How many character meals is too many?

[JJ&JSMOM]

We have 3 kids and I've set them down (well 2 of them anyway - 15 mth old doesn't know what I'm saying) and asked them what they wanted to do at WDW and what characters would they like to meet if they could.

Well it adds up to about 4 character meals - included in that 4 is the Crystal Palace that I added for my "will be 2-yr old". The other 3 are CM to meet Mickey Pluto, Goofy ; Princesss meal at Epcot ; Ohana's for Stitch (worried about this one - kids not big breakfast eaters only toast and cereal! Not sure if its worth it for this one). And maybe Donald's Breakfastaurus (cereal listed on menu if we don't do Ohana's - We all want to meet Donald!!!!! Donald is my absolute favorite!

I know every family is different just curious as to how many do most families do? TIA

 

[keishashadow]

Has your 3 year old seen other charactars in parks before? Make sure she doesn't "freak" when this huge furry (albiet loveable) thing encroaches on her space. They do tend to give out lots of hugs, body contact @ char. meals. DH is not the touchy, feely type...so he usually stations himself away from their projected path.

BTW, @ Chef Mickey's Donald Donald is the Man! is always around when we dine there (available for pics near dessert station - of course they don't guarantee individual char. @ any venues.

Have a magical trip!

 

[DaisyD]

We still love character meals even though we have been to all of them! Sounds like you have all your characters covered. You can see Donald at CMs. He always stands in the middle of the food area so that everyone can come to him. Our favorite breakfast is 'Ohana. DD too doesn't each much but does eat a couple of Mickey waffles. I love the food there and the character interaction is great. Crystal Palace is our favorite dinner. Again, DD only eats one thing here that is peanut butter and jelly on rainbow bread, but I like the food. We love the Princess meal at Epcot but the only thing DD will eat there is the cinamon rolls. They also had some fruit so I asked the CM if she has any other strawberries since DD really liked those. The CM brought out a huge plate of just strawberries and DD was thrilled! We have done them all but still have 'Ohana and Crystal Palace for the trip next month. You can ever have too many!

 

[AussieAngel]

Hey, you're at Disney World - if that's not the place to dine with characters, where is!?

As you said, it's really just a personal choice. I think it's nice that you asked the kids where they wanted to go. My BF and I are in our mid 20's, and we're not going to any character meals - but if we had kids, we definitely would.

Remember though, you can meet characters in other places around the parks, not just at restaurants...

I suppose it also depends on where else you want to dine? If there are other nice restaurants you want to try, then you might have to drop some of the character meals. If not, then go for it!

 

[crisi]

Character meals are time consuming. We did two last trip - well, the boys did one, and me and my DD did a princess meal.....

If this is your first trip to Disney, or if its a short trip, realize you are trading park time for meal/character time. Also, the food at character meals doesn't tend to be great (IMO).

That said, if you are willing to make the time/food quality trade, as many character meals as you want to do.....

 

[Msslaydbug]

Usually we tend to only do 1-2 a trip and that has worked for us. This time we will be doing 4-5 !!! But we go to Disney a lot and don't mind taking time away from the parks.

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

When my DH and I were on our Disneymoon we made sure to have one character meal a day!!

 

[Cool-Beans]

For me, there is no such thing as too many character meals!

 

[frannn]

I think more than one a day might be pushing it, due to the fact that they're mostly all you can eat. We do a couple each trip, and love them! This year, with the free dining, we are doing dinners at CM, CP, Park Fare, Princess Storybook, and Ohana's breakfast. This is during an 11 day trip. If there was a Toy Story meal, we would do that as well. We love character meals because of the one on one time with the convenience of food! I was toying with the idea of switching our FDP for another character dinner, but I think DH would be upset with me, as he loves the idea of no waiting for Fantasmic. I think we will have character withdrawl when we eat at CR, Ohana dinner, Boma, Cape May, H&V, andTeppanyaki!

 

[MissMagnolia]

The more characters the better, I say!

We are doing:
Crystal Palace
CRT
Cape May Cafe
Chef Mickey's

 

[loralie]

For our 2005 trip we were on the DDP, we stayed for 7 nights/8 days. We had 7 TS meals to choose from and we did 3 of them character meals. My boys were 9 and 7 at the time. We did CM breakfast, CP dinner and Donalds Breakfast. CM and CP were great. Donalds was just O.K. Some of the other meals were fun but not character (lunch in the castle - before the change - and 50's PTC) The other 2 meal were Le Cellier and Concourse steakhouse. My DH LOVES steak and would eat it every night if he could. This worked out perfectly for our family.

For our 2007 trip we plan to stay 10 nights/11 days so we will have 10 TS meals to choose from. We plan to have 5 Character meals for this trip. CM dinner (arival day), CM breakfast (last day), CP breakfast (hopefully at 8:00 am before MK opens). 1900 Park Fare dinner and Cape May Cafe breakfast. My boys will be 11 and 9 this time and they still love the character meals and are looking forward to them. For fun meals on this trip we will try WCC and Sci Fi. We will aslo try Kona Cafe and GF Cafe and we will return to Le Cellier (our best meal last trip and will be a must do for future trips).

Do as many character meals as you want and have fun.

Loralie

 

[TinkNH]

Well...for our trip in Sept I have ADRS for:

Dinner with Cinderella at GF
Breakfast with JoJo at MGM
Breakfast w/ Donald at AK
Mickeys back yard BBQ
Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern in MK
Crystal Palace breakfast with Pooh and friends in MK
Epcot Princess breakfast
breakfast with lilo and stich at Ohanas in the Poly (where we are staying)

I think the only day we do not have at least 1 planned is the day we plan to go to sea world...
I think these will be the highlights of my DDs time! I know on my honeymoon they were the highlights of mine !

 

[BillyFeat]

I don't think you can have too many character meals with small children. I have two DD's, 8 & 6. We leave this coming Wednesday for the WL. Our family will be dining at 1900 Park Fare, Chef Mickey's, Akershus PSB and Crystal Palace twice, once for breakfast and on our last night for dinner.