Resort Character Dinners- Which would you recommend?

[crazymomof4]

I just got the dining plan and was thrilled to see that you could use one of your sit down options for a character meal.

Since we will be checking into POP around 3-4 pm we won't be going into any park. I thought a character dinner would be a great way to kick off our trip but now I can't decide which one to go to.

If you have been to any of these please tell me what you liked or didn't like about them (ex: food, sevice, character interaction, atmoshpere, etc.):

~1900 Park Fare- Cinderella's Gala Feast
~Chef Mickey's Fun Time Buffet at Chef Mickey's
~'Ohana Character Breakfast
~Beach Club Buffet at Cape May Café

 

[matt&jakesmom]

We always start and end our trip with dinner/breakfast at Chef Mickey's. We love the place. The food is always good and a great variety. We love seeing Mickey,Minnie,Chip,Dale,and Goofy. For dinner we usually see Donald and for breakfast Pluto.

 

[disneydreamer98]

I just got the dining plan and was thrilled to see that you could use one of your sit down options for a character meal.

Since we will be checking into POP around 3-4 pm we won't be going into any park. I thought a character dinner would be a great way to kick off our trip but now I can't decide which one to go to.

If you have been to any of these please tell me what you liked or didn't like about them (ex: food, sevice, character interaction, atmoshpere, etc.):

~1900 Park Fare- Cinderella's Gala Feast
~Chef Mickey's Fun Time Buffet at Chef Mickey's
~'Ohana Character Breakfast
~Beach Club Buffet at Cape May Café

Have eaten at all of them except Beach Club.

1900 Park Fare...okay food, probably not my favorite, but love seeing Cinderella, Prince Charming, Suzy, Perla and Fairy Godmother.

Chef Mickey's...second favorite character dining next to Crystal Palace. Very good selection on the buffet. Very exciting and fun atmosphere with the gang and a great way to start out your vacation!

You said dinner...but then you have breakfast listed for Ohana. The character meal is only for breakfast, but dinner there is delicious!!! It is my all time favorite non-character meal!

(breakfast there is a lot of fun for the kids, they do hula hoop races and parades with the kids through the restaurant.)

 

[Kae]

We like Chef Mickey's have eaten there once & will be again on Friday. Park Faire we have not done. Beach Club one we have had Breakfast twice & it is one of our favorites. Ohana we did not enjoy the char meal.

Kae

 

[pbharris4]

We liked both Cape May Cafe and O'Hana's (we're doing Chef Mickey's this trip). They're both pretty good, but we are partial to Cape May since it's close to where we stayed the last few times.

 

[Thinktinknpixiedust]

Personally my family LOVES the crystal Palace. The food is incredible, breakfast or dinner, and who can resist Pooh bear!

 

[dgaston]

At 'Ohana there are hula hoop contests and coconut races for children, although no characters. I really like the meats there, but it does seem a menu for carnivores. Most people really enjoy Chef Mickeys -- I think the energy level can almost be too high there if any of your children tend to get over-excited. On the other hand there are lots of buffet choices. One of my favorites is Boma -- no characters, but a great chance to eat different cuisine, and walk around the hotel, checking out the animals, and maybe even hearing the evening story around the firepit.

 

[jwfla422]

1900 Pk Fare Dinner - we were disappointed in this one, food was just ok, nothing out of the norm for the high price and characters were rushed which we waited on for a while, wouldn't do this one again at dinner. Breakfast food is much much better IMHO, but characters are different at breeakfast

Chef Mickey's - food is mediocre here as well, characters are good, breakfast food is better than dinner, character interaction is good at both.

Cape May - great breakfast, food is good, character interaction pretty good, no characters at dinner, although dinner is pretty good here

O'Hana - we're trying breakfast next visit, it's been getting very tough to get into at breakfast if you wait to make a reservation so it must mean it's getting better. Dinner is one of our favorites but no characters at dinner, there are coconut races and hula hoop contests which are fun for the kids

The Swan's Gulliver's Grill has Pluto and Goofy every night at dinner except Friday and Monday when Timon and Rafikki join in at dinner. Food is pretty good and the buffet changes daily.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

I would rate Chef Mickey's and 1900 Park Faire the same food wise (although 1900 PF is supposed to be much better if you read the reviews). Chef Mickey's has a really fun atmosphere; probably more fun for kids. I would go by the characters that you want to see.

 

[crazymomof4]

OK- Now that I've read these replies, I realize that the only character dinners outside of the parks are at 1900 Park Fare and Chef Mickey's. That narrows it down some! (we won't be going into the park on our first day bc. we don't arrive 'til 3pm. So that is why I am not looking at the in-park character dinners)

So I'm really torn between making DD4 happy (Cinderella @ Park Fare) and making DS happy (Mickey, etc. @ Chef Mickey's). Ugh! This is the not-so-fun part of Disney planning!

 

[nichski]

We just got back from a 7 day trip in May. Have you actually calculated how much one more day would cost you to visit the parks? When we bought our tickets it was only another $8 total for the four of us for the 7th day in the parks. Our last day there we ate at Cinderella's royal table. We used the next 2 hours to ride a few last favorite rides and then exited the park at 11:30am. Although we were only there for 3 1/2 hours, for $8 it was worth it.

We also had the dining package. It was wonderful to use it for the character dining. We went to 1900 Park Fare and thought the food was fine. Our girls loved seeing Prince Charming and the mice. Since it was a buffet there was a nice selection. I liked it better than Akershus Storybook dining, at least at 1900 Park Fare you had more choices of what to eat. Akershus there was only 2 choices I believe. 1900 Park Fare seemed a little less rushed to meet and greet the characters.

Have fun!

 

[disneydreamer98]

OK- Now that I've read these replies, I realize that the only character dinners outside of the parks are at 1900 Park Fare and Chef Mickey's. That narrows it down some! (we won't be going into the park on our first day bc. we don't arrive 'til 3pm. So that is why I am not looking at the in-park character dinners)

So I'm really torn between making DD4 happy (Cinderella @ Park Fare) and making DS happy (Mickey, etc. @ Chef Mickey's). Ugh! This is the not-so-fun part of Disney planning!

So compromise....do Chef Mickey's the first night for DS (GREAT place to start your WDW vacation out right! Definitely more "festive" than 1900 Park Fare) and then make AR's at CRT during your stay for your DD. What's better than meeting Cinderella in her castle?!?!

 

[MomofKatie]

Forgive me if I sound silly, but from your origional post, I got the impression that you might think you can only do 1 Character meal during your whole stay with the MYW Dining plan. This is not true. You can do as many Character meals as you want- each one just uses 1 Dining credit per person, same as the regular Table Svc restaurants. So you could do both Chef Mickey's and 1900 Park Fare during your trip.

If you already know this, I apologize. Sometimes people that aren't familiar with the Dining plan get faulty info.

Have fun, wherever you decide to eat!

 

[GoingtoDisney]

We did Chef Mickey's the night of our arrival two weeks ago and loved it. Very fun atmosphere. The kids were thrilled with the characters and the excitement.

 

[crazymomof4]

. Have you actually calculated how much one more day would cost you to visit the parks? When we bought our tickets it was only another $8 total for the four of us for the 7th day in the parks. Our last day there we ate at Cinderella's royal table. We used the next 2 hours to ride a few last favorite rides and then exited the park at 11:30am. Although we were only there for 3 1/2 hours, for $8 it was worth it.

I hadn't considered that. I'll look into how much more it would be for 1 more day for the 6 of us (4 adult tickets and 2 children's) Then I'll talk it over w/ DH. We still may opt to do the char. dinner and then just head back to the resort and crash around the pool. Maybe the older boys will want to do the arcade at the resort. I know we'll be beat after a rushed drive down from NJ plus the rest of our stay will consisit of all day park touring, so not much time to just hang out at the resort. Thanks for the suggestion....it's a good one!

MomofKatie "I got the impression that you might think you can only do 1 Character meal during your whole stay with the MYW Dining plan. This is not true. You can do as many Character meals as you want- each one just uses 1 Dining credit per person, same as the regular Table Svc restaurants. So you could do both Chef Mickey's and 1900 Park Fare during your trip."

Another good suggestion! Our schedule is pretty tight, but maybe I can do some juggling and open up another evening to do a second char. dinner. The thing with us is that once we are park-touring we don't like to stop and go to a char. meal. We feel rushed to get back to the parks. So we usually do the char. meals on days when we aren't going into the parks. Maybe we can do it on the day we go to a waterpark since they close at 5pm anyway ...............sorry, I'm thinking as I type this..........I'll shut up now!

 

[Good Ol Gal]

When are you going? How many days are you going to be there for? We also tend to try for the resort meals on days off.

We're going to go to Chef Mickey's for breakfast on our last day..as late as possible so we can just leave from there, and to Cape May breakfast on our day off from the parks.

We have done:

1900 dinner and it was nice, but our 3 boys we're too excited about it.

Chef Mickey's we were stuck in a dark corner and didn't enjoy it. We're giving it another try for breakfast this time.

We are a go go go touring family also so I understand what you mean about not wanting to stop!

 

[jacksmom]

Chef Mickey is a good way to begin a trip! But, we actually prefer the character breakfast at Ohanas! It isn't as loud or crazy and the characters don't seem as rushed!

 

[crazymomof4]

I think we can manage to do both!

I'm going to schedule 1900 Park Fare for our first night as planned. (The boys are rolling their eyes about dinner w/ Cinderella and her gang....but too bad!!)

Then, I'm going to save one of the sit down meals on our plan for our very last day in POP (Sat). That will mean that while we are at MGM on Friday we will pay for our dinner rather than use the dining plan. Not a problem bc. we usually do well by splitting meals or ordering appetizers in place of entrees. Sat morning we will check out of POP, then go to "pre-register" and get the key to our rental house at 9am, be at Typhoon Lagoon by 10am, stay until 5pm then go to the house to change and return to the Contemporary for the char. buffet at Chef Mickey's.--- Sound like a plan??????

That's what I love about the DISboards-- you have a dilema or a choice to be made-- the good people of the DIS throw ideas and suggestions your way. You ponder them and re-vamp your schedule and "VIOLA" --Problem solved!!!

Thanks everyone!