Disneyland - Trip Report - Character Dining Focused

IslandChief

Earning My Ears
Joined
Dec 25, 2005
Messages
1
Took fam 12-21 12-25, just arriving home. Did two character dinings: Ariel's Grotto, which I can not recommend enough and Minnie and Friends at the Plaza Inn, which was good, but not mind blowing.

We went to Ariel's Grotto for dinner, evening of the 22nd for our 3 year old, Ariel obsessed princess fan. Recommend you go a little off the normal Cali dinner time. We hit it around 5:30, nice size crowd, allows the princesses a little extra time with the kids as they make their rounds. The atmosphere was wonderful, the value was great (about $75 for 4 of us, three course meal versus a $45 comparison meal of burgers and drinkies at the Taste Pilot Grill), the food was excellent in my opinion and I like to dine, probably the best tasting, best value'd food in the entire park. Now on to the characters.

God bless these girls who spend their evenings bringing brief moments of sheer bliss to their little fans who idolize them so.. Absolutely the princess know what they are doing, are fully engaged in their parts and know how to make the little girls feel so important and special.

I'm a grown man, 36 years old, two overseas conflicts with the US Army, a fraternity man and I like Clint Eastwood. I have to tell you when Ariel came over, got down on her knees and spent a solid 10 minutes carrying on a conversation with my 3 year old daughter, hugs, kisses, jokes about flounder, I was brought to tearin up like know one's ever seen. Absolutely, positively made my entire trip worth it.

The staff was wonderful, the characters were wonderful, the food was wonderful, the price was wonderful, this will be a regular on our trip to DL/DCA

Merry Christmas Everyone! princess: princess:
 
That was a very sweet post - thanks for letting me know about Ariel's dinner. I past by it a few weeks ago and was thinking about making a reservation for it but wasn't sure. Thanks again!
 













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