Opinions on character dining?

[silver apple]

I'm about to make some ADR"s for our june/july trip and am undecided about which character meals to do?

When we went last Easter we couldn't get into CRT, so had a lovely meal at Akershus instead. We had planned to do CRT this trip, but I've read a lot of positive stories on 1900 park fare.

Has anyone done both? which did you enjoy more? I'd also love to about any other restaurants you've tried and are now a must do for your family.

Many thanks

 

[Pegasus928]

I suppose a lot of it would depend on which characters you would prefer to see whilst dining.
As you probably know 1900 Park Fare is Pooh and friends, Alice, Marry Poppins, Mad Hatter. If you would be happy to see these then go for it.
I'm not sure what the food is like at CRT but all the characters meals I have been to have all been pretty much the same from a quality point of view - but we have always gone in the knowledge that we are paying for the characters and that the food is secondary.
If you ave a look at the following link it shows locations and characters for the meals - along with some reviews too.
http://allears.net/din/cbchar.htm

 

[wayneg]

I
As you probably know 1900 Park Fare is Pooh and friends, Alice, Marry Poppins, Mad Hatter.

Never heard of Pooh & friends there Kenny.

The Supercalifragilistic Breakfast is hosted by Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter and friends.

The Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner is hosted by Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, and Anastasia and Drisella.

Taken from here http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningdetail.cfm?restaurant.ID=28

Pooh and friends are at Crystal Palace.

We did 1900 Park Fare, didn't enjoy at all. the characters were shouting on top of their voices, in character I guess but not my sort of thing when trying to eat a meal. Too many people in there, it was packed solid, only meal we were not seated on time, had to wait almost 1 hour beyond our reservation time. Will not be returning again.

 

[scojos]

the best character meal, is crystal palace, IHMO, and we have done them all, lol!!
Chef mickeys is nice, food is ok, interaction is good.
ohanas is the other one worth a mention, sort of slips "under the rader" but bfast is good interaction was v good, only down side is they sit in waves, so you may have to wait 15-20mins after ADR to sit.
Tracy

 

[2Tiggies]

Pooh and pals are at the Crystal Palace. That is incidentally our favorite character restaurant. Always had great food, excellent service and love the setting. As character meals go, the price is lower than some of the others (same as 1900 I think). I have NEVER managed to get into CRT and DD is now 7 and no longer interested in the princesses. I think it is overpriced, unless you are happy to pay for the exclusive experience of eating in the castle. Also, no characters at CRT dinner.

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

We also love the Crystal Palace character breakfast - a must do for us every year. My tip - get an earlier reservation rather than a later one as when we had a later one, we had to wait an hour beyond our ressie time.

 

[scottish mum]

Never heard of Pooh & friends there Kenny.

The Supercalifragilistic Breakfast is hosted by Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter and friends.

The Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner is hosted by Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, and Anastasia and Drisella.

Taken from here http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningdetail.cfm?restaurant.ID=28

Pooh and friends are at Crystal Palace.

We did 1900 Park Fare, didn't enjoy at all. the characters were shouting on top of their voices, in character I guess but not my sort of thing when trying to eat a meal. Too many people in there, it was packed solid, only meal we were not seated on time, had to wait almost 1 hour beyond our reservation time. Will not be returning again.

we had breakfast here in 2007 and pooh and friends were there alongside Alice and mary poppins etc.

 

[Ashleylvsgoofy]

Me and pooh at 1900 park fare breakfast

 

[wayneg]

Wonder why Pooh is not on the list then?
Just looked at official site, not on there either.
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/grand-floridian-resort-and-spa/dining/1900-park-fare/

A bit of Googling suggests he is there often, obviously an imposter as pooh is definitely at Crystal Palace for breakfast. Or did I not see the real one at CP?

 

[minniemarie]

I've just come back and can confirm it is the Cinderella characters that are at the Park Fare dinner, but as a pp stated Tigger and Pooh used to be there but can be found at Crystal Palace now .

Having done all the character meals (many times, over many years) I would go for Crystal Palace every time and I would make an adr for one hour before the park officially opens so that you can eat and be ready for rope drop e.g. we had an adr for 8.15am and the park opened at 9am. Perfect, especially for the first few days of your holiday when you are up at 4/5am wondering what to do!

Second on the list would be Chef Mickeys but that's because it's our family tradition to go , if we hadn't made it one, I'm not sure I'd be bothering now my son is older. One for the younger ones.

Also, found the service at Park Fare consistently lousy, though my ds11 did enjoy the character interactionsthis past visit , he now thinks that the non speaking characters are at bit wierd must be an age thing!

 

[silver apple]

Thanks everyone, i think i'm going to stick with CRT as dd(4) will love it. I might book Ohanas too as ds(7) is a stich fan.

 

[natalielongstaff]

Ohana breakfast is lovely

 

[TheBlundells]

Another vote for Crystal Palace!

 

[brightspark]

I think the Park Fare breakfast has a couple of characters from Winnie the Pooh. It def had Eyeore and I think it was piglet the 2x we've done it. Also the mad hatter (who was brilliant) Alice, and Mary Poppins.

DH and I love the Crystal Palace (so sad it's shut when we are there in a couple of weeks time) and DH loves Chef Mickey.

We did Cinderellas castle for lunch on our wedding anniversary a couple of years ago. DH was so pleased with himself for booking it. It was pretty neat - but I prefer the cuddly characters to the princesses! Felt almost a bit silly with amongst all the little girls in the dresses! LOL!

You will have fun wherever you go.

 

[Pegasus928]

When we ate there in May 2008 Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore where definately there.

This is also a review taken from the link I posted earlier

Review Date: Sun January 3, 2010
We ate here on Tuesday, December 8 with an ADR for 8:30am. We took a cab from Port Orleans to The Grand Floridian and am very glad we did. The cab was prompt and delivered us to TGF in under 10 minutes, so this is a great option for early-morning ADR at hotels.
This was the most memorable breakfast we've ever had at WDW. First, the restaurant is beautiful and service was great. We've been here for dinner before, but weren't overly impressed. Breakfast was so much nicer than we expected. The characters, which included Mary Poppins, Mad Hatter, Alice, Pooh and Tigger, were all excellent and face characters had good British accents. These characters seemed much more authentic than the Princesses at Akershus.
Some of our favorites were the lobster eggs benedict, strawberry soup and the omelet station where you can create a monster omelet. But whatever you want is there: ham, eggs, bacon, sausage, tons of fruit, pastries and even soft-serve ice cream.
A great way to start the day and you won't be hungry until dinnertime.

Looks like the characters from One Hundred Acre Wood have dopplegangers

 

[Ware Bears]

We did CRT breakfast on our last trip. We thoroughly enjoyed it but you are definitely paying a premium for eating inside the castle. We also did 'Ohana breakfast and enjoyed that.

Having previously been to Crystal Palace for dinner twice I wasn't in any hurry to return but decided to book it for breakfast on Christmas Day as a way of getting into the park early. We had a fabulous time ~ the food was lovely and it was far less noisy than at dinner. I'd definitely return for brekkie there again.

We also ate dinner at Chef Mickey ~ I thought this would be crowded and noisy but it wasn't and the food was better than I was expecting.

We did have an ADR for the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare but cancelled it because one of my DDs wasn't feeling too well that morning. I was a bit disappointed as I'd wanted to try the strawberry soup but hey ho it's something to look forward to next time.

Our favourite restaurants this trip were Yak and Yeti, Le Cellier and Tony's ~ the latter seems to have more bad reviews than good but we loved it there.

 

[silver apple]

Thanks for all of your great advice. We weren't able to book our ADR's last night as I couldn't log into the website

I'm planning to book the Sunday brunch at The House of Blues for dh who is a huge Gospel fan. It sounds great, has anyone been?

 

[Pegasus928]

We went to the House of Blues for a concert in October. We went to see Colbie Callait and Howie Day as DW is a big fan of both. The place itself is big enough that you don't feel crushed or claustrophobic, yet small enough that it makes for an intimate 'gig'. The viewing area is all on different levels as well so you can be higher than those in front of you - having a good view even from the back

 

[disneyholic family]

Thanks for all of your great advice. We weren't able to book our ADR's last night as I couldn't log into the website

I'm planning to book the Sunday brunch at The House of Blues for dh who is a huge Gospel fan. It sounds great, has anyone been?

can you book CRT online? I thought you have to do it directly with Disney, since you have to pay in advance to guarantee your reservation..

anyway, regarding character breakfasts, we've never done CRT, but have done all the others...
our favorite by far is Crystal Palace....
2nd favorite is the Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club..

we hated 1900 park fare....but everyone has a different opinion about these character meals....i know people who adore 1900 park fare...so you really can't depend on what others say..

 

[laluna]

can you book CRT online? I thought you have to do it directly with Disney, since you have to pay in advance to guarantee your reservation..

Yep - I was playing around with the system this week and I could have booked CRT - actually could have booked anything I tried!

We loved the Park Fayre dinner. Lovely to eat at the Grand Floridian and the best food of any of the character meals we have done (that's Akershus, Chef Mickey and Crystal Palace). The ugly sisters were fab!