Experiences with Character Dining and autistic child

[rebekah8284]

I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas about what character dining would be best to do with an autistic child. I am taking my son who is autistic and will be 4.5 in February and we wanted to do a character dining. Preferably one with Mickey and friends. I know some of the character dinings are very hectic and would be too much for him. Just wondering if anyone had experiences they could share of a good character dining. TIA

 

[heidibilotti]

Beach club has Donald Pluto and goofy if I remember correctly. It is definitely more calm and a slower pace than most character dinning. No loud music,dance parties etc. my kids have always had lots of time to interact never rushed here

 

[Disfanx4]

I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas about what character dining would be best to do with an autistic child. I am taking my son who is autistic and will be 4.5 in February and we wanted to do a character dining. Preferably one with Mickey and friends. I know some of the character dinings are very hectic and would be too much for him. Just wondering if anyone had experiences they could share of a good character dining. TIA

Take both my daughters who are on the spectrum yearly and they handle any of the buffets, Chef Mickeys is their favorite, also if you think the dining experience will be to much you could always take him to Character Spot in Epcot to gauge his reaction to the characters first, but like I said my one daughter goes to disney with 2 requests, she is mostly non verbal first request chef mickeys and character spot. Hope he enjoys whatever you decide

 

[clanmcculloch]

Garden Grill is absolutely the best character meal with Mickey for a child who may get overwhelmed for several reasons.

• It's served family style rather than buffet so no need to get up and move around to get food and that also means you don't have a lot of people moving back and forth by your table.
• The booths (at least the front tier; I'm not sure about the other tier) are very high backed so it feels much more private and separate from everybody else. The opening is only on one of 4 sides so it's also easier to contain a child who may be prone to getting up. If your child is hesitant with the characters it's easy to put him to the back of the booth and let him just look so there's no risk of a character reaching out to him if that would upset him or even just being bumped by passing guests.
• The characters really seem to take their time with each table yet they make it around the restaurant generally twice during a meal (not guaranteed but it seems to happen somewhat frequently).

 

[HopperFan]

If only talking Mickey and Friends -

Garden Grill is our favorite for relaxing, peaceful eating with caring characters who never have rushed us. I also appreciate being served.

Cape May Cafe is also fairly quiet and while a buffet it was very easy for us to enjoy our meal un-rushed. Characters were great with the kids.

Ohana was not loud or chaotic but it was very time consuming for our day and we ended up leaving before the last character because we were at well over 1.5 hours already. Everything was too slow. We waited almost 30 minutes just for our first plates of food and that is after waiting to get in.

Tusker House has a very nice breakfast buffet, but the character interaction was rushed, some missed us (our server chased them down) but we saw them all and if noise is an issue - while this may not seem a big deal to many to us it was - it is a concrete floor, not only was it loud but young kids and utensils - lots of dropping and loud clanging noises. Maybe it was just us but DS was unnerved even with ear plugs.

Chef Mickey's is probably our worse dining experience on property. The tables were tight (lack of personal space), the noise was over the top, the constant dancing and music, characters moved through so quickly I didn't feel like we had but seconds - add bad food and service .... I went excited and left totally disappointed for all of us.

 

[kirstenb1]

Our 7 yr old has always been really scared of the characters, so we haven't done any character meals.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

another hard part of character dining is seeing the characters but having to wait for them to get to your table or their time out visiting comes to an end just before they reach your table. just some more to think about

 

[jmartinez1895]

We have found Garden grill in EPCOT to be more relaxed as well. The characters seem to spend more time with you here than other locations ( in our experience at least). This is also one of the best places to see chip and dale. Each time we have gone they are super playful. I am not sure how your child would respond to that, but if he would like the one on one interaction with the characters then this would be a great place. One our last trip Dale would take the sugar packets on our table and throw them at the waiter and then point to my husband. My kids loved it.

 

[rebekah8284]

Thanks for all the replies. I was thinking about the garden grill as my son loves chip and dale so think I will go for that. Just worried how he is going to react to the characters last time we went was when he was 1 and he was fine with them but don't know if that might have changed. Think I will book the reservation for later in the week and see how he does meeting the characters at the park and then can cancel if he doesn't get on with them.

 

[TRICKY_TINK]

All those character places are cramped, loud and serve blah food. My asd kid doesn't really like characters or pictures...lol

 

[ibcrazie4dizney]

a few years ago, we went to Hollywood and vine at one of the last lunch seatings. the place was empty, only a few scattered tables occupied. don't know if that was a fluke, but it was very nice. the characters came around a lot since there weren't many people there. with all the good comments on garden grill, I think we will try it next.