How many character meals is too many?

[SabresFan]

You may be asking the wrong guy, but I LOVE CHARACTER MEALS!

1900 Park Faire is a must-do, both for breakfast and dinner. Alice and the Mad Hatter are a scream for breakfast, and for dinner you get the entire Cinderella family - Cindy, Prince Charming, Step Mom and 2 Step Sisters - and the step sisters are a hoot!

And when our kids were little, we found buffets to be the perfect thing for picky eaters - you're almost certain to find something they'll eat, and it will be healthier than burger and fries.

The biggest thing to me about the character meals is saving time - we have never stood in line to see a character during any of our 3 previous trips, and we have a VERY extensive autograph collection.

Over 7 days, you have maybe 70 hours of usable vacation time. One character meal can easily save you an hour per day if you are really into the characters. And I am into them. Yes, I am 52 years old and should know better, but I still am thrilled to meet Mickey or Eeyore or Mary Poppins IN PERSON!!!

And it's great when your daughter tells Prince Charming she saw him on her trip there 10 years ago and he says "Yes, I remember it well." Such a memory these fellows have!

 

[Disfamplan]

We have been going 2 times a year for the past 7yrs and I book almost 1 character meal a day until this last trip when I thought my kids were getting a little old for it 14 & 11. When we got their and they found out that their was no reservation for a character meal - my name was "Mud." I spent that evening on Disney Dining call getting reservations where available. I didn't realize that the character meals had become such a huge part of what my kids consider a "must do!"

It is nice to have a time to sit in air conditioning, fuel up and get some great pics. The only thing is you may not have the energy to travel to all the different resorts.

The great thing about breakfast is your kids are most likely up anyway and it can get you into the parks before official opening if you book early enough times. It is fun seeing parts of the parks with noone else there. Good luck and keep planning - I love excel spreadsheets.

 

[cslittle999]

One or two would be enough for us. One thing to keep in mind since this is your first trip is how your kids will react to the characters. Our DS was 5 on our first trip and wouldn't go anywhere near a character. DD7 was fine with them so the character meals weren't a total awkward but we learned about a lot about not anticipating too much how something will turn out and just going with the flow.

 

[pinkxray]

We did maybe 5 or 6 last year, and this year we are doing 7. The whole family loves seeing the characters and it keeps DD from being board at meals times. I figure DD is only going to be young once and we can do the more grown up places later.

We are also doing Sci Fi twice(DD requested to do it everyday but I don't love DHS), T-rex and RFC.

 

[Winue]

On this last trip, we did 5 character meals. Tusker House, Akershus, O'Hana, Crystal Palace, and Hollywood & Vine. It was great not having to stand in lines for characters, and they came to us. The kids (5.5 year old boy and 2.5 year old girl) loved all of them, and loved having the characters come to us. For younger kids, I would recommend character meals.

Also, Ohana's has Mickey, Minnie and friends! The Garden Grill for dinner has a nice charcter meal also! They have Mickey, Minnie and friends , also.

O'hana is Lilo, Stitch, Mickey & Pluto... Minnie is not there. Minnie is also not at Garden Grill, which is Mickey, Pluto, Chip & Dale. Just wanted to clarify after reading so you aren't expecting Minnie at those meals.

 

[fi46re129]

Last year we did 6 over 10 days some breakfast some dinner. DS 6 DN 5 DN 18 months. We found it avoided the waiting in line through the parks for autographs and it seems like they get a little more time with the characters.

 

[tiggspring]

Doesnt look like too many to me. To my surprise even my oldest realy loved the character meals.

It really depends on your family. Mine do not like to wait in line to see a character if they can help it. One big plus is if there is one special character they are garrenteed to see them. My kids kept missing Mickey on our first trip. Telling them that our last meal was at the Poly and they would see Polynesian Mickey ment they didnt get upset. We never did see him til that day. My kids also like to collect things so autographs became a bigger part of our trips than I expected.

Remember each Character experience is a bit different so it never got old for us. DH and I love being big kids at WDW so I think our enthusiasm helped.

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

We do them all every trip (or as close to it as possible). We try to start each morning with a character breakfast, by making an ADR an hour before the official park opening. Or we have a character breakfast two hours before park opening at a resort hotel, and then, make it to rope drop.

We do the character dinners, too! We love them and cannot get enough!

 

[newserenity]

Well, it depends who you are asking! I am guessing one is enough for DH. LOL But, I could easily do one a day for the week long trip.

BUT, we are compromising and doing 4! He just doesn't know yet.

I would say it depends on how many are in your party, if they like characters or not etc.

 

[PoohsFan1]

On our last trip my DD was 7 and I have twin boys that were 4. We did all the character meals except the Garden Grove at the Swan (not on the dining plan).

some people will say not to do more than one because they are time consuming but my kids think that is part of the fun.

I decided that on our next trip in Oct we were not going to do all the character meals so I asked them for one choice each but they kept going and going so it looks like a 3rd year in a row to do every character meal available!!!

Bottom line if you want to go, it is not too many!

You sound like us....I don't think that Character meals are time consuming, I think it is better to do a character meal and be sitting down eating as the characters come up to you, rather than you be standing in line in the warm Florida sun. We do lots of character meals in a vaca. When we are there in a few weeks we will be doing 8 character meals in a 10 day trip, this is not counting Chefs de France where we will be having lunch in hopes to see Remy. We will be going to:
Akershus Breakfast
Garden Grill
Cape May Cafe Breakfast
1900 Park Fare Breakfast
CRT dinner
O'hana Best Friend Breakfast
Crystal Palace breakfast
Donald's Breakfast Safari

So how many character meals are too many you ask???? The answer: You can never have enough

 

[Jeanieblue114]

It's too many character meals, when you come home from your trip and go to McDonalds and start demanding to see Ronald and the Hamburglar before you will leave.

 

[HuskerFaninIL]

We are going for our first time in september for 10 days and have 5 character meals booked.

Chef Mickey (dinner)
Cinderellas royal table (dinner)
Akersus (dinner)
Hollywood and vine (lunch)
Crystal palace (breakfast)

Not in that order

 

[piperett]

We are going for 6 nights/7 days next month and we are going 2 character meals: Akershus and Chef Mickey's. I have a DS5 and DD6, so I hope this will offer something for the both of them. We are also doing a dinner show also on our anniversary night: Hoop de Doo Revue. Our other ADRs are for Boma and 50's Primetime. Good luck with your choices!