If you had to choose one...

[DisneyChris2016]

If you had to choose one character dining experience at Disney, what would it be? I've been to Disney with my family once before and we are returning in November. We stay off-site and eat most of our breakfasts and dinners at the condo, with snacks and QS lunches at the parks. I have never considered a character meal because my kids eat like birds and my son doesn't like "eating out". For our family of 5, the costs outweigh any potential benefits in my mind.

But this trip, my girls will be 6 and 8 and they love eating out and all things girly (the princesses especially). Although I prefer to keep the family together as much as possible, I'm considering treating the girls to a character breakfast or lunch (for just the three of us, the cost won't be quite so outrageous). We will be visiting MK, Epcot and AK during our stay.

If you could only do one, what would be your choice, and why?

 

[brertoad]

For the girls, they probably would love Akershus because...princesses...

Maybe treat your son to something special too, maybe Sci-Fi Drive in.

 

[xlsm]

If they want princesses, Akershus.

For our family, Crystal Palace or Tusker House pre-park opening breakfast.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

That said, Akershus really is the most outrageously priced character meal (save CRT, and CRT actually isn't much more).

 

[AeroKU]

1900 Park Fare in the GF is a good option, too. If you want to really go all out, CRT is the must do lunch on our trip for my wife and our girls. It is really expensive, but my wife says it's their favorite part of the trip. The princesses spend a lot of time at each table and really interact with the kids. If you want to blow their minds, eating with princesses in the castle is the way to go.

 

[GillianP1301]

Really tough choice! For us (me w/my 8yo son), I would first eliminate any Princess meal because that's really not his cup of tea.

I would then probably get it narrowed down to either Ohana or Garden Grill - the characters at each are favourites of my son and I love the family style dining instead of a buffet, to me it makes for an overall far more relaxing and enjoyable experience. I may end up having to flip a coin between those two, it's that close for me but if I had to choose, I would give a very slight edge to Garden Grill because it's the most quiet and less hectic of all the character meals and you have the added attraction of circulated through the Land pavilion while you eat.

 

[brertoad]

For the price of an expensive meal, you could treat them to princess outfits, not sure what is worth more in the end, only you can decide what sounds best. They can still meet princesses at the meet and greets, plus maybe being all decked out like a princess would be more fun for them, they can keep wearing them til they outgrow them. The character interactions only last 2-5 minutes at these dinners. They basically come around say hello, let you take a few photos, or the photog takes some and then they are on their way.

Usually the Disneystore.com has sales going on if you are looking to get costumes.

I got my second cousin an Anna dress and she loved it, she wanted to put it on immediately, she danced around singing, even wore it to school...the whole 9 yards.

 

[vicb]

We have a boy and a girl so we always had to balance that stuff out on trips. We stuck together but made sure DD got her princess fix in character meet and greets.

We had one of our best character meal experiences at Garden Grill.... my kids(at that age they are now young adults!) really liked the whole revolving restaurant and the Chip and Dale interaction was hilarious and so very attentive. We had another good experience at MK in Crystal Palace but that was years ago. We really liked Cape May breakfast but that is out of the parks.

Least fav character experience by far was Chef Mickey!

 

[Deborah LeSueur]

Hands down....1900 Park Fare for Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner.