Review of Plaza Gardens Character Breakfast

[Vala]

I had really high hopes for this, but alas it wasn't meant to be.

We went on Good Friday. Granted it is new, but certain things should have been ironed out by then.

Huge chaos when going in - no one checking reservations or at least names. Just checking on vouchers and collecting extra Money.

We were among the first 10 parties to get a table. There's no table allocations or anything, they just randomly Show you to the next table for your Party size.

Once we had sat down we wanted to go to the buffet, but were physically restrained by a Cast Member. "You can't go now, you have to wait til everyone is in!" SAY WHAT?! Doesn't make any sense, and holding a guest's arm to Keep them from moving is a complete no-no in my eyes.

A couple of minutes later - far from everyone being in - this ban was mysteriously lifted and we were allowed to get Food.

Food offerings are the usual, including the hot items being presented in for example Newport Bay where I was staying at that point.

If you are only looking at the food part you'll be happy.

The real shambles were the characters. Most of them practically ran past our table. Mickey ran past first, and when we stopped him for Pictures on the way back he tried to leave after every photo. And it was not like we wanted different combinations: just one photo with Mickey per person. It was so hectic, we never even got the Chance to ask for autographs or any other interaction.

We were later told that each seating has two character sets only per Group (the characters are split in two Groups which are alternating in the sections). It's one Set per half of the Restaurant and the characters have to get through that half in this one set. That gives them 20 seconds per table. Let me repeat this: 20 seconds! This was officially confirmed by two People, one of these two being a CM at City Hall who could not understand at all why I was so disappointed. I wasn't expecting to be given a Chance to tell someone my life Story. But 20 seconds is completely ridiculous.

Maybe it is different if you are a Family with Kids. We were all adults. Though the tables near us only got the chance for a Family photo and for one quick autograph too.

This seriously was the first time ever I was sitting at a character meal thinking "what just happened?"

A missed opportunity in my eyes, waste of time and money. As an added Insult to the injury this was supposed to be my late birthday present.

I will not be returning until some major adjustments are made.

 

[Ware Bears]

Oh Vala what a disappointment. I've never been to a character breakfast at DLP, I've only done lunch and dinner (and neither of those for several years) but we never felt rushed with the characters and when my DDs were young there was always time found for all of us to have individual photos as well as a family one and their autograph books signed.

Really hope they sort this out for the future ..... having a little more time with the characters at meals was one of the things we cherished DLP over WDW for.

BTW, belated birthday wishes to you!

 

[elena_n2o]

Thanks for sharing

I was having doubts about doing this but it's settled, we'll give it a miss...

 

[mikelan6]

Thanks for the review. Do you need to be a Disney Hotel guest or AP holder to do this breakfast?

 

[Vala]

Oh Vala what a disappointment. I've never been to a character breakfast at DLP, I've only done lunch and dinner (and neither of those for several years) but we never felt rushed with the characters and when my DDs were young there was always time found for all of us to have individual photos as well as a family one and their autograph books signed.

Really hope they sort this out for the future ..... having a little more time with the characters at meals was one of the things we cherished DLP over WDW for.

BTW, belated birthday wishes to you!

Thank you for the birthday wishes.

We've had handlers try to rush us before. Very rarely, but it happens. The worst case probably was the Halloween Brunch last year. But even that was not as rushed as this one.

I can't remember if I posted it back then: for the Inventions Halloween Brunch they stopped characters from signing autographs and tried to tell us we could only get one Group Picture per table. After some arguing they gave up on the Picture idea - they had set up the tables with that Little space that it was simply not possibly physically, there was not enough room. But even now some characters still won't sign, Mickey and friends mostly.

I'm also no stranger to "Curt" interactions either, mainly at the American Princess meals. But even there I still felt like I actually met the princesses. Not for this meal. A friend asked me who we had met and I had to go and check my camera!

When we did the Easter Brunches this year I admit we were a bit worried cause we were in the same room as a big VIP Group and after the Halloween disaster we expected a similar Situation as at the Plaza there. Those brunches actually turned out to be the Highlights of the trip. One time a handler tried to get a character away from us and to the VIP Group. But the character made it clear that they'd finish our table first. And that was it. No one bothered us again.

Anyway: yes, the Plaza breakfast clearly needs sorting. It has the potential to be a huge hit, the demand is clearly there. I think part of the Problem is that they do only two seatings, unlike the other meals where you can get various Reservation times. And now they are obsessed with getting everyone out on time.

Disneyland Anaheim has a character meal at the Plaza which is lovely. I hate the Food, but it is character heaven. For WDW I guess the best comparison is Crystal Palace which also works fine. It's really a System issue I think.

Thanks for the review. Do you need to be a Disney Hotel guest or AP holder to do this breakfast?

No. But you can only reserve 3 days before if you are not. Especially during busy times you simply will not get in cause the Slots have all been taken by Hotel guests. We were there for a week and the only Option we could get through that time was first seating that Friday.

 

[cdsmiler81]

Oh dear!!!! You know what, I'm sorry to say I'm not surprised. When all these changes were announced, and Cafe Mickey stopped doing characters....I had this feeling of dread..... fingers crossed it gets sorted soon or they think again QUICK!

(Belated happy birthday!!!)

C x

 

[cowza]

Not knocking your review but I wonder because it was good Friday the crowds were exceptionally heavy and they just weren't equip to deal with it?

Anyway would think they'd offer more sittings for periods that are going to be busy (like Easter).

I wonder how it fairs when it is not a major holiday period though.

Sorry it wasn't perfect for your birthday :-(

 

[sunshine1]

I wanted to go to this to meet Piglet - which side of the restaurant would I have to sit on?

 

[aprincessatlast]

Anyway: yes, the Plaza breakfast clearly needs sorting. It has the potential to be a huge hit, the demand is clearly there. I think part of the Problem is that they do only two seatings, unlike the other meals where you can get various Reservation times. And now they are obsessed with getting everyone out on time.

Disneyland Anaheim has a character meal at the Plaza which is lovely. I hate the Food, but it is character heaven. For WDW I guess the best comparison is Crystal Palace which also works fine. It's really a System issue I think.



No. But you can only reserve 3 days before if you are not. Especially during busy times you simply will not get in cause the Slots have all been taken by Hotel guests. We were there for a week and the only Option we could get through that time was first seating that Friday.

I tried to reserve today but the agent told me I could only book 3 days in advance and we are staying on property. She also told me they collect the money there for the difference. For us it would be around 100€ so if your review is the standard it sounds like a miss when we could eat the free CS and be fine. I did see Scrooge though on youtube at the breakfast which is the only reason I was looking at it. Can you meet him in the park?

 

[Vala]

Not knocking your review but I wonder because it was good Friday the crowds were exceptionally heavy and they just weren't equip to deal with it?

Anyway would think they'd offer more sittings for periods that are going to be busy (like Easter).

I wonder how it fairs when it is not a major holiday period though.

Sorry it wasn't perfect for your birthday :-(

The restaurant was sold out all trip. I've never seen Plaza set up additional tables - they're a tight fight as it is already. The lines to get in were very long each morning. I don't think there was any difference due to crowds. The Friday crowds overall seemed exceptionally low compared to the last years anyway.

"not perfect" is an understatement. lol "Worst character meal I have ever done" sounds more like it.

I wanted to go to this to meet Piglet - which side of the restaurant would I have to sit on?

They're coming to both sides, sorry if that came over wrong. Piglet went to the left side from the entrance on the first set if that helps.

I tried to reserve today but the agent told me I could only book 3 days in advance and we are staying on property. She also told me they collect the money there for the difference. For us it would be around 100€ so if your review is the standard it sounds like a miss when we could eat the free CS and be fine. I did see Scrooge though on youtube at the breakfast which is the only reason I was looking at it. Can you meet him in the park?

Not at the moment. He was out for Christmas season, but right now he is not in the parks regularly.

The sets were Tigger, Piglet and Eeeyore with the other group being Scrooge, Daisy and Mickey. That seems to be the standard group.

 

[Vala]

Oh dear!!!! You know what, I'm sorry to say I'm not surprised. When all these changes were announced, and Cafe Mickey stopped doing characters....I had this feeling of dread..... fingers crossed it gets sorted soon or they think again QUICK!

(Belated happy birthday!!!)

C x

Thank you.

I too got a really bad feeling too when Cafe Mickey closed. I was never a particular fan of it, especially not when they cut all rare characters. The service there was just too bad.

I hope Plaza Inn gets sorted, the park needs more character meals IMHO. Like I said, the main issue are those seating times I think. In Cafe Mickey they seemed to work somewhat. But unless I am estimating completely wrong Plaza is bigger.

 

[cdsmiler81]

Cafe Mickey had the huge upstairs room too though. We were lucky and the first 2 times we went there we were first upstairs and had a lovely corner table. Although the food was never outstanding, it was fine, and the character interaction we had in there was really good. 3rd visit we were downstairs in the goldfish bowl bit and it was less pleasant, but the characters were still great. Got spoilt by the food in Inventions though so hadn't been back since then! lol

But yes, the time slots worked there. Plaza HAS to learn from Cafe Mickey really. I'm just surprised that there's now NO WHERE in The Village for character dining. There's just less and less of it....

C x

 

[sunshine1]

But yes, the time slots worked there. Plaza HAS to learn from Cafe Mickey really. I'm just surprised that there's now NO WHERE in The Village for character dining. There's just less and less of it....

reasoning for that is Disney want people to buy a park ticket to see the characters.

 

[sunshine1]

The sets were Tigger, Piglet and Eeeyore with the other group being Scrooge, Daisy and Mickey. That seems to be the standard group.

do you see all six characters at both sittings?
thanks.

 

[Vala]

Cafe Mickey had the huge upstairs room too though. We were lucky and the first 2 times we went there we were first upstairs and had a lovely corner table. Although the food was never outstanding, it was fine, and the character interaction we had in there was really good. 3rd visit we were downstairs in the goldfish bowl bit and it was less pleasant, but the characters were still great. Got spoilt by the food in Inventions though so hadn't been back since then! lol

I've never seen the upstairs room used for breakfast though. Since this is about a character breakfast I only compared the breakfast situations I had experienced.

 

[Vala]

do you see all six characters at both sittings?
thanks.

Seems to be the same cast all the time, yes. I meanwhile had friends doing the second sitting and they say the System is the same I described for the first.

 

[cdsmiler81]

I've never seen the upstairs room used for breakfast though. Since this is about a character breakfast I only compared the breakfast situations I had experienced.

How interesting! I wonder why they never used upstairs! I'd never done the breakfast, and just assumed they'd utilise the space!

C x

 

[A Small World]

How interesting! I wonder why they never used upstairs! I'd never done the breakfast, and just assumed they'd utilise the space!

C x

They did use upstairs in Cafe Mickey for breakfast as we were up there both times we did it

 

[Vala]

Interesting. Every time I have been the stairs were blocked off.

 

[Firsttimer15]

We've been there too last week. My feelings are the same.
There were too many people at once. We did the second seating. It was chaos going in so I was stressed out from the beginning. They should not do 2 seatings but many different times.
I think it is okay to not let everyone go to get food at the same time at the buffet. That was okay with me.

We just wanted the kids to take pictures so the caracters didn't stay long and except for Tigger didn't do much interaction but the people around us had a lot of interaction inidividual pictures, groups, autographs. That didn't seem rushed to me.
What I personally didn't like was the food. I paid a hefty sum on top of the breakfast I could have had at the hotel bc it was in my dining plan so I expected better items there. But they had the same items the hotel had. It was cheap and bland also catering too much to Brits. I means it's France they should at least have decent croissants and some nice cheese. Even though we had the second seating the food was taken away very quickly. I expect to be able to go back to the buffet and not take just one plate and pile stuff on skyhigh bc I won't get more. Also no one said we had just so little time. The coffee was really gross. The same machines at the hotels and restaurants. Ugh I can't do without a decent coffe so had to back outside for the Starbucks. I am in no way picky and the complaining type but I really did not like it.
We did a couple character breakfasts in wdw and I liked those. Especially tusker house.
They really need to improve this breakfast