Help me choose a character meal

[hbailey]

Okay I'm absolutely confused as to which meal I should book for our vacation! Here is the background info.... Me & DH and then DS-6 and DD-3. We went to WDW 2 years ago and did the character lunch in the Land with Chip & Dale, Mickey & Pluto and absolutely loved it.... well except DD who was just over 1 at the time. We have 5 day hoppers just so we can take our time and let the kids go at their own pace with long breaks in the HOJO pool & we are going the end of August during the weekday's. I know that storytellers has chip & dale and that's not a big deal to me since we've already eaten with them before. I was thinking of just taking DD to the princess breakfast but then with all the reviews I have read I'm not leaning that direction anymore. What do all you experts think? I haven't ever done character dining at DL before.
Thank you!!!

 

[DisneyLover4Ever!]

If I had to choose a character meal I would always choose Minnie and Friend's character breakfast at the Plaza Inn. They have great food and way more characters than the princess lunch/dinner.
HTH

 

[spaceace510]

Well I've only done 2 character meals at DL, and loved them both!! One was Storyteller's in GCH. Whats wrong with repeating characters???? I'm sure your kids wouldn't mind. And there are other characters there that you didn't see like the Brother Bear characters. The other meal I did was Goofy's Kitchen at DLH. That was also very good. Both of these places had great food too!!! We got plenty of character time, and saw characters from all around Disney. I would really do that one. I also know that there is Aerial's Grotto in DCA, Plaza Inn in DL, and PCH Grill in PPH.

 

[sftnslky]

Okay I'm absolutely confused as to which meal I should book for our vacation! Here is the background info.... Me & DH and then DS-6 and DD-3. We went to WDW 2 years ago and did the character lunch in the Land with Chip & Dale, Mickey & Pluto and absolutely loved it.... well except DD who was just over 1 at the time. We have 5 day hoppers just so we can take our time and let the kids go at their own pace with long breaks in the HOJO pool & we are going the end of August during the weekday's. I know that storytellers has chip & dale and that's not a big deal to me since we've already eaten with them before. I was thinking of just taking DD to the princess breakfast but then with all the reviews I have read I'm not leaning that direction anymore. What do all you experts think? I haven't ever done character dining at DL before.
Thank you!!!

We just went to Disneyland June 4-8th and decided on Goofys Character breakfast..I am sooo glad we did. It was AWESOME!! It was DH, Me, DBrotherInLaw, DD11 DD9 DS7 DS7 and DDBFF11. The food was great, super fresh and nice quality. We saw Goofy, Alice, Mulan, Chip, Dale, Pluto, and one other that I can't remember. They all came to each and every table. They 'chatted' posed for photos, signed autographs, and danced with the kids. The resturant also had staged skits..ie.. once Goofy is walking through the main walkway and trips and falls, all of his cups, plates etc falls... and all the kids rush to help him and all his stuff up..well, then the music starts and he shows the kids to use the stuff as insturments.. Its so cute. We didnt' feel rushed at all. We plan on going again next time. Oh and on a side note, the resturant took a photo with all the kids and Goofy when we first entered...and later they brought it to the table, of course it was good and we couldn't resist, but it was very reasonable. It was 1 8x10 of just Goofy and then 1 8x10 of all the kids with Goofy and 5 5x7's and the frame for only $29.00, Which ever breakfast you choose have an great time.

 

[Pinkstarblm]

I have done all of the character breakfasts...
Taste.. Storytellers is by far the yummiest followed closely by Lilo & stich. Minnies was basic but good.
Goofy's kitchen.. food was cold and wasn't very good.

At minnies the set up is annoying you have to stand in line and the cast members portion your food for you. If you ask for seconds they give you a terribly tiny additional portion. I prefer the ones where I can serve myself. Characters at minnies they have more of the basic which I like buuuut waiting for them to come to you table is very irriating. it lacks the flow that the others have they just randomly go from table to table and a lot of rude people chase the characters around interrupting other's time. Just irritating..

So my choice would either be lilo & stich or storytellers.
I think your little ones would enjoy lilo & stich because its very fun and bright!

 

[hbailey]

Thanks for the feedback so far! Still confused since all of them sound good and have positives & negatives! Are they all buffet style with pretty much the same choices??? I know the Lilo & Stitch one has some pacific style food but it sounds like Goofy's & Minnie's are about the same as far as food...am I right?

 

[Mililani Mouser]

we went to our first character breakfast last year and only went to one since they are a bit pricey for breakfast. we went to ariel's grotto since it was new and my daughter is a big princess fan.

the ambience is nice and all the princesses came to the table individually to take pictures, chat, etc...


however, the food was terrible. it was not a buffet, the food came on these mini coat hanger things with pots that sits in the middle of your table and you take food from that. my kids didn't like that they didn't have a big selection to choose from since they're picky. plus the food was cold.

if we are to go to another character breakfast, we would go to a faster paced place that has a decent buffet. we're considering either goofy's or minnie's since they have great reviews.

 

[hbailey]

That's what I have heard repeatedly about Ariel's... I guess we'll just have to hit the Princess Fantasy Faire early in the day to avoid the lines. I'm leaning between Minnie's & Goofy's since they seem to have more of the traditional characters that my kids know. Neither of my kids have got into Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear wasn't a hit with them either.

 

[bluegrizzlies1]

I have done
minnie and friends (great) dec 07
lilo and stitch (ok ) mar 08
princess (not so great) may 08

Im going back in oct and doing minnie and friends lots of characters and it was a buffet you could get what you wanted. I do not remember anyone serving the food unless you were getting an omlet made. Characters we saw pooh,tigger, eeyor, hook, peter pan, minnie, alladian, fairy god mother, brer fox, and I know there were a few others Im missing.

Lilo and stitch was good food and fun but all there was is lilo and stitch and pluto and you got your picture taken with daisy when you walked in.

Princess lunch was well if you are there to see princesses great but the food was an absolute joke plus the lady serving drinks spilled a whole cup in my wives lap. Did she mean to no but still and this was before the meal or the princesses came out. Talk about wearing a drink the whole time yuck. We had to go back to the hotel and get changed and well no discount either haahaa.

 

[janc]

Our favorites are Minnie and Friends for breakfast and Goofy's for Dinner. We have always had good luck with them for characters and the food. This trip we are thinking of trying the Chip and Dale breakfast at the GCH.

We have done the Princess Dinner, food was lacking. But lots and lots of Princesses. My niece's really enjoyed it.

 

[disneymom8589]

We've done the Goofy's Kitchen dinner a few times and enjoyed it. They have food for both children and adults. (I even chose to go there for my 45th birthday! ) The other one we did was the princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto at DCA...plenty of princesses and reasonably priced (at least in Dec. 2006).

 

[JadeDarkstar]

if you wanted princess id say princess brekfest if not minnies brekfest, you will get grate food and grate interaction or goffys dinner the dinner is better then the brekfest to us. lots of meat and other stuff for none meat eatters
minnies and goofys dinner is what id say fit your family your son may not like princess my son did but so did dh

 

[JadeDarkstar]

lunch and dinner at the princess food is lacking not just dinner. wish theyd make it better

 

[disneyfaninaz]

If DL opens at 10:00 AM on a non MM day, when do they start the Minnie character breakfast at the Plaza Inn?

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i think 9am

 

[pixiewings71]

Wow, there's a lot of things here I've never heard of before. Ok, so here's my list in order of preference. And I'll tell you why.

Minnie & Friends
We did a 10:30 PS here, GREAT interaction with the characters, we had tons of fun. We all helped ourselves to food, no one served us. Except the eggs and bacon but the quantity provided was well enough!! I didn't need seconds and actually couldn't finish what they gave me the first time. LOL I got all the juice I wanted, waffles, pastries, milk, water. The bussers came around regularly to remove empty or unused plates. We got autographs, we got pictures, we got balloons, we got great memories. One of the BEST character meals we've ever had.

Lilo & Stitch
This was our first character meal as a family in '06. LOVED it!!! Loved having the buffet or menu option, the food was good and the characters were great. The kids got to play with Stitch and again, we had a great time and made great memories. Here we had a server come around and bring our drink refills, they also made sure we lacked for nothing during our meal and took away dirty plates quickly.

Ariel's Grotto
We did this for DD8's b-day in Dec. It was served family style, a big platter with eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, potatoes and a 3 tiered plate with cheeses, fruits and pastries. We had a server who brought refills and we were able to eat and drink as much as we wanted. The Princesses were wonderful, they came to each table and spent a few wonderful moments chatting with the kids and posing for pics. We do prefer lunch or dinner here though, the food is better for later meals imo.

Goofy's Kitchen
We will never do this again. Well not never, if someone gave us a free meal there we would do it but that's it. We will not again chose to pay for a meal at Goofy's Kitchen. We were there early as directed but seated late, we were seated near the back close to the buffet. The proximity to the food was great, the table was not. Our server rarely came by, we had piles of plates because we were trying lots of different foods, some we liked, some we didn't. Characters were scarce, we saw Snow White, who remembered seeing us the day before in DCA (and yes, she was the same SW!) we saw Chip, he played with the kids a lot, everyone else we saw as the left. Oh wait, we did see Jasmine as well, I forgot about that. And we saw Cinderella on our way out, we waited for her to come to our table for about 20 minutes but our server basically told us our time was up so we had to go. We told her we were waiting for Cinderella (DD8's FAVE) and he was not nice about it, so we left and stopped Cinderella on our way out. I apologized to her and told her we understand how busy she is and we had been waiting for 20 min. and were basically kicked out of our seats, she stopped and chatted with DD8 and graciously signed her book. They didn't tell us about the music thing, we just heard a bunch of noise and the girls went to look. So, for us, it was not fun and we will not go back.

Storyteller's Cafe
We haven't eaten here. We've tried but DD8 has a serious aversion to the smell of smoke (we had a bad house fire a couple years ago, lost basically everything, she has issues due to that) and they use a wood fire to cook their pizzas. We walk in and she freaks out so we end up walking right back out. Now, that is just MY DD and OUR experience (I get shot down everytime I say this) so that won't be you. But that's why I have no experience with this restaurant.

hth

 

[Capt.Bane]

I liked both Goofys and Minnies breakfast...didnt get to see all the characters at goofys but we saw all those we hadnt seen before including Rafki.

At Minnies the CM made sure each and every character got our table in the corner of the Tarrace...The food was good at both.

The prncesses lunch was a very limited menu Mac and Cheese, Fish and Chips, and a burger of some kind and a few salads I think cant remember everything.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

but the goffys dinner was exclent

 

[Capt.Bane]

Yes I forgot to mention that the dinner at goofys was also a good meal...got their early and were seated promptly, near the buffet which was nice for us...and of course the photos with pluto as you enter...and they'll use your camera if you ask. So you dont have to buy theirs if you dont want or are on a tight budget.

 

[hbailey]

So basically more characters are at Minnie's than anywhere else... which makes sense since it is in the park. If we wanted to do it as a later breakfast what time would you recommend? I saw that they stop serving food at 11:30 I think that's what I read somewhere at least. Thanks for all the wonderful feedback!