Too Many Character Breakfasts?

[birdie4902]

Is it possible to hav too many breakfasts? It is by far the most important meal for my kids on vacations- but as our trip comes up - one week, I worry I have planned too many
For 6 mornings total - I have ADRs for
Tusker House, Chef Mickeys, Ohanas,and 1900 Park Fare. My boys are 6 and 3. My oldest has done Chef Mickeys.
Thank you for any thoughts.

 

[squirrel]

No, I don't think you can do too many. We liked all the character breakfasts we went to. We plan on doing just breakfasts and dinners.

Oh, and it sure beats waiting in line to see the characters!

 

[scribega]

I just think it depends on your kids. We do the same as you. The last two times that we have gone a character almost every day and they are almost always breakfast. I know people say you don't get most out of your dining plan if you do that, but for us it works better. Our kids like breakfast better and just do better with character meals at breakfast. Do what works for your family.

 

[mattsmom2000]

I like doing breakfasts when we are on the dining plan. I hate having to rearrange your day for the lunch or dinner reservations. This way you get it out of the way early in the day. We learned that the hard way last trip with having all dinner ADR's and having to arrange everything around those. We have 2 days at Crystal Palace, one at Tusker House and one at Norway in Epcot. Of course we are doing one day LeCellier dinner *can't miss that.... and one 50's Prime Time Cafe (was closed for refurbishment last year so we missed it) and one day at Biergarten (we really wanted to try that one too). Have a great trip!

 

[Amy&Dan]

I think a character meal is just Disney at its finest! The breakfasts are cheaper than the dinners and if your kids like breakfast, what could be a better combo of fun and food? When my kids were younger, we did a character meal at least every other day. Heck, we have done two in the same day. So by my book, you don't have too many. And all the characters are different at each place. I mean even if you see one at two places, they wear different costumes and such. So its fun and new at each place.

 

[LadyZolt]

For me, I think that doing one or two character meals per vacation keeps them special and memorable for my kids. But everyone is different -- if you like them and want to do a lot of them, go for it. I'm just giving another point of view.

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Like LadyZolt said, too much of a good thing can be too much.

We love character meals, but we feel the buffets can be stressful. Maybe because we have a large group and spend a lot of time going back in forth with kids to the buffet. It is difficult to get everyone back to the table in time for a character. And once they come with their food they want to eat.

I like the family style meals the best. (Ohana, Garden Grill, etc)

 

[MJAJmom]

I think your plan is just fine. I'm biased because that's exactly what we did during our oct trip with my 2 boys, ages 3 and 6. We love TS meals and especially meals with characters. My philosophy is that we need to eat anyways, so why not eat with the characters?? It's Disney and that's unique to WDW, so why not take advantage of it?

For our 6 days, we did a character meal 4 days (Tusker, H&V, Ohana, Cape May). The other 2 days we did early EMH at epcot and MK, so we ate in the room or grabbed something quick for Gasparillas.

It's your plan and your schedule. So you need to do what you think is best for your family. I'd keep your ressie, and if you feel you need to cancel some, wait until your there and see how it goes.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) YES, I think you can go overboard on character meals.
2) But, as long as the kids want them, why not?
3) However, if you back off a little, it makes the ones they attend even sweeter.
4) Just remember Jimmy Durante's line, "Always leave wanting more.". *

* And, yes, there was a real Mrs. Calabash.

 

[An_Island_Girl]

If you are a family of early risers, than this plan looks great!

We also have a lot of character breakfasts planned, but are going into it with the idea that if the characters visit our table, then great! If they haven't yet come around and we are ready to get on with our day, then so be it.

 

[birdie4902]

THANK YOU so much for all of your answers. I greatly enjoy all of your advice

 

[SmallWorld71]

For us that would be way too much. We usually do 3 character meals per trip but only 1 is breakfast. We like to spend our early mornings touring the park with the shorter lines and only like to do the breakfast if it is before the park opens (or we pick a day to sleep in and eat late.) Also, Tusker House and Chef Mickey's have a pretty similar loud atmosphere, both are buffets and both have similar characters. I, personally wouldn't do both in 1 trip. Not meaning to sound like a negative Nellie, just throwing in a different perspective. Have fun whatever you decide.

 

[ScrapperBelle]

My mother, sister, and I took my son when he was 4. We were at WDW 8 days and had character breakfasts for 7 of them! DS was really into the characters then and it was a great way for him to have a little one-on-one interaction with them.

Of course, we are all breakfast eaters as well. When DH and I took all 3 kids (I have 2 stepchildren) a couple years later, we only did a few character breakfasts. But none of them are breakfast eaters at all so it was not really worth the money...but DS still enjoyed it at that point.

When the kids all became teens, we only did 1 character breakfast per trip (mostly just to satisfy me ).

Last May we took our granddaughter and we did character breakfasts for about 1/2 the trip. We also took in a few of the character dinners (Cinderella at the GF was especially nice!).

I really think it just depends on your party (their ages, likes, dislikes, etc.). On our upcoming trip it's just me and DH and since we're staying at the POLY we'll probably do the breakfast there just once...but that will be the only one.

 

[aussietravellers]

We are character meal addicts. We are from Australia so do not get to Disney very often and when we do, we kind of overdose on Character dining, but nobody but us knows we do quite so much character dining (well accept the person making our dining reservations and now everyone here on Disboards ). At WDW on our last trip, we were there for 21 nights and we did 12 character meals (some more than once), we had booked more but I was ill for a few days so we actually missed 3 or our other character dining reservations, so we would have ended up with 15 on that trip. Our trip to Disneyland California a few years ago, we had a character meal every day of our 7 night trip. At Disneyland Paris this Christmas for 8 nights, we had two characters at breakfast every morning at the Empire State Club floor at our hotel, then we did 8 character meals (lunches and dinners), so most days we dined with characters twice a day . As someone else said, it sure beats lining up for characters in the park.

So, you can character dine to your hearts content, its your holiday and if you enjoy it, nobody but you will know how much you dine with the characters.

 

[Del]

We do one or two a trip. Sometimes, I feel like we could be getting much done at the parks but we are eating. Sometimes, I feel like we are fixed to a time when the kids maybe needed a bit more sleep.

The kids love them, so do I. THey've gotten very expensive though. (we also like the Waffle House) This past trip we did a new one. Tusker House. donald and friends. We liked it. Our favorites are CM,CP and 1900 PF.

Have a blast.

 

[Faldred]

It all depends on the kids involved -- my lot (DS3, DD2, DS2) are used to morning "entertainment" of some sort during breakfast (typically Blue's Clues), which allows DW to do little things like make [and eat!] breakfast and get ready to take the crew wherever they're going. (I can't help because I'm already at work by the time they do breakfast during the week.)

So for them, having the character "distractions" during breakfast will be pretty natural, and I have no worries about having booked them 6 days in a row.

Of course, we're doing the deluxe dining, so we have the TS credits to spare...

 

[dawnbu40]

On our trip last month we had the deluxe dining plan so we thought scheduling a character breakfast each morning would be fun and would help us avoid waiting in line for characters at the parks. Both those things proved to be true but we found that we got sick of the buffets. They are all pretty repetitve and we ended up cancelling one and just getting rolls at our hotel to give us a change of pace. I would keep your adrs and if you find its too much just skip one.

 

[blanq]

I think that it is a matter of personal preference and tastes. That is the great thing about vacation...you can do what you want, when you want! For me personally, I could not handle a character meal every day, let alone a character breakfast. Breakfast food is limited, and after awhile it all seems the same to me and I get totally bored with the food. Also, you either have to get up earlier, or cut into your park time, if you are doing a sit-down breakfast every day at WDW. My family likes to do one or two real breakfasts each trip, and do a quick on-the-go type breakfast (yogurt and fruit, cereal, hardboiled eggs and toast, etc) the rest of the time.

 

[disneymomof2boyz]

We're not big breakfast people, so for us a breakfast doesn't really make sense. But we love character meals, at least the kids really do, we like not having to wait in line to see those characters. We usually do dinners, and that works for us. So as long as the kids still love it, we will continue to do character meals, we're doing Chef Mickey's for the first time in April.

 

[MickeyNicki]

DH and I did way too many TS breakfasts in April...it was awesome but too much and we found we were not that hungry for lunch, sometimes dinner so we missed out on our fav treats and CS places.

Now we just do 2 or 3 TS breakfasts for our long trips.

BUT we are going next week with our nieces and I booked CP, TH, Ohana and Princess Breakfast...mostly so the kids can see the characters