re: Frustrated w/so many bad/mixed reviews of character meals. Help!

[KathleensKid]

here's just a tiny "taste" of what I do remember from our trip which was all about the kids.

Chef Mickey's
Look at those happy kids! Who cares what we ate. Look how happy they are!

Donald!!

Dancing with Minnie (the video of this is priceless)

CRT:
A private one on one with Cindy

Ds, age 6 ("I'm too old for this!"), having a delightful chat with Ariel about the fact that they both have dogs named Max. He loooved her.

Snow White! The only place we saw her!

Dh and I love fine food and fine wine. We can get that at home in the city where we live. At Disney, we were neither looking for nor expecting fine cuisine, we were looking for Disney Magic and we found it in spades at character meals. We also ate at Tusker House and Hollywood and Vine - they were equally magical for the kids (and by association) us!
Have a great trip. Relax, let the Disney Magic be infectious, don't expect fine cuisine, and have a terrific trip!

 

[Princess Sara's Mom]

KathleensKid: LOVE IT!!!!!!!

 

[juliebug1997]

We had a different experience at Ankershus. Granted, we are two adults with no kids but we didn't enjoy the character interaction as much, didn't think the setting of the restaurant was as nice and didn't enjoy the food as much (only a few bread choices but we couldn't find a toaster or anything to save our lives!). We went there because we read so many good things about it but our experience was much different. And, even my husband--an ultimate carnivore, looked at their lunch and dinner menus and shook his head. It was breakfast only for us.

My husband actually asked for CRT this trip! We enjoyed being able to eat in the castle and, at breakfast, our waiter even brought us more food! We didn't feel rushed (in fact, have never felt rushed there) and we've had all three meals there now. All three meals were delicious and magical and so extremely special. Last year was our first trip together and this was the one meal (at 35) that I was the most excited about. I bounced all the way to the castle that morning according to my husband.

We enjoyed Chef Mickey's but we were there at breakfast.

Garden Grill was a happy surprise for us. We ate there last year as we are both Chip and Dale fanatics but the food was awful. The character interaction was awesome though!!! This year, we needed a meal filler so I persuaded DH to go back. The food was so much better and the character interaction was still terrific. I would add this one if you could.

I am obviously Team CRT so I say keep it. Dress your little girl up in her princess dress, make your son a pirate (there was one at our dinner and the princesses made such a big deal of a friend of Jack Sparrow's being there!) and go to CRT.

 

[mnscp]

I don't know which one I would drop, seeing as how I have only dined at one, Crystal Palace, however we LOVED our lunch there! The people were super friendly, the characters came around twice each, the food was exceptionally good, and the POOH characters were just amazing. I would highly recommend it!

 

[JD698]

Not having gone to WDW yet, I can't speak from experience, but to me, it's all about the experience for the kids. It's not really about the food - it's about the whole character experience. There are so many more things you can stress about, that should be the least of your stresses!!!

 

[Magic3forme]

We were just at Chef Mickeys on Friday night. ( I have a cheese allergy, so I am limited to the food on the buffet.). My kids and dh love love the Mickey shaped ravioli. it is their favorite thing to eat! Do I love the food there? absolutely not... but seeing my kids smile when Mickey and Minnie come to our table and give them attention... it is beyond worth it!! and thats what keeps us coming back!! and I love to just watch the monorail!!

CP .. I personally like the food alot better there. but again, I am not there for the food... we are there for the characters!! and the smiles!!

CRT... I took my girls when they were 2 & 4... but they both were totally into the princesses.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

When we went a few years ago with our 5 and 6 year olds we went to the following character dining...Cape May, 1900 PF, Hollywood & Vine. We enjoyed the character meals b/c of the interaction. The characters were great and spent a few moments at your table for pics, autographs. The food was decent...far from the worst I have ever eaten, but far from the best. The important thing is that the kids faces lit up everytime a character came up to the table to interact with them...which for us is totally worth it.

We are going back next Christmas with our 3, 4, 9, 11 year olds and planning on lots of character dining...regardless of the reviews. This trip would be the first for our 2 youngest and we want them to have those same experiences our older kids had. For that trip we are planning/hoping for Chef Mickey, Cape May, Garden Grill, Tusker House, 1900 PF, Crystal Palace & Hollywood/Vine. We are still planning on a few non-character places our older kids will enjoy.

 

[Mkrop]

Wow, thanks for all the great posts and advice. It really helped me calm down! You are all right that it is about the kids and the character interaction so I probably need to stop worrying about the quality of the food so much as we won't starve! I'm just a perfectionist when it comes to planning trips and it's hard to go into trip accepting some of the places we choose will just be ok if you know what I mean. But it's not an adult food driven trip, so I need to remind myself it's a toddler trip.

I'm definitely keeping CP for lunch as my kids are huge Winnie fans and that 1 just can't be missed and it looks like 1 of the better places to eat in MK and will be nice break.

I thought 1 poster had a good point that my kids may be too young to appreciate CRT. Anyone else agree? DS is 4 and DD will just be 3 in Jan. She just started to like princesses mainly Snow White but it's not a huge obsession yet. Maybe we should wait on this 1 till older? We've got family in Orlando and will probaby be there once a yr for the next couple of yrs so we will be back.

I"m leaning towards keeping Chef Mickey's for now mainly for convenience, in hotel, and a great way to welcome to Disney with FAB 5.

Thanks again and keep them coming if anyone has other thoughts!

You can say that about any experience. The hotel might not live up to expectations (although we love CR), the counter service may not etc.

You need to decided for yourself.

We love character meals, we love meeting characters and eating..win/win.

We dont have any complaints about Chef Mickey's and we have always had a good meal at Crystal Palace. We have never done CRT.

I read tons of reviews and almost cancelled Garden Grill. We loved it there our first couple times going, then the last time we went, I did not like the food at all, different options, I ate off the kids menu. But my ILs and DH loved it, so you never know and once again the character interaction is what we go for.

Plus remember more people post negatives than positives.