Plaza Inn- not impressed this time.

[KBinCO]

I have always recommended Plaza Inn and we've always had wonderful experiences there, but our experience Friday was a bit disappointing and I really think at this point, they should have the routine down so these things don't happen.

As always, they had a great variety of food. No issues there.

We had a 10:30 reservation so that we could grab a HM FP and ride some rides first (we had an early light breakfast at our hotel). Some people warned me about the late time and others said it was great.

My girls are still very into characters and at 7 and 9 they interact with them a lot. We had toddlers on either side of us who didn't care at all but my girls were really into it.

It was my daughters birthday and when we sat down, I asked specifically if all the characters would come to our table and they said yes. We didn't see any characters for the first 30 mins. After that, some came in. The girls had great experiences interacting with Captain Hook and tigger... but some came in and left before getting to our table, and some never came in at all. When my daughter asked where some of them were, she was told they had to leave. Others we had to track down on our way out.


It's hard to walk in and see characters visiting with people who wind up never coming to your table. I feel like if they can't stay for the 10:30 reservations, they should make the last reservations at 10 instead. It was definitely disappointing compared to our last 2 experiences there.

 

[BecAus]

Thank you for reporting back - that sounds really disappointing for you and your kids. It's really not good enough - the B/F is not cheap.
We are booked to go there for B/F (been a couple of times before) at 10am on the 10/2 before we do our WIWF Tour so hopefully it goes ok.
Were you able to speak to anyone there, a manager maybe, about your experience or Guest Services - they need to know it wasn't great for you.
Very disappointing : (

 

[colormegreen]

Thank you for reporting. I have a reservation for this too in October. It is pricey for breakfast, and I told myself it be worth it because of the character experience, but you are not the first to report this...so now I worried. I might just cancel and book a dessert thing for WoC my youngest will be turning 2 so I am really lost.

 

[biochemgirl]

Thanks for the feedback! DS and I both enjoy the character interactions and I'm almost ready to book for our November trip. I'm leaning towards a late breakfast so we can take advantage of the first hour or two after rope drop.

 

[mom2rtk]

It's hard to walk in and see characters visiting with people who wind up never coming to your table. I feel like if they can't stay for the 10:30 reservations, they should make the last reservations at 10 instead. It was definitely disappointing compared to our last 2 experiences there.

It's not that certain characters leave early. It's that they rotate through, so are "off and on" the entire time. Whether you overlap with a specific one can be hit or miss. Generally we see 9 or 10. However, we have had less than stellar visits as well. Last time there was a pair of young adult girls at the table in front of us who clearly knew the characters' friends and spent an inordinate amount of time with each one. Even to the point of playing pictionary with them. It really slowed down the rotation. But most of the time we're happy with who we see.

Just an FYI, if you see someone specific is out but hasn't made it to your table, you can ask one of the character handlers if/when they will be back out. They have a specific schedule usually. They helped us pin down Mary Poppins' penguin on one of our trips.

 

[KBinCO]

I just counted and we had 5 come to our table... and 2 others that they told us to find when we were done. Definitely fewer than what we've had in the past.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Our last two visits sounds exactly like yours, which is why I don't think we'll return. I truly am happy others have had such great experiences, but it's just too much money for us to risk it again.

I'm sorry your visit wasn't you had hoped. Especially when celebrating your daughter's birthday.

ETA: as I've said on past threads about this, I DID go to the character handlers (and the manager) and nothing came of it. So while always, an appropriate suggestion, it doesn't always work.

 

[Malcon10t]

I just counted and we had 5 come to our table... and 2 others that they told us to find when we were done. Definitely fewer than what we've had in the past.

On 5 visits, we have had 3 like this and worse. One visit we only had 2 characters (Hook and Eeyore.) Another 3, and one 5. The other 2 we had 8 or 9. For us, it just isn't worth the luck of the draw.

 

[Nonsuch]

While I'm hardly an expert, there have been many posts on this board about issues with later reservations. Not universally bad, but certainly more issues than earlier reservations.

Based on these reviews, I booked an early (7:50AM) reservation this past April. An advantage of early reservations is guests are seated clustered together, so characters visit every table. As the restaurant filled, there were a mixture of newly seated guests and guests almost done with breakfast -- some characters we had already seen were missing the new guests seated near us.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

While I'm hardly an expert, there have been many posts on this board about issues with later reservations. Not universally bad, but certainly more issues than earlier reservations.

Based on these reviews, I booked an early (7:50AM) reservation this past April. An advantage of early reservations is guests are seated clustered together, so characters visit every table. As the restaurant filled, there were a mixture of newly seated guests and guests almost done with breakfast -- some characters we had already seen were missing the new guests seated near us.

I agree with you, that I think time of a day can really play into it. Ours have always been 10am or later. That said, I'm personally not willing to give up those precious early morning hours to a sit down breakfast.

 

[StarGirl11]

I don't think it's just time of day but age members of the group. Last time we did Plaza Inn was just under two years ago and it was me (26 at the time) and my Mom (65 at the time). We got to the park early got tickets for Lilly Belle and then went to have breakfast. This was around 8:30-9 am if I remember when we checked in. We had 4 characters come by when I believe I saw twice that amount wandering around. This was the one that broke me from going to Plaza Inn again. This was incident number two of having a harder time seeing the characters and I was done at that point. We had had a great experience at Goofys just the day before and this was a complete 180 for us from the experience.

If I want characters I do Goofys. Less characters yeah but hey at least it doesn't feel like I have to put in an effort if I want to see a character or get skipped.

 

[JanJan324]

I went to the Plaza Inn for breakfast for the first time this past spring, as a solo traveler for my 40th birthday. Overall it was a stellar experience - minus two characters that were "off" for me. Fairy Godmother actually talked about the weather where I live, which I found to be very bizarre. I don't go to Disney to talk to characters about the crappy winter we had this year. And Max skipped my table all together. Not a huge deal to me personally, but my daughter wanted me to get a pic with him..

 

[Malcon10t]

I went to the Plaza Inn for breakfast for the first time this past spring, as a solo traveler for my 40th birthday. Overall it was a stellar experience - minus two characters that were "off" for me. Fairy Godmother actually talked about the weather where I live, which I found to be very bizarre. I don't go to Disney to talk to characters about the crappy winter we had this year. And Max skipped my table all together. Not a huge deal to me personally, but my daughter wanted me to get a pic with him..

It is why I prefer Surf's Up. Love the character interaction there.

 

[tnzzz]

I actually had a similar experience at Surf's Up this past week. We had an 8am res and only saw 3 characters. We also had to linger at least 15 minutes past eating until Daisy (our 3rd character) came around. By then my 20mo was done. But there didn't seem to be any other characters anyway. I honestly expected more than 3 but maybe that is normal. I did like that the kids got to dance with the characters but otherwise felt the character interaction was not great.
This was our first breakfast experience, our second character dining. I much preferred the experience we had at Ariel's for lunch.

 

[PirateRedhead]

That is such a shame. We had a great experience at the Plaza but a disappointing one at Storyteller's a few years back on our son's birthday. I'm sorry that happened to you.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I don't think it's just time of day but age members of the group. Last time we did Plaza Inn was just under two years ago and it was me (26 at the time) and my Mom (65 at the time). We got to the park early got tickets for Lilly Belle and then went to have breakfast. This was around 8:30-9 am if I remember when we checked in. We had 4 characters come by when I believe I saw twice that amount wandering around. This was the one that broke me from going to Plaza Inn again. This was incident number two of having a harder time seeing the characters and I was done at that point. We had had a great experience at Goofys just the day before and this was a complete 180 for us from the experience.

If I want characters I do Goofys. Less characters yeah but hey at least it doesn't feel like I have to put in an effort if I want to see a character or get skipped.

That's really too bad.

Both times, I've been traveling with small children - once my own 4 and once with another family, who also had 4 small children.

It is why I prefer Surf's Up. Love the character interaction there.

This is by far my favorite character breakfast!

 

[smartlabelprint]

I agree with you, that I think time of a day can really play into it. Ours have always been 10am or later. That said, I'm personally not willing to give up those precious early morning hours to a sit down breakfast.

IMO it wasn't really to a sit down breakfast. We had the earlisy reservation time with a park opening if 10. I believe the reservation was at 9. We couldn't even eat. Is and our toddlers were starving. It was character, after character. We were out of there in 45 min and they let us right in the park for the end of EMH. We finally ate toward the last few min. But we wanted to get in the park.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I actually had a similar experience at Surf's Up this past week. We had an 8am res and only saw 3 characters. We also had to linger at least 15 minutes past eating until Daisy (our 3rd character) came around. By then my 20mo was done. But there didn't seem to be any other characters anyway. I honestly expected more than 3 but maybe that is normal. I did like that the kids got to dance with the characters but otherwise felt the character interaction was not great.
This was our first breakfast experience, our second character dining. I much preferred the experience we had at Ariel's for lunch.

There were only four characters when we went: Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Stitch. We had really great, long, repeated interactions with all of them. It was a fantastic experience. We booked a later breakfast at 10:00.

 

[millie0312]

Sorry this happened to you too!! We had an issue with this as well and this was AFTER I went to handlers and servers asking about certain characters that walk past us, skipped us or left by the door near us. Not to mention we "got to" wait in line to see MINNIE (you know of Minnie's breakfast....) because if we didn't she was going to leave- thanks for the lovely waste of my $200 breakfast. We learned from that and went early last year and man what a difference!! Most came to our table 2-3 times and a few we just stopped interacting with we literally saw them that many times! We barely got to eat between characters! Side not however- food not great last year we literally landed in the hospital with food poisoning from there :-( however we have gone to storytellers yearly too and no matter what time we always get multiple interactions there- in fact the bears (from brother bear) and Meeko have always been so amazing with my shy daughter (ok the food is just amazing too lol) that we keep going back- if anyone else is interested. Only 4-ish characters but we always always get treated well there- the only time we missed someone at storytellers they brought BOTH kids authographed photos and felt so bad- Minnie's could not have cared less.

 

[loveswdw]

We had the same experience at Plaza last October. I had high hopes for this breakfast as it was so hyped on here and in my FB groups. We had a 10:30 reservation and they seated us outside. Took forever for the characters to come around and my DH and I took turns going into the buffet because we were afraid we'd miss a character. There were a lot of characters and we didn't get to see them all and it took forever for the ones we did. We were disappointed. The food was just okay.