Thinking about cutting down on some character meals

[2Pirates2Princesses]

We have Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Ohana, and Tusker House character breakfasts and a Garden Grill character dinner scheduled for our trip. I am starting to think this may be a few too many character meals and am considering cancelling some because you certainly don't get a lot of eating done being preoccupied with meeting and getting photos with the characters and character meals can be a little hectic and chaotic. If you could only do two which would you pick? We want both good food, good character interaction, and a buffet/meal layout that isn't a logistical nightmare to navigate with our four young children. I guess character interaction isn't a real high priority because we will do Camp Minnie-Mickey at AK and I heard that the lines are reasonable for those character meet and greets; and we plan on doing the Character Spot at Epcot. I am sure we will run into characters throughout all the parks, especially HS. Our Crystal Palace breakfast is an 8am ADR so the true benefit of that one would be to be in MK before the park opens at 9am. The other breakfasts are scheduled for later in the morning and the Garden Grill is dinner only of course. Thanks for any suggestions

 

[mommyof3princess27]

Have you considered the 1900 park fare cinderella dinner? I would keep crystal palace and chef mickeys, we loved them! Maybe cut tusker house and garden grill? I do know that 1900,chef mickeys and crystal palace were all excellent! I am doing them again this tripHTH! But it depends on how many days you are going...that is alot in like a 4 day trip BUT if your going for 7 days its not.

 

[sexyravenfan]

Ohana is amazing for breakfast. The pineapple rolls are out of this world.

 

[ElizabethG]

First I will say that our family LOVES the character meals. We have 7 planned for this year and last year we did 8. I wouldn't do more than one per day, though.

Of those choices I would pick Ohana and Garden Grill. The Garden Grill is our favorite character meal. The restaurant rotates, which is unique, and the character interaction is great. It is also the quietest of the character meals. Both of these meals are great with kids because you don't have to get up to get your food. Everything is brought to the table for you. If you want more of something, you just ask.

 

[mdelano4]

Either Crystal Palace (Pooh) or Tusker House (donald) for breakfast and Garden Grill (mickey) for dinner.

Have never done Ohana for breakfast, so I can't comment on that one.

As for maybe you have too many, that depends on the age of your kids. When mine were 3, 7 and 10 we had five character meals in a week (yeah, it was the first visit with all of them) and it got old just before the last one, so we cancelled and went to a TS restaurant instead. Good Luck!

 

[Reddy]

how many days are you going to be there??
What ages are the kids (if you have kids) - boy/girl??
what is there fav character??

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

how many days are you going to be there??
What ages are the kids (if you have kids) - boy/girl??
what is there fav character??

We have 8 days at Disney and both boys and girls from toddler to tween age Their favorite characters (Toy Story and the Tinkerbell fairies) are unfortunately not at any of the character meals offered; but we definitely want at least one meal with Mickey and Minnie present. So it looks like we are narrowing our choices down to Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's and Garden Grill. None of us really, really want to do Crystal Palace but we just cannot pass up the opportunity of being in the MK an hour before the park opens. Chef Mickey's is the traditional must do character meal in our eyes so we can't give that up. This is going to be tougher than I thought it would be

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Either Crystal Palace (Pooh) or Tusker House (donald) for breakfast and Garden Grill (mickey) for dinner.

Have never done Ohana for breakfast, so I can't comment on that one.

As for maybe you have too many, that depends on the age of your kids. When mine were 3, 7 and 10 we had five character meals in a week (yeah, it was the first visit with all of them) and it got old just before the last one, so we cancelled and went to a TS restaurant instead. Good Luck!

I can see this being the case for our family as well which is why I am thinking of cancelling a couple of them.

 

[Catie.Hiltz]

I would keep Crystal Palace above all else it's the best!

As for what to ditch....I would say Chef Mickey's....it is one of my faves, but I think the food at the other places is much better, if you are in it for the food (and who isn't ha!)