The Best Character Meal?

[JB02]

I'm heading to WDW this August with family. There will be several small children around 8 years old. We were wondering what the best character meals are. We want to go to at leat two this trip and are open to suggestions.

The last time we were at Disney was in 2015 and we all really enjoyed Chef mickey's, with that said, we are open to restaurant with less classic Disney characters.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Cinderella94]

If they like Lilo and Stitch, we love Ohana breakfast. We also love Cape May breakfast.

 

[sunshinetree]

Tusker House is great. It has the classic Mickey & friends characters but in their safari gear!

 

[DISNEY1975]

You should ask the kids who they like best and find the restaurant that has those characters. Everyone on DIS is going to have a different opinion, because Im sure, everyone has different likes!

Personally, I like Cape May's characters..love the beachwear! But the food at 1900 PF is probably my favorite for a breakfast buffet.

 

[eastendlights]

We have done a ton of character dining during our 17 trips. By far, the best character interactions we have ever had are at Garden Grill. We were just there earlier this month and not only did my daughter turn 21 during the trip but she also found out she was accepted to the DCP. I told Chip, Dale, Mickey and Pluto about this and all of them had hysterical and unique "responses". Mickey assured me he would watch out for her, make her go to bed on time, not party too much and report back to me. Chip and Dale mixed martinis, took her out dining and dancing, snuck out without paying the checks and sent them to me-Lol. Pluto opened up champagne, shared it with her, put some in his water bowl and danced with her. It was hysterical, they all did this independently of one another and we came away with an even bigger appreciation of the CMs who put their hearts into playing these roles.

The food is awesome also.

 

[CynBeth]

We love Crystal Palace, Cape May, and TH for breakfast.

 

[ilovevacation]

This may sound odd but we you looking for the best food or character interaction? I think, although subjective, they are a bit different.
Food- we absolutely love cape may for breakfast . They do have characters and we had the first reservation of the day so we had good character time since the restaurant wasn't busy.
Character- we enjoyed garden grill, also for breakfast. Again we had a opening reservation and had great interaction. The food was also great but is family style.

 

[ChasingLeslie]

My favorite two are 1900 PF dinner and Tusker House breakfast. I also like Crystal Palace at any meal.

 

[jwfla422]

You should ask the kids who they like best and find the restaurant that has those characters. Everyone on DIS is going to have a different opinion, because Im sure, everyone has different likes!

Personally, I like Cape May's characters..love the beachwear! But the food at 1900 PF is probably my favorite for a breakfast buffet.

I agree with this as well, but absolutely LOVE the MAD HATTER at PF-he is hilarious! CMC has very good interaction especially towards the end of breakfast as they tend to come around again and just "GOOF" around! We just did this breakfast yesterday. But PF has a nice variety with 5 characters (Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter, Pooh & Tigger) instead of the 3 at CMC.

There is a new character breakfast -Bon Voyage Breakfast Adventure - starting next month at the BWI/BWV resort @ Trattoria al Forno which will feature Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel & Flynn which is quite a different mix We will be checking that out the end of next month.

 

[rosiebean]

Our favorite for food and character interaction has been 'Ohana and Crystal Palace (lunch). Everything was great at both.

The characters at Tusker House were great, but I found the food (dinner) ok and the overall restaurant chaotic.

Worst for us for food and characters was Garden Grill at breakfast. It wasn't awful, but I found much of the food to be just ok. Eggs dry, meat too greasy (and I'm not one to shy away from grease)...but the pull apart sweet bread was amazing. It was very hard to interact with the characters with a big party in the long booths. And the characters were not very energetic. Still, I'd say if you like the characters here, try it out! I haven't been to 1900 PF for dinner, but want to do go one time for the characters...despite reviews that are all over the place .

 

[JB02]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The kids love Winnie the Pooh and friends, so perhaps we will try Crystal Palace for lunch or dinner. Do you think having a resertvation for a late lunch, around 2:30, would help with the character interaction? Still deciding on the second character meal.

 

[Nutbean]

For character meals, I've been to dinner at Garden Grill, Crystal Palace and Cinderella's Royal Table.

Character interactions were all basically the same so I'd give the win to Garden Grill for price point, tastiest food, and the rotating restaurant looking down at Living with the Land is cool.

 

[rosiebean]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The kids love Winnie the Pooh and friends, so perhaps we will try Crystal Palace for lunch or dinner. Do you think having a resertvation for a late lunch, around 2:30, would help with the character interaction? Still deciding on the second character meal.

We went to CP for a late lunch the Friday after Thanksgiving last year...MK was pretty busy that day (even though it was slower earlier in the week) and CP was full as well (we waited 15-20 minutes beyond our ADR before getting seated). Even with a pretty busy restaurant, the characters were on a great, steady rotation and came by our table more than once. We waved them off the second time so that they could spend more time at tables recently seated. When they were at our table the first time, they spent a decent amount of time 'playing' with the members of our party. The interaction was really nice, and better coordinated than our breakfast at 'Ohana (which was one of our favorite meals for food and characters). They did a really good time of pacing the characters around the restaurant. As a plus, we enjoyed the lunch buffet very much...we'll be back to CP based on that experience, for sure.

 

[Ambehnke]

We've been to CRT, Akershus, Chef Mickey's, Tusker House, BoG, Ohana. Tusker House was our favorite for both food and interaction!

 

[nurseholly]

We've done lots of character meals (CRT, Akershus, Tusker, 1900 PF, Chef Mickey, Garden Grill, and a Star Wars breakfast that is no longer available) and hands DOWN our favorite character interaction was Garden Grill. Food was better than most also for us.

 

[kindle&wine]

We did Chef Mickey last year and I would not recommend it. The food was meh and we were overall unimpressed.

 

[Pmlocke]

My favorite is 1900 Park Fair. Not only can you interact with the characters and have them talk to you, the evil stepsisters are worth an admission fee. They make our trip every year. If you have never been, you have to do it at least once. You will love those girls.

 

[blana]

Garden Grill is always my favorite. Not a buffet, so no concerns about missing a character while getting your food, and good character interaction. We've always had at least some characters make it to our table more than once. Generally all of them have made it past twice.

 

[MaggieWrites]

We thought Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno at Disney’s BoardWalk with Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, Ariel and Prince Eric was absolutely Excellent!! The food was incredible. I had steak for breakfast, with fruit and amazing pastries. The characters were amazing and the kids loved it. We also did Tusker House (based on DIS recommendation) and it was great. Loved Cape May Cafe too, and Cinderella's Castle had much better food that we expected. But Bon Voyage breakfast was definitely our favorite.

 

[robl45]

I think all the character meals kind of stink honestly. You have to take your own pictures and I'd rather meet them in the park. That out of the way, I think the best one is probably garden grill as they feed you and its not buffet style. Same with Ohana breakfast but I heard they changed the food and how you meet the characters.

It also depends on what characters you want to meet. Thats really the main question.