Disneyland Character Meal Choice ??

[rsagusti]

Long time DisneyWorld visitors are trying a vaca in SoCal in Feb. We're only going to the Land for 2 days (neighbor hotel for 3 nights). We ended up booking a vacation through costcotravel, it may or may not be a bit cheaper but had pretty decent benefits. Like we got park hoppers in the price for basically the same price as me book non-park hoppers separately. It includes a "Premium Character Dining Experience" So I'm trying to figure out the best option. I have 2 boys (9,7)

We arrive a Tuesday evening coming from Michigan so big time change. I dont' think we'll be up for eating that night. Wednesday and Thursday are our park days. I'm thinking we won't want to take time out these days to eat at a sit down place outside of the parks, Friday we check out. I was thinking either a Breakfast or Lunch in a park, but I'm not sure I want to do breakfast when the parks are going to be less busy??

--breakfast or lunch at Ariel's Disney Princess Celebration" at Ariel's Grotto - Disney California Adventure Park
--breakfast buffet at Minnie & Friends Breakfast at Plaza Inn (Disneyland® Park)

OR we could do a Resort Dining on our departure day:

--breakfast buffet or dinner buffet at Goofy’s Kitchen (Disneyland® Hotel), or
--breakfast buffet at Surf's Up! Breakfast with Mickey & Friends at Disney's PCH Grill (Disney's Paradise Pier® Hotel)
--breakfast buffet at Chip 'n Dale Critter Breakfast at Storytellers Café (Disney's Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa)

My boys have done pretty much all the character dining at Disneyworld, so I'm not as concerned with seeing the characters as fitting it into the day and being able to maximize park days. I want the food to be relatively decent if that's possible with buffets lol

 

[dec2009mama]

personally if only 2 days in the park I would not waste time at a character meal in the parks but I would want to get maximum price for those free meal passes
of the resort dining options I *think* Goofy's Kitchen is the most expensive, last time I was there for breakfast I think it was about $35-40 per adult -- that would be my pick if you don't care which characters you see. If you want Stitch you have to go to Surf's Up (my second choice) and I'm not a fan of the woodland characters at the Critter Breakfast (my last choice)

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I would definitely do breakfast at one of the hotels on departure day to extended your Disney fun to one more day and so you don't eat up park time. I have only done Surf's Up with Mickey and Friends at the Paradise Pier Hotel. We loved it. I thought the food was pretty good for a buffet (as a rule I don't usually like buffets) and the character interaction was great. Loved the Beach Boys music and surfing theme, so cute! I think it was $35, not sure how that compares to other character meals.

 

[rsagusti]

personally if only 2 days in the park I would not waste time at a character meal in the parks but I would want to get maximum price for those free meal passes
of the resort dining options I *think* Goofy's Kitchen is the most expensive, last time I was there for breakfast I think it was about $35-40 per adult -- that would be my pick if you don't care which characters you see. If you want Stitch you have to go to Surf's Up (my second choice) and I'm not a fan of the woodland characters at the Critter Breakfast (my last choice)

dec2009mama you and I think alike!! I'm always looking to get the biggest bang for my buck I was hoping to do a dinner on arrival night for that reason but I think we land at 3pm Cali time and it will already be 6pm our time and we probably will be starving and exhausted by the time we make it to the hotel!

 

[millie0312]

I likely wouldn’t waste a 2 day probably won’t come again trip on a character meal- we do 2 meals each trip- Minnie’s and Storytellers- but we come yearly and do 5 park days (storytellers is non park day). If I were you id see if you can still trade in the vouchers for non-character food. I don’t know much about it as I never have done it, but I know in the past others use that towards normal meals (note- if you can do this still it’s a set amount so if you eat and it costs less then the voucher you lose that amount). If you can’t use it towards a normal meal I’d recommend storytellers- in my opinion it’s by far the best food-wise out of all the character meals, usually easier to make a reservation for and honestly even though the characters are few, they’ve always been amazing with my shy kids (plus they are unusual). Just my 2 cents

 

[Aimee_Jane83]

Id say go for breakfast at Minnies first thing in the morning and you are already in the Disneyland park. By the time breakfast is done you are off and running. Minnies is by far my favorite. The food is quite good and there are ample characters, probably the most i've seen at a character meal and i've done most if not all of them.

 

[rsagusti]

Id say go for breakfast at Minnies first thing in the morning and you are already in the Disneyland park. By the time breakfast is done you are off and running. Minnies is by far my favorite. The food is quite good and there are ample characters, probably the most i've seen at a character meal and i've done most if not all of them.

Does Plaza Inn open before the park??

 

[GatorChris]

Does Plaza Inn open before the park??

It used to on a consistent basis. But from what I read, that's not the case anymore. PLUS, you never want to give up any of that first hour in the park. That's when you can get a lot of stuff done. When I used to go to WDW, I only did a breakfast once. It took up so much park time that we never did it again. Unfotunately at DL, there aren't many options for character lunches or dinners. Something they should fix, but probably never will. The only lunch in the parks is for princesses, and if you have boys, they may not like that. But the food is really good there for lunch.

I would go with a character breakfast the day you leave. Goofy's gets the most bang for your buck as far as food goes. They have Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Chip&Dale. Mickey's Surf's Up has less food options (though there's still plenty of good food), but they have Mickey, Daisy and Stitch which makes it a better character experience. That's the one I'd go with, but Goofy's Kitchen is right up there.

 

[katyringo]

We are doing plaza inn Minnie breakfast at 7am on a day the park doesn’t open until 8 and we don’t have magic morning that day. My thinking is it’s a great way to get into the park early, be able to get Maxpass going and be up and going having already met a few characters for the day.

 

[tink89]

if I only had two days I would also choose either breakfast on departure day or dinner at goofy kitchen on the last park day. We have done goofys before and my whole family loves it. The reviews on Ariels are not that great I think in regards to character interactions. We are doing minnies on our first park day , but until 9:45 am. I would not waste morning time on breakfast. Even with a 7 am reservation you are there probably 90 minutes which means MM/EMH is over and everyone has already entered the park.

 

[LTiffany]

I'm also one to get the most bang for your buck in these situations. I would also do the meal on departure day. The Critter Breakfast, and breakfast at Goofy's, Surf's Up and The Plaza all cost the same according to several price lists I found. Ariel's Grotto is the most expensive breakfast, and lunch is a bit more than breakfast. I'm going to go against the crowd and tell you that the Critter Breakfast is actually my favorite. The food quality is definitely better than the others and I like the options better.

 

[texasgingerbread]

I would recommend doing a 10:30 breakfast time at Minnie and Friends inside the park and treat this as your early lunch. Getting there early, running around rope drop, eating breakfast super early mine were hungry by 10:30 and then we ate again around 2:30-3. It was nice not to deal with mealtime crowds.

 

[texasgingerbread]

PS Surf's Up is my next choice on a non park day or if the park is opening later on your day then that morning. We loved having all those characters in one setting, especially Stitch who is a family fav.

 

[rentayenta]

Storyteller's is our choice for a character breakfast.