Sakigt
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2015
- Messages
- 92
First things first. First character meal. Not my first time at the WDW rodeo. We live in FL and are annual pass holders. Re upped now that my youngest is old enough. I can see the characters whenever I want so we were there for the entertainment while staying at Ft Wilderness. It was a group of two families: me + hubbs and two boys (3 and 5 months) and family #2 with wife, hubbs and 2 year old son
Travel there was easy via golf cart. I left my double stroller on the cart as I read they weren't able to be brought into the restaurant. Many were told to leave strollers to enter the line which left them holding kids. Not necessary. It was hot and hubbs had to hold the 5 month old the whole time in line. I brought my Ergo which proved INVALUABLE. I think it's a hassle and mostly carried my baby by hand or let him nap in the stroller but in the chaos of the BBQ and need for two hands.... Buy or borrow a baby carrier.
We arrived at 5:30. It started out as 1 line for both characters and dinner but as families got pics other families who decided to skip characters skipped those waiting and got in the dinner line. CM even eventually went through the dinner line asking who didn't see characters and letting them go get pics without losing their place. We stayed in the character line and had a hilarious interaction with Chip and Dale at the expense of my husband and then saw the Goof. The characters left maybe 30 minutes prior to dinner. Despite being skipped in line (maybe 50 people ahead of us in line?) when the dinner bell rang we got great front row seats 3 rows from the center but one seat was behind a pole. The wives held spots while he hubbs took turns changing diapers and getting food.
Lines for food were never long and the longest I waited for booze was ~7 minutes towards 8 and I got a selfie with Minnie so it was worth it. Most of the time it was walk up. I'm not sure why there's so much complaint about the food because we thought it was great! I must have had a rack of ribs by myself! We skipped the salad and bread. Everything was in cast iron pots so you can tell it had been simmering for a while.
Entertainment was amazing. Lots of dancing and singing and the Cowboys were awesome! The toddlers were mesmerized and gave the adults time to sit and relax while they watched. Anything character related was absolute chaos! Mickey and Minnie were constantly swarmed by kids and their parents with smart phones. Chip, dale and goof had more space but not much. At one point they told the parents to back off behind the line and let the kids interact without parents which made for a more organic character interaction. This was too much for our kids and they wouldn't go without us. (My kid ran up to the characters while in line so it must have been the crowds). While the Cowboys were on there were character lines on either side of the stage always 20-30 people deep.
We like to dance, enjoy BBQ, enjoy beer and lemonade moonshine and sangria, liked that our toddlers would watch the show and didn't worry much about character greets. So we had a good time. $120 worth? Mmmm, maybe. We made it worth it by eating the expensive stuff and drinking. Would go again. Probably won't.... Too many other character shows to see.
Travel there was easy via golf cart. I left my double stroller on the cart as I read they weren't able to be brought into the restaurant. Many were told to leave strollers to enter the line which left them holding kids. Not necessary. It was hot and hubbs had to hold the 5 month old the whole time in line. I brought my Ergo which proved INVALUABLE. I think it's a hassle and mostly carried my baby by hand or let him nap in the stroller but in the chaos of the BBQ and need for two hands.... Buy or borrow a baby carrier.
We arrived at 5:30. It started out as 1 line for both characters and dinner but as families got pics other families who decided to skip characters skipped those waiting and got in the dinner line. CM even eventually went through the dinner line asking who didn't see characters and letting them go get pics without losing their place. We stayed in the character line and had a hilarious interaction with Chip and Dale at the expense of my husband and then saw the Goof. The characters left maybe 30 minutes prior to dinner. Despite being skipped in line (maybe 50 people ahead of us in line?) when the dinner bell rang we got great front row seats 3 rows from the center but one seat was behind a pole. The wives held spots while he hubbs took turns changing diapers and getting food.
Lines for food were never long and the longest I waited for booze was ~7 minutes towards 8 and I got a selfie with Minnie so it was worth it. Most of the time it was walk up. I'm not sure why there's so much complaint about the food because we thought it was great! I must have had a rack of ribs by myself! We skipped the salad and bread. Everything was in cast iron pots so you can tell it had been simmering for a while.
Entertainment was amazing. Lots of dancing and singing and the Cowboys were awesome! The toddlers were mesmerized and gave the adults time to sit and relax while they watched. Anything character related was absolute chaos! Mickey and Minnie were constantly swarmed by kids and their parents with smart phones. Chip, dale and goof had more space but not much. At one point they told the parents to back off behind the line and let the kids interact without parents which made for a more organic character interaction. This was too much for our kids and they wouldn't go without us. (My kid ran up to the characters while in line so it must have been the crowds). While the Cowboys were on there were character lines on either side of the stage always 20-30 people deep.
We like to dance, enjoy BBQ, enjoy beer and lemonade moonshine and sangria, liked that our toddlers would watch the show and didn't worry much about character greets. So we had a good time. $120 worth? Mmmm, maybe. We made it worth it by eating the expensive stuff and drinking. Would go again. Probably won't.... Too many other character shows to see.
