Does anyone do a character meal every day?

[happymamma]

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!!

 

[jwfla422]

We used to do that when dd was younger and fit into the childrens' price category as we don't do the DDP. Since turning 10 though it has gotten much more costly so we really pick and choose the character meals to go to. At this point, we go to the character meals according to which ones have the best food rather than the best characters.

But, if you're not doing the ddp both of your kids would be free at all of the buffets and family style meals. In your case though, your kids are at a fun age to mingle with characters but also depending on their personalities the characters can be scary too. (my dd was afraid of Pluto and Goofy until she was 4!) Character meals are fun but they can also be hectic. I always preferred the family style rather than the buffets so you don't miss them when you're up getting food...when the kids are young you have to get them food and then yourself...back and forth and the characters make the rounds. If you do miss them they can come back but sometimes it can be time consuming. We've seen them within the first 5 minutes zoom right through us and other times they've spent 5 min. each at our table playing with dd (coloring, putting stickers on their noses, etc), just depends on the place, time and how busy it is.

You will be missing some great non-character restaurants though if you're on the ddp and you use your credits for only character meals. Mostly all of the signature restaurants are kid-friendly. Plus the buffets can be an overload of food. But if you must buffet/family style eat

Our favorite character meals are:
EPCOT-GG
MK-CP (lunch only)
BC-Cape May
GF-1900 PK Fare (breakfast only)

We can live without the others.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

For me, one is too many. In five trips and another one planned, we've never done a character meal. They're not our thing. It sounds like they will be your thing, though. If this isn't a once-in-a-lifetime trip, I'd do whatever suits your family best right now and not worry about what you might be missing. Hopefully, you'll get around to other restaurants on future trips, when the kids are older. (I will throw in that I think I'd plan at least one non-character dinner, but I don't have children, and my unfriendly, snarky disposition probably colors my opinion.)

 

[AKL LOVER]

We do A LOT of character meals with our kids. #1: it's a good way to meet characters without having to wait in lines in the parks!! and #2: it does occupy the kids so you can have a sit down meal. And #3: buffets do offer a huge variety, so if you have any picky eaters, this is a plus!

Although we like to do signature meals now too, I think if it's your first trip to Disney, do as many character meals as you'd like! This is what we did our first trip (my kids were the same age as yours are now!): Crystal Palace, Cinderella's Royal Table, Akershus, Tusker House, and Chef Mickey's. That was a character meal every day but one for us (not including arrival and departure days). So no, I don't think that one a day is too much. Since then, we've also done Garden Grill and 1900 Park Fare.

We absolutely LOVE Tusker House--it's a must do each trip. The others we rotate between. For our upcoming May trip we only have 3 character meals planned (TH, CP and CRT), but since this is our 4th trip, we really wanted to expand our dining and try a lot of new places that we've never tried before.

 

[Jaaaacki]

I don't have any experience with this yet but we are doing the dxdp this summer. Granted we have 3 TS/day so we are doing almost a character meal each day. My kids are 4 and 6 and I know they'll love it. If they were older we would probably skip those.

 

[Winue]

we are also doing a bunch of character meals this trip! we have done the dining plan on our last trip, and were able to go to some different restaurants... but this time, with our kids being 5.5 and 2.5, we thought we would do a lot of character meals, for their enjoyment.

I have eaten at various restaurants, and although some are good, there is nothing that we can't get within driving distance. We are lucky to live very close to a major city, and have exposure to many multicultural restaurants.

I would prefer to have the characters come to our table to visit with the kids, rather than stand in long lines waiting for the photo op and autograph.

I say, have fun! the kids are only young for a short time, and when they are older, we can go and do more of the "adult" things at disney!

 

[AKL LOVER]

I would prefer to have the characters come to our table to visit with the kids, rather than stand in long lines waiting for the photo op and autograph.

I say, have fun! the kids are only young for a short time, and when they are older, we can go and do more of the "adult" things at disney!

Well said ! Besides, it looks as though your oh-so-cute avatar pic came from a character meal!! Love it!

 

[#1hoosierfan]

My boys were 14 months and 3 when we went in June. We did 2 character meals... CP breakfast and Ohana breakfast.

Now they are 22 months and 4. They both LOVE the characters. We will be doing CP breakfast, Chef Mickey's dinner, and Tusker House breakfast. The food is not the main draw for us. I am looking forward to spending some individual time and getting pictures with the characters without spending a ton of time waiting in line at spring break time.

A character meal a day would be too much for me. I am not a huge on buffets, so the 3 that we are doing will be plenty.

 

[Winue]

Well said ! Besides, it looks as though your oh-so-cute avatar pic came from a character meal!! Love it!

YES!! it came from Chef Mickey's!!! last trip, my kids were 8 months and 3.5 years old... and they both loved the character meals! in fact, my 8 month old loved the characters while at the meals, but outside of meals, she was terrified!

OP, to make you feel better, this trip we have planned:

Day 1: Akershus
Day 2: Tusker House
Day 3: O'Hanas
Day 4: Coral Reef
Day 5: Hollywood & Vine
Day 6: Crystal Palace

and one extra (most likely a resort one)

so... out of 7 TS meals, we have 5 that are character meals!

 

[chmbnaut66]

I have four children from the age of 20, 11, 7, and 6 and I reccommend doing as many character meals as possible. As one writer points out, the kids see as many characters as possible without having to stand in long lines in the park. Having a four year old stand in line for 10 to 20 minutes, to have a character disappear as soon as we are at the head of the line is simply "NOT Magical" so I try to schedule character meals when possible. Our favorite is 1900 Parkfare for dinner, with Cinderella, the step sisters, and mother. The stepsisters and step mother are hysterical!!! (I will never go back to Chef Mickey's again. The food quality has declined to the point that a good evening at Golden Corral has better food. IMHO)

 

[Wendy31]

The 1st year we went, our DD was 5 & our DS was 3. We were there for 6 nights & did the following character meals:

Akershus (dinner), Chef Mickey's (breakfast), Crystal Palace (lunch), CRT (breakfast), & Liberty Tree Tavern (dinner - back then, it was a character meal) - a total of 5 character meals & 6 nights.

The next year we were there for 7 nights. We skipped Akershus & added Garden Grill (lunch - back then, it was a character meal for lunch too) & the AK character breakfast in addition to the others - so a total of 6 character meals & 7 nights.

Now, that the kids are older, we're down to our 3 "must-do's": CRT (lunch or dinner), Crystal Palace, & Chef Mickey's (breakfast). However, for our upcoming trip in Sept, I'm debating about adding Garden Grill back.

And, when our younger DS is a little older (probably our next trip after our upcoming one), I can see us adding the Hollywood & Vine character meal & the Tusker House breakfast character meal. And, at some point, I really want to do the 1900 Park Fare character dinner.

We enjoy the character meals because it lets us skip standing in line to meet the characters in the park. And meeting the characters in a restaurant setting feels more relaxed than meeting them in a hurried line.

My kids other favorite restaurants that have become "must-do's" are Coral Reef, Sci-Fi, 'Ohana (dinner), & Whispering Canyon Cafe.

And, then, somewhere in there I try to add a World Showcase restaurant & maybe another 1 or 2 other restaurants that DH & I have chosen. Now, we stay 9 days, & it's probably mostly just so I can fit in all our restaurants! I'm kidding.... sort of.

But, no, I don't think a character meal/day is necessarily a bad thing.

That's why the DxDP is a good thing!! Character meals for the kids & other restaurants for the adults!

 

[NJDisneymom]

I think this will be our first trip where we DON'T do a character meal every day. My kids are getting a little older (well, youngest is 5 but he isn't all that into characters) so we are going to try some of the restaurants we didn't get around to yet - but we always loved the character meals and will still do a few of our favorites this trip!

 

[RichmondTiggerFan]

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!!

If you want to do all character meals, then I say go for it! When I go to WDW, I'll do anywhere from 3-6 TS meals, all of them character meals. The way I see it, I can go to unique/fine-dining restaurants anytime here in Virginia, but I can't have dinner with Timon or Chip & Dale here.

 

[dixonsontour]

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.

We like akershus family style - ohana breakfast and garden grill dinner are also family style with characters.

 

[Edwine]

I would love to visit Disney, even i don't know about the meal plans and would be looking forward for the guidedness as to what plan should be adopted.

 

[CathieArms]

My kids are 15 and 6 and they *love* the character meals; they're just so much fun! As an adult, I enjoy them because we have to eat anyway, and a character meal allows us to bypass waiting in line for most of the characters. For me, it's killing 2 birds with one stone.

We're going in June and my character meal ADRs include:

Day 1: Akershus (princesses)
Day 2: Chef Mickey
Day 3: Cape May, Breakfast
Day 4: Hollywood and Vine
Day 5: No character meal
Day 6: Cinderella's Royal Table
Day 7: Crystal Palace and 1900 Park Fare, Dinner
Day 8: Tusker House
Day 9: 1900 Park Fare, Breakfast
Day 10: No character meal planned yet, but may consider 'Ohana

 

[pmaurer74]

I never felt rushed on our characters meals. We have 16 ADRs for our upcoming trip and 7 of them are character. I felt it was a better way for our kids to interact with the characters than waiting in lines at the park. The only problem was DD was so distracted she didn't eat. We may try the DXDP so we will not be missing out on other restaurants but if we do the regular DDP half of those below will be axed.

Here are our character meals:

'Ohana breakfast
CRT lunch
Crystal Palace dinner
Tusker House breakfast
Akershus dinner
1900 park Fare breakfast
Chef Mickey's breakfast
Hollywood and Vine breakfast

 

[csmommy]

Character meals are such fun & make for great photos! Mine are now 16 & 13 & for our next trip we have 1900 Park Fair for breakfast & Crystal Palace for dinner. We always did Crystal Palace for breakfast & love it, just trying to mix it up. In the past we have done the princess meals, OHanna's & Chef Mickeys.

Interesting, people said Crystal Palace for lunch & not dinner. Anything I need to know?

 

[shezfrombermuda]

We usually go to two character meals per trip (8 day trip usually). We love Cape May Breakfast Buffet and we have also been to Crystal Palace every trip and also have been to Chef Mickeys several times. We have had good character interaction at all three. My youngest daughter now is in love with the Princesses so we are going to try Akerhaus and for a change the Donald Breakfast at Tusker House.

 

[chinarider]

My daughter is 16 now and really doesnt want to do the Character meals... but I do!!! I like doing a late breakfast buffet so it usually holds us all day (plus I love breakfast foods). She is a pretty plain eater so looking at menus I think buffets work great in her situation. We havent been there in 4 years so, it turns out that we actually have 4 resies in Epcot. Still trying to get my character breakfast in though.