How many is too many?

[erinmomof2]

On another thread someone posted that I had too many character meals planned. This led me to wonder how many is too many. So what do you all think? What's the magic number?

6 out of the 9 meals we have planned are character meals. Is this too many? I've never actually ate in a WDW restaurant before, so I booked most meals with the idea of picking restaurants the kids would enjoy most (two girls ages 1 and 4)

All opinions welcome!

Erin

 

[Vility]

I was wonderthing that too...
I started to do a trip report and have basicly every single meal as a character meal and or some sorta plan.
I started to think about all the meltdowns we could have considering my children will be so young.
I am torn between basic CS plan and or DxDDP.
I would love to see what people suggest.

How are you children in a resturant?

 

[dreamin_disney]

Maybe because you dont get to try a variety of different dining. I have a few too (Dfi's choice) if it was up to me i'd cancel at least 1 for a nice TS. Heres what I have -=do i have to much?

1900 fare breakfast buffet
chef Mickey
Crystal Palace

DD wanted Ohana's character breakfast but its to many buffets for me. I want to drop chef mickey but dfi wants it

 

[TDC Nala]

I think if you are sure you WANT that many character meals then why on earth not?

If you're not sure, then you need to think about whether you want to eat buffets that much, whether the kids will get bored with the characters or be afraid of the characters, etc. Only you and your family can determine what might work for you.

ONE character meal is too many for me.

 

[catne]

I don't think that's too many, considering the kids' ages. If they were older school-age kids I'd say one or two, but toddlers/preschoolers are perfect "character" ages usually.

A couple of good things about character meals...many of them are buffets or "family style" serving, so there's not a lot of time waiting for your food, and kids can generally have lots of choices so happy-campers on the food. And since the character meals are full of families with kids, noisy kids are not an issue like in the more sedate restaurants. From what I've seen, the characters are very good at "backing" off if kids are extremely shy or acting very scared...and if it's not terribly busy, I've seen characters really "working" it to cheer up little ones (dancing with them, playing patty-cake, etc.)

The only downside is that table meals, whether character or not, take a lot of time. Waiting for your table, getting served & then getting out can take a couple of hours. If you're short on park time, that will be a lot of time to take out of your park schedule. However, it can also be a wonderful, relaxing break in air conditioning, too.

 

[LisaInNc]

It all depends on how your kids are with the Characters. Will they be able to sit and eat while they wait for them to rotate to your table? Will the characters scare them? The character dinners can be be a great thing because they can keep the little ones entertained and you don't spend as much time waiting for your food but depending on where you arrive during the rotation you might end up being finished with dinner and still waiting for a character.

With my DD she is pretty ok with just getting up and leaving if we don't see someone she knows that we will end up seeing them some other place in the park.

The character dinners are a great way to get some great pics and see them without having to wait in long lines so I say if you can handle all that buffet food then go for it.

 

[tlriv5]

Our last trip (our first with dining) we ate 4 out of 7 character meals.
We ate at
Liberty Tree,
Ohana bkfst,
Crystal Palace lunch,
Donald's restaurantasaurus.
We enjoyed all of them, but I will say our last day was Donald's and we didn't enjoy it as much. I can't say that it was because it was another character meal though or if it was because it was breakfast and we wished we'd saved that ts meal for dinner. This year we are doing 3 out of 7. They are all different though. We are doing
Chef Mickey's
1900 Park Fare
Crystal Palace bkfst.

My opinion is if you have little ones and they love the characters then you can't do too many. You are going to find all kinds of opinions. We enjoyed all of our meals for the most part last trip. Check the menu's and see if you have a variety of food.

 

[septbaby]

Have courage, go for it!

 

[deb24k]

We just got back from an 8 day trip with 9 ADRs and 4 of them were character meals. My children are 5 and 2. The interactions provided us with some of the most memorable moments from our trip and saved us from many lines to meet and greet while in the parks. We even dished out extra cash outside of our dinning plan and I don't regret it at all!! Our children will not relive Disney at these ages. They will likely return in several years.

 

[devonsmommy]

I think it's a matter of personal opinion and what your kids like.

Also think about your plan for the parks and if you have character/autograph time budgeted in.

You can always just keep what you have and then if you find that it's too much, you can cancel when you are there.

Check the menus too.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[danielle.st]

We have lots planned for our trip....10 over the course of 8 days.
We're looking forward to it.

 

[RMulieri]

Food for thought.....I think it may or may not be a good thing.Your kids are young .What happens if your kids are terrified of the characters? now you have a slight problem.most characters will avoid your table if you want them to, but with some kids that may not be enough.My dd who is 4, flipped out at the sight of characters at a local themepark breakfast, and went running ( even thought they were not near our table).But if you are sure they will be fine , and you are fine with it too then who really cares?I know people that have eaten breakfast ,lunch and dinner with the characters.Different strokes for different folks.

 

[erinmomof2]

Thanks for the replies. My kids aren't scared of characters. To test it we went to the local Toys R Us this weekend (they had a ton of characters) we saw Diego, Strawberry Shortcake, Arthur, Carebears, and a few others. DD age 1 was in awe of it all, not at all scared. DD age 4 was so excited, she was jumping up and down and laughing. She wouldn't go up to a character on her own, but was more than happy to do it if I held her hand... but that's typical of her. So I'm not worried about them being scared.

They are usually pretty good in restaurants. DD age 1 can get a little crabby if she's not entertained, which is one thing I thought would be good about the character meals. My older DD is a pretty picky eater, as is my husband and I think buffet would be better for them.

Thanks for all your replies, they made me feel a bit more confident in our decision.

Erin

 

[BCV23]

Our kids are grown now but I think that 2 or at most three character meals is enough. If your children enjoy them and mine sure did, it's still nice to keep it a novelty instead of something they'll expect at every meal.

Frankly, the food is not nearly as good at the character meals as it is at other restaurants. There are so many really good to great dining experiences at WDW. The character meals are all about fun not food.

And WDW is so stimulating it is nice to have some quiet meals scheduled for down time for the family.

 

[Coconuts]

Our first trip with the kids I planned character meals 4 out of 5 days. It was a little too much for them(ages 5 and 2). It was nice just to sit at a normal meal without all the excitement. Next trip we only did 2 in 8 days(also the HDDR). It was perfect and we didn't feel like we had to stick to a strict schedule so we could make an ADR ; toddlers don't always work on the same schedule that we want them to!

 

[penjen]

It really depends on what you and your family would like. My DS could take or leave the character meals. So we have done them a few times on other vacations and on this trip we have 2 out of 8 as character meals. We may even for go those. Ds isn't afraid, just not interested.
And DH and I don't really care for them.

 

[septbaby]

The biggest problem will be your kids may expect characters everytime you go out to eat when you get back home. Hmm, you may be back to Disney sooner than you think.

Keep your dream alive. I can think of worse things to sit through than an all you can eat character meal and WDW.

 

[Katiebell]

The thing about character meals...you won't find anything else like them anywhere outside of Disney. If your kids are little and will enjoy them, then go for it. It's the best opportunity for great pics with the characters, for the kids to meet them one-on-one and get autographs. A lot better than standing in line in the hot sun, waiting in a mob, and sometimes being told when you get up there, "Sorry, dear, Tigger needs to go take a little break now". That's totally understandable -- those costumes have to be so hot and uncomfortable -- but really hard to explain to a toddler.

While your kids are little, meeting the characters is really magical -- I thought my three year old granddaughter was going to faint with joy when I took her to Ariel's Grotto at DCA, and she got to meet Snow White, Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, and Cinderella face-to-face.

Later on, when your kids are older and it's not such a big deal, there will be plenty of time for "grown-up" restaurants and fine dining.

 

[pooch]

after someone commented about too many character meals. Don't let that person throw you. You know your family and if you want characters, you get characters!!!