Not happy with breakfast at Goofy's kitchen

[Dukland]

We just finished four days in the parks. We had a blast! I made the most of my Photopass+ that I learned about here and have at least 100 pics on it, plus picked up free pics at two character heals.

On the day we were leaving, Saturday 9/20, we booked a meal at Goofy's Kitchen to see us off. In the character meet and greet out front we were very lucky to be the family in with Goofy as Pluto came in to take over. So we got pics with just Goofy, then pics with both Pluto and Goofy.

When we were called back to our meal we were seated in a little corner. There were maybe six tables total in that little section. Well we finished our meal and sat there 45 min before Dale came through as our first character. Then there were no more in sight. I finally got up and asked someone why we hadn't had any characters yet. As I did so, I see Chip finally coming down our section. After my complaint we suddenly had Pluto and Snow White come into our section, but that was it. My family was really ready to go as we'd been there an hour and a half and needed to get on the road.

We saw Alice and Captain Hook in other places but they never came near us. We thought at least Captain Hook would come over as we saw him in the next section but he seemed to skip us.

It was especially disappointing because not only was this our Disney send off, but we were celebrating my youngest's birthday and our 25th wedding anniversary.

When we finally get home I'm considering writing Disney to let them know of the disappointing experience. I was told by the Cast Member at breakfast that the characters have their rotations they follow, but shouldn't it be planned better than that? I would expect there to be 1-2 characters per section most of the time. I think it's reasonable to expect to see at least 6 characters while dining there, and not waiting 45 min before the first one arrives. After all, this is touted as the best "Premium Meal".

So it didn't ruin the trip and my kids were okay with it, but Mama was bummed!

 

[thatgrljme]

I wasn't very happy with the character interaction there either.

We had breakfast at Surfs Up and had a wonderful time but only had one character stop at our table at Goofys.

 

[Escape2Disney]

We had a great experience there on Thanksgiving day in '07, but HORRIBLE experiences twice after that. Only one or two characters each of those subsequent times, and dismissive cast members when we asked why our section was being skipped for an entire hour. We no longer go to Goofy's for that reason.

That said, I know others who swear this is the best character interaction on property...

 

[abminer]

Oh boy, now I'm worried. We booked Goofy's as our only character meal for our upcoming trip. We were trying to decide between that and Storytellers, but we're staying at DLH. I hope some folks are having better experiences.

 

[wdwfan22]

I've always had the best character interactions of any of the character meals at Minnie & friends breakfast. Granted, you do have to have park admission, and sometimes that doesn't work for people. But the characters are amazing and there are so many! Wasn't thrilled with Goofy's Kitchen.

 

[allsaintsatx]

We always have great character interactions there the last time being this past August, sorry yours wasn't the greatest. Maybe it was a "bad day"?

We have 2 visits scheduled for October to GK!

 

[grnflash]

Oh boy, now I'm worried. We booked Goofy's as our only character meal for our upcoming trip. We were trying to decide between that and Storytellers, but we're staying at DLH. I hope some folks are having better experiences.

We've been to Goofy's twice and had great interactions both times. I think we counted 9 plus Goofy when we were there earlier this year. All the characters automatically stopped at our table and we were not there an hour and a half either time.

Maybe seating location is important? Both times we were seated in the room that is sorta like an atrium - big windows all around, plants outside. Perhaps others will weigh in where they had/didn't have good experiences.

Also, people have reported that seating during the last hour of breakfast service is poor for characters.

That being said, it's inexcusable that anyone would have to ask for characters to visit or only see one or two in an hour or more.

 

[pixiewings71]

OP that's exactly why we don't go there anymore, we had the same horrible character interactions that you did. We also had a server who didn't care to help us clear the plates from our table so we had stacks of plates at our table. It was really ridiculous. I'm sorry to hear you had the same experience.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

We had a great time at Goofy's in Nov. 2012. Tried it again in Nov. 2013 and had a horrible time. We had the same experience you did. We saw two characters and saw many more go right by our section (wonder if we were in the same section?). We really wanted to see Alice since all of my kids were in Alice shirts and finally had to ask the handler to send them over. When you are paying that price, you shouldn't have to hunt down characters!

We had a similar experience at Minnie's in Oct. 2012 after many wonderful breakfasts. We couldn't get ANY characters to come to us and the handler was less than helpful. We're going to give them another chance this Nov.

 

[VicMom]

I found that too.

We were there on our leaving day on the 18th. We were in a corner and the only character who came to our table was Pluto (more than once I might add). Chip and Dale would go to the table next to us but not to ours. DS couldn't understand why he couldn't hug them (we have the saddest pouty face of him at the table waiting) so I finally got up and tracked them down and had them come to us when they weren't coming to our area-or missed our table. Maybe not the right way but I'm not paying $100 for breakfast for DS to not meet any of the characters.

Plus the kitchen/Chef forgot about making DS's breakfast (he has a milk protein allergy) and I had to ask twice and it took 45 min for 1 pancake and a muffin that came in a plastic wrap from the company that made it.

The characters at Surf's Up was absolutely great (ds had a hard time eating as they kept coming up to us). My issue with there is that because a Chef is supposed to come out and talk to us about what is safe for DS to eat, our server couldn't find him for 50 minutes. So we had to wait 50 min for him to come so we could figure out what DS could eat and then another 25min for the food that the chef insisted on making for him (even when we said it was too much food for a 3yr old) to arrive. That was just too long for our son to wait to eat and we missed the early entrance to the park because it took so long.

 

[Rubygoose]

We've been to Goofy's twice and had great interactions both times. I think we counted 9 plus Goofy when we were there earlier this year. All the characters automatically stopped at our table and we were not there an hour and a half either time.

Maybe seating location is important? Both times we were seated in the room that is sorta like an atrium - big windows all around, plants outside. Perhaps others will weigh in where they had/didn't have good experiences.

Also, people have reported that seating during the last hour of breakfast service is poor for characters.

That being said, it's inexcusable that anyone would have to ask for characters to visit or only see one or two in an hour or more.

We've been 3 time, always for dinner, and the most recent time we were seated in that sun-room area. I really liked that area because the lighting is so much better for photos and the characters seem to come around very systematically. We saw the character enter the section/room and each one started at the first table on the left and worked their way around the outside, clockwise, then visited the larger tables in the middle before leaving that section. None of the tables were skipped, and it seemed like there were only 2 or 3 minutes at a time when there was no character in that section.

 

[tanyaegangibson]

We go to Goofy's Kitchen for dinner one night every time we're at DLR because it's DD9 and DS6's favorite. (We get to DLR once or twice a year.) We've definitely had those nights when characters take a while to get to us. Once, we even ended up seated in a section where no characters showed up for nearly an hour. But every time, if I spoke patiently to a server about it, the situation was rectified. Admittedly, I now build in time so that we expect it to be up to 1 1/2 hours for dinner, but that just makes dinner more of an *event*. We bring Mad Libs and make silly jokes and eat a lot of silly food (PBJ pizza, etc.) and take our time waiting for characters. No rush, so it doesn't matter when they show up.

The truth is that in a busy restaurant with folks all wanting photos and autographs and interaction, it's going to take a while for 6 characters or so to get to everyone.

I do think that if there's a problem (no characters) and you don't mention it to a server, the problem won't get fixed. I've *never* encountered a CM at DLR who wouldn't try to fix a problem, especially if you've proposed a solution.

 

[mummabear]

I'm trying to find the time to write both a letter to Disney and a trip report.
TBH all of our character meals this trip were terrible but Goofys was so bad we cancelled our Storytellers breakfast rather than risking anymore money.
Very similar problems you have listed, poor service, bad character interaction and given the bums rush to get out of there after they took over 1/2 an hour after our reservation/check in before seating us and only after I enquired why groups who had checked in after us were being seated. Overall very poor bang for the buck.

 

[Budshark]

We did Goofy's last week and had a total of 7 characters come to our table.

I will say overall we were pleased, but not thrilled. Being the first visit to Disneyland vs Disney World, the World definitely has a better overall program/plan for character dining. DL was very disorganized and seemed to suffer from poor service. We chalked it up to off season, but it sounds like its more systemic.

I did notice overall the staff throughout was definitely more of a "staff member" than "cast member" attitude. We saw and had people talking back to guests, busy talking to other staff and guests who were clearly just friends.

 

[GatorChris]

First, I'm glad I read this thread because I thought Goofy's Kitchen only had characters for brunch. But here I'm reading that it's a character dinner as well! I hate spending money on breakfast, so maybe we'll do this for a dinner.

We did Mickey's Surf's Up breakfast last year on a Tuesday morning. The place was barely half full. We got good food and incredible interaction. After reading this tough reviews, maybe Goofy's isn't the best for breakfast. Maybe we'll return to PP for breakfast there.

And I'm with a previous poster. WDW has the whole character meal thing down. If anything, we find it hard to eat as frequently as the characters come around at place like Chef Mickey's, 1900 Park Faire, and Crystal Palace.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

First, I'm glad I read this thread because I thought Goofy's Kitchen only had characters for brunch. But here I'm reading that it's a character dinner as well! I hate spending money on breakfast, so maybe we'll do this for a dinner. We did Mickey's Surf's Up breakfast last year on a Tuesday morning. The place was barely half full. We got good food and incredible interaction. After reading this tough reviews, maybe Goofy's isn't the best for breakfast. Maybe we'll return to PP for breakfast there. And I'm with a previous poster. WDW has the whole character meal thing down. If anything, we find it hard to eat as frequently as the characters come around at place like Chef Mickey's, 1900 Park Faire, and Crystal Palace.

FWIW, our last two times were both dinner. One was amazing and one was not even close. I really think it depends on where you sit though. I just can't believe the price at Goofy's for dinner now!

 

[SweetAlex]

When we were called back to our meal we were seated in a little corner. There were maybe six tables total in that little section. Well we finished our meal and sat there 45 min before Dale came through as our first character. Then there were no more in sight. I finally got up and asked someone why we hadn't had any characters yet. As I did so, I see Chip finally coming down our section. After my complaint we suddenly had Pluto and Snow White come into our section, but that was it. My family was really ready to go as we'd been there an hour and a half and needed to get on the road.

We saw Alice and Captain Hook in other places but they never came near us. We thought at least Captain Hook would come over as we saw him in the next section but he seemed to skip us.

It was especially disappointing because not only was this our Disney send off, but we were celebrating my youngest's birthday and our 25th wedding anniversary.

When we finally get home I'm considering writing Disney to let them know of the disappointing experience. I was told by the Cast Member at breakfast that the characters have their rotations they follow, but shouldn't it be planned better than that? I would expect there to be 1-2 characters per section most of the time. I think it's reasonable to expect to see at least 6 characters while dining there, and not waiting 45 min before the first one arrives. After all, this is touted as the best "Premium Meal".

So it didn't ruin the trip and my kids were okay with it, but Mama was bummed!

Aw... that's so disappointing! You pay good money for those experiences so yes, I would be very bummed too.

We've only done Breakfast at Minnie's and literally the whole time, characters are coming and going at our table. It's taken us 2 hours to eat there before because there always seems to be a new (or returning) character to goof around with us. I don't know if we've just lucked out (we were seated in central locations both times) but we plan to go there again in December, especially after seeing recent reviews about other character experiences.

 

[Canadiantinkerfairy]

I would say that Minnie's breakfast is by far the best character interactions. Goofys is chaotic.
We have been to both multiple times in the past few years.
This past trip we went twice. We waited a well over an hour to be seated for a reservation for 4. I had to ask several times if they had forgotten us, and they finally Admitted thru had.
The larger group reservation went off without a hitch.
Every time we've dined at goofys we had fairly good interactions, but I find Minnie's the best.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Wow, I'm shocked at this. Over the last 11 years we've eaten at GK about 12 times for both dinner and bfast. We've never had anything but excellent character interaction. We've sat in all areas of the restaurant,sin room and back areas and I can't think of a single time when we've seen less than 6 characters. GK has always been our favorite with Surfs Up a close second.

We've had an experience at WDW where the character interaction was almost non existent, we politely talked to our server about it and it was rectified in a matter of minutes. It's usually a result of a shift change for characters and the communication doesn't get transferred properly as to where they are supposed to start.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Wow, I'm shocked at this. Over the last 11 years we've eaten at GK about 12 times for both dinner and bfast. We've never had anything but excellent character interaction. We've sat in all areas of the restaurant,sin room and back areas and I can't think of a single time when we've seen less than 6 characters. GK has always been our favorite with Surfs Up a close second.

We've had an experience at WDW where the character interaction was almost non existent, we politely talked to our server about it and it was rectified in a matter of minutes. It's usually a result of a shift change for characters and the communication doesn't get transferred properly as to where they are supposed to start.