How Long Are Character Meals?

[4under4]

We have quite a few character meals scheduled, and I'm trying to adjust my Ridemax plans based on about how long we can expect to be there. I know a lot depends on how busy they are, but if I could get a ballpark, I would really appreciate it.

Crystal Palace - 5:00pm
Hollywood & Vine - 8:10am
1500 Park Fare (Cinderella Dinner) - 5:00pm
Donald's Safari Breakfast - 10:15am
Akerhus - 5:00pm
Garden Grill - 4:30pm

 

[Nadjalu]

Usually you are at a character meal at least an hour, sometimes a bit over. Just depends on where the characters are when you are seated.
I know at Crystal Palace the characters run thru about every 45 mins.

 

[Millie12591]

Honestly you'll need to slot 2 hours to 2 half hours unless there is no travel time involved. If no travel time involved then I would say hour, hour and half depending how long it takes for the characters to get to you, or how ever long it takes for y'all to eat. Sounds like a lot and maybe you can do it in a shorter amount of time, but to me that's just as much apart of the experience, and the break for your day you may need.
You wouldn't think it would take very long, but it all depends on so many other people your not in control of, such as buses and wait staff, and characters.

 

[George Banks Esq.]

I would say that you should expect to spend about an hour in the restaurant for a character meal.

However, you will most likely not be seated right away. My experience is that once you arrive for your reservation, expect to wait 15 to 30 minutes before you are seated.

So budget 90 minutes to be on the safe side.

 

[shawnh199]

We never spent more than an hour and 15 minutes in a character meal although they were mostly breakfasts. You have a lot of "peak time" meals planned so it could be a bit more crowded. Lines may be longer in buffets and wait staff might be busier if the place is packed.

My best advice to you is to take care of your bill early on in your meal, especially if you are on a dining plan. We learned that the hard way as we expected to make rope drop at MK having finished our food and spent time with each character with 15 minutes to spare. However, we took care of the ticket at the end and it took over 15 minutes with all the back and forth of receipts and credit cards. If you get it taken care of early, you can get up and go as soon as you are ready.

Enjoy your character meals. We did 7 on our last trip and it was fabulous!

 

[PJAY]

Honestly you'll need to slot 2 hours to 2 half hours unless there is no travel time involved. If no travel time involved then I would say hour, hour and half depending how long it takes for the characters to get to you, or how ever long it takes for y'all to eat. Sounds like a lot and maybe you can do it in a shorter amount of time, but to me that's just as much apart of the experience, and the break for your day you may need.
You wouldn't think it would take very long, but it all depends on so many other people your not in control of, such as buses and wait staff, and characters.

I would agree with the 2 to 2.5. The quickest character meal we had last trip was more than 90 minutes and usually saw us there for 2 hours by the time we were done and saw all the characters--DS5 is a painfully slow eater though.

 

[Swimalie]

We just went in March and did 2 breakfasts. The first one , at 8:05, took about an hour and 15 min. The second (at 8:25) took almost 2 hours. We got there just as the characters were going in to take a break so we had to wait to see the characters a bit.

 

[4under4]

My best advice to you is to take care of your bill early on in your meal, especially if you are on a dining plan. We learned that the hard way as we expected to make rope drop at MK having finished our food and spent time with each character with 15 minutes to spare. However, we took care of the ticket at the end and it took over 15 minutes with all the back and forth of receipts and credit cards. If you get it taken care of early, you can get up and go as soon as you are ready.

That is GREAT advice.

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

 

[ktlm]

It is really hard to predict. We usually go to several character meals and there is a wide range. They tell you to expect 1 1/2 hours. That is not a bad estimate. Most of ours have run between 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours from the time we checked in. It really depends on how fast you are seated and where the characters are their rotation when you are seated. Our shortest was CP- we were seated right when we got there and right as the characters were coming to our area. It was 45 minutes. We have also spent 1 1/2 hours at CP, so you just can't tell. Tusker House has usually been pretty short for us- generally around 1 hour. Our absolute worst was 1900 Park Faire dinner- it was over 3 hours. We got there 30 minutes early for our 6:15 ADR. We didn't get seated until about 7:15 (a fun 1 1/2 hour wait with a hungry 3 year old- thank goodness for the piano player and the shops upstairs! We actually had to get the poor kid a snack. ) Then the characters were extremely spread out and horribly slow getting to our table. My DD is a Cinderella nut and she didn't want to go back there on our next trip, even though she adored meeting Prince Charming. She got much better interaction from the step mother and step-sisters in the park where they were all standing together and playing off each other. They were just too spread out the night we were there to really do their usual comedy. I've heard others have had really good experiences there, so maybe we just got a bad night. Plus, you have an early ADR, so I don't think you should have trouble getting seated like we did.

 

[RMulieri]

Allow a minimum of 90 mins..You need to account for 1) getting seated ( which sometimes doesn't happen on time 2) seeing and interacting the characters 3) eating and 4) taking care of the bill..We found about 90 mins to be pretty accurate( not including travel time)

 

[MrsLS]

We just went to 3 breakfast ones - Crystal Palace, 1900 & Cape May and they were all 45 mins to an hour.