If you've done - Character Dining

[wildzootv]

What trip was it for you (1st, 2nd, etc)?


Why did you choice to do it?


Will you be doing it again?


How did you figure out where & when?

 

[Hootch]

with kids was when we first did character dining. We had been there sans kids but had never done character dining by ourselves. I hope, though, that we will continue once the kids get older and are not vacationing with us. I think I will still enjoy it.

We did it specifically for the kids enjoyment - not to mention our enjoyment in seeing them with the characters. Last year we used only a video camera to record their character interactions. This year I was pushing for a still camera also. While reviewing last year's trip I noticed my daughter touching the nose of every mask character (most touched hers back.) I realized that a still camera would not have picked up as much of the interaction.

We have done it two other times since our first and have already discussed possible meals for the next visit. I realize that my eight year old son will become more and more bored with this. We'll have to do figure this out in the not too distant future.

Initially I used guidebooks. It was only this year I discovered sites like this one. There is a wealth of information and knowledge on sites like DIS.

 

[Eeyore's Pal]

We have done character meals on every trip. When we started our kids were 6 and 8. Now are kids are 12, 19, and 21, and we still do character meals! We've also done them when it was just DH and me.

I'd say sometimes it's because we want to eat in a certain restaurant, like 1900 Park Fare (our family favorite) or Crystal Palace or Akershus. Sometimes it was convenience of location to our last or next planned activity.

The character interaction with adults is different. They'll wave and leave you alone if you don't seem interested. Or, if you respond, the characters will too. I've had Suzy and Perla pretend to fight over my DH at 1900. Eeyore spotted DH's lanyard with Eeyore pins and sat down to share a good saggy shrug.

Good luck with your decision. You and your family will have a great time!

 

[letthewookiewin]

1st trip with kids I chose the Character breakfast at Chef Mickey's. I picked that one b/c I was sure Mickey would be there. I really like this one. Our ressie's were for the first time available.
2nd trip with kids the DS's picked 'Ohana character breakfast with Lilo & Stitch. The DS's love Stitch and picked it b/c of that. The food was good, but I prefer the variety of Chef Mickey's.
Since we are doing the Deluxe DDP on our trip in 2008, we will most likely do both Chef Mickey's and 'Ohana character breakfasts. My DS's really enjoy them, so we are going to try and go to as many as we can on the 2008 trip.
Whichever one you do pick, have a great time .

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

What trip was it for you (1st, 2nd, etc)? we have done it on the last 2 trips and have planned for 4 character meals. our 1st was at Donald's Breakfasauras.


Why did you choice to do it? went to meet a great friend at with her kids.


Will you be doing it again? 2005 trip we did Donald's again. did CM's CP and LTT and Akershus Royal Banquet Hall and hated the food. loved the CM's and all the princesses i got to meet Cindy


How did you figure out where & when? we got the meal with the old prince & princess package. This got it all started

 

[wekhogan]

I did none when I went b4 having kids - it just seemed strange to me. Now we've done for the past 6 years and some have changed as time passes. My DD (8) no longer likes Princesses - so we don't have to endure the nail-biting suspense of ressies for CRT! They need a boy character bkfst for my DS (7) - either Star Wars, Power Rangers or Toy Story would do. The Little Einsteins are cute, but too young.
We try to pick them for the food (puffed french toast at Crys. Palace) or something new (just got Tusker House bkfst).
We love the character interaction and my kids love when the characters dance or pay special attention to them.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

we do them all week long every yr and LOVE em but if u have little ones... visit the parks first and let them see characters from afar, Ive seen many a terrorized child from a close up encounter at breakfast on day one of trip

 

[snowman]

We did our first character meal at Crystal Palace for my birthday, on our first trip in 99. That was our only childless trip. When DSO was making our trip reservations (which we didn't do until June that year), she asked the CM for suggestions for a birthday treat and that was what was suggested. It was fun, though we have never been back to the CP....probably because we try to avoid sit downs at MK except for CRT.

Since then we have made Chef Mickey's our arrival night tradition, ever since Mickey sent Carl a "personal invitation" to join him for dinner at his restaurant. He was 13 for our last trip and he still asked if we were having dinner with Mickey that night. Ahhh, here's hoping its a tradition that never dies.

 

[mom2aredhead]

What trip was it for you (1st, 2nd, etc)?

All of the above. We do at least 1 (usually more) each trip.

Why did you choice to do it?

My son is 4 so he loves to see the characters, and I love to see them without having to stand on line.
Will you be doing it again?

Absolutely! Upcoming trip we have 2 planned - Crystal Palace and the new character breakfast at AK.

How did you figure out where & when?

We don't like to run around too much, so I planned around which parks we would be in or near. (We're doing CP on a MK day, we did the Playhouse Dine on our MGM day)

HTH!

 

[Kristineamb]

My son's first trip was just after he had turned 4yo. We knew he was going to be nervous around the characters so we saved our one and only character meal, Chef Mickey (breakfast) that trip for our last day.
Since then we've done breakfast at The Crystal Palace (Winnie the Pooh & Friends) and Restaurantasaurs with Donald, Mickey, Goofy & Pluto (also breakfast.) I like to plan breakfast with the characters becuase you can get into the parks before everyone else!

 

[StrollPatrolMom]

This trip was the 1st time I've ever done character dining. I've been to the World at least 10 times. We tried in 05, but I was oblivious to the wise-ness of all of you on the dis...and we actually tried to walk-in to CP on the opening weekend of the Happiest Celebration on Earth

I'm completely sold on character dining...for my kids, its built in entertainment to the meal plus most of them are buffets...so its instant food which for my little guy makes or breaks a dinner a lot of times. He likes to eat...so when he's in a highchair he expects some instant gratification...

We did Restaurantasarus, Chef Mickey's, Ohana's Lilo and Stich, Play and Dine at H&V, Akershus dinner, CRT, and Crystal Palace....

We'll probably do many of those same meals next year plus I'd like to try 1900 Park Fare and Liberty Tree Tavern...

maybe I'll try to do EVERY character dining there is on the next trip....since I think we hit most of them this time

seriously am I missing any?

oh and bonus, if you do character dining, you never have to wait in a line to get your autograph booked signed...and my kids had a blast interacting with the characters. Several times they wiped my son down for me with a napkin-thanks Mickey

 

[Along4theRide]

When reseaching places to make our ADR's at I came across Chef Mickeys and thought it would be a nice place to eat. I also made an ADR for CRT and really thought that would be the character dining!! It turned out that Chef Mickeys was a total attraction in it's self. The atmoshere, the people, the characters, the food....it's all great!! We plan to do that again on our next trip!

 

[Disneyof3]

First trip and was CM. Had heard good reviews on allears about it(hadn't discovered the disboard yet). Booked it 2 months before trip and knew wanted to use it as a brunch so booked it close to 12pm as possible (11:00).
We have gone ever since every trip because we love the food and the character interaction with the kids. Also we don't have to line up at the parks for these characters now. Been to CRT for breakfast and wasn't the same.

 

[disneyfansx5]

What trip was it for you (1st, 2nd, etc)?


Why did you choice to do it?


Will you be doing it again?


How did you figure out where & when?

We did the character meals when we went with our children. For me it was my 3rd & 4th trips. I went once as a child and my DH and I went once on a business trip of him before we had children.

3rd trip (2003)- We wanted to eat with princesses because we had 2 DDs at the time. I cound not get into Cindy's or PSS so we went to 1900 Park Fare. Not impressed. We also went to Crystal Palace for lunch. Again not impressed.

4th trip (2007) - After much research on the food issue we chose: LTT (loved by all); PSS Breakfast (loved by all).

We will dine with characters again. It is fun for the children to have the interaction with the characters.

I base my decision on whether to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner on the menu and reports from others as to how good it is. Some meals such as LTT is only a character meal at dinner. Most of the character meals will be planned for an early breakfast so as not to interrupt the flow of the day in the park. However, if we went during a very hot time I might schedule a sit down lunch in order to get out of the heat for a little while and take a breather. Just keep in mind a character meal will take a while as you have to wait for all of the characters to come around and visit.

Good luck with your planning.

 

[bsusanmb]

First did character dining with DH when we were in our 40's...alone, and have done it every trip since. Love the food at CP, LLT, and others. For us, I am a big kid and I love the characters. Just seeing them, nothing more, just the whole Disney thing.

We now have 4 grandchildren 3 and under. For 2 years we have done all of the character meals with them. Toddlers don't understand waiting in line, and they have little patience for anything. With the character meals, as stated before, the characters come to the table and it is awesome.

Most recently we took DGD to the Storybook Princess dinner at Norway. This was our first time dining there. For her, at age 2 1/2, it was so special. She loved it and it was worth every penny just to see the look on her face with each princess.

 

[CarolinaBlue]

What trip was it for you (1st, 2nd, etc)?
Our 4th trip-prior to that, we didn't know you could do that (before DIS).

Why did you choice to do it?
It sounded like fun

Will you be doing it again?
Yes! I'm having my birthday lunch at the Crystal Palace in December. We're also trying Garden Grill for the first time on Christmas Eve, and Ohana's for Christmas Day breakfast.


How did you figure out where & when?
I plan our park days and then plan the character meals around those. We tend to eat a little earlier than most people, so we don't usually have a problem getting our desired times. We usually repeat our favorites.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We did our first character meal in 2004...the Crystal Palace. It was the last dinner before the MVMCP started so it seemed like a great choice to have dinner and stay in the park. We have since done Chef Mickeys dinner, CP many times, Cape May breakfast, Donalds breakfast and the Princess breakfast.

We go because of the great food, not so much the characters. Another plus is to get into a park before it opens.

 

[burberryplaid]

I've only been once so far. So we did character dining on my 1st trip. We did the breakfast at Crystal Palace. We did it mainly for me (it was just DH and I) because I love Tigger, we also like breakfast buffets. We will definitely do it again because it is a lot of fun getting some one on one time with the characters. I loved Crystal Palace, but we might try the Donald breakfast at AK next time because DH loves Donald. We made our decision based on the characters and we chose the date of our breakfast based on the crowd blog on the touring plans site, knowing which days we would be going to MK. We'll use this method next time as well.

 

[Mickeys_n_me]

What trip was it for you (1st, 2nd, etc)?

All of them

Why did you choice to do it?

They're fun!

Will you be doing it again?

Always! Nothing says Disney more to me then character meals.

How did you figure out where & when?

Usually it is based on characters we as a group want to see. This year is a first trip for my nephew who is a huge Pooh fan, so of course we chose to meet Pooh at the Crystal Palace.

It has been a family tradition for a few years now that we have a "going away breakfast" at chef mickeys (before then it was another location that doesn't exist anymore) to say good bye to the Fab 4 ... We always book an early afternoon flight home, so don't have time for much and this lets us enjoy one more special moment with the "guys"

 

[mommy2kh]

We just got back from our first trip. We did breakfast with Cinderella in the castle and it was the highlight of the trip for everyone! I would do it again if my girls were still into it the next time we go. I wasn't going to do any costumed character meals b/c my 6 year old is scared of characters dressed up where you can't see their faces. But, I took a chance and did a character breakfast on our last day. We could only get in Donald's breakfastasaurous in AK but it was great! Food was good and by then my girls were brave enough to stand beside the characters for pictures and to get their autographs. There were quite a few groups at this breakfast w/o kids and I would do it again.