Help me decide whether or not to do Surf's Up character breakfast!

Brudette

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
42
I keep going back and forth and just can't decide whether or not to do a character breakfast on our trip. It is myself, my husband and our 6 year old daughter and 4 year old son, going on a first, and possibly only, trip to Disneyland in September. We'll be going to the parks on a 4 day park hopper Mon-Fri, taking Wednesday off for a beach/rest day. If we do a character breakfast, it would be on Wednesday, so it doesn't cut into park time (therefore it also has to be off-site). I am heavily leaning towards the Surf's Up breakfast, since my kids LOVE Stitch (my son sleeps with a stuffed Stitch every night), and it's my impression that the only place to see Stitch anymore is at this breakfast. They also love Mickey, so I really think this would be the best off-site character breakfast option for us. Yes?

We're also pretty budget-conscious though and spending over $100 on a meal seems kind of crazy to me. But I also realize that we're mostly paying for the experience, not the food. I'd be happy to spend the time and money if I was pretty sure my kids would have a great experience.

So has anyone had any recent experiences with Surf's Up, positive or negative? Do you think it's worth it? Thanks! :banana:
 
We just went last Sunday. We scheduled a 7:30am breakfast on a non park day. I loved doing it on a non-park day because we weren't rushed at all. We LOVED it. The character interaction was fabulous. Part of that was because at 7:30, it was pretty empty so every character came around so many times. I don't like spending so much for a meal, but you don't get the amount of interaction at the meet and greet in the parks when there is a line of people behind you. Stitch was there and did a great job! Mickey is there and greets you when you first walk in and you get your picture with him. He doesn't rotate around to all the tables. At first Mickey was a little stand off-ish. I could tell when they changed people and it was a "new" Mickey because then he was much friendlier and interactive with my 3 year old. I am so glad we did it!
 
Our favorite character meal!! :cool1:

We've done this one a number of times and it has always been fantastic. We drive to DLR, so we do this on our departure day, and it's a tradition now for my DDs to be able to tell Mickey "goodbye" and that we will be back again soon.

The character interaction has always been great for us, it's never crowded, the food is actually ok (i love the chilequiles soooo much!), and our DDs love the little surf lessons. DD4 adores Stitch, so this is a big reason to go for us, too. And they love the other characters as well.

Just as an fyi, you can meet Stitch in DCA if you have a Disney Visa. I have one specifically just for this- I use the card only for Disney discounts and the M&G. No specific character is promised, but it's been rotating between Minnie and Stitch for a while now. If you get Minnie, you can go back later for Stitch, although you only get one free photo. I try to take my DD every day since it's pretty much never a wait.
 
I took my 6 year old granddaughter in May and she LOVED the Surf's Up Breakfast! I did too. The character interaction was great. My granddaughter was wearing a Stitch costume and Stitch absolutely fawned over her. The PhotoPass CMs even arranged a special photo session for her and Stitch. They had to be low-key about it in order to avoid other people lining up for it. The PhotoPass CMs at PPH were the best ones we dealt with in our entire 9 day trip. They gave us copies of the shots with Mickey and with Stitch, and when we told them that we didn't get copies earlier that week when we were at Goofy's Kitchen, they took our PhotoPass+ card and found those shots and printed them for us as well.

It is a little pricey but sooo worth it. The food was plentiful and tasty, the service was attentive and the character interaction made it a highlight of our trip!

I'm going to try to share a picture but I've never done it before so... I hope it works. :) (Nope... I couldn't figure out how to share a picture.)
 

We went in November with my kids, 8,6, and 2. The food was actually pretty good and the character interaction was great - especially with Mickey. Plus, Stich like to come up and play with the kids. If you're son has a Stitch shirt or doll, bring it and you'll get some extra attention. I feel your pain on the $100, but it's a good meal with lots of stuff for everyone to eat, and it's a great kickoff to the day. As for what day, we chose our very first date in the parks. Since you're going in September, the parks may not open until 10am, so you actually have plenty of time to eat and not be rushed.
 
We have done Surf's Up and Goofy's. I think there was less food variety at Surf's Up than at Goofy's but I liked the food better at Surf's Up. Also, the character interaction was fantastic. The characters didn't just hit the table once and move on, they came back multiple times. Stitch in particular is hilarious and is very interactive. I highly recommend Surf's Up.
 
As for what day, we chose our very first date in the parks. Since you're going in September, the parks may not open until 10am, so you actually have plenty of time to eat and not be rushed.

I hadn't thought of that. As a first day in the park kickoff, that might be really neat. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
We LOVED it! Totally worth it in my opinion and it was my favorite character meals out of all 3 that we did. We went to Plaza Inn and it had lots of characters which was good but was sooo busy there. Goofys was good food but I think that one wasn't worth it.

For Surf's up..... We had a reservation the first week of June 2014 on a Sunday around 7:10am and we loved that time. We practically had the place to ourselves. There were only 3 other families and my son got to hang out with Mickey and all the other characters most of the time. He was dancing with them all by himself. He loved how much attention he got from all of them. There was mickey, minnie, stitch, pluto, and daisy.
 
We did Surfs up last January with my DS5 and DD2. We loved it and plan to do it again next year. We had a 7:30am reservations which was perfect for my early risers (we are from the CST). There were only a half dozen tables for most of our meal. Lots of character interaction, the CM were fantastic about getting my reserved 5yo up and dancing. By the end he was running up to join in. The characters all came by more than once and were great with my 2yo who was terrified. Daisy and Stitch played peek a boo with her from around a corner a little distance away.
The food was really good. Lots to choose from, we made breakfast our main meal that day and ate lighter the rest of the day. Totally worth it!
 
We did Surfs up May last year and the character interaction was fantastic. Way better than Goofys (although we much preferred the food at Goofys ).

My teenager is mad about Stitch and took her little stitch doll that clipped onto her backpack.

Stitch made a huge fuss of her, he'd keep on coming back to the table and hugging her and the little stitch.

Also whilst dancing he came and stole little Stitch and danced around with him, cradling him like a little baby. It was really cute.
 
I want to do Storytellers because brother bear characters are there but thinking about doing either Surf's up or Minnie's breakfast because we'll have photopass + and character photo include plus the button (yeah I'm a child) but can't decide which of the second two to do.
 
We did Surf's Up the first week of June and it was the highlight of my son's trip. We had 7:30 am reservations and there were only a couple of other families there. The characters came to our table multiple times. My son fell in LOVE with Stitch and they had some of the most amazing interactions. The food was very good, too. When we get the chance to return to DLR, we will definitely do Surf's Up again!
 
Okay, you all convinced me, we're going to do it! I'm really excited, sounds like the kids (and us) will really enjoy it.
 
Brudette said:
Okay, you all convinced me, we're going to do it! I'm really excited, sounds like the kids (and us) will really enjoy it.
If you do it. I would recommend going earlier in the morning. We went for a 1030 reservation on a Saturday in May and had to wait 40 minutes to be seated, and many of the food selections were already gone and were not refilled. the character interaction was great however.
 
If you do it. I would recommend going earlier in the morning. We went for a 1030 reservation on a Saturday in May and had to wait 40 minutes to be seated, and many of the food selections were already gone and were not refilled. the character interaction was great however.

Thanks for the tip. Our kids are early risers, so even if we plan it on a non-park day, I wouldn't go any later than 9 or 9:30 at the very latest.

Also, for those of you who have done this breakfast, I've heard good things about being there early, but if we make a reservation for, say, 9:00, will it be super crowded?
 
I don't think it will be super crowded by 9am. We left our breakfast at around 8:30 and there were about 5 or 6 small groups of people checking in at that time but it probably does get busier the later you go.
 
I don't know if other people had the same experience we did but we had the first reservation slot and made sure we were at the check in podium and got in first and we lucked out that we got photo pass pics with just Stitch and then Mickey joined us a few mins later. Nobody else got to have photos with only Stitch when they got in. My son was so excited as the only reason we went was so he could see Stitch, so he was quite the happy boy and it seemed like they held off letting other people in until after our solo session with Stitch.
 
Do it!!

It was one of the best parts of our trip. The food was great and the character interaction was awesome. We went at the first seating and were the first family there (7am). That allowed us to have all sorts of one on one character time. My son was in heaven the whole time.

We weren't even done with breakfast when he exclaimed it was the best day ever!
 
Totally do it!!! We had an 8:30 slot last Tuesday. We had another family ahead of us and waited less than 5 minutes because I asked for a booth. Host said they have half booths. Restaurant was pretty full but we had enough character interaction to eat between characters.

Our fondest memories from our trip was this breakfast. Will always remember how fun stitch and Pluto were to ours kids (DD 6 1/2 & DS 3).

Next time I'd try for an earlier slot so that it felt less crowded.
 



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