How much character dining is too much?!?

[gonzo138]

I know you can't really answer this... yes, only I know my family....

We are going with my 3 year old - she is the focus. We were thinking of using our free dining for mostly character meals. I understand this is not the BEST food in Disney, but it seems to be a great way to reduce the number of lines we have to wait in to meet characters.

We were thinking CRT for princesses, 1900 PF dinner for Lady Tremaine and hopefully the stepsisters, Tusker House for Mickey & some of that gang, 1900 PF breakfast for the beloved Mary Poppins.

The other must sees for my daughter we will just have to do meet and greets - Rapunzel, Mulan and Tiana. Other hopefuls high on the list are Monsters Inc, the Incredibles and Toy Story.

Am I out of my mind?!

 

[TDC Nala]

The most I have ever seen is for a family that was traveling to WDW for a week and had booked sixteen character meals.

Really, there is no way for someone else to answer as to what would be too much for you or your child. If you can't get CRT at a time you like, or you're on DDP and don't want to spend two credits, you can also get princesses at Akershus.

 

[serene56]

We did a character meal almost every day.

(didnt want to waste 2 credits so did not do the Cinderella Royal Table.

We ate- Ohana's for Mickey, Lilo and Stitch and Pluto
Breakfast at Animal Kingdom for Safari Donald.
Akerhouse for Princesses.
We ate at 1900 Park Fare for Lady Tremaine etc.
Crytal Palace for winnie the pooh and friends.

We also did not want it to be all about the princesses.
We had one a day and it worked out well.
Gave the GD her down time- out of the heat

 

[Cherinva]

I think what you have is fine. Your child will be thrilled to have the characters come to your table and spend a few minutes.

 

[whitney37354]

For our one & only family trip, we did ten character meals in 6 nights/7 days. Most of the time we had a character meal for both breakfast & lunch. We always did CS for lunch.

Next time we probably won't carry around an autograph book, but just get pictures with characters if we see them around! We can try out different restaurants too!

Some have similar characters: CM & Tuskerhouse: Mickey & gang; CRT & Akershus: princesses

 

[DisneyGuess]

We're going for 9 days, 8 nights in December. I have a character breakfast booked for each morning but one, the morning after the Christmas party. I also have 1 character dinner booked since that's the only way to eat in Norway for dinner, hehe.
I have booked Crystal Palace, Akershus (breakfast & dinner), Hollywood & Vine, 'Ohana, Tusker House, Cape May Cafe & 1900 Park Fare. No CRT this trip since we have no girls. Akershus is princesses but my boys will have to get over it, lol. No chef Mickey's because I can't get an early enough ADR for it.

 

[Daisy-J&D]

Good question, I fear we're about to find out!

We're going with our 20 month old DD and booked:
*Chef Mickey Breakfast
*Garden Grill Dinner
*1900 PF Breakfast
*Ohana Breakfast
*Tuskerhouse Breakfast
*Hollywood & Vine Lunch & Breakfast
*CRT Dinner

yep, I think we're nuts!

 

[MickeyNicki]

When my niece was three we took her to one character meal, the Princess in Norway breakfast...that was the highlight of the entire trip

The rest of the time she saw the characters at meet and greets and that was fine with all of us

 

[DisneyGuess]

I'd love to add the 1900 Park Fare dinner to our ADRs but I just can't drop any of the others, lol.

 

[Brian Noble]

Over the course of a week with younger kids, we tended to do one "face" meal, and one "fur" meal. Much more than that, and they seemed to us to run together; especially the "fur" meals. Caveat: with younger kids, we *also* tended not to do a sit-down meal every day, or even close to it. My kids were fine in restaurants, but to us it did not seem to be the best use of time. As they get older, more sit-down meals work into our trip.

 

[sydneysmom]

you just have to decide how much you want to immerse yourself in the Disney Experience. We took our DD, (who was 4 1/2 at the time) last Sept. We did a character breakfast 6 mornings out of 8 and we also did CRT for dinner. We had a BLAST. I don't know who enjoyed the characters more, my DH or my DD !! It was alot of fun.

We loved it because we then didn't have to wait on the character lines in the parks.... she already saw most of the characters at breakfasts.... so that time was spared.

The next time we're going, we already know we'll do it again !!! The way we looked at it, we're at DISNEY...might as well give her the whole shebang ! We can go out to eat at home and there's no characters. Seeing her little face every morning with the characters.... PRICELESS !!!!! It was wonderful.

 

[momtoejanda]

Good question, I fear we're about to find out!

We're going with our 20 month old DD and booked:
*Chef Mickey Breakfast
*Garden Grill Dinner
*1900 PF Breakfast
*Ohana Breakfast
*Tuskerhouse Breakfast
*Hollywood & Vine Lunch & Breakfast
*CRT Dinner

yep, I think we're nuts!

You arent nuts!!

We hit all the character meals everytime we go. This time we are doing 1900 Park Fare 2x, 1 breakfast, 1 dinner to get the characters in. We are also eating at Cape May 2x because we are staying at BC. We have 13 character meals plus Chef De france with Remy. Not sure if that counts

 

[KEPE]

I think your plan is fine. You have to eat right? So why not kill two birds with one stone, eat and get to see the character so it's not like wasting time on an ADR!! We are there for 7 days and have at least one character meal per day -

Ohana - lilo breakfast
AK - Safari breakfast
CRT - dinner
Chef Mickey
Akerhaus
1900 Park
CRT - breakfast

ENJOY!!!

 

[budafam]

We're planning for our upcoming trip (7 days, 6 nights and no dining plan):
Hoop de Doo
CRT
Tusker House
1900 Park Fare Dinner
Chef Mickeys
Akershus
We're also doing BBB and Pirates League for the kids & the Pirate Cruise at night for DS (didn't want him to be on princess overload)
Besides those, we're doing a few other sit down meals like Coral Reef, Cape May, 50's Prime Time Diner... I'm really excited and I think all of the breaks in the day will help get us through the day easier.