Did I plan too many character meals?

[HeidiLowe]

Hi!

We are going in January for 8 full days and plan on doing things at a slower pace than most. It will be me, my dh, and ds3 and ds5.

I am figuring out my ADR's and realized that I have a LOT of character meals,

CRT
CM's (once for breakfast, once for dinner - we're staying at the CR)
Akershus
Donald's Safari Breakfast
Crystal Palace
1900 Park Fare
Play & Dine @ Hollywood & Vine

Most are breakfast, is this too many? It's about one a day, but we are foodies who enjoy sitting for a meal and relaxing. Would you keep them or do more TS meals? TIA! Heidi.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

I think that you'll be fine. In fact, we plan our ts meals similiar to the way you have. We get almost all of our character interaction at meals and never wait in line for characters at the parks. We also like that most charcter meals are buffet or family style. It gives the kids more options and they don't end up eating the same thing all week. Also, it's good with small children to be able to get your food quickly and avoid meltdowns if they're tired from a day of touring.

 

[kathie859]

Given the ages of your children, this seems like a good plan. The character meals are a less formal and the buffets will allow you to quickly serve the children who sometimes get "antsy" sitting and waiting for food to come.

Just be sure to be ready for all the great photo ops with the characters--Some of our best character interactions have been at CP and CM and Akershus for the princesses.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

It looks good to me too. We like to do one Character meal per day when we're there.

I will point out that you're going to end up paying OOP for at least one meal according to my calculations. (I'm counting you as using 9 TS - can't tell if you're staying 7 or 8 nights)

Have fun!

 

[topmonkeygirl]

We don't have kids and we're doing 5 on our next trip, it'll be great.

 

[pinkxray]

We did 5 character meals last week and it was great. They were our favorite meals and DD5 had a blast at each one. I would do one or two each day if I could. Even DH loved them and he is a bit of a grump. It was so nice to have the characters come to you instead of waiting in the long lines to meet them. I planned on loading up on character meals while DD is still young.

 

[pinkxray]

Oh yeah, CM twice will be so easy since you will be at CR. We went for dinner and the food was fine. Also if you want to add one more Ohana with Lilo and Stitch for breakfast was a favorite

 

[HeidiLowe]

Dewdrop - I have it planned so that we will use some of our snack credits for light breakfasts or lunches so that we can have better restaurant choices, more TS and signature restaurants.

My thoughts were getting a bunch of pastries from one of the bakeries in MK or Epcot the day before and having those in the morning in out room. Heck, we'll be at WDW, who's to say we can't have donuts for lunch too? LOL!!

 

[HeidiLowe]

Oh shoot! I forgot Ohana. I think that was one I was going back and forth with, glad to hear it was good, plus it's at the Poly, so we could just hop on the monorail. I may add that, thanks!!

 

[CathieArms]

My personal opinion is no - you'd didn't overdo it.

This is what you'll gain by all of your character meals: Your kids will have the opportunity to meet a good number of the characters - some more than once - without standing in endless lines. You're killing two birds with one stone: you have to eat, and you know your kids are going to want to see the characters. So you're making the characters come to you in an air-conditioned (heated?) environment without having to stand around waiting for your turn...LOVE IT! This has to be my favorite "secret" to visiting the World...make the characters come to you!

 

[Daddy_of_Princesses]

I think others have said it, but I will agree. NO, you didn't overdo it. I will be going in December and have a character meal planned for each day. The kids see the characters without having to wait in line for an hour. You have to eat anyway, so you get a meal, an hours rest, plus meet the characters. This gives you more time for rides, well waiting in lines for rides that is.

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

Hi!

We are going in January for 8 full days and plan on doing things at a slower pace than most. It will be me, my dh, and ds3 and ds5.

I am figuring out my ADR's and realized that I have a LOT of character meals,

CRT
CM's (once for breakfast, once for dinner - we're staying at the CR)
Akershus
Donald's Safari Breakfast
Crystal Palace
1900 Park Fare
Play & Dine @ Hollywood & Vine

Most are breakfast, is this too many? It's about one a day, but we are foodies who enjoy sitting for a meal and relaxing. Would you keep them or do more TS meals? TIA! Heidi.

We went last January for 7 nights and we started each day with a character breakfast and we will do the same next year. It worked for us because we didn't want to have stand in lines in the parks and we are up early with DD5. We also stayed at CR and the only meals we didn't do were Crystal Palace because it was closed for refurb and H&V because DD5 is not familiar with those shows. Even though the food at CM was we will force ourselves to go back for breakfast because of the fab five But supper was really We're never doing that one again. We thought the rest were great I can't wait till January

 

[jlhill4444]

I think you have a wonderful lineup. I agree that the best way to take a rest and still keep the kids interest is with character dinning. You made some great choices and the kids will not even notice that they stopped park fun to eat.

 

[skiingfast]

My thoughts were getting a bunch of pastries from one of the bakeries in MK or Epcot the day before and having those in the morning in out room. Heck, we'll be at WDW, who's to say we can't have donuts for lunch too? LOL!!

Exactly yes you can have a donut for lunch too. You are on vacation.
If you get hungry you can order and adult size CS for your kids. The credits aren't seperate for adults and kids for CSs.

Given that you have all these meals for kids. Do you have any you chose for yourself?

 

[mom2val]

I love character meals and we are planning on doing 4 our next trip. If it was up to me we'd be doing a few more but dh really wants Narocossee , Artist Point and Yachtman!

I love seeing dd's face light up as she sees the characters. We get so many great pics from these meals. Being buffets there is always something you like to eat. This trip our dd will be 10 and on the adult menu but before at the buffets even when she was 5 she could eat anything she wanted!

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

Too many character meals?? No such thing!

 

[eecteacher82]

We're going in December for 5 nights and 6 days w/ deluxe dining and we are eating 7 character meals! Crystal Palace (lunch), 1900 Park Fare (dinner), Hollywood & Vine (lunch), Garden Grill (dinner), Cape May Cafe (breakfast), Ohana (breakfast), Chef Mickey (breakfast). So, NO I don't think you are overdoing it!

 

[Happy Mom2]

We have the same character meals planned for when we go later this year also. We have two small kids. This way I assure they get to see all the characters, and we get to eat also.

 

[oybolshoi]

if your kids want character meals then you don't have too many. But I'm not sure that I can reconcile "foodie" with a character meal since the food you usually get is mediocre-to-decent depending on where you are eating.

It's all about your kids though, so go with what you have and enjoy their enjoyment. We are childless but still enjoy a character meal now and then - they're fun.

 

[Dizfan4life]

We ate at CM the last two vacations for breakfast and both years the food was cold and not so tasty! Our best Character meals on the last trip was Ohanas and Garden Grill. I would probably drop one meal at CM and book at Ohana for breakfast.... you won't be disappointed.... the food and character interaction are much better !