohana for dinner. Music and crazy games for the kids. It's not a character meal, but it was the most fun with the best food. Chef Mickey's was not a favorite. The breakfast food just was not very good. All the characters are in Chef's costumes, so keep that in mind if it will be your opportunity for photos with Mickey, etc. Crystal Palace had pretty good food, but nothing special. We had a lousy server and lousy experience with the characters (every time we tried to get food, a character would show up at our table and we'd have to run back. Our food was always cold by the time we got to it and there was no way to predict when they'd show up. We were at the first table). Some people have great experiences there and try it every time, so if you like the Pooh characters, it's worth trying. We will try it on our next trip for breakfast and are hoping for a better experience.

We found the best character interaction with the princesses over in Toon Town. It's a huge line, but each princess really takes her time and talks with the kids. My 3 boys LOVED being called princes and having the princesses hold their arms!

 

[bmw2001]

We were there in December with our DD3.

She loved:

1. Playhouse Disney breakfast at Hollywood and Vine: The character interaction was simply the best out of all the character meals. Food was ok, but not anything special. The look on her face, though, made it well worth it. She loved meeting and dancing with June and Leo and Leo made a special effort to include her as she was the smallest and (I think) because I was in a wheelchair having dislocated my knee and couldn't really help out much with her.

2. Donald's Safari Breakfast: The food was really good here and the character interaction was also quite good. There is a parade thing plus dancing and Donald and Co visit each table.

3. Crystal Palace: Always a favourite for us, it was soured somewhat by my ear-splitting scream as my knee popped out of place. That being said, the food was great, the medical attention prompt and the characters were very good at keep the children calm after my terrifying scream. Eeyore was at our table when it happened and he tried to calm my daughter who was very upset by everything. We'd still go back.

4. Mickey’s Backyard Barbeque: We did this on Christmas Night and it was lovely. The food wasn't fabulous, but the characters (especially Mickey) dancing with our DD made it a wonderful experience for all.

5. Cinderella’s Royal Table: We've done breakfast (before our little munchkin was born) and lunch (this past trip) here and really enjoyed it. Apart from Cinderella in the foyer, Emily got to meet Belle (in the blue dress), Aurora, Jasmine and Mary Poppins. The luncheon meal was lovely. My DD devoured her crown chocolate and ice-cream dessert and we all enjoyed the Major Domo favourite pie as well as the tray of starters (my hubby had to fight me for them). The chocolate creamcheese buckle was delicious.

6. Disney's Perfectly Princess Tea Party: Not available as part of the DDP and rather pricey, we found this was a highlight for our DD3. She stil talks about it. THe food wasn't fantastic for the price, but again it was all about the character interaction (Princess Aurora and Rose Petal) and the special touches (Aurora doll, scrapbooking supplies, bracelet etc). The other day (more than 6 months afterwards), she told me Aurora had phoned (on her princess phone) and told her she must go to tea again soon. Mommy wasn't impressed with the thought of the price of THAT tea party since we live all the way in South Africa, but it shows you how much of an impression it made.

7. Whispering Canyon Cafe: Not a character dinner per se, but great for kids. Emily realy loved the pony rides and napkin twirling and the food was lovely. Well worth a visit. The Wilderness Lodge is a truly breathtaking resort.

I hope this helps!

Bianca

 

[Crystal_27]

The only character meals that I would repeat are: CRT (breakfast), Crystal Palace (either breakfast or dinner), and Chef Mickey's (either breakfast or dinner). The others we've gone to just weren't worth a repeat try, in my opinion. Good luck!

 

[Kae]

First pick the meals your kids do the best at & the Charaters they like. At that age my kids did great at Crystal Palace lunch it was a great break from the park midday. Cape May Breakfast this more lowkey than some of them. Chef Mickeys for your first night is a great way to start your trip or 1900 Park Faire.

Kae

 

[steph73]

The character meals we've done:

'Ohana breakfast with Lilo and Stitch - I think I must be weird, but I didn't care much for the food here. However, the atmosphere was wonderful, we love the Poly and it was a must-do for my Stitch-obsessed middle son.

Donald's Breakfastosaurus - This used to be a must-do for us on each trip. We loved it and my oldest son just loves Donald. Haven't tried the new one at Tusker House yet, and we're undecided right now if we will on our upcoming trip.

Chef Mickey's - We enjoyed this very much. We love the Contemporary, the food was good (we had dinner) and we'll be going back.

Liberty Tree Tavern - We did this dinner during a MNSSHP, so it was fantastic! We really enjoyed this meal... the food was good, not spectacular, but the characters in costume were great. I'm sad they got rid of the character meal here, I hope they'll bring it back in the future because we'd do it again.

Crystal Palace - This is a beautiful restaurant. We had an early dinner, but for the first half of our meal the buffet was still only lunch items, which upset us. This was in 2001, though. The food that we had was good. We're giving this one another go since we have a new little one, but we're going to do breakfast this time.

 

[poegirl30]

On our trip last May ('08), we did:

1) Crystal Palace: the dinner buffet was pretty good, and the characters were great. (good service)
2) Playhouse Disney characters at Hollywood and Vine: This was one of my DS's (2 at the time) favorites. He loved Jo Jo and Goliath especially. (good service)
3) Chef Mickey's: breakfast. This was our second time, and the food was OK, but we liked 'Ohana's better. (pretty good service)
4) Donald's breakfast at Tusker House. This was a lot of fun. The characters are really interactive, and the kids loved the dances. (great service!)
5) 'Ohana: great breakfast. My ds loved Stitch! It was just awesome. Even my older kids enjoyed this one. (great service!)