Second Guessing Character Meals

[KimberlyE]

Planning our trip to WDW for September. DH went several times as a kid but this is first time for our 4 year old son and me. We love characters and I made ADR's for a character breakfast each morning with the secondary intention of also getting into the parks before they open.

Now I'm worried that I should have made some for lunch instead. While I expect some similar offerings (eggs, waffles, etc.) at each, I am concerned that there won't be anything to set each breakfast apart?

Here's our ADR list of Character breakfasts:
Monday - Hollywood N Vine
Tuesday - Askerhaus
Wednesday - Crystal Palace
Thursday - Tusker House
Friday - O'Hana

Can anyone tell me if there are any signature/different items at these?

 

[annacali]

I think you can find the menus at allears.net (or at least you used to be able to)

Just wanted to give you a little heads up on the character meals though (as a mom who just did 3 character meals in 3 days at Disneyland and decided it was a bit much!!!). We did meet LOTS of characters and it did save us time waiting for them in the parks...that was a big plus. However---I discovered, especially the two buffet ones that we did, meant that not much actual eating went on---me or the kids. I didn't eat because I was chief picture taker and every ime I even thought about going to the buffet here came another character. My kids didn't eat because they were WAY too busy looking to see where the characters were, when they were coming, seeing what they were doing at everyone else's tables etc. So, I always ended up having to feed them again about an hour after we were done "eating".

And, I know you are planning on getting to the parks early every day but sometimes the best laid plans...we got really tired, even with midday breaks that included actual naps for my 6 and 4yo, so 5 days of early am breakfasts would have been out of the question for us since we did go back to the parks in the evening some nights and stayed until 9 or so.

 

[MickeyMomTo2]

We like to have a variety of foods, rather than just big breakfasts every day, and I think lunch can be a nice time for a good, sit-down break. We like the lunch food at Crystal Palace. Only you know what will work best for your family, but I would change a few of them to lunches (or dinners) if it were me.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

I feel you can never had too many character meals but we do character lunches (Crystal Palace and Hollywood and vine we did lunch instead of breakfast). Hope this helps

 

[brendaziz]

Planning our trip to WDW for September. DH went several times as a kid but this is first time for our 4 year old son and me. We love characters and I made ADR's for a character breakfast each morning with the secondary intention of also getting into the parks before they open.

Now I'm worried that I should have made some for lunch instead. While I expect some similar offerings (eggs, waffles, etc.) at each, I am concerned that there won't be anything to set each breakfast apart?

Here's our ADR list of Character breakfasts:
Monday - Hollywood N Vine
Tuesday - Askerhaus
Wednesday - Crystal Palace
Thursday - Tusker House
Friday - O'Hana

Can anyone tell me if there are any signature/different items at these?

Personally- that line up sounds great to me!
As long as u dont mind getting up early for the meals- i think it'll be great.
I'm an early bird and LOVE yummy big breakfasts so i think u cant miss.

But if u wanna ditch one- you wouldnt be lackng i'm sure.
But dont worry about them being alike. Those are all SOOO different.

 

[JoePa4Ever]

Personally- that line up sounds great to me!
As long as u dont mind getting up early for the meals- i think it'll be great.
I'm an early bird and LOVE yummy big breakfasts so i think u cant miss.

But if u wanna ditch one- you wouldnt be lackng i'm sure.
But dont worry about them being alike. Those are all SOOO different.

I agree with brendaziz. We do 3-5 character brkfsts on our trip & we get the earliest adr possible so we will be done in time for rope drop. It works great for us, but everyone is different. And as brendaziz stated, all of the brkfsts you have are different, so I don't think you'll find them repetitive.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

As far as the food goes we went to three of your choices for breakfast in February and found them to be quite different.

Ohanas - the juice is lovely, the welcome bread unlike anyone elses. The fruit dish is served family style as is the hot breakfast, bacon, sausage, eggs and jacket wedges type of potatoes. They also serve mickey waffles.

Akershaus, the buffet is mainly pastries, lox and salami and fruit. The cooked breakfast is still bacon, sausage and eggs but the potato casserole is awesome, I could eat ten plates of it right now.

Crystal Palace is more of a traditional buffet, must have piglet and pooh waffles and pancakes. They make omelettes and eggs at the station here and also offer breakfast pizza.

The three are quite different from each other as are the characters - can't comment on your other two though sorry.

In a week's holiday we will typically do 5 character meals, never had an issue with our two children eating. Also it helps us get to eat because they don't want to leave until they have seen all the characters as opposed to that usual 'I've eaten - let's go' that children usually show at disney.

Also we have a deal, if we do a character meal that day then no other autographs except for rare ones. No character meal then we stand in unlimited lines!!

 

[MaleficentMama]

My DS7 and I do the Deluxe Dining Plan and we really enjoy squeezing in as many character and signature dining experiences as we can. They never get old!
My DS still loves the Hollywood N Vine breakfast even though I thought he would have outgrown it by now. He still insists it's a must do on every trip. The breakfast is pretty standard breakfast food - nothing outstanding, but pretty good.
Crystal Palace is a great meal! We just love seeing Pooh, Tigger, Eyore, and Piglet and I think the character interaction here is some of the best. The characters really seem to take their time with the kids and they really make this an enjoyable experience.
Tusker House is my favorite character meal of them all, food wise that is. I think the offerings at this breakfast are like no other. The menu is listed on allears.net and everything is fantastic - especially the warm vanilla pudding. Yum!
One character meal that you don't have listed that my son believes is the make-or-break meal of the trip is Chef Mickey's. You should look into having some towel-swinging magical fun!
Hope you have a great vacation and I'm sure you'll love each and every character meal.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

Love character breakfast. I say u can never have to many. The only other breakfast I really like is Kona for Tonga Toast.

 

[Tiger926]

I would definitely change some to lunch or dinners even. We aren't huge breakfast eaters, but we find that the breakfast offerings are quite similar and get tiring after awhile. We can't eat eggs or many dairy products, so this a problem. We do a few breakfasts for the character interactions, but much prefer lunch or dinners for character meals. We've done every one of the restaurants on your list, multiple times, and there are some that are much better than others - love Crystal Palace, we think 'O Hana is the worst character meal on property, Tusker House is rushed, and Hollywood & Vine is just not good, for B, L or Dinner. I mention this, because you are going to see the same foods over again, and when they are runny eggs, dry waffles or warm juice, it might not appeal to you for so many days in a row.

Regarding not eating - you have to make a deal or terms before you sit down in regards to having the kids eat. If they aren't eating, you could send the characters away until they eat something. We've done this, and it worked out for us. Our kids like to eat, but they also love characters, and because we go often, they know the terms and conditions of eating at character meals. They have to eat a little bit of something, or no characters.

Good luck, Tiger

 

[flipflopmom]

We just did all of those, and loved them. There are a few different offerings at each, and the only time we had to wait for a character was the Fairies, a HUGE PLUS!!!!!! We had the same plan as you, with 8 am ADRs with 9 am rope drop. The family got pretty tired by the end of the week getting up at 6:30 every morning to make sure we got to the bus. Something to think about, we changed our Ohana to a 10:45 on an EMH morning, we did that first before breakfast, then took our break after breakfast. That left us with the choice of going to EMH or not, which we did. Dh actually really enjoyed doing that. Just a word of caution, not once did we finish before 8:58, and we thought we'd enjoy the stroll through the parks and take lots of pictures on our way to breakfast, well, we didn't. They kind of herd you along,

 

[cranleys]

For our trip in September, all of our character meals are breakfasts. I do this for a couple of reasons. I think that its a great way to start the day, it just means the disney magic happens a little bit earlier. The kids are at their freshest, and there's no rush to get to anything ie. "hurry up, the show starts in 15 minutes...", etc. Breakfast is also one of my favourite meals, and what better way to spend breakfast then watching your child meet Mickey for the first time.
The places you have chosen are all very different as others have pointed out, and so are the characters. I think you have a great line-up.
Have a wonderful trip, and lots of wonderful meals.

 

[tami82]

The breakfasts are nice but i would be afraid tht i would fill up too much and then be very sluggish all day. If you can try to throw in a lunch or two.

 

[Don Disney]

I'm going to have to agree with the OP;You can never have too many character meals in my opinion;But we do dinners instead of breakfast or lunch.It just works better for us!

 

[SassyCat]

Crystal Palace is more of a traditional buffet, must have piglet and pooh waffles and pancakes. They make omelettes and eggs at the station here and also offer breakfast pizza.

!!

We are having breakfast at Crystal Palace for the first time this trip (had dinner there in Jan). They have Piglet and Pooh waffles? How cute!! Does this mean they don't have mickey waffles? I like to have a mickey waffle if possible, and this was going to be my one chance! lol The only other breakfast we are doing is Akershus (I'm really excited though! hehe).

 

[septbaby]

It should be easy to change Hollywood and Vine to lunch, go ahead and do that.

The Norway meal is an unsual menu, just check the menu to be sure lunch actually suits you; lots won't like the food then. If the menu suits you and it won't upset your park plans, change that one too.

Be sure to get the lunch ressie before you cancel the breakfast, lol.

You've made some great choices, you family should enjoy no matter what, good job.

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

We do character lunches and dinners instead, since atbreakfast, I would feel like I had to rush through eating and seeing the characters to get into the park at a decent hour. My bigger concern with your plan is the sheer number of character meals. We love the characters, too, but by our fourth character meal everyone (even the 2 and 4 year old) were getting a bit jaded. "Eh. Look. Another character. Pose, smile, back to my food."

Have fun with whatever you choose!

 

[clc053103]

Does your DS like characters- has he been exposed to them before, like Elmo at a birthday party? I bring this up because you would be surprised how many kids ages 3-5 are frightened of them (like my DS- he only likes "face characters"). In addition, some kids that aren't afraid of them just aren't that interested in them. If that ends up being the case, that's a LOT of character meals to cancel and find another ADR to replace. So if your DS hasn't been around characters IRL, I would suggest trying it out before the trip.

I do think that's an awful lot of character breakfasts- but we don't really like buffets to begin with. If a buffet every morning suits you, then I am sure each will offer a few specialty items so you arent' eating the same pancakes every day!

 

[KimberlyE]

Does your DS like characters- has he been exposed to them before, like Elmo at a birthday party? I bring this up because you would be surprised how many kids ages 3-5 are frightened of them (like my DS- he only likes "face characters"). In addition, some kids that aren't afraid of them just aren't that interested in them. If that ends up being the case, that's a LOT of character meals to cancel and find another ADR to replace. So if your DS hasn't been around characters IRL, I would suggest trying it out before the trip.

That's great advice - glad you mentioned it! We were planning to go last year but DS wanted nothing to do with characters. Since last winter he has been exposed to several characters in different environments and he's developed a great fondness with them. In fact he's over the moon whenever someone in costume is around so we figured now was the perfect time for a trip.

Thanks everyone for your great advice - I'm no longer worried about the food variety so it's down to weighing the early park entry. Anyone else been in mid-September, will early entry really be needed?

 

[KimberlyE]

I know my trip was last September but due to too any things to discuss, I haven't been able to get back on board and post an update. We decided to stick with the breakfast plans as listed. It actually worked out very well. DH wasn't so thrilled about being up early (he is not a morning person) but I prepared for this ahead of time by just telling him he was going to have to suck it up since waking up at 9:30 was not an option..

My son loved it! (Well he couldn't have cared less about the Princesses and refused to even talk to any of them). We finally got him to talk to Snow White and the poor woman was quizzed to death about the dwarves. (BTW, those Disney cast members are amazing - she had an answer for ALL of his questions about the dwarves.) Then he saw Ariel and he was so taken with her that we had to take him to the buffet so she could move on to the next table. He is 4 but I have a real suspicion that one day in the far future my daughter-in-law will be a red-head!

I will say that I was amazed at how different each breakfast was and I needn't have worried about being tired of or bored by selection. There was such a variety. Because we were on the DDP, cost per amount wasn't an issue so we didn't stuff ourselves. It might have differed if I was paying full price for the breakfasts. I will follow these same plans for future trips as I can say it was so relaxing to be sitting in the park finishing your meal right before rope drop. We strolled right to Dumbo on MK day and were able to ride a second time before the lines began in earnest.