Hotel Character Dining

[jerzeystar09]

We are looking to do a character breakfast at one of the hotels on our last day. Any pros/cons of Goofy’s Kitchen, Storytellers Cafe or PCH Grill? We don’t have any preference of characters.

 

[pharmama]

I think the general consensus (which I agree with) is that of those 3, the best food is at Storytellers and the best character interaction is at PCH. Goofys is 'OK' on both counts.

Personally PCH is my favorite because of the character interaction (especially Stitch- he's very fun). I'm not a huge fan of Goofy's.

 

[StarlitNight05]

We did the brunch at Storytellers earlier this year and loved it. The food is amazing and the characters were so cute in their explorer type outfits.

 

[dieumeye]

I regularly visit all three. I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. I like Goofy's Kitchen the best. I think it has the most fun atmosphere and the biggest selection, also has Goofy. Storytellers ambience is nicer, but the buffet seems to have fewer choices. PCH is good but the atmosphere is pretty generic. Overall though, any differences in the three are pretty minor.

 

[Jimsig]

Last year DD (then 9yo) and I did PCH and Storytellers. Overall I liked PCH better. Stitch was great. Saw my camera was on while sitting on the table and started taking a few random pics from table level. DD loved it. We did not feel rushed but got in and out very quickly while seeing all the characters twice I believe.

Storytellers however was a different story (no pun meant). Food was very good and so were the character interactions, when they showed up. However it took lots of time between each character as they would almost be to our table (twice we should have been the next table) and then they would go an take a break or have to do the march around with the kids.. I have no problem with them doing the march or taking the break, the problem we had was when they started back up they skipped over our table and would pick up somewhere else or even skip the rest of the section. Even my DD noticed it was happening as she said something to me about it, she told me she was worried we would not get to see all of them. At one point Chip had skipped over us and was still in our section. We were sitting near the exit as he was about to walk out and DD said "there goes another one skipping us." It must have been loud enough for Chip to hear as he spun around and instantly started interaction with my daughter and you could tell he was trying to act embarrassed for skipping us. It ended up being a great interaction and right before he left he held up a finger as to say one moment and he brought Dale over and they both interacted with us taking pics etc. The final character we were waiting for was Mickey and he was only a few table away. I said to our waitress that while we were waiting for Mickey I would settle the bill which only took a couple min. Well it was time for the march and of course when it was over Mickey started back up on the other side of the restaurant. At that point I walked over to Mickeys handler. I told her we had not seen Mickey yet and that he skipped us right after the march and that we had to go as it was almost check out time. She brought him over after he finished the table he was at. It was another great interaction. In the end we were there for just over 2 hours. If we had not been skipped over all those times we probably would have been out of there in about an hour fifteen. A couple tables in our area that got seated around the time we did and kept getting skipped as well didn't bother to wait for all the characters.

 

[Disney_Alli]

Last year DD (then 9yo) and I did PCH and Storytellers. Overall I liked PCH better. Stitch was great. Saw my camera was on while sitting on the table and started taking a few random pics from table level. DD loved it. We did not feel rushed but got in and out very quickly while seeing all the characters twice I believe.

Storytellers however was a different story (no pun meant). Food was very good and so were the character interactions, when they showed up. However it took lots of time between each character as they would almost be to our table (twice we should have been the next table) and then they would go an take a break or have to do the march around with the kids.. I have no problem with them doing the march or taking the break, the problem we had was when they started back up they skipped over our table and would pick up somewhere else or even skip the rest of the section. Even my DD noticed it was happening as she said something to me about it, she told me she was worried we would not get to see all of them. At one point Chip had skipped over us and was still in our section. We were sitting near the exit as he was about to walk out and DD said "there goes another one skipping us." It must have been loud enough for Chip to hear as he spun around and instantly started interaction with my daughter and you could tell he was trying to act embarrassed for skipping us. It ended up being a great interaction and right before he left he held up a finger as to say one moment and he brought Dale over and they both interacted with us taking pics etc. The final character we were waiting for was Mickey and he was only a few table away. I said to our waitress that while we were waiting for Mickey I would settle the bill which only took a couple min. Well it was time for the march and of course when it was over Mickey started back up on the other side of the restaurant. At that point I walked over to Mickeys handler. I told her we had not seen Mickey yet and that he skipped us right after the march and that we had to go as it was almost check out time. She brought him over after he finished the table he was at. It was another great interaction. In the end we were there for just over 2 hours. If we had not been skipped over all those times we probably would have been out of there in about an hour fifteen. A couple tables in our area that got seated around the time we did and kept getting skipped as well didn't bother to wait for all the characters.

We had a very similar experience that you did at Storytellers except that ours was at PCH - then the character handler was rude to me and still didn't get the characters over to us for another 30 minutes. Our server was mortified and gave me a large bag with every button Disneyland has (those Just Engaged and Just Married buttons were put to good use in the next few years and are much sought after as they had already been replaced by the generic Happily Ever After button) plus the light up Buzz and Tink cup clips but it's really coloured my opinion of PCH and we haven't been back since that trip despite it being one of my favorite character meals before. Unfortunately any restaurant can have an off day and sometimes the proper location isn't correctly passed on during breaks.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

We are looking to do a character breakfast at one of the hotels on our last day. Any pros/cons of Goofy’s Kitchen, Storytellers Cafe or PCH Grill? We don’t have any preference of characters.

This recent thread has information on the character meals: Leaving the Park for meals.