How many character meals is too many???

[Disney_Princess83]

I'm not sure there is such a thing as too many characters meals. We find that one table service a meal a day is plenty as most character means take at minimum 60 minutes and we always allow at least two hours in the hope we have left by 90 minutes. By booking two meals a day, you will be in restaurant for around 3 hours a day. That is quite alot of park time to lose everyday.

I often recommend character breakfasts where possible. If you're early birds, you can book early breakfasts and minimise the amount of park time you lose. Also children are often at their best first thing in the morning after they are (hopefully) well rested so you often get really great character interactions. Also breakfast is cheaper than lunch or dinner and you usually get the same characters (except 1900 Park Fare)

 

[HarleenQ]

We usually do one per day, but we've sometimes done two depending upon how the parks work out. We tend to do an early breakfast TS and a later dinner TS. Lots of them are character meals. We just grab whatever in between if we get hungry. The heat will affect your appetite.

I know a lot of people talk about "too much food" but, IMO, it's a buffet so I don't really know how that's possible? You eat however much you want. Stop when you're full, ya know? Portions are pretty big at QS and TS meals, but we aren't plate cleaners so maybe the food issue just doesn't really apply to us.

The character meals, for us, aren't really as much of a break as I'd like. They're fun, but it's also kind of a pain to stop eating to take pictures every 10 or 15 minutes. It's not relaxing if that's what you're going for. It is a break from walking around and it's nice to sit in AC for awhile.

I wouldn't schedule TS meals back to back, but I don't think 2 well spaced is a big deal. And really, if after the first day or two you feel like it's too much you can always cancel some of your upcoming meals.

Our favorites are Tusker House breakfast, Ohana breakfast, and Akershus breakfast. I'm not a huge fan of buffet dinner food. Ohana for dinner and BOG are also two faves for dinner, though not character meal. We also LOVE the castle for dinner for the experience. the princesses tend to treat little boys with a lot of enthusiasm

 

[Lisa F]

My kiddo was 6 when we went in 2016. he is on the spectrum and waiting is difficult for him. He LOVED the character meals - I think they were the highlight of his trip to be honest and I had two booked and added one more on the fly for a one week trip. We stood in line for Buzz and Woody and it was TORTUROUS for him... those lines are very slow moving and very boring with no real clue about how long it is going to take. Ride queues are far more interesting and fast moving with things to see... a 15 minute ride queue was very doable for him but the 15-20 minutes at Buzz and Woody was very difficult.

Also for a kid who doesn't like waiting in line, QS restaurants are not a whole lot of fun either. I am a single mother so it makes it even more difficult not having a second adult to help but basically when you are hungry and tired you stand in line to order your food, you stand in line to pick up your food and then you fight crowds to get condiments and find a table if you go during regular lunch hours. I found if you go during off hours the food is old and has sat around a while and doesn't turn over very quickly. I know people say TS meals take a long time but I never got out of a QS in much less than 45 minutes with all of the lines and waiting and was always hot and frazzled when I finally sat down to eat. I would rather spend an extra half hour at a TS meal ESPECIALLY if it also has characters. Any meal of the day, any day of the week.

For that reason we are doing the DxDDP and doing 2 sit down meals a day - usually a character breakfast and a nicer themed dinner - but we have a couple of early lunches (11:15-11:30 in there too when it worked with our schedule better. I asked my now 8 year old son what his favorite character meals are and he said, in this order: Garden Grill, Ohana breakfast, Tusker House. In 7 days we are doing 5 - his 3 favorites, plus Hollywood and Vine seasonal dine with F! package (a GREAT deal on the DDP and you get the fab 5), which we have never done before, and Crystal Palace, which he also loves for Pooh (and I love pooh too... I admit that I am the driving force behind this one!)

My son is not a fan of face characters and ESPECIALLY not princesses, so that crosses Akershus, CRT and 1900 PF off of the list. I think you don't need to do both Chef Mickey's and H&V - we chose H&V because of the christmas costumes and added value of the F! package but also Chef Mickey's just seems more chaotic to me. I have Cape May on my backup plan (if I can't get the star wars fireworks dessert party on the night I want it I have to shift stuff around) and that is fine. he is too old to care for Disney Jr. and with the mediocre reviews at H&V the only reason I'd do it is for the F! seating and the holiday theming. I think that may be it for character meals around the world unless I am missing some.

I feel like 5 is the perfect amount. I have some variety in characters - stitch at Ohana, chip and dale at GG, pooh & friends at CP and mickey and friends at both TH and H&V... I didn't feel the need to add MORE mickey and friends to my plan. Also the family style meals are much easier than buffets. My kiddo is older now but we still both love just sitting down and being served, I think that is why Ohana and GG made his top 3.

As far as other fun themed restaurants on our list for our trip is: Sci Fi dine in (this is top on his list), Coral Reef, CA Grill (his favorite meal of our last trip, we go right at opening and enjoy a window view table and leave before fireworks craziness) and HDDR on our last night. Then there are some restaurants we are going to just for the food... we carefully looked through menus together and came up with a list. Sanaa (kid loves bread so the bread service is appealing), La Hacienda (kid's request), Yak & Yeti (mine, but with great theming though nothing particularly appealing to kids), Narcoossees (he loves the idea of eating in an octagon), Boma breakfast (kid's request, he went with his dad back in february and loved it), and Ohana dinner.

 

[Lisa F]

We usually do one per day, but we've sometimes done two depending upon how the parks work out. We tend to do an early breakfast TS and a later dinner TS. Lots of them are character meals. We just grab whatever in between if we get hungry. The heat will affect your appetite.

I know a lot of people talk about "too much food" but, IMO, it's a buffet so I don't really know how that's possible? You eat however much you want. Stop when you're full, ya know? Portions are pretty big at QS and TS meals, but we aren't plate cleaners so maybe the food issue just doesn't really apply to us.

The character meals, for us, aren't really as much of a break as I'd like. They're fun, but it's also kind of a pain to stop eating to take pictures every 10 or 15 minutes. It's not relaxing if that's what you're going for. It is a break from walking around and it's nice to sit in AC for awhile.

Agree about this. I love buffets for the varieties and that I can cheaply course my meals without having to pay for full courses. I can get fruit and a bite of something sweet for dessert. I see the value in experience and variety, not quantity and don't have to roll out of there to feel like my money's worth.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

I have heard the "too much food" comment a few times...so we typically eat 3 meals a day and from what I understand with the basic DDP it's a QS, TS and Snack. Is a snack a substantial enough meal? I had kind of thought that we'd do an ice cream or something in between meals as our snack. I have been thinking that we need 3 full meals. Please enlighten me!

This is very dependent on your family. I couldn't possibly eat three meals a day while at WDW. Food servings are quite large and we often share a meal at quick service and it is still plenty of food for us. Also there are so many options to use snack credits, it's not just ice cream. There are many things you can use as a small meal on the snack menu.

 

[Mickeycrocs]

When we went on our last trip our son was two and it was a great time for him we also lucked out because EVERY character when we went to Hollywood and vine played peek a boo with him, and a group of kids huddled around chip and dale at the end and they started dancing and all the kids were too it was so cute. Ohanas was also lots of fun the kids get to run around with the characters. I hope you don't think I'm being rude but I think it's going to be too much. We had to go back to the resort after quick service lunch because he was very cranky without his nap and the heat wasn't helping.

 

[alex9179]

Each family/person is going to prioritize their WDW activities differently. If food is more important, then rides and attraction time is limited by the fact that sit-down dining is time consuming. You won't always be seated on time, waiting for servers, waiting for the check-but if you're sticking to what's included in the buffet price, you can ask for this at the beginning of the meal.

If attractions are more important, limiting down time is the way to go so dining and travel are kept to a minimum.

You questioned the 3x/day meals. At home our kids eat a LOT. They like good-sized regular meals and a snack or two, depending on their activity. At WDW, my older two ate like birds. The excitement and constant stimulation dampened their appetites. My youngest ate almost constantly from the stress, but small snacks. None of them were interested in large meals or even keeping to their regular schedule.
After a couple of trips I've figured out that mornings are light fare, lunch is usually the heavier meal, and dinner is iffy as they would rather get something small/share QS 1-2 times than sit and eat another full meal. This last part worked my nerves because it meant more stops, but happy kids/happy family touring! I needed to get over it and join in

As for the dining plan, we've never used it. I know that a lot of people will use the snack credit for breakfast. I would rather pay OOP for an additional snack at mid-day than an entire TS meal. So snack credit for breakfast, decide what time of day you'll want to sit-down for TS, then use your QS credit for the other meal. Pay OOP for additional snacks, if needed.
If you're driving or have the luggage allowance, bring some snacks/instant breakfast type food that don't need to be refrigerated. It saves time, as well as money, to have them available while touring.

Oh, and we didn't always buy sweets for snacks. We didn't limit ourselves to the snack credit items and looked for something with protein or got fruit, popcorn, or pretzels.

 

[Tucker24]

The character meals I wished we had tried and get pretty good reviews on are Tusker house and Park Fare. We have done CRT and just thought it was okay. The food didn't blow me away and it's two credits whereas Askursus you get princess interaction one one credit. Ohana was a really fun breakfast. Hollywood and Vine was our worst food ever experience and Chef Mickey was way TOO chaotic. I found better character interaction at the meet and greats for the fab five. another good thing about Ohana is that you get to sit at your table and they bring the food out to you. Chef Mickey was a challenge because we were constantly going back up to the buffet and with a crowded buffet two characters passed by our table. In case a character does pass you by just tell the handler but personally I wouldn't do it again

 

[PSULion]

My kids are also 3 yrs apart, currently 5 and 8, but we've visited Disneyworld every year since the oldest was 1.

We have always done 3-4 character meals per week long trip. They are not really relaxing or a break at all, at least for us. With kids that small, they won't be able to visit the buffet alone (maybe the 5 yr old depending on your table location) but you also won't want to leave a 2 yr old at the table alone. So, DH and I would end up taking turns up to the buffet to get our food, plus food for the kids. Meanwhile you have to keep an eye out for the characters... Typically they'll only come around once during a meal, and if you miss them it's a pain to get them to come back. Sometimes we got lucky and all the characters came near the beginning and then we could relax a bit, but typically it feels like you never get to sit down and actually eat peacefully between fetching food for everyone and hopping up for character pictures.

For us, a break from the chaos means sitting down in a quiet spot with some Mickey bars.

We also are 3 meals a day type people, but we'd just do quick service (or sometimes even just a soft pretzel or something) for 2 meals, and then one big sit down table service per day, usually lunch or dinner. Unless maybe it was breakfast and dinner, my family would never want to do 2 buffets in one day.

 

[Marissa227]

My youngest boys will be 2.5 and 4.5 on our trip. We will be doing at least one sit down meal a day, all character meals except for dinner at 'Ohana, which will be followed by Pirates and Pals Cruise. Since my 4.5 year old isn't 40" yet, we're limited for rides. But that's ok! We're focusing this trip on doing the rides he is able to go on, meeting characters, and seeing parades and fireworks. You just have to do what works for your family!