Times of character meals?

[Kittymomm]

I have made quite a few reservations for our up and coming trip but I am doubting myself on the times I have booked. Is there anywhere you can view what times there are actual characters at the various restaurants?

For example I have Plaza Inn 1050am; Goofy's 1120am; Storytellers 11am and Ariel's 110pm (this is the one I am most worried about). My goal was to do early morning in the park and then end on a late breakfast/early lunch.

Thanks in advance

Stina

 

[figment_jii]

I have made quite a few reservations for our up and coming trip but I am doubting myself on the times I have booked. Is there anywhere you can view what times there are actual characters at the various restaurants?

For example I have Plaza Inn 1050am; Goofy's 1120am; Storytellers 11am and Ariel's 110pm (this is the one I am most worried about). My goal was to do early morning in the park and then end on a late breakfast/early lunch.

Thanks in advance

Stina

If you go to the Disneyland Dining webpage and then select the page for each restaurant, it'll tell you the hours for each meal:
https://disneyland.disney.go.com/dining/#/character-dining/

Alternatively, if you look on the email confirmation that came after you made your reservation, it should say what is the meal. I looked at the ones I had for my last trip and they all say the date, the time, and then the meal (e.g., Thursday May 22, 2014 (1:30 PM, Lunch)).

The Plaza Inn is the easiest; if you made an ADR, it has to be during breakfast. They're a counter service venue for lunch and dinner (meaning no reservations accepted).

Based on the times you've listed, I would guess you have a lunch reservation at Goofy's, Storytellers, and Ariel's.

 

[Rubygoose]

I have made quite a few reservations for our up and coming trip but I am doubting myself on the times I have booked. Is there anywhere you can view what times there are actual characters at the various restaurants?

For example I have Plaza Inn 1050am; Goofy's 1120am; Storytellers 11am and Ariel's 110pm (this is the one I am most worried about). My goal was to do early morning in the park and then end on a late breakfast/early lunch.

Thanks in advance

Stina

I would make the Plaza Inn reservation a bit earlier. I think the characters are only there until 11 or 11:30 and they may not be replenishing the food on the buffet at this time. If you made your reservation for 10:15 you would likely get better character interaction.

Don't worry too much about Ariel's. They book seating in blocks and then the princesses are announced after everyone has been seated. Then they come around the restaurant systematically visiting each table.

Sorry, I don't know about story tellers, but you may want to call and ask them what time the characters leave. Same with Goofy's.

 

[figment_jii]

Sorry, I don't know about story tellers, but you may want to call and ask them what time the characters leave. Same with Goofy's.

That's a good point. I looked back through my notes and I had an 11:30 am reservation at Storytellers in March. It was the first lunch seating. We saw a few characters in the restaurant when we arrived, but most were gone by the time we ordered. So I would say they start to leave somewhere between 11:30 and 11:45 am.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Ariel's is the one I would be least concerned about actually. Ariel's offers character meals for both breakfast and lunch. A 1:10 PM booking will be during the middle of lunchtime, so you should have no worries about running into the end time of the meal or characters.

Goofy's usually serves until noon on weekdays and 2 PM on weekends and holidays. An 11:20 AM reservation on a weekend or holiday at Goofy's is great. If your Goofy's reservation is on a non-holiday weekday though, then you may run into the end of the meal time. I personally don't like to do that because of my concern that the food will not be replenished as much and the characters may leave or become more scarce before our meal is done.

You may face a similar problem with the Plaza Inn reservation. If I remember correctly, that might be the final booking time for the Plaza Inn breakfast. It's definitely a character meal, but again you will be at the end of the mealtime. They need to have the restaurant ready for non-character cafeteria style food service by noon (I think), so you will be there during the changeover time which may impact your experience.

Not sure what time Storyteller's breakfast ends, but I have heard similar type of changeover experiences regarding them. My in-laws ate there once for breakfast pretty close to the changeover time. They were charged full character meal prices but other than seeing either Chip or Dale stroll through once, they saw no characters as they were already leaving for the day. I don't know what time that was exactly that they went to eat.