Plaze Inn vs. PCH Grill Character Breakfast

[ifer924]

We can get a reservation for 7am or 7:30 at PCH Grill (yes my family gets up early anyway) OR we can get 8:10am at Plaza but I worry we're using up valuable park time, not sitting down to eat until after 8am. We'll be 5 nights at Disney but with 6 4 and 2 year old I know we'll mostly do 1/2 days and evenings in the park. Any suggestions on which is better for Character meetings and food quality. I've read more negative about Plaza Inn but it also has more reviews so of course I'll see more negative. I've read PCH grill is more fun and interactive, active is good for my little ones that lack patience. Thanks!

 

[Malcon10t]

My personal preference is Surf's Up from all the the character meals. Best interaction and better food. Plaza Inn is iffy. We have had a couple great visits, but more negative ones. One visit we see great characters, plenty of time. Next visit, 2 characters in 90 mins. Surf's Up, there is the buffet, but they do have servers to replenish drinks and clear tables. Plaza Inn is buffet, but also drinks are buffet which means we are up and down a lot since we drink a lot. Surf's Up characters wil be Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Daisy, Stitch, sometimes Pluto and and Max.

 

[mom2rtk]

We prefer Plaza Inn just for the variety of characters. We love the random nature of it. Surfs Up is a pretty set group that doesn't change.

If park time is an issue, I would give the edge to Surfs Up. But you don't say where you are staying? It would make a difference if it was more involved getting to and from PPH. We stayed in that hotel last December and passed on Surfs Up in favor of PI just for the different characters. We chose to do a late breakfast (9:45 or 10) so we could still enjoy the early park hours. We loved seeing 9 random characters (could be less, but will almost always be more than the 5 you see at Surfs Up).

 

[keltiesmom]

We did both last year if I had to chose one I think I would choose surfs up. The food was not great but the interaction was amazing. We decided on a whim to go for breakfast and were in the last sitting so the food was kind of old and getting cold. The inlet station was closed too. If the food was better I would choose it hands down. They get the kids up dancing and learning to surf and stitch is so much fun. It's a hoot!

 

[3monkeys4me]

We've done both a few times now. We have had good experiences at both. I give the food at Surfs Up an edge but my kids love the characters at Minnies. Rafiki is a family favorite and we have been lucky enough to run into him every time we have been at Minnies.

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

We much prefer the character interaction at Minnie's. When we go, we usually do a late seating (brunch or early lunch for us) and grab something to eat in our hotel room for breakfast before we hit the park. We're usually ready for a break about then. On one trip, we were there over 2 MM days, so we used our MM on our first day, and then when MM came around again, we had the earliest seating for Minnie's, which was during MM hour. Even though we'd used our MM, we were able to go to Minnie's, and then started our day in the park just after regular rope drop, so it wasn't wasting any of our usual park time.

 

[Nicolette11785]

I have done both and like both.

Surfs up character interaction is amazing! Especially early in the morning when the restaurant was practically empty. My son also loved that he could get smoothies there. More variety of food there. You also get to see Mickey and Stitch which are popular. We never had any lines here since there were only 4-5 families there at the time (7am). They also sang to my son for his birthday and had a cupcake for him. Minnie's did not celebrate.

The thing I love about Minnie's is how many characters are there. There are usually 10-13 during your meal. The first time I went to this meal the character interaction was pretty good because we were seated in the middle of the room. The recent time we went we were in a booth in the corner and the character interaction was really bad. I would only go back if we could be seated in the middle of the room again. The lines for food are a bit longer here (both for checking in and getting your food). It is much more crowded and loud here.

Basically I like Minnie's for the quantity of characters
Surfs up for the quality

 

[DG24]

We went to Minnie's last month and we loved it, 10 characters. The lines for us were short and the food was good, not great but good. We did a 10:30 or one of the last seatings, we grabbed a quick breakfast in the morning and then did this more as a lunch. So we did not have to use much of the golden hours in the morning.

I can't say much about surfs up, it was called something else last time we went there. I will say it was good, but I don't remember it being any better, but like I said it was a long time ago.

 

[James G]

I've done both and had a blast at both of them. I liked surfs up. More interaction and I liked a few items at the buffet more. I don't think you can go wrong with either.

 

[Carolynleanne]

We're big fans of Surfs Up! Love he food and the character interaction is fantastic.

 

[sgrap]

Do plaza inn later in the morning for brunch, IMO.