How many character Meals?

[KGmomoftwins]

We have our very first trip planned for the end of August 2017. Some back round it will be our girls fifth birthday while we are there and a surprise for them. We have never gone on vacation so everything will be new to them. I feel like our schedule is a bit aggressive. We have a breakfast at garden grill, Ohana (7:30am all I could get) which will fall the morning after their birthday late night dinner at Cinderellas Royal Table, BOG dinner, and the Bon Voyage Adventure breakfast. I think I should probably cancel the Ohana one as that falls on our AK day and then we can sleep in a bit or the garden grill one? The only thing is the garden grill one is before the park opens. I feel like we have a lot planned and I don't want them to feel like we're dragging them around and they and mom/dad too are not enjoying it. But I've never been so I don't know do kids sleep at Disney or are they up at the crack of dawn everyday because of excitement? Thanks!

 

[ChasingLeslie]

Our kids love the character meals, so I don't think it's too much.

Last trip we did Akershus, Crystal Palace, Tusker House, and 1900 PF. We are doing all of them again and adding Bon Voyage.

 

[danielocha30]

drop Ohana, Character meals take too much time from your schedule and a 7:30 ADR means being ready at least 45 min before.
Garden grill is a better option for character interaction and being pre prk opening reservation is a plus, and the food is pretty much the same

 

[ELSA711]

How late is the CRT dinner the night prior to Ohana?

 

[KGmomoftwins]

How late is the CRT dinner the night prior to Ohana?

You're going to laugh at "late" but 6pm we usually eat dinner at 5 and are off to bed around 7:15 as we have to be out of the house early.

 

[ELSA711]

If you really want your girls to keep the Ohana breakfast then I would keep it.
Are you staying at the Poly? if not factor in the travel time and from where. I also would keep checking. I found a lot of Ohana reservations when we were just there by putting in 9am instead of the 'breakfast' option.
If you pick a time to search around I find more pop up.

 

[Lynne M]

Moving to the Restaurants board.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I would drop O'hana unless you are staying at Poly. There is no way I would travel from another resort to O'hana and then head to AK. Even then 7:30 am is really early.

Garden Grill PPO is great. If you really want a character meal on your AK day, consider Tusker House.

 

[robinb]

We have our very first trip planned for the end of August 2017. Some back round it will be our girls fifth birthday while we are there and a surprise for them. We have never gone on vacation so everything will be new to them. I feel like our schedule is a bit aggressive. We have a breakfast at garden grill, Ohana (7:30am all I could get) which will fall the morning after their birthday late night dinner at Cinderellas Royal Table, BOG dinner, and the Bon Voyage Adventure breakfast. I think I should probably cancel the Ohana one as that falls on our AK day and then we can sleep in a bit or the garden grill one? The only thing is the garden grill one is before the park opens. I feel like we have a lot planned and I don't want them to feel like we're dragging them around and they and mom/dad too are not enjoying it. But I've never been so I don't know do kids sleep at Disney or are they up at the crack of dawn everyday because of excitement? Thanks!

I hope the OP can find us after the thread was moved.

So you have ...

Garden Grill - breakfast - Mickey & friends
CRT - Cinderella
'Ohana - breakfast - Lilo and Stitch
BOG dinner - (not really a character meal, meet Beast only)
Bon Voyage Adventure breakfast - princesses

How many days are you going?

 

[DrunkJam]

We are doing Crystal Palace breakfast
Akershus Breakfast
1900 breakfast
Tusker House breakfast
1900 dinner
CRT dinner
Cape May breakfast

not in that order but spread over a 10 night stay
character dining was the one thing my DS said was his VERY favourite thing about WDW
And DD wants to meet them all (and I hope being able to tell her it's X characters favourite food will help her try new things)

 

[KGmomoftwins]

I hope the OP can find us after the thread was moved.

So you have ...

Garden Grill - breakfast - Mickey & friends
CRT - Cinderella
'Ohana - breakfast - Lilo and Stitch
BOG dinner - (not really a character meal, meet Beast only)
Bon Voyage Adventure breakfast - princesses

How many days are you going?

6 nights but will have 5 full days there because of flights

 

[Baklava]

We did 7 in 10 days and would do it again.

 

[robinb]

6 nights but will have 5 full days there because of flights

So 5 days and 5 meals? That would usually be too much IMO, but you have BOG in there. I think that too many character meals "gilds the lily" and takes away from the specialness of the character meals themselves.

I agree with the others about 'Ohana. I would replace it with Tusker House (maybe a lunch to mix things up?). But then that leaves you with two Mickey meals. Are you really going to Epcot twice? Both Bon Voyage and garden Grill are in the Epcot area. If not, I would replace Garden Grill with Crystal Palace which has Pooh and friends *or* Hollywood and Vine if they are still into the Disney Junior characters.

The other thing that I see is that you have three breakfasts. IMO, that eats up too much prime park time. The BEST time in a Disney park is right when it opens (aka "rope drop") and you are wasting that time eating. I would book the meals as either lunches or the very last breakfast seating so you can get breakfast pricing and both breakfast and lunch food. Plus, you'll already have the important first couple of relatively crowd-free hours under your belt.

 

[monorailsilver]

But I've never been so I don't know do kids sleep at Disney or are they up at the crack of dawn everyday because of excitement? Thanks!

My kids have had no choice, they were up at the crack of dawn. They knew the drill so it wasn't like they moaned and groaned. Actually on flight days I never have to wake any of them up. I can be in the shower at the god awful early morning hour (think 5-6am) and I get out and my kids are dresssd. That NEVER happens on any normal day. I must say get dressed oodles of times!

I have only gone on 4 Disney trips with kids/since having kids and for the most part they were early rises. So waking them up at 6:30 to be dressed and having eaten breakfast and out the door by 7-7:15 for a park was not a problem. But we also take a mid day break due to the hot summer sun and plan a few non park days to sleep in, but we go for longer.

And my kids always pass out at night (and mid day breaks, well except my then nearly 5 yo son who talked constantly during nap time to my DH who was trying to sleep).

I also screw bed times because we are in Disney so up early, mid day break/nap, return to park til closing...but again we have a few non park days so they can sleep in...they meaning I am still awake by 6am...some day I will sleep in!

You're going to laugh at "late" but 6pm we usually eat dinner at 5 and are off to bed around 7:15 as we have to be out of the house early.

No laughing, that was us. Dinner was always at 5. Just make sure you give the kids a snack to acclimate to the late dinner time.

6 nights but will have 5 full days there because of flights

For the amount of days you are there, I think that is a lot of getting to places at certain times. Of your choices, I have only eaten at ohana for breakfast and it wasn't thrilling. My youngest was under 3 so she was free. My oldest was 7 and ate her waffles and that was it and my son who was just under 5 ate 2 sausages. So it wasn't worth the money. Now when we do brunch (at the casino since it's cheap) I make sure none of them eat (they are older) and we go for 10 isha nd that is their breakfast and lunch. So I just think it's a lot but that is me. I'd anyinf I'd keep the dinners if you aren't planning rest breaks.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

I think there is such a thing as too many, but it's different for everyone. On our first trip (DD was two) we stayed five nights and did three days in the park with one character meal. That felt kind of sparse in terms of characters. For our second trip, we went all out: seven nights, five days in the parks, and five character meals. That was TOO MUCH for us among all our other dining and FP+ reservations. On our most recent DLR trip (five nights, four days in the parks) we did two character meals and that felt like a really nice balance.

In my experience, kids are the same on vacation as they are at home. For example, at home our DD is able stay up late without crashing (although we rarely let her do so) and likes to sleep in. So our kiddo does pretty will with like a 7:30 PM dinner in the parks and then heading back to the hotel and bed after that. She would NOT like anything earlier than about an 8:30 AM breakfast; a 9:00 AM rope drop and like a 10:30 character breakfast would be her ideal morning. So think about what your kids' natural rhythms are and go with that - i.e. if they are early to bed, early to rise, you are probably fine with several early character breakfasts.

The next thing I want to mention is that when my family has too many dining reservations, we feel like we are missing out on park time. We LOVE Disney dining and ate there ALL THE TIME when we lived in FL and had APs. Our days were really focused around dining. Now that we don't live there and we go on shorter vacations, when we have taken dining-heavy trips, we regret how much time we spend in restaurants. Does everyone feel this way? Definitely no! But it's our experience. Our our most recent trip to DLR, we scheduled three table service meals over four park days. That felt SO odd, but it was perfect for us. (We actually added two more on the fly for our final park day, mainly because it was raining and we wanted time at meals to dry out!) We approach it from the Rick Steves mindset: "Assume you'll be back." That helps us avoid doing ALL THE THINGS on one trip.

Thanks for reading my novel.

 

[Gophers]

I think you have to go through want you want to do most like....rides, shows, character meals etc..... and then go with it. Our first trip we had 5 days and 1 character meal (Tusker House). We had a blast but wished we had done more character meals. Each trip we've done more and this Sept we are there 6 days with with 6 character meals. We still will have our fast passes setup and we are doing 3 desert parties. Just depends what you and your family want to do. We use the character meals as a way to see characters and rest time and it works for us. What ever you decide you will have a blast. Then you get to go over the trip and decide why you want to change and enjoy it again. Disney Magic

 

[ColoradoMom12]

Are you staying at the Polynesian? If not, I would cancel the Ohana that morning and try to get a PPO at Tusker House. That or lunch at Tusker House since you'll be at AK that day. Unless you really want to keep the Ohana.

The other thing I am wondering about is whether you are planning two Epcot days? Both Garden Grill and Bon Voyage are Epcot (or Epcot area) dining. If you aren't planning on two Epcot days, I'd change one of those to match whatever park you're visiting that day. Unless you are staying at an Epcot resort, though. At an Epcot resort, an early Bon Voyage breakfast could work before going to a park, especially if it's Epcot.

I'd also think about making one or two character meals lunch, especially if you are visiting at a very busy time. On busy days, QS locations for lunch can be a nightmare: it takes the "quick" right out of "quick service"! Even if you're not visiting at a busy time, we prefer lunch to breakfast (at most places, anyway; Crystal Palace is the one place we love breakfast). We find after a few hours in the park, we're ready for a little break, and a character meal is long enough it gives us a chance to rest and recover a bit before heading back out.

I don't think it sounds like you've planned too many character meals, but it's really a personal decision. My family loves character meals. Sometimes we do two a day the entire 5 or 6 days we're at WDW.

6 PM is also a late dinner for my family. We sometimes have no choice, though, when it's the only reservation available! We make it work by having a mid-afternoon snack and a rest at our hotel. My family goes on Disney vacations knowing that our Disney vacations are not for sleep! We are early risers in the first place so maybe that helps us out with waking up at 5 AM while we're, yes, on vacation (it feels early even to us, though, due to the time change). Even with a "late" dinner, we try to make it to bed no later than 10 PM (I've found this is very do-able even when we're staying at Pop). We don't watch fireworks from the parks. Sometimes we stay in a theme park view room at the CR so we can watch fireworks as we're heading to bed, though.

 

[KGmomoftwins]

Are you staying at the Polynesian? If not, I would cancel the Ohana that morning and try to get a PPO at Tusker House. That or lunch at Tusker House since you'll be at AK that day. Unless you really want to keep the Ohana.

The other thing I am wondering about is whether you are planning two Epcot days? Both Garden Grill and Bon Voyage are Epcot (or Epcot area) dining. If you aren't planning on two Epcot days, I'd change one of those to match whatever park you're visiting that day. Unless you are staying at an Epcot resort, though. At an Epcot resort, an early Bon Voyage breakfast could work before going to a park, especially if it's Epcot.

I'd also think about making one or two character meals lunch, especially if you are visiting at a very busy time. On busy days, QS locations for lunch can be a nightmare: it takes the "quick" right out of "quick service"! Even if you're not visiting at a busy time, we prefer lunch to breakfast (at most places, anyway; Crystal Palace is the one place we love breakfast). We find after a few hours in the park, we're ready for a little break, and a character meal is long enough it gives us a chance to rest and recover a bit before heading back out.

I don't think it sounds like you've planned too many character meals, but it's really a personal decision. My family loves character meals. Sometimes we do two a day the entire 5 or 6 days we're at WDW.

6 PM is also a late dinner for my family. We sometimes have no choice, though, when it's the only reservation available! We make it work by having a mid-afternoon snack and a rest at our hotel. My family goes on Disney vacations knowing that our Disney vacations are not for sleep! We are early risers in the first place so maybe that helps us out with waking up at 5 AM while we're, yes, on vacation (it feels early even to us, though, due to the time change). Even with a "late" dinner, we try to make it to bed no later than 10 PM (I've found this is very do-able even when we're staying at Pop). We don't watch fireworks from the parks. Sometimes we stay in a theme park view room at the CR so we can watch fireworks as we're heading to bed, though.

We are staying at the Poly. The garden grill is a pre-park opening I did it for the chance to ride soarin since we FP frozen. The Bon Voyage breakfast is at 8:30 and I planned to take a cab there from the Poly because it seems rather difficult to go from hotel to hotel then after breakfast hit up DHS for our 3 fp and then we will probably call it good to enjoy staying at the Poly. I just checked and Tusker house has a lunch open that day I wonder if I should switch Ohana for Tusker?

 

[ColoradoMom12]

It's a difficult choice for sure. How important is it to you to be at Animal Kingdom before the crowds hit? If you have breakfast at Ohana that morning, you will likely end up getting to AK right as the park is getting busy. If you're hoping to do anything without much of a wait, I would be inclined to switch the Ohana to lunch at Tusker House.

If you're not set on arriving by any certain time, Ohana is such a fun breakfast! You're staying at the Poly so you have zero travel time (at least on transportation). And you'll have a chance for Mickey & friends dining at Garden Grill. If you're ok with getting to AK a little bit later, I would keep Ohana and skip Tusker House. It sounds like waking up early isn't a big deal for your family, and even though your dinner the previous night is "late," CRT is usually one of the faster character meals (in our experience, especially compared to dinner at Crystal Palace). Since the Poly is a MK resort, I think if you go directly back to your room after dinner, your kids should get a decent night's sleep before waking up on the earlier side for breakfast. If you're planning on doing anything after dinner, though, I would recommend cancelling the 7:30 AM Ohana.

You can't go wrong with either one, though! They are both great places. I would keep Garden Grill for sure. We also use our FP for FEA and do Soarin right at park opening, and it works well.

I always forget it's possible to walk to DHS from the Epcot resorts/Boardwalk area. Bon Voyage that morning sounds perfect. We're doing about the same (8:20 Bon Voyage before Epcot) this summer.

 

[robinb]

We are staying at the Poly. The garden grill is a pre-park opening I did it for the chance to ride soarin since we FP frozen. The Bon Voyage breakfast is at 8:30 and I planned to take a cab there from the Poly because it seems rather difficult to go from hotel to hotel then after breakfast hit up DHS for our 3 fp and then we will probably call it good to enjoy staying at the Poly. I just checked and Tusker house has a lunch open that day I wonder if I should switch Ohana for Tusker?

If you're at the Poly, then keep 'Ohana. Lilo and Stitch are cute. The Bon Voyage breakfast is at the Boardwalk and you'll have to go to the International gate and wait for them to open it up. They may not open it up until park opening so you are already behind the hoards of rope droppers who were held back in the plaza in front of the fountain. I'm not sure that it will be a big advantage for you but I've heard it's a nice breakfast!