we went to the hilton character breakfast once several years ago in mid september and it was great. Because it was not on Disney property there were very few families dining and my kids got a lot of character time. Goofy (or was it pluto) sat down with us to eat-even cut my daughter's pancakes and fed her! Minnie spent a lot of time too. I think it was only because it wasn't summer or high traffic time but I would imagine that it would always be slightly less crowded than WDW character breakfasts .