Hi Pesky! Thanks for visiting. Yeah, I would not do Minnie's again because the food was terrible. But it may be the only place to see Captain Hook (unless he comes out during Halloweentime as part of the Villains M&G?). Have a great trip!!!! I miss DLR already.
I just wanted to pop in and say hello when I saw your post in the Character Meals thread!
I've seen your TR around the TR section for a long time and the title never ceases to make me smile! For some reason, something about "
Wide Load Ahead" makes me giggle every time I see it. I love it!
I've been meaning to stop in and get subscribed for what seems like a year or two but haven't had a chance!
I'm so glad that Goofy's was a hit for you. I think I was telling fellow DIS'er lsulindy this in her TR - whenever I read really over-the-top negative reviews of Goofy's Kitchen I feel like I'm not even reading about the same place that I have been eating at for so many years. Then I start to think that I must either have really horrible taste in character meals,
or that the restaurant has really 'off' days when other people are there. I've been there on some not-as-great days over the years, of course, but over all, for the general variety of food and characters, I think Goofy's is a great place to go! If I didn't have mostly good experiences at Goofy's, there's no way I would continue to go back there on almost every trip. It's too expensive to return to if it is not a worthwhile restaurant. I would spend the money elsewhere. But...it works for me, and my friends seem to like it, so we go back!
I have heard the same comments that you mentioned about the food at Minnie & Friends in the past, so it always surprises me when someone comes forth and says that they thought the M&F food was great! I have heard "inedible," "cold," etc. I've also heard that it can get kind of chaotic and frenzied at M&F because a lot of folks supposedly won't wait for the characters to get to the table and they start running around the restaurant to meet them!
Captain Hook does occasionally appear at Goofy's - maybe even more than occasionally but we just don't hear about it. The last time I saw him there was in December 2011, but I'm sure he has been at Goofy's again since that time. I've also heard of Hook sightings at dinner time too.
I guess the real problem is that we never know which characters are going to be at which restaurants on which days or at which times. It's a gamble. I wish there were some way to get a kind of schedule of who is expected to arrive - that would help a lot - but I think that many times certain characters just unexpectedly wander in and the restaurants don't know that they're coming!
I've also seen Captain Hook walking around in
Disneyland in December (it looked like he was coming from Fantasyland and heading towards Main Street, probably to a photo spot or something). I'm sure he will be part of that Villains thing that is happening on September 13th (part of the Limited Time Magic).
ETA: I love the pictures with the Long Lost Friends! So cute - and the photos are so clear and colorful!