The Running Thread - 2018

[Barca33Runner]

I am happy to hear of so many positive statements about Bon Voyage since its on the agenda. It also saddens me the Chef Mickeys is so far down on the list for everyone, including myself. Yet, the place is full because somehow its a must do for first timers... I try my darnest to talk people out of it all of the time, and they still want to go. SMH. After they go, I hear it was great to meet the characters but its a little crazy there and the food at best is meh.

The more popular something is and name cache it has the more they seem to be willing to rest on their laurels and even diminish the experience as long as the reservations are still full. It seems like they have a lot of things go this way and, in a way, I can't blame them since they are a business; but it certainly does elicit sadness that the magic is not always the first priority.

 

[roxymama]

We have this saying at home that some things are "kid friendly" and others are "family friendly." Like certain movies we have to tolerate (or avoid) because they are aimed solely at kids and are crazy annoying or lame to parents, and others (like everything Pixar) we all can enjoy as a whole family. Chucky Cheese is "kid friendly", Dave n Busters "family friendly." McDonalds play place "kid friendly", McDonalds drive thru "family friendly" Etc etc.
I think Chef Mickey's falls into the kid friendly category. My kiddo loved the kid buffet selections, she loved the chaos, and the hotel lobby etc. And she spotted it when we stayed at the hotel AND really wanted to go there.

 

[Bree]

ATTQOTD: My favorite is Crystal Palace breakfast solely for the puffed French toast slathered in syrup. Sugar coma heaven. I have that with a side of Mickey waffles. I think there’s tater tots there too that I load my plate with, but it’s been a long time since we’ve been there. Tigger is always lots of fun. Least favorite...hmmm...probably chef Mickey’s??? Last time I was there was in 2009. All I remember is that we had to wait a long time and it was so freaking loud in there.

 

[Kazrak]

It's finally Friday, and that can only mean one thing... It's time for our Fun Friday QOTD: At WDW, what is your favorite and least favorite character meal? Which ones you havent done, but are planning to do in the next couple of months?

Our favorite has generally been the Donald character breakfast at Animal Kingdom. (Formerly Breakfastasaurus, now at Tusker House.) My wife's a big Donald fan, the setup is a lot more casual than many, and it's just a fun time for everyone. We have some fantastic pictures and video from when the older kids were young (4 and 2) with Goofy sitting at our table, stealing the 2-year-old's hat.

Least favorite...really, not sure I have one. They've all been pretty decent. We've done Garden Grill, Breakfastasaurus/Tusker House, Crystal Palace, and Cape May Cafe. Cape May Cafe was probably the least interesting, but that may just be that the kids are getting older and it was far enough into the trip that everyone was a little tired. I have unfond memories of our last Garden Grill visit, but that was because I came down with norovirus about half an hour beforehand. (That was a memorable trip, but not in a good way.)

We're planning a Tusker House lunch (for the Rivers of Light package) in January. We'll see how that goes.

 

[AFwifelife]

ATTQOTD:
Favorite is Garden Grill. We've been for dinner so far and the character interaction is amazing. I'm also a huge fan of the family style so we don't have to deal with two little kids at the buffet.
Least favorite is Chef Mickey. Every time we've been it's complete chaos, even first thing in the morning.
Next we are doing Garden Grill breakfast. Got a PPO time so we can get on Soarin right at opening.

 

[LSUlakes]

ATTQOTD:
Favorite is Garden Grill. We've been for dinner so far and the character interaction is amazing. I'm also a huge fan of the family style so we don't have to deal with two little kids at the buffet.
Least favorite is Chef Mickey. Every time we've been it's complete chaos, even first thing in the morning.
Next we are doing Garden Grill breakfast. Got a PPO time so we can get on Soarin right at opening.

When we did breakfast there it was for 30 minutes before park opening. You could hear the rush of people coming in once the park opened. We got in line probably 30 minutes after park opening and only had a 20 minute wait, which is exactly what touring plans said would happen. Then the second rush came through and the wait time went to 45+ after we got off. It was interesting watching it and the predictions from touring plans. It was spot on. The breakfast.... The huge cinnamon roll they bring to the table was my favorite. Almost as good as the one from Gastons!

 

[kbenson13]

Wow. No love for Chef Mickey's. Won't get any from me either. I stayed at the Contemporary and couldn't fathom any reason to eat there despite the location convenience. And I don't do much in the way of character meals myself, but we had a great time at 1900 Park Fare.

 

[apdebord]

ATTQOTD: I’m not the biggest fan of character meals but I really enjoyed Tusker House for dinner. Very good food and lots of options. Characters were great too. We also had a window seat and could watch the dance and stunt show in Africa.

Least favorite is tough, because everything else seems a little mediocre for me and I’ve only had breakfast at other character meals and Disney breakfasts are just way too sweet and salty for me. Also waaaaaay too much food that early in the morning. I think I’m going to have to go with breakfast at Garden Grill which is painful to say because I love Living with the Land. The characters were awesome but I didn’t care for the food at all. The cinnamon roll thing was good, but too sweet. Then everything else was pretty basic.

I forgot I’ve been wanting to try the Tangled breakfast at Trattoria. If I can fit it in at Marathon Weekend and there’s an open table I might do that!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

ATTQOTD: I have one rule about character meals. If the characters/movie they're from don't appeal to me, I won't do that character meal since a chunk of the cost is the characters. In my personal experience, character interaction at a meal is roughly the same as in the parks. Some are just fine, others are tremendous and special. Both at meals and in the parks.

My favorite Disney World character meal is Akershus. I think the cold buffet that's included with your lunch and dinner is a nice change of pace and I really love the desserts there.

I've dined a couple of times at Chef Mickey's. Since Disney World is normally not an annual thing for me, there are other places I'd rather eat at and I can still see those characters at other places. We did dinner during a huge family trip at 1900 Park Fare back in 2006. It was fine, but the food didn't stand out to me enough to return there for characters from one movie.

I also dined at CRT in 2012 to celebrate my first Coast to Coast. I had a great seat right next to a window overlooking new Fantasyland and the Beast's castle. They offered me a plastic sword if I wanted one because it would make for great photos. The characters were tremendous. The food was fine. Which is the challenge of CRT. You're paying signature dining prices to eat in the castle. In my opinion, Akershus is less expensive for the same characters and you're dining in a different castle. The reason to dine at CRT is because you really want to dine in Cinderella Castle. There's nothing wrong with that. Just know ahead of time what you're paying for. It's a signature dining room.

At Disneyland, I've dined at Goofy's Kitchen and the Plaza Inn, but those were both many years ago. Ariel's Grotto in California Adventure had a Santa Maria tri tip that I would dream about sometimes. But it went off the menu and the restaurant has since converted into the Lamplight Lounge as part of Pixar Pier.

In May I dined at the Surf's Up with Mickey and Friends at the Paradise Pier Hotel with my nephews. I really thought it had an outstanding selection and variety of breakfast choices. I liked it better than the plaza.

I think I have an ADR at Garden Grill sometime during my marathon weekend trip.

 

[Chasing Dopey]

ATTQOTD: I'm going to do this one by categories, since there are so many good ones...
Food: Tusker House... This was our first character breakfast buffet and it totally spoiled us. GREAT spread!
Characters (and probably my overall #1): Crystal Palace... Because Eeyore is my favorite of all favorites. I also love Crystal Palace because you can get into the park early and you're already there and ready to go when you're done. Crystal Palace is the only one we still do regularly.
Atmosphere: This is really close. I love the princesses at Akershus (and watching my wife clam up when trying to talk to Belle... seriously), but I have to with 1900 Park Fare. Very nice, elegant and the character interaction is really good.
What happened?: Ohana... Our first character meal of any kind and the old family skillet was so amazing! I drool just thinking about it! This would also be a regular one for us for the food, but they changed up the menu/portions and it hasn't been the same. Too bad.
Dear God Why: Chef Mickey's (anyone surprised?) The Contemporary used to be home away from home, but it would take a lottery hit for us to be able to go back there, and we still love it, but we were thoroughly disappointed. What chaos.

I'm missing one, but I can't remember. Must not have been that great?

 

[baxter24]

ATTQOTD: Our favorites have been Tusker House and Crystal Palace. Good food and great character interaction. Our least favorite was Chef Mickeys. The food was okay but we just felt so rushed and it was so busy and loud. We have a reservation for Crystal Palace for our trip in December!

 

[huskies90]

It's finally Friday, and that can only mean one thing... It's time for our Fun Friday QOTD: At WDW, what is your favorite and least favorite character meal? Which ones you havent done, but are planning to do in the next couple of months?

ATTFFQOTD: I think I have done pretty much all of the character meals with the exception of Cinderella’s Royal Table (believe it or not) and Trattoria al Forno (didn’t even know it was a character meal until this QOTD). I’ve probably done Chef Mickey’s and Crystal Palace the most because they were sorta traditions when our now college aged kids were younger. We still do Crystal Palace, but Chef Mickey’s I think has worn out its welcome.

Overall, I don’t think there is a heck of a lot of difference between the character meals although I do agree each has some uniqueness. Like others here, I like the food and atmosphere at Tusker House and the rotating restaurant at Garden Grill.

But if I had to pick a top favorite, it would be Garden Grove which definitely has both the best food and the best price. The all natural smoothies bar is ridiculous. We went there after the half marathon last year and I lost count how many smoothies I had. But it could have easily been over a dozen. Plus I think it is the only character breakfast with an omelet station and the Swolphin pastry chef is like world famous. They had some incredibly yummy pastries.

 

[Smilelea]

I'm getting very concerned about our trip in a few weeks after reading others answers to today's question. We are trying Chef Mickeys! Now, we are trying to get in every character meal we can before YDS turns 3. We also want to hit them while ODS still cares about the characters. He's 6 1/2 so I think we are fine there but YDS turns 3 next April and we only have 2 trips planned before then.

But to answer the question myself:

Favorite: Tusker House breakfast. Newest favorite - Garden Grill Breakfast.

Least favorite: Crystal Palace dinner - I truly believe it was a timing problem. Our ADR was right before the Christmas party and they were trying to get non-party-goers out. The character interactions were very rushed and the food was mediocre.

We've tried and enjoyed: Cape May breakfast, Akershus dinner, Bon Voyage breakfast, Be Our Guest dinner, and 1900 PF dinner.

Upcoming: CRT dinner, Chef Mickey's dinner, 1900 PF breakfast.

I want to try Ohana but there is pretty much nothing my boys will eat so we don't want to spend that kind of money. H&V has been on the list a few times but we keep cutting it for one reason or another, so who knows if it will ever happen.

 

[Olallamom]

ATTQOTD:
We typically don’t do character meals much anymore. Kids are all young adults now.

Favorite: like many have already mentioned Garden Grill or Tusker house. I think the food is better at Tusker house.

Never liked Chef Mickeys.

 

[captaindavidhook]

Favorite character meal: Garden Grill- Great food. It was super fresh and the character were a lot of fun interacting with.
Least Fav character meal: CRT- wow the food was plain awful and the server totally disappeared. I have no desire to go back again.

 

[Barca33Runner]

I'm getting very concerned about our trip in a few weeks after reading others answers to today's question. We are trying Chef Mickeys! Now, we are trying to get in every character meal we can before YDS turns 3. We also want to hit them while ODS still cares about the characters. He's 6 1/2 so I think we are fine there but YDS turns 3 next April and we only have 2 trips planned before then.

But to answer the question myself:

Favorite: Tusker House breakfast. Newest favorite - Garden Grill Breakfast.

Least favorite: Crystal Palace dinner - I truly believe it was a timing problem. Our ADR was right before the Christmas party and they were trying to get non-party-goers out. The character interactions were very rushed and the food was mediocre.

We've tried and enjoyed: Cape May breakfast, Akershus dinner, Bon Voyage breakfast, Be Our Guest dinner, and 1900 PF dinner.

Upcoming: CRT dinner, Chef Mickey's dinner, 1900 PF breakfast.

I want to try Ohana but there is pretty much nothing my boys will eat so we don't want to spend that kind of money. H&V has been on the list a few times but we keep cutting it for one reason or another, so who knows if it will ever happen.

I will give Chef Mickeys this slight recommendation: It is not an experience that I regret doing, but it is not something that I’d like to do again. We have a lot of good pictures with the characters and all of my nieces and nephews had a good time. The food being rather basic actually played well with getting the kids to have a good breakfast. During the experience it was not something that was entirely unenjoyable.

But, when comparing after the fact, the food was not very adventurous/appealing, the admosphere was entirely too chaotic, the location was not convenient (we weren’t staying at Contemporary), and the price was pretty high for a breakfast. It was completely fine, but fine seemed to be what Disney was shooting for and at that price I’d hope that they’d at least be trying to do better.

 

[YawningDodo]

ATTQOTD: You know, I stopped to think about it and realized that I've only ever done one character meal! It's weird, because I feel like we always meant to fit one in to each trip after that, but we never once did.

So I guess my favorite character meal is Liberty Tree Tavern circa 1998.

 

[Disney at Heart]

@LSUlakes Midnight Flight 10K results: 1:04:25 and first in my age group. Got home a little after midnight.
Then DH and I got up and tried to run a 9 mile training run this morning around 10:00. He succeeded, but I cashed it in at 6 1/2. It was already hot and I had given all I could at the Midnight Flight.

 

[PCFriar80]

@LSUlakes Midnight Flight 10K results: 1:04:25 and first in my age group. Got home a little after midnight.
Then DH and I got up and tried to run a 9 mile training run this morning around 10:00. He succeeded, but I cashed it in at 6 1/2. It was already hot and I had given all I could at the Midnight Flight.

Nice job! I had a haddock fish fry dinner, and a ben and jerry's toffee heath bar ice cream pie last night for my birthday, went to bed at 10:00 PM, woke up and had pancakes and ran 4 miles. So, obviously I have some work to do!

 

[Waiting2goback]

QOTD:

I have done 1900 Park Fare for breakfast, it was 20 years ago, but it was good. I have done 1900 Park Fare for dinner a few times. I think the food is good. I mostly go for the strawberry soup. I did Chef Mickey's back in 2006. The only thing I remember about it was the characters. I don't remember the food being overly good or overly bad but character interaction was great. I don't really have a favorite though.

In the future, when I bring the kids, I want to try Tusker House. I have yet to hear a bad thing about it. I hear it is the same food as Boma (which I love) plus characters. To me that's a win.

I don't see myself ever trying Hollywood and Vine. I have yet to hear a good thing about that restaurant.