too many character meals ?

[bestjsg]

with the help of this forum, I finally booked my trip in May staying a CBR for 8 nights, joined the meal plan since I really hate to figure out what to eat when I get hungry so the ADR feature is great and that I thought with the meal plan we could go for more expensive stuff...

so I have now used ADR online and booked.

Day spend at MGM - eat Dinner at Hollywood & vine at 4 pm.. (?!) so I can get the Fantasmic dinning package with a 'vip' viewing area for the show. ( is this even worth it ? heard food was not that great..)

Day spend at MK - eat Dinner at Crystal Palace

Day spend at outlet mall (a break from Disney..already..?) - booked Chef Mickey for dinner

Day spend at Epcot - booked dinner Princess Story book

Day spend at MGM or MK haven't decided yet - booked Cinderella Happily Ever dinner ( this is my DDs 5th birthday , good choice for birthday ?)

Day spend at AK - booked Dinner at Boma

Day spend at MGM or MK - haven't decided yet, - haven't booked anything yet, and hence the question came in mind...

does this sound ok ? would the kids 9 and 4 be tire with all the character dinning you think ?...any comments on this ?

also , I heard in general that the food for these character dinnings are usually not that great, it is almost like in exchange of having the characters for good food kind of thing....any comments on this ?

 

[djp0630]

I love character meals, but they aren't the most relaxing, as you worry about missing the characters if you leave for the buffet, etc. However, it is nice to have a few non-character meals. I heard Hollywood & Vine is terrible, and those characters aren't great. Can you replace it with Mama Melrose Fantasmic package?? Plus what does the 9 year old think? My kids are young so they are more entertained at the character meals.

I would definitely keep CRT for DD5's birthday. You should order the chocolate slipper dessert for her. I celebrated my birthday there and got a signed card from the princesses. I think the 4 other character meals (CRT, Akershus, Crystal Palace & Chef Mickey's) are great so I would definitely keep those! I enjoyed the food at all of those. But I would drop Hollywood & Vine and see if you could get another Fantasmic package.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I would be happy with a character breakfast just about every morning but I would not do the dinners because the food is horrible

 

[Melknor]

This is our fist time on the DDP with the kids and we are doing 4 character meals. Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, 1900 Park Fare for breakfast and 1900 Park Fare dinner another night. This way we don't have to spend park time looking for characters and more time on rides.

Most of these meals I only booked because we are on the DDP. I would never pay 1900 PF (dinner) out of pocket. It will be nice to at least try these so next time when we are OOP (DS will be considered adult), we can book a couple of our favorite TS places.


ETA: We do dinners because I can barely get my family to rope drop, let alone earlier to a TS breakfast.

 

[annette20071]

My DD is 3 and loves the character meals. That is basically all of our TS meals.

 

[bestjsg]

I love character meals, but they aren't the most relaxing, as you worry about missing the characters if you leave for the buffet, etc. However, it is nice to have a few non-character meals. I heard Hollywood & Vine is terrible, and those characters aren't great. Can you replace it with Mama Melrose Fantasmic package?? Plus what does the 9 year old think? My kids are young so they are more entertained at the character meals.

I would definitely keep CRT for DD5's birthday. You should order the chocolate slipper dessert for her. I celebrated my birthday there and got a signed card from the princesses. I think the 4 other character meals (CRT, Akershus, Crystal Palace & Chef Mickey's) are great so I would definitely keep those! I enjoyed the food at all of those. But I would drop Hollywood & Vine and see if you could get another Fantasmic package.

thanks for the advise about Hollywood & vine, I honestly don't want to have dinner at 4 pm let alone the potential bad food..! but I heard that with that package we get vip pass to some good positions for the show without lining up for 2 hours... or...in fact, would it be a 2 hr line up in May for that matter ?

 

[Tara922c]

Last year we ate at Chef Mickey's for breakfast, and we loved it. We even thougth the food was good. (we were also starving) This year I booked Chef Mickey's for breakfast, CRT breakfast, and norway princess dinner. DD is in love with all the Disney characters, so we are doing it for her. I think your kids will love it too.

 

[djp0630]

thanks for the advise about Hollywood & vine, I honestly don't want to have dinner at 4 pm let alone the potential bad food..! but I heard that with that package we get vip pass to some good positions for the show without lining up for 2 hours... or...in fact, would it be a 2 hr line up in May for that matter ?

I've heard recently that you still have to line up an hour before even with the Fantasmic package, so not sure if it's worth it. That when the regular seats are full, the CMs start to let people in the reserved seats. I've never done it before so I don't know for sure.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

I don't think that's alot of character meals. My son loves character meals and we go everday to one or maybe 2 if they have lunch of dinner. I think its part of a Disney vacation having character meals.

 

[TxRabbit]

thanks for the advise about Hollywood & vine, I honestly don't want to have dinner at 4 pm let alone the potential bad food..! but I heard that with that package we get vip pass to some good positions for the show without lining up for 2 hours... or...in fact, would it be a 2 hr line up in May for that matter ?

We did this. A 4pm-ish ADR at H&V for Fantasmic. We had a fine meal. I remember lots of dessert options. There was a decent salmon. And the cornspoon bread was like eating candy it was so sweet and good. The restaurant was less crowded. We had hardly any wait for our meal. It was a good experience. An as weird as the earlier ADR is, it allowed us some time to walk around, ride the FP we got before our meal, and stretch our legs before getting ready for the big sit at Fantasmic! Then too, we were actually hungry for eating some popcorn and treats at the show.

Whether or not you choose to do H&V (it has really inconsistent reviews), I would rethink the adversion to the earlier ADR. It was quite nice actually.

 

[tndisneyfan]

A few years ago we ate at several buffets and it got old quick. It just seemed like the same food over and over. I would definitely keep CRT for DD's b-day. I would also keep Boma because it's supposed to be a better buffet. Then I would keep maybe one of the rest of the buffets.

 

[megan926]

Ok...personally if you have young kids I never think you can have "too" many character meals. I enjoy them b/c DD loves seeing the characters AND I don't have to race around the park looking for them!!!

Chef Mickey's is a great way to see Mickey and the gang without worry!


In regard to Hollywood and Vine. Yes, I agree it is not gourmet or amazing food...it is not bad.

We are going there b/c DD LOVES June and Annie. She wants to eat with June...would I rather go somewhere else, yes! But, in my opinion, she is only young once and I will deal with the ok food to make her happy.

I think it all depends on what you are looking for.

HAVE FUN!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Too many character meals when you have kids? No such thing!!!

We do about 6 a trip. The kids love them, we get to kill two birds with one stone and where else can you eat with characters but at WDW!!?!?

 

[MJAJmom]

For our June trip, we did all the character meals (except CRT) for our 9-day stay. (see June trip report link below for lots of character meal pictures) We tried the DxDP for the first time. We eat 3 meals a day because of the little guys, and love to eat TS meals. My boys loved dining with characters every day. It's such a unique thing to WDW, so why not??

For our upcoming April trip, I've got a character meal almost every day, and this time we will make it to CRT!!

It's your schedule, your trip, and your time, so do what makes you and your family happy!!

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I don't think that's alot of character meals. My son loves character meals and we go everday to one or maybe 2 if they have lunch of dinner. I think its part of a Disney vacation having character meals.

Oh dear....

 

[Nancy for Disney]

I think it depends on how you will tour. Will you be a commando type that wants to see everything or are you the type to just go with the flow? I think character meals are great but they are more time consuming. This is fine if you are the type to "go with the flow" but if you want to be sure and be somewhere at a certain time and get certain things done in your day then you may want to reconsider a couple of those meals.