Reviews/Thoughts on the Character Dining?

[luulu1999]

I absolutely love character meals. Our favorite, right now, is Minnie's for the amount of characters. We have found the best interaction by booking the first seating for an inside table.

We enjoy Surf's Up also. Stitch is awesome!

I was not impressed with Ariel's at all. Bad service, very limited interaction.

I was not impressed with Storytellers either. Only three of the characters came to our table, two of which were Chip and Dale, who you can see at multiple character meals and many places in the parks.

Goofy's was a disappointment with the reduction in the number of characters. Now it is only Goofy at the photo station, Minnie, Pluto, and Chip and Dale.

When did that happen with Goofy's?? We went last July and seen Genie and have seen others there in the past

 

[lorijohnhill]

The change occurred October 1st of last year. They eliminated the dancing with the kids also. Now the five character run through while twirling napkins. It was quite a letdown for us.

I really feel that if they are going to limit the number of characters, and still charge such a high price, the least they could do is make all of the characters unique to each venue. Unfortunately, there is a lot of duplication among the character meals.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

We have done most of them. Our favorite is Plaza Inn. The food isn't as good as Goofy's, but we never see less than a dozen characters. We always eat on our last day...more relaxed since we don't feel like we are wasting prime morning riding time.

 

[seobaina]

Fantastic. Thanks everyone. GenGen22 - sorry you had a bad time x

 

[jennilee17]

Has anyone seen Mickey at Minnie's Breakfast? Our older daughter LOVES minnie and our Younger daughter loves Mickey. I was hoping to be able to catch both at one meal!

 

[JessieD]

Has anyone seen Mickey at Minnie's Breakfast? Our older daughter LOVES minnie and our Younger daughter loves Mickey. I was hoping to be able to catch both at one meal!

I haven't been to a character meal, but I have been reading a lot about them for our upcoming trip. I believe your best bet at seeing both of them would be Surfs Up

 

[lorijohnhill]

I haven't been to a character meal, but I have been reading a lot about them for our upcoming trip. I believe your best bet at seeing both of them would be Surfs Up

Yes, the only breakfast where you can find Mickey is at Surf's Up. Minnie is at Surf's Up also.

 

[seobaina]

Are any of the fab five guaranteed (as much as poss) to be at pch or storytellers?

 

[TakeMeToNeverland]

We loved Minnie's breakfast at the Plaza Inn. Great mix of characters: Minnie, the Fairy Godmother, Chip & Dale, Pooh & friends, Hook and a few others that I am forgetting. The food was great, although the kids didn't eat much with all of the excitement. Super fun and well worth it!

 

[TakeMeToNeverland]

Also...If you do not see both Minnie & Mickey there are several opportunities to catch them around both parks. The characters seem to switch at the top of the hour in the hub. We were on a mission for autographs and caught several characters there throughout the day.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I have become less impressed with the character meals as time has gone on.

The two we had a good time at was Storyteller's & Surf's Up. The food was good and the character interaction was great, even if two of the characters couldn't sign at Storyteller's. I am currently debating Surf's Up for our November trip for our Stitch loving kid.

Goofy's was ok until the switch to the set 5. Part of what I loved about here was the suprise and number of characters. Plus it's the only dinner. We had a late dinner here two years ago and Alice & the Mad Hatter had a tea party on the floor with my kids. The set characters just doesn't interest me.

Ariel's was a let down. It started with Ariel not even being at the entrance - we had our picture taken with Cinderella. While I like that this is sit down and that the princesses come around in a set fashion, our service was horrible and it seemed rushed. We had great experiences here in the past though, so maybe it was an off day.

I have been most disappointed with Plaza Inn. Yes, you will find the most amount of characters here, so that is a plus. However the last two times we've been here, we've watched characters go by our table, in the next section over, without stopping for over an hour. Both times I had to find a lead to explain the problem and I wasn't the only one complaining. This last time it was remidied faster, but the time before that we ended up sitting 2 hours before a single character came by and that was after talking a lead 3 times. I will give this another plus in that it's in the park, so it's the most convienent.

 

[Sherry E]

Are any of the fab five guaranteed (as much as poss) to be at pch or storytellers?

Mickey, Minnie and Pluto are regulars at Surf's Up (along with Daisy and Stitch). Pluto has been seen at the Critter Breakfast sometimes but he is not a regular (unless something has changed that I am unaware of). There are about 5 or 6 characters at all the meals except for Minnie & Friends, which has the most characters.

 

[wsssup]

We did Ariel's, Plaza inn and surfs up.
Plaza inn was the best by far. We had Minnie, Pluto, Tiger, pooh, Goofys kid max I think, Chip n dale, fairy godmother, and the baboon from lion king oh and eeyore. Chip n dale as well as tiger are awesome.

Stitch was great at surfs up but it seems way to rushed at surfs up.

 

[seobaina]

Thanks again guys. We wanna do more than one meal but I'm still mixed on which. We're all adults but big Disney character fans. One of my group wants to see Minnie in traditional costume, one wants mickey, one wants princesses (mostly belle) and I'd like the brother bear/meeko option. It's difficult to decide which to go for to save us time/trouble in the parks x

 

[nicolispicoli]

I've done Goofy's (many times), Minnie & Friends and recently Ariel's for the first time.

The last few times we went to Goofy's, it was just meh and when they switched to only 5, I stopped going there all together.

Minnie & friends is great and it's nice to be in the parks. The characters have always been plentiful and friendly, the food is good as well.

A few months back we tried Ariel's. I knew it was time for my princess obsessed 4-year-old dd. It was so perfect! The food was really good, service great and the character presentation and interaction was fantastic. The adorable doll playing Mulan was the sweetest. She remembered my dd from the DLR fantasy faire meet and greet the day before because of her mini stuffed bullseye, I swear it made my girls day. I would definitely go back to Minnie or Ariel's. I might try Storytellers this September when we stay at GCH again.

 

[seobaina]

Has goofy's switched to a particular 5 characters? Can I ask who you had at each meal (character wise)? X

 

[nicolispicoli]

Has goofy's switched to a particular 5 characters? Can I ask who you had at each meal (character wise)? X

I can't speak from firsthand experience for the 5 character situation at Goofy's now, but I think it's usually Minnie, Goofy, Chip, Dale and Pluto.

At Minnie's, we've seen (of course) Minnie, Chip, Dale, Captain Hook, Winnie the Pooh, Pluto, Eeyore, Tigger, possibly others I can't remember.

When we went to Ariel's we saw Ariel, Tiana, Mulan, Belle and Cinderella.

 

[seobaina]

Thank you x

 

[AddictedtoDoleWhip]

I have done Surf's Up, Minnie's Breakfast (at Plaza Inn) and Storyteller's Cafe.

There are a lot more characters imo at Minnie's breakfast, I know that I saw quite a bit of characters the last time I had breakfast there. I also thought the food was pretty good, though I wasn't disappointed in the food at Surf's Up or Storyteller's.
If you really like Stitch and don't have a Disney Visa card the only place you will see him is at Surf's Up, which was the sole purpose of me eating there.
Last time I went to Storytellers I saw Meeko, a few other characters that I did not recognize (but they were bears of some sort.) and Chip.

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks again guys. We wanna do more than one meal but I'm still mixed on which. We're all adults but big Disney character fans. One of my group wants to see Minnie in traditional costume, one wants mickey, one wants princesses (mostly belle) and I'd like the brother bear/meeko option. It's difficult to decide which to go for to save us time/trouble in the parks x

I can see why it's hard to pick
After doing them I'm torn on what I'd repeat

Minnies's had the best characters but I wasn't impressed with the food. It is odd to be a buffet but you don't serve yourself. And they ran out of things and took a bit of time to refill them. Odd too since with servers right there dishing it out you'd expect them to be on top of when to replenish. Though something to keep in mind, they have so many characters chances are good that all of them will not make it to your area. A lot did but a few never came to our half of the restaurant. We had great interactions with the ones that did come around

Storytellers had the best food. Characters were fun but aside from Chip and Dale not very well known. I don't think many people watched the Brother Bear movie. But we had them come by several times and they really were very interactive. All of them were signing autographs too, even the 2 bears

Goofy's had ok food (We did dinner), not great but not bad. And the characters and interactions were very ordinary and run of the mill. I'd call it vanilla all the way around. Sort of a clone of Chef Mickey at WDW now, which disappointed me as we were wanting different than we usually get. So I do know we would not go here again

We had a very nice time at Ariel's. We did a later lunch and were not rushed at all. We all loved our food. Really nice that it wasn't breakfast for a change. We didn't luck in to seeing any of the more rare princesses but it was still great. We'd probably do it again since it's not a buffet and we can do lunch