Help me choose our Character meal

[profa]

Late June trip to DL. Kids are DS 8, DS 7, DD 4.
We are spending 3 days at the parks. We will have one magic morning.
Someone recommended doing a meal at one of the hotels on a day that isn't a park day. We could easily do this if we chose one of the hotel character meals.
We will be taking DD to bibbity bobbity boutique and then off to see the princesses but I don't think we have time for Ariels Grotto.
Suggestions for a good character meal that will appeal to all the kids. THanks

 

[ktlm]

Our absolute favorite is Minnie's breakfast in DL park. We have found it to have the largest number of characters and the best interaction. It has a large variety of characters too which should appeal to both girls and boys. It isn't guaranteed that you will see a Princess there, although we did see Aurora one time. We have seen the Fairy Godmother there every visit. Last June we saw more characters there than at any meal we have ever been to at either DL or WDW. We saw Minnie, Fairy Godmother, Rafiki, Tigger, Alice, Mad Hatter, Brer Fox, Pete the Penguin from Mary Poppins, Chip, Max, and Captain Hook. I wouldn't bank on that many, although I think the time before we saw 8 or 9. The characters there have always really interacted with, danced, and played with DD. I distinctly recall at age 4 she was doing the Macarena with Captain Hook (after he had coaxed her out from under the table where she hid when he first showed up).

If you want one outside of the park, Goofy's dinner at DLH is a good choice. They usually do have at least one Princess that makes the rotation. Last June, we saw Goofy, Pluto, Snow White, Aladdin, Chip, Dale, and Minnie when we ate there.

The above is just an example of the variety of characters you might run into at either place as you never know who you are going to get.

 

[pixiemomof3]

I would say Minnie's for Breakfast or Goofy's kitchen.
We have not done either but we are going in July and plan to do Goofy's the night we arrive and then Minnie's breakfast on another day. I cannot comment on the food or characters since I do not know firsthand but it sounds like they have alot of characters, and I have read mixed reviews about both on the food but we want to give it a try for the character interaction mainly.

I have also read that the breakfast at Surf's up grill at paradise pier has some unique food choices and do hula hooping and stuff with the kids and it is the only one where you can see Mickey. This is another one we might try also.

 

[cgh]

We absolutely loved Surf's up with Mickey at Paradise Pier. A LOT of quality one on one time without feeling rushed. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Stitch and pluto. It was awesome. That was the last thing we did then headed to the airport.

ETA: We did do Goofy's Kitchen and we were sort of 'eh' about it. Minnie Mouse skipped us. We were looking for the big 5 and there were characters that we weren't familiar with. It is a dinner option though which is very nice.

 

[DISHoppy]

Late June trip to DL. Kids are DS 8, DS 7, DD 4.
We are spending 3 days at the parks. We will have one magic morning.
Someone recommended doing a meal at one of the hotels on a day that isn't a park day. We could easily do this if we chose one of the hotel character meals.
We will be taking DD to bibbity bobbity boutique and then off to see the princesses but I don't think we have time for Ariels Grotto.
Suggestions for a good character meal that will appeal to all the kids. THanks

Keep your eye on Ariel's for dinner. There has been mentions of it becoming a character dinner post-6/15. Also, I believe they have bfast and lunch as character dining now. We're doing Minnie's @ the Plaza, Ariel's for bfast and Goofy's for dinner while are there June 16-23. Those were the three highest rated character meals based on reviews @ Allears. Pickings are pretty slim for character dining unless you like bfast. We may add Storyteller's or PCH for a late bfast/brunch. depending on how our plans work out.

-Kevin

 

[mom2aidanNpiper]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but are there any character meals with Stitch? I thought that PPH used to have one but I believe it got changed around.

We do the parks each year but the last few years added on a cruise (where a free character breakfast, plus wandering "no line" characters are around).

Our trip in a few months we are just doing DL so I would love to do a character meal and Stitch is both of my kids favorite

 

[Girimama33]

The Surf's up with Mickey B-fast @ PPH has Stich. we are going to shoot for that one next time.

We just got back from our trip last week...
We ate at Goofy's for dinner and saw Minnie, Dale, Pluto, Goofy and Snow White.
At Minnie's breakfast, we saw Minnie, Tigger, Fairy Godmother, Max, Rafiki, Chip & Dale, Penguin, Captain Hook.
We had lunch at Ariel's Grotto and saw Ariel, Jasmine, Aurora, Snow White and Belle.
Hands down, our favorite meal was Ariel's Grotto. My husband is still talking about it.

 

[profa]

Mickey's sounds good but fewer characters from what I've read. But it would be nice to get those big photos w/ mickey (and minnie is often there too) out of the way. Deciding between that one and Minnie at the Plaza I think. Is it pretty easy to get pictures with Mickey in Town Square at DL?
If we do Mickey we can do that on a day we aren't at the park.

 

[dzny12]

Mickey it seems to us isnt in town square that much anymore, and when he is the line is LONG. you can get great pictures with him and minnie in toontown. line can be slow hit it right when toontown opens. unless morning madness is on. We like the Minnie breakfast with Res at end of MM before main street gets crowded. in june about 7:30 or so if i recall. it means giving up a little of your MM ride time but it is easily done with 3 days.

 

[mybestieismickey]

We just got back yesterday from DLR and saw the Fab 5 multiple times in Town Square. Donald always seemed to have the longest line, and we just never had the patience to wait for him. We did stop for Pluto and Goofy, Bert, & Geppetto. Chip & Dale, Pinnochio, White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, Mary Poppins, Mad Hatter, Cruella de Ville, and Daisy also were there at least once each that we saw. We also were able to see Mickey in the morning on Paradise Pier (right next to the Cove Bar) dressed in his sailor garb. Too cute!

We did Minnie's breakfast on Monday morning and were able to see Minnie, Fairy Godmother, the Mary Poppins penguin, Eeyore, Pooh, Tigger, Captain Hook, Chip & Dale. It was some of the best character interaction I've ever had. It was the first Character meal I've done at DLR, but I have done a few at WDW. Minnie's was the best. Not rushed at all, and the characters interacted just as much with our table of adults as they did with the families with small children. Other Character meals that I've been to at WDW have been snap a pic and move on to the kids.

 

[MKingfisher]

We love Minnie at the Plaza and our favorite time is the earliest reservation. It's been very quiet in the restraunt when we've been and have had alot of time with the characters! It's also nice to not have to wait in a line to get into the park because those with reservations for Minnie's have a seperate enterance, and it's fun to be there for the count down to the park opening. We've done Mickey's too and loved it because they had all the classic charatcers which was nice it was also pretty much dead when we went which was great, the only down side is I like being right in the park or near by at breakfast time. We do story tellers every time we go as well and it's always the same few characters but they are amazing and spend so much time with the kids. Last time we were there my 1 year old was sooo in love witht he characters that they were at our table the whole time playing with her while we ate and she was in heaven!!!

 

[Babybears]

I'm another vote for Surfs Up!! It sounds like you are looking for a Character Breakfast ouside of the park for your off day, and we really enjoyed ourselves both times we have done Surfs Up. Goofy's is great, too, but we liked the interaction of Surfs up better.

 

[HappyHaunt]

We just did Surf's Up at the PP yesterday. We were disappointed. We did get a great professional picture with Mickey when we first came in. But beyond that only Stitch came to our table. All the others skipped over us. Including Goofy, Pluto, and Minnie. Two characters really was not enough. It was my son's birthday and they did come over and sing to him with a cup cake. Only we noticed with all the other kids a character had come to the table at the same time to clap ect... Not for us unfortunately.

Food was okay, two people in our group complained about the scrambled eggs. Guess they weren't done enough in the middle? I didn't have them so I don't know. Overall we wouldn't do this one again. I'd stick with Minnie in the park and Goofy's Kitchen.

 

[mouseymommy]

We have eaten at Goofy's a few times and we really enjoy it. We have only been there for breakfast, but we would like to try dinner next time. We have always had about 5-6 characters at Goofys.

 

[Isatricia]

Here are our experiences at Goofy's Kitchen. Next time I would choose differently. I copied this from my trip report.

Goofy's Kitchen: Overall I was disappointed and wish we would have done Ariel's Grotto instead. The food was mediocre at best and my daughters had a difficult time finding any food they would eat. Character interaction left a lot to be desired. We were there the first night of our trip and were really hoping for a good experience. Right after we sat down, Alladin stopped to see us. He spent a lot of time interacting with the girls. After that we had no other characters visits us - even though they came close they did not stop at our table. I finally asked our waiter after we were done eating if any others were going to come visit. He went to speak with the manager and finally others came to see us: Minnie, Chip, Dale, Pluto and Mulan. We had the opportunity to see each of these many times during our visit in the parks so I don't think it added much to our trip. We had to wait an hour after we had finished our dinner to see all the characters. It definitely did not live up to our expectations of character dining. My other complaint is that we were celebrating our daughters' birthdays, told them when we checked in, told the hostess and told the waiter. Nothing special was done for the girls even though all around us others were getting special treatment/cupcakes.

 

[ValpoCory]

I would say Minnie's for Breakfast or Goofy's kitchen.
We have not done either but we are going in July and plan to do Goofy's the night we arrive and then Minnie's breakfast on another day. I cannot comment on the food or characters since I do not know firsthand but it sounds like they have alot of characters, and I have read mixed reviews about both on the food but we want to give it a try for the character interaction mainly.

I have also read that the breakfast at Surf's up grill at paradise pier has some unique food choices and do hula hooping and stuff with the kids and it is the only one where you can see Mickey. This is another one we might try also.

+1! We are going to do Goofy's Kitchen for dinner on our arrival day so we can save $$ on an additional day of park tickets. I figured that night we'd explore the grounds/DTD/hotels.

Then we'll do Minnie and Friends the first morning at the earliest possible reservation time. We do this on the first morning of every WDW vacation we take, at Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. Getting those pictures with an empty main street at WDW is great. Not sure we'll be able to get those pics at DL though, as the restaurant doesn't open an hour early.

 

[Jennifer2983]

Thanks for this info! I am pretty sure we r going to do Minnie and friends


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