Have I overdone it with the character meals???

[dsnygirl2006]

Hey Guys,
Since we are going during the free dining, I made all of my ADR's months ago, however, I have now pulled my notebook back out because we are getting close to our trip and I think I over did it on the character meals....Please help, advice and opinions would be greatly appreciated???

Sept. 16th - Garden Grill Character Dinner
Sept. 17th - CRT Character Breakfast
Sept. 18th - Chef Mickey's Character Breakfast
Sept. 20th - 1900 Park Fare Character Breakfast
Sept. 21st - Crystal Palace Character Dinner
Sept. 22nd- Hollywood and Vine Character Breakfast with JoJo and Goliath

OK so which one's are keepers and which one's do I cancel?????

 

[MagicMe]

To me, the character meals are a must when you have little ones!!! It's the best way for them to see their favorites!! And for you to get some great pictures!!! The only problem you would have is if your three year old takes a disliking to these larger than life characters. It's been known to happen but usually with younger ones. The characters are really good at seeing if a child wants to see them or not. I had a nephew years ago that was a little leary of them. Minnie came by the table several times during our meal. The first time she just sort of waved to him. Each time she got a little closer and then would let him slowly touch her hand. At the end he was kissing her on the nose!! From then on he was never afraid of the characters.

Hope you get some magical pictures!!!!

 

[jcemom]

Character meals are great, however, I have a tough time truly enjoying my dinner and relaxing at them because of all the jumping up and down to take photos, not to mention being constantly on the lookout for the characters to come to our table, LOL.

Garden Grill and Chef Mickey's are the same characters, so you could drop one of those. CRT and 1900 PF are both princess themed so you could cut one of those.

 

[lynninpa]

Character meals are great, however, I have a tough time truly enjoying my dinner and relaxing at them because of all the jumping up and down to take photos, not to mention being constantly on the lookout for the characters to come to our table, LOL.

Garden Grill and Chef Mickey's are the same characters, so you could drop one of those. CRT and 1900 PF are both princess themed so you could cut one of those.

I must agree with jcemom. There's nothing like a character meal-or two- at Disney! A fantastic experience! Yet in my humble opinion, anyone-kids and adults alike!-can suffer from CMBO if not careful! (Character Meal Burn Out)

 

[BuzzBelleMom]

I think you have a great plan. Our first visit we had two meals: Princess Storybook in Epcot our first day and CP for Bkfst our last. This time we are going with the meal plan, so DH said we could book more. We will be going in November. Our kids love the characters, so this way we will kill two birds with one stone.

We have
MGM with Jo-jo on Saturday
CP on Sunday
Breakfastasaurus Monday
PSB in Epcot on Tuesday
CRT at night on Wednesday (couldn't get anything earlier for the whole week)
on Thursday we have Nine Dragons (DH got to pick one meal!)

I am sure our kids will get distracted, but we took the first time we could get each day, so we will not be so rushed to get out and get on rides.

 

[#1 Pocahontas]

Well, we are doing 5 of the same restaurants so I obviously think your plan is great!

My only suggestion is that maybe you might like to do some of those for dinner instead of so many breakfasts. Just a thought though, maybe you prefer breakfast food or don't want to miss any night time things. I wouldn't change any of the restaurants themselves.

 

[CTCouple]

It's a good idea. We tried to make ADRs once we were there for other characyer meals and they were all booked. IMHO- It is easier to cancel one and eat elsewhere than it is to book a character meal once in WDW.

 

[MomOf2DisneyKids]

IMHO, you can never have too many character meals!
Last trip, we did CM, CP, CRT, LTT, and PSB!

 

[Tinkerbellmom33]

I personally wouldn't change them!! Dh on the other hand would go crazy... I usually do one character dinner and 2 charac breakfasts. It's always so hard to choose which one, we usually try different ones each trip except for Chef Mickey's, that we've done for the 1st three tree trips, this last trip we skipped it and I kind of missed it.
I would keep
-Park Faire, this one was so nice, I almost like it better than the castle,especially with the price change
-Garden Grill ,it's a nice mellow one, food was good
-Chef Mickey's, we've always loved
-JoJo, it's new...gotta try it!!!
Enjoy!!

 

[alacazander]

Hey Guys,
Since we are going during the free dining, I made all of my ADR's months ago, however, I have now pulled my notebook back out because we are getting close to our trip and I think I over did it on the character meals....Please help, advice and opinions would be greatly appreciated???

Sept. 16th - Garden Grill Character Dinner
Sept. 17th - CRT Character Breakfast
Sept. 18th - Chef Mickey's Character Breakfast
Sept. 20th - 1900 Park Fare Character Breakfast
Sept. 21st - Crystal Palace Character Dinner
Sept. 22nd- Hollywood and Vine Character Breakfast with JoJo and Goliath

OK so which one's are keepers and which one's do I cancel?????

No way! Not too many. Especially if you have a 3 year old. I've been to all of them except the hollywood and vine but will try that in September. They are all good! Keep them and enjoy! You'll love watching your little one with all of them. It will be one of the highlights of your trip! Make sure to buy your little one an autograph book. My son had so much fun getting them!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

with or without kids charactor meals are great. keep all the meals and enjoy the fun. DW and i plan on a 10 day trip (kid free) with lots of charactor meals. kids are not the only ones who love disney.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Character meals are great, however, I have a tough time truly enjoying my dinner and relaxing at them because of all the jumping up and down to take photos, not to mention being constantly on the lookout for the characters to come to our table, LOL.

Garden Grill and Chef Mickey's are the same characters, so you could drop one of those. CRT and 1900 PF are both princess themed so you could cut one of those.

1900 PF isn't Cindy at breakfast-its Mary Poppins, Alice, Mad Hatter and a Pooh character so I wouldn't say they are the same.

I think with just one 3 year old and 2 adults you'll be fine. I do agree with my crew of 3 small kids it seems like we were always hopping up to get something else from the buffet. I tried Garden Grill for the first time in May and really enjoyed that it was served family style.

My kids really enjoyed character meals but I found that were sometimes too excited to eat real well. We have a blend of 3 character meals (CP, 1900 PF, GG) and 4 table service meals-I'm anxious to try Concourse Steakhouse for the first time so the kids can get the artist's pallet dessert and paint their own Mickey cookie.

Have a great trip!

 

[Rella Bella]

Sept. 16th - Garden Grill Character Dinner
Sept. 17th - CRT Character Breakfast
Sept. 18th - Chef Mickey's Character Breakfast
Sept. 20th - 1900 Park Fare Character Breakfast
Sept. 21st - Crystal Palace Character Dinner
Sept. 22nd- Hollywood and Vine Character Breakfast with JoJo and Goliath
OK so which one's are keepers and which one's do I cancel?????

The only ones I would consider dropping are:
-one of your Crystal palace dates -- it's great for breakfast or dinner, but once would be fine
- and possibly Garden Grill -- since you'll see those characters at CM's and there are sooooooo many fantastic places to eat at Epcot!
Not that doing all of them would be bad... it just won't be quite as special by the 5th or 6th time.
Have fun planning!

 

[jcemom]

1900 PF isn't Cindy at breakfast-its Mary Poppins, Alice, Mad Hatter and a Pooh character so I wouldn't say they are the same.

I think with just one 3 year old and 2 adults you'll be fine.

Ah! I must have missed the 'breakfast' part.

I do agree that it might be easier with only one child. We have three.

 

[TinaLala]

I think your listing is fine. We've been going for years and we always do a breakfast and dinner that are character meals. Don't forget about Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner or even Cape May Cafe for breakfast.

I've taken my kids since they were 18 months and sometimes at the meals are a nice time for the kids to have some one on one time with the characters. One time at Garden Grill Mickey and Pluto sat down with us and 'talked' with them for 10mins because there wasn't anyone else there.

Be aware that the Garden Grill does spin around so if anyone has vertigo they might get effected. Pluto wasn't feeling very well the last time we went - too many juicy doggie bones the night before.

 

[FOV]

We have 3 kids and have had WDW trips where we did one character meal each day. Kids loved it. We have been to all the places you booked and enjoyed them all.

Although I am not sure what time your ADR's are I would consider moving some of the breakfasts to lunch or dinner. Mornings are the best time to tour the parks because the lines are shorter, crowds are thinner and in September it will be really hot in the afternoon. Our most successful park days with small kids went something like this:

Morning - try to get to the park early to avoid lines
Around 11am - break for lunch (you could book the last b-fast seating in lieu of "lunch")
Around 1pm - head back to resort for rest or to swim
Around 5pm - dinner and back into the park for evening festivities

Have a great trip!