Too many character breakfasts??

[pigby]

For our forthcoming trip, I have plans for 4 character breakfasts - Chef Mickeys, CRT (if we can - but done before anyway), Princess breakfast at Norway and Cape May, plus 1 character lunch at Crystal Palace (have done dinner before) and so far only one dinner at Le Cellier(OK non character but I like the sound of it). Can't do p.s. yet but can do on some of them soon.

Do you think that is too many character breakfasts or should we try one or more of them for a meal later in the day instead - I thought perhaps Cape May for the Clam Bake - are characters present? Or perhaps Chef Mickeys/CRT for dinner instead.

Any comments from all you experts out there - very welcome.

Sue

 

[mom_rules]

Cape May Cafe Clambake-no characters (only at Breaky).

We have a character meal of some sort everyday for
10 days. We try to book at different places to get a
variety of characters. (last trip we stayed at BC and
had their character breaky 8 of 10 days-got a little
boring).

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

On our last nine day trip we did 4 character bfsts (Donalduckasaurus, CRT, Crystal Palace and Coral Cafe at Dolphin)
We felt it was too many, as the point of the character bfst was to see the characters. There are now so many characters around the parks, that we started seeing the same characters over and over.
We also had two lunches booked, but ended up cancelling them because we were in "character overload"!!
My advise would be to keep two and use the others only if you want to eat at the restaurant or if it works well into your daily plan. You might want to do a couple of bfst's and a character lunch and maybe one for dinner instead of 4 bfsts.
My DH said he was not happy paying $60 (for four of us) for bfast for four days when the food sometimes wasn't that great, and we had already seen most of the characters at the parks.

 

[Colexi's Mom]

We're having this same dilemma ourselves for our May trip. I want to try all these character breakfasts so my kids will get to see the characters, but as others have mentioned there seems to be a lot more character interaction in the parks. Does it make sense to be spending $60+ on a meal everyday ??? Makes paring down the character meals you want to go to a tough decision though, for me anyway!! Hey, if that's my biggest problem, I guess I shouldn't be complaining LOL!

 

[mom_rules]

In our case, being on the Gold Plan, we book the
places where we would like to eat and if there
are characters that's fine too!! We are 4 adults
now so a breaky can run about $80.00 tax and tips.
We find it takes less time and effort to see the characters
at a meal than to wait in line elsewhere but that's just
our opinion.

 

[Kallison]

My kids are up for two character meals in a week, then they get tired of it. It depends on the ages and personalities of your children. Why don't you make the ressies and as the week progresses you may or may not feel like doing all the meals that you planned on. It is vacation, not showing up for a PS is not a crime (although some will try to convince you of that).

 

[kdibattista]

My opinion is that you can never have too many character bfasts!!! We always do Crystal palace at least twice and Chef Mickey's twice on each trip.

 

[mirlow]

I would keep all of you PS's and just cancel if you change your mind the day of. The character breakfasts are my favorite. I love to eat out for breakfast and since we never do it at home it's such a treat to do it on vacation. Whenever we do a character breakfast we do a very light lunch or we just have some snacks and then we eat an early dinner. It helps to cut on costs. On our trip last July I probably only kept a few of the many PS that I had made. Things come up, plus it's so hard to know what your going to want to do or eat 3 months before you get there. It is nice to know I have them if I need them.

 

[married2grumpy]

I would also keep the PS's you've made and if you don't feel like going, don't. We did that last year and it worked out well. We had a meal of some sort planned for every day as well as Tea with Alice for the kids. I think there is such a thing as overkill. Too much character interaction seems to take away from the excitement of meeting the characters. We have done almost all character meals available so for this trip we have only our favorite character meal planned for dinner (Chef Mickey) and the new princess breakfast at Epcot. We also have other PS's for regular meals for some restaurants we have yet to try. What ever you decide, have fun and enjoy!

 

[ducklite]

We did three CB's and two CD's on a six day trip a couple years ago, and it was too much. By the third or fourth day it was no longer very exciting to the kids (ages 2 and 5 at the time). It was their first WDW experience. Yours might be different, but they just seemed burned out on the whole character thing after a few days.

Anne

 

[grumpyandbashful]

If you have young kids, a couple of character breakfasts should be great fun for them. I think 4 is pushing it, but everyone's different . Our kids are teens now, and aren't really interested in character meals anymore - maybe one per visit.
Expense is also another consideration. The character meals are not inexpensive. But if your budget allows it - fine!

 

[MinnieGi]

I would also keep your character ps's and then see how things are going once you get down there. I usually seem to overplan meals for our family and end up cancelling several once we are down there. But I like that we are set up for them if we want to go. On our Nov. trip we did two character breakfasts and one lunch for a 7 day trip and that seemed perfect for us. They were spaced out all week too. On that trip even though the park was teeming with characters we didn't really stop for any since we had seen many at our meals. However on our Feb. trip we only had one character ps so we stopped and greeted many characters in the park.

 

[Planogirl]

Do you normally eat a big breakfast? My son never cared much for breakfast food so I limited character breakfasts because of this. They also tend to take a lot of time particularly since he would pick at his food and then ask for lunch around mid-afternoon!

They are fun IMO but you will likely see tons of characters in the parks too.

 

[Terry S]

We usually eat a character breakfast every day. I usually schedule the breakfast based on what park we will be in and then schedule our breakfast before the park opens, this way we don't have to wait with everyone else before the park opens. I figure we have to eat breakfast anyway, might as well spend the extra couple of bucks and eat with the characters.

 

[Cruelladeville]

I personally think 4 breakfasts with characters is a bit much, especially considering the price and the bad food--usually--and you can see tons of characters in the parks for free. But it's your vacation, so if you want to do 4 breakfasts with characters--do it. But please, if you decide not to go, call and cancel, don't just not show up. It's extremely rude, and shows a horrible lack of feeling for those who are trying to get ressies for the breakfasts and can't, because you have reserved so many. It's just a common courtesy to let the restaurants know you won't be coming. Bad manners are far too common at WDW already.

 

[pigby]

Thanks for all the replies so far. Usually we have eaten just a couple of character breakfasts because we are not big breakfasts eaters. I find that the best strategy is the cereals in the room and then an early - ish lunch - usually counter service and then maybe a sit down dinner.

I am just a sucker for the characters and character meals and the ones we have done so far are CRT and Garden Grille for breakfast, Crystal Palace and Liberty Tree for dinner.

Maybe I'll switch the Chef Mickey to dinner and poss CRT for lunch and I am very tempted by the Cape May clam bake even if it is non character. I've beem a little put off by some of the not so good reviews of Chef Mickeys at dinner though.


Sue

 

[Elaine Guidi]

We have just returned and did Donalds Breakfastasaurus in AK, Storybook Breakfast, Norway, EPCOT and Cinderellas Gala Feast in the evening at the GF. Although I enjoyed all the meals and had no problems with the price, I think the Gala Feast was much better value @ $20 extra over the average $60 breakfast for 2+2. Our 2 children will only eat an average breakfast and can't do this filling up so that you don't need to eat lunch thing. Of the breakfasts I preferred Donalds especially the breakfast pizza. DD (6) loved seeing the princesses at the SB but none of us thought the food was as good as Donalds. This of course is only our opinion.

 

[Chip126]

Personally, I would go for it! I don't think you can have too many character meals. My boys will be 14 and 11 when we go in December and I am planning on doing CRT, O'Hana's, and Donald's Breakfastsaurus for breakfast. I will also be doing 50s, Cape May Cafe, Sci-Fi, Whispering Canyon Cafe, Chef Mickeys and Crystal Palace for dinners. (5 character meals in all).

When we were there in December 2001 my boys still loved all the character meals!! They are helping me in my decisions for December.

I feel if you enjoy them and you can afford them..........do them!

Kim

P.S. I forgot to mention...........The kids and I have done Chef Mickey's twice for dinner (on two separate trips) and we have no complaints. We absolutely loved it and had a great time.

 

[jpmom97]

I am making PS's for a bunch of Character meals and if we don't do them we don't. I don't know how my son is going to react to the characters. He is excited now but who knows what will happen when we get there.

 

[margiemc]

Last year, we did 2 - 1900 Park Faire (on a no-park day) and Cinderella's Table. We were there in December and I didn't want to waste early morning park time since the parks weren't open to late. We only have 1 scheduled for this year - The Storybook Breakfast.