Goofy's Kitchen Yes or No??

[RuthieT]

We have PS for our first night at DL, but I have read mixed reviews about the cost for the character interaction and food quaility. Is it worth doing Dinner?? We have done Ariel's and were not impressed with the food and we also have Minnie's Breakfast planned on our last day. Should I cancel or keep our PS for Goofy's?

 

[Sherry E]

We have PS for our first night at DL, but I have read mixed reviews about the cost for the character interaction and food quaility. Is it worth doing Dinner?? We have done Ariel's and were not impressed with the food and we also have Minnie's Breakfast planned on our last day. Should I cancel or keep our PS for Goofy's?

I strongly prefer the breakfast food at Goofy's over the dinner food, and I prefer the Goofy's character meal over Storytellers (it almost never fails us). If dinner is your only option at Goofy's and you don't have the chance to eat breakfast there, I still say try it, even though it more expensive than breakfast. It is worth it to keep the PS. If you have breakfast scheduled for Goofy's, even better! Yes! Keep the PS!

 

[kellynz]

We had dinner there back in September, and I wouldn't do it again. We didn't really enjoy the food and the character interaction was limited, it seemed to be insanely busy too, which may have been part of the problem. And for that price, I want to really enjoy it! We enjoyed the other character meals we did though.

 

[pixiewings71]

My vote is a no, we won't do a meal at Goofy's again unless we aren't paying or it's a party or something. We did b-fast there and had NO character interaction, the same 3 characters kept coming to our table.....that wasn't cool so we won't waste our time or money.

 

[jimsocks]

If you've never tried it - try it! What if you're in the group of people that REALLY loves it, but you never try it and never find out? A Magical Tragedy, that would be! (All of a sudden, I'm channeling that dude from Mary Poppins...

 

[Donald's Fan in PHX!]

We liked Goofy's kitchen and would go again for sure. We prefer ALL the dining at Disneyworld though because of the meal plans. SoCal does not have any meal plans so Goofy's can be a little expensive, but is fun and has an interesting selection of food to say the least.

 

[Queenbillabong]

We've done it twice now - once for breakfast and once for dinner - and we probably won't do it again anytime soon. For dinner, the food was just so-so, but there was plenty of character interaction. For breakfast the food was good, but very little character interaction (maybe three characters total). For the price, we would rather do Minnie's Breakfast in the park - good food and good character interaction

 

[McQueenofHrts]

I must have hit good times for Goofy's Kitchen each time I have gone. I have been to the breakfast and dinner at Goofy's kitchen. Each time, we were able to interact with plenty of characters. As far as the food goes, it was good. However, I wasn't expecting a five star experience. Many people have different tastes which may not be your own, so I am not sure that you should decide solely based on others tastebuds. With this said, I will pass on a valuable piece of informaton I learned from this board. If at all possible, try to schedule a time when it isn't crowded, like a time of day or day of the week. We went for breakfast (or brunch) at Goofy's kitchen at 1pm when the lunch crowd was leaving but characters were still in abundance. Also, when making your PS, you may want to ask the CM if they could offer some advice on crowd levels.

I hope this helps.

Pam

P.S. I understand the disappointment of some of the previous posters in regards to little character interaction. On our last trip, we went to breakfast at Lilo and Stitch. Literally, the only characters that visited our table were Lilo and Stitch! Minnie was there posing for photos, but she didn't even walk through the dining room after she was finished! Yes, I didn't use my own advice when making this reservation!

 

[CalvaryMike]

We just went to Goofy's Kitchen for dinner about 3 weeks ago. Our reservations were for 5:00. It wasn't crowded when we arrived on a Friday evening and we had plenty of character interaction. I was thinking I really didn't reservations. Towards the end of our dinner, I went out to the front to go to the restroom and the lobby was PACKED! I'm so glad, we ate early.

We were a party of 10 and everyone at our table enjoyed the food and the experience. I didn't tell anyone about the CM, so it was a suprise for everyone and they couldn't talk enough about it. It seemed like it was a highlight of the trip. Most of us were locals and first timers at a CM, so maybe that's why it was so special.

I thought the food was quite good.

 

[blackjackdelta]

I have to agree with CMike. We always go early and have never had a bad experience. Lots of characters.

Jack

 

[Sherry E]

That is something that should be emphasized - different times may give you more characters or fewer characters and less interaction. It is not always the same. I will say this: for us, in 16 years of dining at Goofy's, the experience has been consistently good for us, or at least 95% good in that period of time, in terms of food selection and quality, and in terms of character visits. But it is true - if you go at a time when there are fewer customers (like we tend to go early in the morning), then there may be fewer characters too! If you go when it is more crowded at night, for dinner, then the characters are often abundant. Even a later breakfast or early brunch may produce more characters because there are more people. The time of year has an impact too - the 'off-peak season' tends to yield fewer characters, while the holiday season conjures up a bunch of them! We have literally been at Goofy's for breakfast when there were SO many characters coming fast and furious to the tables that we were not even able to get up and revisit the all-you-can-eat buffet tables for fear that we would miss someone, nor could we get a bite of food because so many of them were coming by every minute! That got to be annoying! Other times we were there and maybe there were only 4 characters 'working the room,' but those same 4 characters would come back and revisit each table over and over again - some folks don't like the same ones coming back, but some folks DO like it because the kids feel like those characters are paying special attention to them by coming back! So, in other words, on days where there may not be a high quantity of characters, you get more 'quality' time because they have more time to spend and they come back repeatedly!

Food-wise, we prefer the breakfast choices at Goofy's, BUT if we were more interested in the variety of characters, we would go there for dinner. I have to say that Minnie's does look like it has a good selection of characters, but I have heard mixed reviews of the food, so we will probably try it at some point on the next multi-day trip but we tend to want to stick with the tried and true. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, we say! We (my friends and I) don't have kids, so we don't have to consider that angle of it. We just do what works for us. I am sure you will have a great time, wherever you end up eating!

 

[Canyon girl]

As far as Goofy's goes, I prefer the brunch items over dinner. On the last trip, we did too many character meals, but it was hot! We decided to ditch the park and invest in character time indoors instead. Having done the meals that we did, I will say that timing is everything. As far as Ariel's goes, it depends on how many are in each seating as to how much interaction you will get. It seems that they only have so much time to get through the masses. The other meals quite heavily depend on the time (which also translates into numbers). The earlier the seating (or the later the seating) seems to equal more character time. We went to Lilo and Stitch. We had a 0750 PS but were running early to check out PPH. We ended up there at opening time. There was no one else there, so they pulled us in the door before we had a chance to scope the hotel. Boy, was that a great happening!!! My ds had Stitch (his fav character) to himself for 15-20 min. L&S were the only characters making rounds, but ds had them to himself for sooooo long (private hula lessons). At Goofy's Kitchen, we snagged the last seating for brunch. We were one of the last 2-3 tables at closing. My dd had an extremely great time with Prince Philip whom she had not met before. He and Aladdin played tic-tac-toe with both kids. We also had Chip, Dale, and Pluto hanging out with us for quite some time. At one time, we had Chip, Dale, Prince Philip, Pluto, and Baloo in our area, just hanging out. It was great!!! It seems that the extreme beginning and the extreme end of the meals (Storytellers, GK, and L&S) have the best character interactions.

 

[rhiansmom]

Did Goofy's for dinner last week and I thought it was excellent. By far it was the best character meal I have ever taken DD to and we have been to many! I was a bit worried because we had reservations for 8 and when we got there I only saw like maybe 10 tables filled. BUT we had six or seven characters with constant attention (as much as the girls wanted) from each of them. Minnie and Chip and Dale all sat down at the table and drew what they wanted to tell the kids. Minnie was telling us how Goofy pushed her and it made her sad.

The food was also really good and hot. The chefs even came out to chat as the night went on.

 

[Vala]

We went three times during our stay last week.

Once for brunch and once for dinner as planned. We had great fun and wonderful character interaction.

For our brunch Baloo was in the photo area and I got all excited - he's one of my favorites and I hadn't seen him at Storytellers where I was told he occassionally hangs out.I admit I pretty much squealed through the waiting area like some sort of love sick seal because I was so happy.

The cast members asked me about it, I told him the story and they even brought Baloo back to our table for a little special time. I was over the moon - we were two adults after all.

On Sunday we got back to Downtown Disney to pick up some pins on our way to the airport. I was in line forever at Pin Traders, and suddenly realized my (non-Disney-fan) travel companion was gone.

Turned out she had run to Goofy's Kitchen to make a quick PS for 30 minutes later for an impromptu goodbye dinner. I guess that's the best recommendation I can give.

 

[Sherry E]

We went three times during our stay last week.

Once for brunch and once for dinner as planned. We had great fun and wonderful character interaction.

For our brunch Baloo was in the photo area and I got all excited - he's one of my favorites and I hadn't seen him at Storytellers where I was told he occassionally hangs out.I admit I pretty much squealed through the waiting area like some sort of love sick seal because I was so happy.

The cast members asked me about it, I told him the story and they even brought Baloo back to our table for a little special time. I was over the moon - we were two adults after all.

On Sunday we got back to Downtown Disney to pick up some pins on our way to the airport. I was in line forever at Pin Traders, and suddenly realized my (non-Disney-fan) travel companion was gone.

Turned out she had run to Goofy's Kitchen to make a quick PS for 30 minutes later for an impromptu goodbye dinner. I guess that's the best recommendation I can give.

Vala, I can identify with you! I know one of my friends and I really love Goofy's enough to eat there multiple times on each trip, BUT we somehow end up just eating there once per trip. Just the other day I was thinking to myself, Why don't we ever eat there more than once per DLR visit since we like it so much? Aside from the fact that is is fun to try different restaurants some of the time, I think I came to the conclusion that we must think it is too costly to eat at Goofy's more than once in a trip. But I don't know if that is true. When we eat a big, full meal at Goofy's and have seconds and all that, we are generally not hungry again the entire day - sometimes not even at night. So, in essence, we could avoid having to eat anywhere else for the rest of the day, except maybe a light dinner, if we ate at Goofy's each morning, and the money we would spend there wouldn't be any worse than if we ate at Rainforest Cafe for breakfast, Storytellers for lunch and Carnation for dinner. It is when we eat at any place other than Goofy's for breakfast that we have to eat lunch again in a few hours! So when I look at it that way, Goofy's seems like a bargain!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

My family is eating at Goofy's Kitchen in December. We chose it based on the characters that are usually there and figure that they'll appeal more to my 3 yo nephew than those offered at other character meals. I know the rotation is different, but he knows who Goofy is, and that's more than we can say about some other character meals at the DLR.

 

[mousey]

I vote NO! We went for dinner and the food isn't great, prices are outrageous and the characters were okay. Compared to DisneyWorld charcter meals this one is lousy. Its a shame they don't have any competition.

 

[dizneekrazee]

I can only comment for breakfast, but a big fat YES!!!!

 

[Vala]

Vala, I can identify with you! I know one of my friends and I really love Goofy's enough to eat there multiple times on each trip, BUT we somehow end up just eating there once per trip. Just the other day I was thinking to myself, Why don't we ever eat there more than once per DLR visit since we like it so much? Aside from the fact that is is fun to try different restaurants some of the time, I think I came to the conclusion that we must think it is too costly to eat at Goofy's more than once in a trip. But I don't know if that is true. When we eat a big, full meal at Goofy's and have seconds and all that, we are generally not hungry again the entire day - sometimes not even at night. So, in essence, we could avoid having to eat anywhere else for the rest of the day, except maybe a light dinner, if we ate at Goofy's each morning, and the money we would spend there wouldn't be any worse than if we ate at Rainforest Cafe for breakfast, Storytellers for lunch and Carnation for dinner. It is when we eat at any place other than Goofy's for breakfast that we have to eat lunch again in a few hours! So when I look at it that way, Goofy's seems like a bargain!

Yes, that's basically what my group realized after the second meal too. First they were "are you crazy? It is so expensive!" Then we got second helpings even at Ariel's and they were sold. We ended up doing one character meal each day for most of the trip, and then shared something from Bengal Barbecue or Taste Pilots Grill as lite lunch/dinner.

 

[IBLarsen]

Another vote for Yes on Goofy's. We ate there for dinner our first night after checking into the hotel. It was a great way to kick off our trip. The kids LOVED it and we had a ton of character interaction...so much so that it was hard to eat our dinner, which was exactly what we were hoping for! We did have PS at 5, first seating of the night. As for food quality, it was decent for a buffet, nothing special but there were a lot of choices and we all managed to stuff ourselves. I do think the price is high for a buffet dinner, but we knew that going into it....and all the food at DLR is expensive, you are paying for the experience. We just went the first week of Oct and my DD3 is still talking about her dancing with Goofy. The character interaction there is better than you will get in the parks, because they take time to play with the kids a little and be silly and make the kids laugh. In the parks you only get a picture and an autograph with maybe a hug, while being rushed for the next kids in line to get in. So for that reason with our little ones I would do Goofy's again.