Minnie and Friends Breakfast Questions

[ikzembowler]

This is our first time heading to DL. We'll be there the start of March. We'll be traveling with 3 kids, DS-8, DD-6 1/2 and DD 4 1/2 (and DH and me). We're staying at the BWPPI.

We're doing a package through Costco and it includes a Character Breakfast. Not knowing exactly what is best, this is what I went with...

I picked the Minnie and Friends breakfast in the park for Friday, the 7th. I booked a 10:30 seating. I figured this could kind of be a brunch for us since we'll have an earlier breakfast at the hotel. I also figured this would be a good variety of characters for my kids (not too babyish or two girly. KWIM? Don't want my son to be bored).

Does this seem ok? Will I have to wait in line to get in for our reservations and if so, how early should I go? Looks like the park opens at 9:00 that day.

Has anyone had breakfast here (or done a brunch thing like we're planning)? What did you think?

Anyone have any suggestions or advice?

Thanks!

 

[pixiedust8302]

I love the Minnie and friends breakfast! They have the best character interaction out of them all. I would check in 15 minutes prior to your seating and make sure you have your autographs books and camera out and ready when you sit down at the table. I hope you have a great trip...

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i loved it we saw many charcters and yes having the book and camra out and ready they come around to you. I still say thank you to jenelle she made sure we saw all the charcters there before they left.

 

[lilsprstr]

My kids (4 & 2) loved the Minnie & Friends Breakfast. We saw Hook, Minnie, Fairy Godmother, Pooh, Tigger, Chip & Dale. We had an early breakfast, so I'm not sure when to tell you to get there, but the character interaction was great! Have fun!

 

[lilsprstr]

My kids (4 & 2) loved the Minnie & Friends Breakfast. We saw Hook, Minnie, Fairy Godmother, Pooh, Tigger, Chip & Dale. We had an early breakfast, so I'm not sure when to tell you to get there, but the character interaction was great! Have fun!

 

[DesertBell]

We loved Minnie & friends, too! Our best character memories came from that breakfast. We're definately doing it again this year, too.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

The Minnie & Friends breakfast is a buffet, so you'll be taken to a table and then can go get your food. Drinks will be brought to you, if I'm remembering right.

We also did a later breakfast, thinking we could skip lunch, and it did work well; we snacked a bit in the afternoon before having dinner.

My DS7 is less enamored with the characters than DS3, but he still had a good time clowning with them for pictures. We saw several Pooh characters, which was our goal (DS3 loves Pooh!), but also Foulfellow, Minnie and a few others.

DS7 loves Goofy's Kitchen better. It's livelier (there's a bit of a show, where the kids get up and dance with the characters), and the kids eat more at lunch or dinner than breakfast, so that has been our first choice for a meal.

We've now done all the character meals except the Princess one, and have really enjoyed them all. My only complaint about Minnie & Friends is that the characters didn't seem to stick to a "path" through the tables, and several went straight through our room to the next without ever stopping by our table. Early on I figured they'd hit us on the way back, but they didn't, so we wound up staying longer than expected, and talking to the wait staff to make sure we could get a character to come over.

We missed Eeyore completely, though we did see him on our way out. He was on his way for a break, but the CM with him asked if we'd stay until he came back, so we waited. When he came back, another CM asked us to return to our table (I explained we'd already left it), and then she got a little snippy with the CM who'd asked us to wait. We finally got our time with Eeyore, thank goodness, and left happily.

 

[MicknMinnJen]

last time we went to DLR, we went to Goofy's Kitchen...AWESOME!!!

how does Minnie & Friends compare? anyone done both?

 

[Alex2kMommy]

See my previous post. GK is livelier, with the little show they do and the (loud!) music and getting the kids up to dance. There's nothing like that at Minnie & Friends, the characters just stroll through and stop by the tables.

For a change of pace, we found the Lilo & Stitch breakfast similar to GK, in that there's a bit of a show, and the kids can get up and play a musical-chairs-like game with Stitch.

The Brother Bear breakfast (at the GCH) is more like Minnie & Friends, with the characters strolling through, though there was a bit of something going on as we left. We had the first seating of the day, and maybe just missed an activity with kids dancing or conga-ing with characters?

 

[bumbershoot]

Does this seem ok? Will I have to wait in line to get in for our reservations and if so, how early should I go? Looks like the park opens at 9:00 that day.

You might have to wait a little bit. As they reminded me 18 times when I called Disney Dining for our December trip, a Priority Seating is not a reservation, just a basic timeframe. We've had to wait for both breakfasts we've done, at Lilo and Stitch very early AM when we had our included character meal through our costco package, and at Grand Californian this last time for the very last seating.

 

[mla1977]

I just booked this breakfast yesterday for our February trip. I'm looking forward to it!

 

[techno]

We did the Minnie and Friends breakfast this last visit in November. While the character experience was great, the food wasn't all that. The year before we did the Lilo and Stitch breakfast at PCH Grill at PPH. That was a lot better in my opinion. We want to try Goofy's Kitchen too, but we'll probably go back and visit Lilo and Stitch again this March.

You can read about our last trip, which includes more comments on the Minnie breakfast on our travel blog... http://rojosol.net/travel/

 

[iceskatejen]

Drinks are self serve at Minnie & Friends. Goofy's serves them to you--that's why Goofy's adds an 18% gratuity automatically and tips are not included (are are not supposed to be accepted) at Minnie's.

 

[forevercruising]

We took our 3 year old son to Minnie & Friends and it was one of the highlights of our trip!

My husband was not really looking forward to going to this character breakfast and had doubts about the quality of both the character interaction and the food; however, he was pleased with our experience.

For us, the food was EXCELLENT; in fact, we commented on how surprised we were with the quality of the food, especially the strawberry french toast and the amazing, custom-made omelet! When we were there, everything was buffet, including the beverages; the offered beverages were very good. There was a good variety and customers could have as many beverages as they'd like.

We were also VERY impressed with the character interaction. Each one personally visited our table and none of them rushed off quickly. Some spent quite a bit of quality time with us and our son loved that (as did my camera!)!

We will definitely return to Minnie & Friends!

One final note: Remember that you are going to Minnie & Friends, essentially, to meet the characters, not for the quality of the food. That's the expectation we had and we were pleasantly surprised with excellent food, as well.

I'm sure that you and your family will enjoy this character breakfast! Have a great time!

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

We love Minnie and Friends!

My advice would be to make your PS for the earliest seating they have available. The food will be nice and fresh, you won't have to wait for food and you should get lots of time with the characters. There is SO much food this would still see you through lunch but you might have to get a snack in the afternoon. I'm sure you wouldn't mind an extra churro, dole whip or ice cream

 

[silence]

Of the 4 character meals we have done (Minnie's, Ariel's, Goofy's, Lilo & Stitch), by far our favorite is Minnie's.

We never had problems with the characters and DH LOVES their biscuits and gravy, he swears it is the only place he can get it when visiting the park.

It is by far the best "overall" experience we had at any of the meals.

We found Lilo & Stitch to be less crowded (when we went in May) hardly anyone was there. Lilo spent a LOT of time at our table, coloring with my DD. We didn't however care much for the food here.

Our rating is: Minnies, Ariel's, Lilo & Stitch, Goofy's....that's over all, food and character interaction.

We also like Minnie's since we like being IN the park.

 

[techno]

One final note: Remember that you are going to Minnie & Friends, essentially, to meet the characters, not for the quality of the food. That's the expectation we had and we were pleasantly surprised with excellent food, as well.

I have to disagree with you there. For the costly price of admission and the fact that it is billed as a breakfast, the quality of the food should be better than good. I rate it as fair. At the very least all of the food should have been warm, especially since we were the first group through the door.

 

[forevercruising]

Originally Posted by forevercruising

One final note: Remember that you are going to Minnie & Friends, essentially, to meet the characters, not for the quality of the food. That's the expectation we had and we were pleasantly surprised with excellent food, as well.

I have to disagree with you there. For the costly price of admission and the fact that it is billed as a breakfast, the quality of the food should be better than good. I rate it as fair. At the very least all of the food should have been warm, especially since we were the first group through the door.

To clarify, I was not saying that it is "okay" to be served inadequate food; however, if a person wants a truly excellent breakfast and that is his/her sole purpose, he/she would not, most likely, attend the Minnie & Friends Character Breakfast. Instead, he/she would select a restaurant solely focused on serving high quality food.

I certainly expect to get my money's worth, as well as you do and yes, I agree with you that the quality of food should be better than "fair"; however, my point was that, people attending the Minnie & Friends Character Breakfast are, essentially, attending in order to meet the characters; that is [most likely] their main goal. I agree that we all certainly have the right to expect high quality food; unfortunately, that will not always occur.

I was simply offering some perspective for the OP in order to prepare her for whatever experience she and her family may have. It's obvious from your original post, as well as those of us who had good experiences with the food, that it is possible for the OP's family to thoroughly enjoy the food or to be disappointed with the food. But, as you stated in your original post, you were pleased with the character interaction; so, if future Minnie & Friends guests have a main goal of meeting the characters, they should be satisfied.

 

[Zoemakes5]

I scheduled this the last time the whole family went. We ate at 10:45 or something similar, as well. For us, we got in from MN at 2am the night before, so I knew that would be about as early as we were gonna be able to get up and get there. I thought it would be a good mobilizer in the am (and it was). My oldest DS loves Pooh, and we'd heard this was pretty much the only place he'd be likely to see him (and it was.)
The interaction was better than I had expected, except we never saw Minnie. We even waited at our table a bit longer than we were done. Finally I asked a CM, and she drew Minnie aside for a moment and we got to see her.
I, too, was amazed at how great the food was. Everyone liked it. It was all hot and fresh. Though, I have been warned that the later seatings can get a bit shortchanged since they wouldn't want to make new when they were pretty much done with breakfast.
My kids would not have eaten, would not have made the cost of the meal worthwhile, had I fed them anything in the morning. As it was, they didn't eat lunch at all other than a couple of snacks here or there.
Don't know if it was mentioned, but the food at this time is all breakfast food. While there's brunch timing, there's really no lunch type foods.

 

[RichKoster]

What is the earliest you can book the Minnie and Friends breakfast at the Plaza in Disneyland Park? The official website says park opening, but does that mean when you are let into Town Square and Main Street U.S.A. before the official opening/rope-drop time, or does it mean the stated opening hour for that day (which is the rope-drop time)?

Do they let you book breakfast before official park opening time as the Magic Kingdom at WDW does for CRT?