Goofy's or Minnie and Friends?

[jennifur25]

Goofy's or Minnie and Friends? Such a tough decision! When we were there in May, we did Minnie and Friends. The boys were a little unsure of the characters but one of them did end up hugging Minnie and Eeyore by the end of the meal. I'm tempted to try Goofy's this time around but I think it's the added expense that's making me question it. Plus Minnie's being right in the park is awfully convenient too.

What's your preference between the two?

 

[Sherry E]

Goofy's or Minnie and Friends? Such a tough decision! When we were there in May, we did Minnie and Friends. The boys were a little unsure of the characters but one of them did end up hugging Minnie and Eeyore by the end of the meal. I'm tempted to try Goofy's this time around but I think it's the added expense that's making me question it. Plus Minnie's being right in the park is awfully convenient too.

What's your preference between the two?

My thought is that if you are uncertain which one to choose and you have already tried one of them - which was successful - you should stick with the tried and true! No reason to take a gamble on another one that your family may or may not like when the first one worked! You enjoyed the convenience of Minnie's, your boys (one of them) warmed to the characters eventually and it is cheaper than Goofy's by a few bucks, I would guess.

That said, I have not tried Minnie's and I hope to try it soon because I like the selection of characters there, but for 16 years I have been a diehard Goofy's Kitchen fan, and we will always make time for a breakfast at Goofy's (not crazy about the dinner) whenever we go. The variety of food choices is vast and well worth the cost to my friends and me, and the quality is good, the food is fresh and delicious and we just like Goofy, Pluto, Baloo, Chip and Dale, etc. I prefer Goofy's over Storytellers, but the number of characters working the room at Goofy's can vary, depending on whether it is a 'busy' time of day. In the early morning, there are fewer characters than at night, but you get more quality time with each one. At night, there are a bunch of them coming to the table, and sometimes it can be hard to eat!!! Anyway, many other people prefer the other character meals instead.

Anyway, I LOVE Goofy's and that is pretty much our favorite restaurant at DLR, and it has almost never failed us, but I think if Minnie's worked well for you, you should stick with it! Character meals are a lot of money to take a chance on if you are not sure you will like it!

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I've done them all (DS4 and I did the princess meal when we went without DH and DS8.) Each is nice in its own way, and has its own complications as well.

I think our all-time favorite is Goofy's Kitchen. I agree with everything Sherry has said about dinner (it's busy, crowded, loud, and characters come through one after the other) but we love it. I have two rambunctious boys, and they love the little dancing show, and they love meeting so many characters! The food is good buffet food, and you can't beat getting all those photos and autographs in one relatively short timeframe, as opposed to standing in long lines in the park.

Our Minnie and Friends experience wasn't the best, but my kids enjoyed it. DS4 loves the Pooh characters, so that was the big draw; we aren't big breakfast eaters, so we went despite that and despite the fact we were missing out on precious park time.

Unlike any other character meal we attended, Minnie and Friends had LOTS of kids wandering around, following the character from table to table. At the other meals the CMs encourage parents to keep the kids at their own table and things just seem much more orderly; I don't know why this meal is different, but it is.

I would say if you are still unsure of the kids' reaction to the characters, and if they love Pooh characters, go again to this one. If the kids might like to get in on a little dance action with the characters and you'd like to try something new, go for Goofy's. Either way, you can't go wrong.

If you're considering the others:

Lilo & Stitch is my boys' 2nd favorite character meal. Stitch is a hoot, and DS4 is in love with Minnie. We tend not to meet as many characters at this meal, though they do come around several times, and tend to stay a bit longer to visit. Stitch plays cute pranks on the kids and always gets them laughing. There's also a little "floor show", where they teach the kids to hula, and play a game of musical chairs (in this case, musical Hawaiian islands.)

Storyteller's character breakfast was much calmer and quieter than any other character meal. I worried my busy boys wouldn't enjoy it, but they toned their behavior down to the restaurant's level, and really enjoyed these characters, even though they weren't familiar with them from movies. It's a beautiful restaurant, fabulous food, and all the characters are animals, in keeping with the outdoorsy theme. They don't speak, but communicate amazingly well with gestures. We were surprised how much we enjoyed this one, and will definitely go back.

Only drawback on that one was that DS8 claimed not to be very hungry, so ordered a bowl of cereal (I think it was $8.) It was a TINY amount of cereal, so he asked for another bowl. They brought it out in one of those teeny little boxes like you buy in a variety pack at the grocery store. So we paid $16 for very little cereal, when a full breakfast was just a few dollars more. OUCH.

 

[Sherry E]

You are not kidding, Alex2KMommy, about the menu prices at Storytellers. That is why, whenever anyone says that you can order things off the menu at ST if you don't want buffet, I always remember when we ate our breakfast at ST and did not get buffet. The menu prices were only a few dollars cheaper than buffet, and there was not enough on the plate to justify that kind of money. So I think if you are going to have a character meal at Storytellers, you might as well get the buffet. You are also right about it being very quiet in there and that some of the characters are not familiar.

I know many people think Goofy's is kind of noisy and chaotic. It doesn't bother me. I have never found it obnoxiously noisy, really. I just noticed that it was much busier at night and there were more characters. In the morning, there are fewer characters because there are fewer people eating, but the ones that are there take a lot of time at each table or they come back repeatedly to see you...which I think is a good thing. I actually think Goofy's is a pretty tolerable level of noise up until they get up to do the Macarena, and then it quiets down again. And it sounds more controlled in terms of keeping the kids at their tables than what you said Minnie's is like!!

Now, if you want busy and noisy, go to ESPN Zone, but that is a whole other story!

 

[toocherie]

Well, hopefully no one gets offended at this, but my suspicion as to why the Minnie's breakfast tends to have kids wandering around is #1 Pooh characters attract a younger crowd of kids, and #2 I think because it is in the park you get a lot of "first-time" character meal attenders, who don't know proper character meal etiquette--and unfortunately the CMs aren't good at telling them up front how things should work.

I also think it's difficult for the characters to get to some of the kids given the set up (especially inside) so the kids tend to follow the characters.

 

[bronko78]

We've been to both, and much prefer Goofy's. The food was way better than Minnie's in terms of variety and taste. I do wish it was a bit closer to the park, but I'm willing to take that trade-off.

 

[jennifur25]

Well it looks like the decision was made for us when I called today for PS. The only time they had for Goofy's really didn't work with us. So we'll be at Minnie and Friends! Friday is our California Adventures day, so before we go there we will eat at 8:20am at Minnie's. Will give us plenty of time to make it to CA by opening at 10am! I can't wait!

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I know many people think Goofy's is kind of noisy and chaotic. It doesn't bother me. I have never found it obnoxiously noisy, really. I just noticed that it was much busier at night and there were more characters. In the morning, there are fewer characters because there are fewer people eating, but the ones that are there take a lot of time at each table or they come back repeatedly to see you...which I think is a good thing.

We haven't done Goofy's at breakfast, so it sounds like a morning time at Goofy's might be similar to our Lilo & Stitch experience: Quieter, multiple visits from a character, more time spent at each table.

Now, if you want busy and noisy, go to ESPN Zone, but that is a whole other story!

I know that day is coming for me (with two boys who are sports nuts!), but I'm still hoping to put it off for a few more years.

Well, hopefully no one gets offended at this, but my suspicion as to why the Minnie's breakfast tends to have kids wandering around is #1 Pooh characters attract a younger crowd of kids, and #2 I think because it is in the park you get a lot of "first-time" character meal attenders, who don't know proper character meal etiquette--and unfortunately the CMs aren't good at telling them up front how things should work.

I also think it's difficult for the characters to get to some of the kids given the set up (especially inside) so the kids tend to follow the characters.

At the other meals, the hostess taking us to our table stated that the characters would come around to each table, and not to let the kids wander. I honestly don't remember if they said that at Minnie's, but if not, they should. That's not to say that some parents won't ignore that, but most will follow it.

Also, at other locations when kids do get up and wander, the character's "handler" (the CM assisting that character) helped to manage the crowd, encouraging kids to sit down; I think I've seen the wait staff do this as well. Having small children wander around I would think is a big safety hazard. I don't recall seeing a single CM at Minnie's direct a child back toward their table; it was just strange because it was SUCH a problem, and no one seemed to do anything about it. One little girl was following a character from table to table, grabbing onto the character to distract him/her from other children, getting into photos with other children and the character. I couldn't believe her parents just let her wander around like that. And she was just the worst one, not the only one.

I'm sure you're right that Minnie's attracts a younger set; after all, that is the reason we were there as well, for my DS(3 at the time.) However, it tended to be the older children who wandered (and were allowed to do so by their parents.) I felt bad for the person in the suit, trying to give each child a moment of their attention, but constantly being interrupted, poked or hung onto, especially by someone who's already had a turn. I just wish that restaurant could figure out a better way to handle that situation.

I agree that the restaurant layout can be a problem, too. At the princess meal, the characters obviously had a set path through the restaurant, as each character visited the tables in a certain order. That didn't seem to occur at Minnie's, and in fact our table got missed more than once.

I will say, too, that our visit at Minnie's was toward the end of the PS timeframe, and it was pretty busy; my guess is if you went earlier in the morning, it would be less crowded and less chaos.

 

[Sherry E]

Alex2KMommy - If you do have to go to ESPN Zone and face the noise, crowds, etc., you can be assured that the food is really good and we also had great service. The lemonade is bad so don't drink that, but the food was quite tasty.

I was chuckling at your description of the Minnie's breakfast! I was envisioning the little girl chasing the characters around the room, hogging all of their time with the other kids! Even though it sounds funny, I know that must have been really annoying to the parents who wanted pictures of their kids without some random little girl showing up in them! And the little girl's parents were probably thinking how adorable it was that little Susie was running around, grabbing onto characters and butting into other kids' time!!! That got me thinking that if all the character meals allowed that sort of thing, the children would just be running rampant everywhere! It would be a kiddie mutiny!!! I guess I got so used to the way things were run at Goofy's and Storyteller's that I never appreciated how the CM's really have to wrangle the kids and maintain a controlled environment or it could be mass mayhem! It really is interesting that some people view Goofy's as being chaotic and uncontrolled, when it seems that Minnie's is more that way! I am actually now rethinking whether or not to try Minnie's. I should stick to my own advice - if we find a character meal we love (Goofy's), why take a gamble on another one we may not love?

Yes, the Goofy's breakfasts used to have lots of characters in previous years, long ago. Then, they sort of tapered down to a handful of 4 regulars coming to the tables in the morning and revolving 'guest stars' that pop in on their way somewhere else. But they do come back to the tables again and again, and spend more time with you now. I have been there other times where it seemed like characters were just kind of walking by and tapping you on the shoulder and moving on because they didn't have enough time for everyone. Now it seems like there is more quality time, and I imagine some kids feel really good if Chip or Dale comes back to their tables several times in a meal, because they think Chip or Dale are really paying a lot of personal attention to them. They don't have to get up and chase the chipmunks around the room, grabbing onto their aprons!

 

[eeyore3847]

Well it looks like the decision was made for us when I called today for PS. The only time they had for Goofy's really didn't work with us. So we'll be at Minnie and Friends! Friday is our California Adventures day, so before we go there we will eat at 8:20am at Minnie's. Will give us plenty of time to make it to CA by opening at 10am! I can't wait!

You will love minnie's we have a 9:40 am reserv. there friday as well! We love minnie's. Lots of characters! Lots of good food... My 7 year old is wearing a mary poppins outfit she can not wait to see her again!
Lori

 

[ylatan]

Well, hopefully no one gets offended at this, but my suspicion as to why the Minnie's breakfast tends to have kids wandering around is #1 Pooh characters attract a younger crowd of kids, and #2 I think because it is in the park you get a lot of "first-time" character meal attenders, who don't know proper character meal etiquette--and unfortunately the CMs aren't good at telling them up front how things should work.

I also think it's difficult for the characters to get to some of the kids given the set up (especially inside) so the kids tend to follow the characters.

so what is character meal etiquette? no wandering around following the characters (which i wouldn't let my littles do, either!) anything else?

although i am pretty laid back about other kids n stuff. that wouldn't bug me. i'm all about sharing the joy and stuff at DL!

 

[eeyore3847]

so what is character meal etiquette? no wandering around following the characters (which i wouldn't let my littles do, either!) anything else?

although i am pretty laid back about other kids n stuff. that wouldn't bug me. i'm all about sharing the joy and stuff at DL!

You know though I have 3 kids and the characters come to every table and spend time. My 3 kids want to be the only ones in the pictures. Our last trip this family we sat next to was horrible. Kept having there kid come over and talk to the characters while they were at my table. if the character is at our table be polite and wait your turn, they will get to everyone. I had this kid in half our pictures and finally asked the mom to remove her because I do not want any kids but mine in a pic I am scrapbooking. that is just wierd..

 

[Sherry E]

You know though I have 3 kids and the characters come to every table and spend time. My 3 kids want to be the only ones in the pictures. Our last trip this family we sat next to was horrible. Kept having there kid come over and talk to the characters while they were at my table. if the character is at our table be polite and wait your turn, they will get to everyone. I had this kid in half our pictures and finally asked the mom to remove her because I do not want any kids but mine in a pic I am scrapbooking. that is just wierd..

What those people did that you describe is an example of poor character dining etiquette, for sure! Again, those parents probably think their little Bobby or Susie is so adorable for intruding on other kids' time with the characters, but it is not cool! They had their turn, or were about to have their turn. They need to keep that child under control while your table has your time with the characters! If there is no control over the situation, then it turns into chaos! Even in the parks now, they try to maintain some sort of line to see the characters because, before that, it was every boy and girl for his or her self!!