Do children really EAT at Character Meals?

[MrsR]

Or are they too excited to really eat?
My girls aren't great eaters to begin with and I think when they see the Princesses they are really not going to eat!

 

[mmmears]

At the character meals, the kids are supposed to stay at the table and wait for the characters to come and greet them. There is alot of time to eat between the minute or so that each character will spend at your table. Our DD was always hungry from all the running around, so she would eat a fair amount in between visits from the princesses or characters.

Hope this helps!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Mine do, but not much. If you eat somewhere where they have whole fruit grab the kids a piece for later. That's what our server suggested once at Princess Storybook. Sure enough an hour later they ate the apple...

 

[JenLynn]

It depends on the meal and the age of the kids. We have been to many character meals (1900 Park Faire, Castle Breakfast, Chef Mickeys, Crystal Palace, etc) and for the most part it has been too hectic for the kids to eat. Even when they were "supposed" to eat while waiting for their turn to meet the characters they spent more time looking around the room "spotting" them. It was a bit better at the buffet type meals because then they were at least up and about and "distracted" for a bit by choosing their food.

We went to Chef Mickey's for breakfast on our most recent trip and it was wonderful! We got there and went straight to the buffet (we were told it would be 20 minutes or so until the characters started coming to our table). My children ate so much! Then the characters came one after the other and it was perfect. But this was the first time a character meal went smoothly for us both in terms of food and character greetings.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

Our kids usually eat at the Character meals. They do most of it when they are waiting for the characters. However when the characters get close, they usually stop and watch the character.

 

[bas71873]

NO ........we had our first ADR at CRT for breakfast and my DD was so "struck" that she never touched her food. Well, she may had had 1/2 muffin and a piece of bacon. I really didn't mind because she was so darn cute, but it was pretty much that way for all of our character meals (and my girl usually eats ......I will say though, by about the 4th day of our trip, she must have been starving because she ate things at Coral Reef she has never touched before.

 

[megthewonderful]

My kids eat! Usually by the time we sit down for a meal we've been dragging them around the parks for a few hours, so they are pretty hungry.

 

[DoctorK]

At CP last year, we told DD 4 that Pooh wanted her to eat all 4 chicken fingers. Never saw her eat that fast before!

 

[jagruti6]

my son isn't a great eater, but he does really well at character meals. I just encourge him to eat in between characters. Seems to work great for us.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Mine usually does. She was starving when we went to CM so she ate like 3 platefuls. We have funny video of her telling Mickey all about what she'd eaten.

The only time she didn't eat was at CRT. I think the whole experience was so enthralling for her that she couldn't have cared less about those french toast sticks!

 

[RumpleMom]

Our kids did eat at the character meals. There was plenty of time between the characters stopping at our table.

My very most precious moment at WDW is when Chip sat down beside our daughter and picked up her fork to feed her a piece of broccoli. She chewed that broccoli like it was her job. The piece was a little big for her 4 year old mouth, but she made short work of it. Dad was busy taking pictures of the scene and we have the most fantastic pictures. When she was finished chewing, she threw her head into Chip's lap and he gave her a big hug.

This was our first trip and both Mom and Dad were hooked on WDW. That was 19 years ago, and it feels like it was yesterday. Dh and I now take WDW trips with the grown-up kids and with just the 2 of us.

 

[pigletto]

At CP last year, we told DD 4 that Pooh wanted her to eat all 4 chicken fingers. Never saw her eat that fast before!

This is a great idea! I have the same concerns as the OP. My DS (4) is more of a grazer at home... breakfast being his biggest meal and lots of healthy snacks through the day. Raisins here.. yoghurt there. He's just not a big meal at once kinda guy. And I have been worried because it is pretty much guaranteed that he will pick at his supper.. add in a giant Piglet and forget it

I'm prepared to bring some healthy snacks into the park and resort to claiming that Pooh wants him to eat. It just might work

 

[lisaj]

My two definitely eat, to be honest they are usually so whacked that the chance to sit down, chill out and eat and drink to their heart's content knowing that a character will be arriving soon is heaven. We do find that often one adult stays at the table while the other one collects food for the children though to ensure they don't miss their turn.

 

[kadesha]

Mine usually do, but at CRT they did not!! The food there wasn't all that great anyway, but there was just too much going on and they were too excited. They did nibble on the ice cream with the chocolate crown at the end. But as soon as we left, we had to take them to Casey's to grab food because they were starving. We've done lots of character meals, and I only had this problem one time.

 

[amyeileen]

My girls are 6 and 8. We went to Chef Mickey's (dinner) and Cinderella's Royal Table (breakfast) last week. They probably ate better at those two meals than any others on our trip. They loved the food at both. My younger daughter is especially picky, and she enjoyed both meals--especially the cheese pizza at Chef Mickey's.