DL Character Breakfast at Plaza Inn Review

[Belleandtinker]

Our first DL character breakfast experience was on Sunday at the Plaza Inn. I would call our family seasoned veterans at character meals for WDW so how hard could a DL breakfast be? WOW - it's wasn't WDW. This character meal was more like a family mob scene. If there was a character, kids and adults would get out of their seats and go to the character. That would NOT happen in WDW - you sit and wait for the character to come to you. When we asked about the process, we were told to sit and wait for the characters. That didn't work because everyone else was mobbing the character. So we mobbed the characters. The Plaza Inn could have easily turned out table much, much faster if their was a true process in place.

Goofy's Kitchen was more organized and more like our WDW experiences.

At the end, the character meal was so worth our time and money.
Food - average to above average for Disney
Value - above average because of the number of characters and unique character.

 

[czmom]

I completely agree! We went the Sunday before you (8/9) and it was very different than WDW. I could not even keep track of how many characters there were, but we were there over an hour and at least 3 never made it to our table. Or even close to our table for that matter! We finished eating and told our server that several characters never came by...so we sat and waited for a good 30 minutes. A few came back but finally we gave up. I booked this meal for the characters so I wanted to at least meet most of them! The server had my kids go stand in the aisle so the character would see them. It's like they had no order or even remembered who they saw?? Weird. We did enjoy it, but I don't think I will eat there again. Our Surf's Up experience was so much better!

For the record, we saw:
Minnie
Dale
Fairy Godmother
Max
Rafiki
Pooh
Eeyore
Captain Hook

We missed:
Chip
Perla
The fox from Pinocchio

None of these 3 ever even came inside the whole 1.5 hours we were there!

 

[Belleandtinker]

What is "Surf's Up" experience?

We saw all of the same except never saw the fox. In our past WDW character meal experience and our one time at Goofy's Kitchen, we may see 4-5 character is a meal. So this meal was like a jackpot. If it was more organized it would have been a better experience for us.

 

[DSNY4ever]

Interesting. I haven't been there in a few years, but it wasn't so chaotic last time I went. We are trying Surfs UP this time. I do think that the energy of being in Disneyland seems to make it a little more noisy/wild versus the options at hotels. I am curious to see how surfs up will compare. When we did Tusker House in wdw people were barely paying attention to the characters and Ds was the only one who got up to parade with goofy, and some people thought he was specially chosen and they couldn't join in . Different crowds!

 

[czmom]

What is "Surf's Up" experience?

We saw all of the same except never saw the fox. In our past WDW character meal experience and our one time at Goofy's Kitchen, we may see 4-5 character is a meal. So this meal was like a jackpot. If it was more organized it would have been a better experience for us.

Surf's Up is at Paradise Pier Hotel. There are only 4-5 characters, but it's your typical WDW character meal. The characters all make it around and they play with you. Stitch is great here!!! Plus they have a fun dance every so often for the kids. We loved it!

 

[mgothel]

Can anybody answer this question........what is the first seating for breakfast at plaza inn on mornings that Disneyland does NOT have MM. I.E. At wdw first seating is 8:05am when park opens at 9:00am.

 

[AladdinRapunzelTink]

Can anybody answer this question........what is the first seating for breakfast at plaza inn on mornings that Disneyland does NOT have MM. I.E. At wdw first seating is 8:05am when park opens at 9:00am.

I believe its 8:00/8:05. When I made my reservations, recently, I asked for the earliest available and got 8:15 on a day when the park opened at 9:00 with no MM.

 

[mom2rtk]

I believe its 8:00/8:05. When I made my reservations, recently, I asked for the earliest available and got 8:15 on a day when the park opened at 9:00 with no MM.

I don't think they schedule a full hour prior to park open.

 

[Spyral]

Wow, interesting. We ate there a few times in the past, and it wasn't nearly that chaotic. Everyone pretty much stayed at their tables as the characters made their way around (or up to get food). But that was over 5 years ago, so perhaps it has changed. We will be going beginning of October. Hopefully it will not be so crazy then.

 

[McNs]

We ate there a couple of years ago and everyone was civilised. Surfs Up is still my pick of the character breakfasts, Stitch really is aswesome, and I liked the food choices they had.

 

[calilou]

We do Minnie's Breakfast almost every visit - I would say we've probably eaten there 10 times in the last several years. The last time was on July 17th.

I am very confident in saying that your experience was not the norm. While there is occasionally the rogue grandparent dragging a toddler to the characters for a greeting, they are usually redirected by the staff. Everyone waits for the characters to visit their table from my observations as directed by the Cast Members who seat you.

 

[emmybee]

I hope you are right Calilou! I am also planning on Minnie's Breakfast after not having been in a few years, and reading about experiences such as OP's makes me nervous. I need to keep faith in the ever-fabulous DL cast members to maintain order. They have Never let me down before, which is why my family has been going since the kid was 2 on a yearly basis! lol, DL sure knows how to make me willingly give them all my money!

 

[HopLow1968]

How about how long (rough estimate) does a meal (and character interactions) take at Minnie and Friends? I'm just curious if rope drop is at 9, and I have an 8:15 reservation, are we getting out of there at 9ish or 10ish? Just curious what people's experiences have been.

 

[Winnowill]

We did the Minnie breakfast at 10:30 am last Wednesday (we wanted to get as close to lunch as we could because we had big rope drop plans at DCA). We had one kid whose mom apparently did not respect the "wait for the characters to come to you" rule and chased after all of them, photobombing several of our interactions, but, by and large, people waited their turns.

We saw:
Minnie
Dale
Captain Hook
Chip
Rafiki
Pooh
Tigger
Eeyore

 

[courtneybeth]

I had an interesting experience last October. Tigger, Pluto and Captain Hook were mingling around the inside-front area in our section and Pluto was out of control. He was drumming on top of Tigger's head and was just super obnoxious, and nearly tripped Tigger. This caused Captain Hook to lose his footing and he fell/bumped into a customer holding an omelette (that he waited 30+ minutes to get) .... and it dropped right to the floor. Hook stood up and tried to apologize but there's not much to do. No handlers were around so I got up and found a Cast Member to let them know to put Pluto into his doghouse. 20 minutes later, a slightly taller Pluto emerged from backstage to work the room.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

OP, I am also sorry to hear your experience was disappointing I am looking forward to doing Minnie's for the first time in early December. My whole reason for going is for sure the character experience. I definitely don't think the characters (or anyone) ought to be mobbed like that. I had always thought that the characters did come to you and that was for me a big plus as opposed to me waiting to meet them individually. I wish you a more positive character meal next time.

 

[PrncessA]

Sorry your breakfast was a mob scene! I really hate that we didn't make it to Minnie's Breakfast last week, but we did do Goofy's Kitchen and found it similar to Chef Mickey's in the concept but the restaurant was basically empty and the characters rotated to our table about 6 times each! It felt a less structured than WDW, and the kids had a blast dancing and playing with the characters.

 

[agamble]

We've been to Minnie's twice. The first time we did the earliest seating, which was during a MM day. At that time it was very laid back (3 summers ago). The characters came to our table. Each spent a few minutes. Tigger and Captain Hook played a little with each other. And the food was good.

The second time we went, last summer. We had a mid-morning seating. We were seated outside. We still saw a lot of characters, but I noticed people were going up to the characters. When we tried to let our kids do it we were told to sit and wait. So I think it depends on the CM, but also the guests. We listened to the CM, but others did not.

I think it is very possible that you will not see all 10 (or so characters) at your table unless you want to just sit around and wait long after you're done eating. Keep in mind though that they rotate out their characters and not all 10 are out at once. So what happens is that Daisy was at your table and then went on break. Max replaced her and started up in the next section. Now you see Max and think your kid should get to meet him, but you're the last on the list. Possibly by the time Max would get to your section he's gone on break and you never get to see him. It's nice to have a big variety of characters, but it can be difficult to get all of them to your table, especially when the restaurant is busy. I think this is why most of the other meals have gone to just 4-5 set characters.

 

[nicolispicoli]

We do Minnie's Breakfast almost every visit - I would say we've probably eaten there 10 times in the last several years. The last time was on July 17th.

I am very confident in saying that your experience was not the norm. While there is occasionally the rogue grandparent dragging a toddler to the characters for a greeting, they are usually redirected by the staff. Everyone waits for the characters to visit their table from my observations as directed by the Cast Members who seat you.

I completely agree. I've eaten there quite a few times (and at other character meals in/out of the parks) and have seen a few times kids rush the characters, but it's rare and mostly due to them being young and excited. I could never tell if their parent hadn't been there before, so they didn't know it was uncool or what.

I've thought a couple times that we would be missed by a character, but they always end up coming back. I think I may have caught the attention of a CM once when one was leaving to snag them back when they skipped us and they did no problem.

 

[czmom]

We've been to Minnie's twice. The first time we did the earliest seating, which was during a MM day. At that time it was very laid back (3 summers ago). The characters came to our table. Each spent a few minutes. Tigger and Captain Hook played a little with each other. And the food was good.

The second time we went, last summer. We had a mid-morning seating. We were seated outside. We still saw a lot of characters, but I noticed people were going up to the characters. When we tried to let our kids do it we were told to sit and wait. So I think it depends on the CM, but also the guests. We listened to the CM, but others did not.

I think it is very possible that you will not see all 10 (or so characters) at your table unless you want to just sit around and wait long after you're done eating. Keep in mind though that they rotate out their characters and not all 10 are out at once. So what happens is that Daisy was at your table and then went on break. Max replaced her and started up in the next section. Now you see Max and think your kid should get to meet him, but you're the last on the list. Possibly by the time Max would get to your section he's gone on break and you never get to see him. It's nice to have a big variety of characters, but it can be difficult to get all of them to your table, especially when the restaurant is busy. I think this is why most of the other meals have gone to just 4-5 set characters.

That makes sense. I wish I would have realized that before going.