Does anyone do a character meal every day?

[Wendybird55]

This August will be my son's 4th trip to Disney (he's 4). Character meals are great for little ones in that theyhelp keep them occupied during the meal. Lots of kids dont' sit still that well in restaurants and having characters around and other kids being noisy, it makes it a better enviornment (I think) for the little ones. And if your kids are having fun and enjoying the atmosphere you will be able to better enjoy your meal as well.

Also when your child is young enugh to share on DDP and you don't have to pay for them - family style and buffet meals are your best options as you have all the foods (including the kids foods) available to choose from and share with your toddlers ...when ordering from menus the adults have to find something that they know their kids will also eat or order an extra entree OOP. With family style and buffets there's always enough to go around.

I find the breakfast character meals to all be good food wise - how can you mess up eggs and cereal? But some of the dinner character meals are not as good as others.

All meals at Crystal Palace are character.. Last year we had lunch there and it was great - we're going to try dinner this year. My SIL said dinner at Chef Mickey's wasn't good. Breakfast is better. Norway it great for princess character (don't waste 2 credits for CRT). The food is really good. The appetizers are a buffet and even though DS was not on the dining plan they let him order a childs entree for no extra cost. Even when I told them he was too young for DDP they said it's included for him.

Other family style meals - though not character meals are fun for kids as well. DS loved Whispering Canyon in WL when he was 2... He thought it was fun when everyone yelled "Ketchup" he had funn yelling along with them. Plus they do fin things for kids. Also Germany in EPCOT is a fun buffet - DS enjoyed watching the show and listening to the music and they play songs like the chicken dance where kids can get up and dance with them.

Seeing the characters is great...but one of my main resonas for doing lots of character and family-style or buffet meals with young children is in the long run I find it to be a better dining experience for all as the kids really like it and it's a good $ value if you're on DDP and kids are not of paying age yet.

Yes, there are many other great restaurants food wise to try that are not character...our first year with our son (he was almost 2) our worst dining experiences were at Le Cellier and Coral Reef - even thought the food is wonderful at these restaurants DS wasn't happy and he was ansty and uncomfortable and didn't like the low lighting so we couldn't really enjoy our meals as he was being fussy.

 

[n2mm]

We don't do ANY now. Our grandkids are 17, 5 & 3 and could care less about eating with characters. Back in the day when Chef Mickeys offered good food we use to visit there, but those days are gone. With the granddaughters, we tried them on a couple of princess meals and the cost was way too high for what you get. They have done both the ones at the GF and Norway and as my daughter said afterwards, once was enough. My grandkids are not fans of the characters at all. If my DD wants to take them to visit someone, they make an effort to do it first thing in the morning. The kids didn't even want to visit with them on the cruise and did their own thing when the characters would visit the kids clubs. The girls do like the princesses and we visit them over at EPCOT when the lines are reasonable. My granddaughters go to WDW at least 3 trips a year, so we don't feel like this is something we have to do. When eating, we find it easier for someone to bring us our food, so we don't even do buffets anymore. We've done our share of character meals in WDW. My grandson's first one was at Olivia's with the Pooh & gang and in 1995 we would sit in the lobby at the WL when staying there and he would wave to Goofy and gang coming and going to Artist Point for the breakfast character meal. I actually video tapped Goofy walking through the lobby with him holding his hand. My now 17 yo grandson liked the characters much more than his 2 little sisters do. I think everyone should try the character meals -- at least once -- we did, but never felt any need to repeat the experience.

 

[MYD714]

I'd look for a mix of buffet meals and served family style.

I find the family style character meal a lot easier and I only have 1 DD.

Otherwise between getting your kids food and not wanting to miss a character I never seem to eat much or eat with DH.

I agree with this. My friend and I took her two kids to WDW in 2008 and we did character meals all week. We loved it, but eating at a buffet with two kids was tricky. I would try something like dinner at Garden Grill or breakfast at Ohana. This way you can have some family-style meals, allowing you to relax at the table rather than getting up to the buffet.

 

[3pletprincesses]

We have 1 caracter meal every single day. It was like that last fall, adr are made for May and August for exactly the same thing. My girls love caracters and the trip is for them therefor caracter meals is a must. Just to see their face is worth it. we usually all go get our food at the same time (btw I have 4 yo triplet) and choose our food together and go back to the table together. They love to help pick their food. They point and mommy puts in the plate.

 

[lilandvisma]

For us it's never too many. We enjoy them and so do the kids. We do make sure to have a nice balance of character meals and more "adult" meals as well. That way everyone seems to be happy Akershus, Crystal Palace and Tusker House breakfast are some of our favorites!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

for our son, character meals is part of his Disney magic. We have a character breakfast every morning and evening meals are signature. We did have Garden Grill dinner, CRT dinner and Akershus dinner but we cancelled it when we got that week to eat at other signature places (b/c my husband said we ate character meals for breakfast he rather have better selection food for dinner).

 

[Mary T in PA]

We do a mix.. some character meals, some are not.

This is YOUR vacation, so if you want to do lots of character meals, GO FOR IT!

 

[DEA]

This is one of the things I'm most excited about, but how many character meals is too much? We will have the dining plan so we can do one table-service meal a day, but if all of them end up being character meals will we be 'missing out' on some great restaurants? And more than that, are the character meal dining experiences a little bit more crazy/crowded/rushed etc. than other restaurants? Kids are 3 and 1.5. It's our first trip to Disney so I have no idea what this will all be like Thanks!!

There are plenty of good meals available at WDW without characters involved, but with kids that size, the character experiences are likely going to be more meaningful to them than the meal itself. At least that's been the case with our daughters. Seeing our then 3yo older daughter go absolutely ballistic upon meeting Tigger at Crystal Palace (and, incidentally, flashing the character... but that's another story...) was one of my favorite memories of that trip. Another was the chat she had with Cinderella at CRT. Even if I am not crazy about the food at CRT, and would rather have eaten that meal at Flying Fish or Yachtsman Steakhouse, that memory was a very powerful one.

Do I'd say character-meal to your heart's content.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

This is one of the things I'm most excited about, but how many character meals is too much? We will have the dining plan so we can do one table-service meal a day, but if all of them end up being character meals will we be 'missing out' on some great restaurants? And more than that, are the character meal dining experiences a little bit more crazy/crowded/rushed etc. than other restaurants? Kids are 3 and 1.5. It's our first trip to Disney so I have no idea what this will all be like Thanks!!

On our Dec. 2010 trip, we had 7 character meals (10 day trip). I like lots of character meals.... I can dine at "regular" restaurants at home. For breakfast, it's nice to have a character breakfast in the park before the park opens because you can get some photos (on the way to the restaurant) without crowds of people in the background. It's a great way to meet characters without lines. During busier times of year, I can imagine the lines to meet characters in the parks getting long.....

We had at least 1 fun meal for DS each day (Ok... for me too!)...if not a character meal, then a fun place like Coral Reef or Sci Fi Diner. We did some "regular" restaurants for dinners -- including signature restaurants... so breakfast/lunch was something more fun.

Would you miss out on some great restaurants? Maybe... depends on what great means. If I want a restaurant with great food, I can get that at home. I want to be entertained a bit at WDW -- that's why I like the character meals and themed restaurants.

We also did the deluxe dining plan which has more table service credits. We did all table service the past 2 trips. With the deluxe plan, we have signature restaurants and while we can have finer food at home, we don't go out much. Next time, I'll probably do 1 or 2 dinner shows instead of some of the signature restaurants.

When DS was 3, he really loved the characters. Unfortunately, that year... we only had 2 character meals (I didn't do the planning). He really enjoyed Crystal Palace and Mickey's Backyard BBQ. At age 4, we did a LOT of character meals... he loved them all.

In addition to the usual autograph books... we also had characters sign t-shirts... and on our last trip, we had them sign pillowsham cases...

 

[yolie912]

I would like to know if they took the mickey waffles from Ohana??