Too Much Character Dining?

[rdevine10]

Nope... but this is what we have booked coming up. They are only young once, so we do it for them!

1900 Park Fare (breakfast AND dinner)
Crystal Palace Breakfast
Garden Grill dinner
Akerhaus dinner
Chef Mickey Breakfast

In addition we doing my DH's fave's:

Le Cellier
Coral Reef

Truth be told, we try at least one new restaurant per trip. Last trip we tried Kona (loved it- all my choice). This trip is Garden Grill (again Mom's choice). I am also wanting to try the Yak & Yeti Counter Service this trip.

My little one is just about 5... this is PRIME princess/character time for her. Thats what we planned this trip for, so of course we are going for total immersion!

Edited to add we are also dining at Trex (per request of the older DD), and one night of eating our way around the food and wine festival (for Mommy & Daddy!)

 

[quandrea]

I think it might be too much character dining. The character meals are always very loud, which might bother some little ones. My daughter, 6, hates really loud restaurants. Some quieter meals during a trip are nice. I agree with the recommendations for Coaral Reef and Tusker house--we love the lunch there. We do a lot of buffets because the kids can choose what they like and we aren't committed to one entree, but we mix it up a bit. Another must do is Mickey's Backyard BBq. Characters are there, but you get to dance with them. They visit some tables, but it is a lot more informal than a character meal. The buffet is there--which we love--one of my favourite disney meals. The only thing is that it is two credits. Not sure if that is an issue for you. Have a great time.

 

[pooh2001]

Since it's your ...KIDS FIRST TRIP TO DISNEY !

What ever TS works for your family is great.

We do at least 1 TS everyday - so we can have salads, kids get MILK, not soda...and some nice A/C.
We stay for 10 days and have teen kids.
We are not big on hot dogs, burgers, fried chicken fingers & french fries.
Nitrates & fried foods are not the healthiest.

We sometimes do a character meal everyday - but we like...
Chef Mickey's dinner on an late night MK day (MK open till 1 or 2 am sometimes)
a late ADR Crystal Palace breakfast or lunch on an early morning MK entry day
1900 Park Faire for breakfast & dinner
Garden Grill dinner
Coral Reef late lunch
The Princess breakfast in Epcvot World Showcase
a late ADR Cape May breakfast on an early morning RPCOT entry day
Tony's dinner around 7:30 PM for the nightly parade
50 Prime Time for dinner
Rain Forrest Cafe for lunch
Considering, but never tried in AK, Donald's breakfast

We have done the CS in EPCOT World Showcase - some healthy options are availbale. We also like the fruit carts.


Our bottom line - at least one TS meal everyday, character or not.

CRT - Cindy's - great for girls and you should do at least once. We have been there done that 3 times and our teen kids say no way for CRT. But as I said, they have been to CRT 3 times, they have the star wands and swords, and are not thrilled to do it a 4th time.

A bit ditto with Chef Mickeys. The character parade with the napkin waving is not thrilling to them - but they like the food at dinner and the dessert and ice cream bar is wonderful.
When we stayed at CR we ate at Chef Mickeys at least 3 times for meals - we skipped the picture option and waved the characters on.

Since it's your kids first time and if they are in the ages of 4 to adult - a character meal in WDW is a wonderful way to add some magic to their first time in WDW. If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary note it on your ADR and tell them when you get to the TS. You will be surpised on what WDW will do for you !

 

[mupt02]

I don't think it is too many at all. For our trip we did 6 character meals out of 9. It really helped keep my kiddos entertained and they loved seeing all the different characters. It didn't stop us from waiting in line for characters, but my kiddos are not big enough for the "big" rides so characters is what we did.

 

[grace&philipsmom]

I don't think you have too many. We always do a character meal a day on our trips and our kids love it (ages 3 and 7). I am sure you will have a great trip. If you are finding it too much while you are there you can always cancel a few then.

 

[Cherinva]

I think your choices are wonderful. I love, love, love Character Dining.

 

[lieutjenn]

My DH and I are headed to Disney Dec 11. I have ADR's as follows, all for dinner:

CP
H&V (wanted 50's but can't get an ADR)
Via Napoli
CM
Biergarten
1900 PF

Too much Character for two overgrown kids? We're 48 & 58 yoa but good sports for just about everything. Also, the buffets were a bit more appealing as we like lots of different flavors in small quantities.

 

[staceycrouton]

If you have young children and this is their first trip to Disney then, I agree, you can't have too many character meals. Although on our trips, our girls, now ages 8 and 10, enjoy character meals as well as trying other restaurants as well. For our trip in November we are eating dinner at CRT, breakfasts at Tusker House and Crystal Palace. I like to make sure we have at least one meal with princesses and a meal or two with some of the other characters as well. My kids also really enjoy our non-character meals. This trip we are eating at Le Cellier, 'Ohana (dinner), Chefs de France, Teppan Edo, Planet Hollywood, Tony's Town Square and Hoop Dee Doo Revue. We try to mix it up a little so that even the non-character meals are different from each other in both food and atmosphere. Whatever meals you decide on, your family is going to have a wonderful time!

 

[yankee3366]

I don't think it's too many. But I can't really speak from experience. My kids will be 3 and almost 2 when we go and we have a character meal each day. I figured, why not? They only enjoy these expiriences for so long.

 

[VeganCupcake]

We just did
Cape May Breakfast
Ohana dinner
Kona Breakfast
Play n Dine Lunch
1900 Park Fare Breakfast
Tusker House Breakfast
Ohana Breakfast
Kona Dinner

We love the character meals, the photo ops are priceless! I would do 2-3 a day if we could afford it! LOL! I LOVE them! I think your schedule is perfect! Now if you DIDN'T have the Ohana Breakfast then I would say there is definitely a problem

 

[eyor44]

We are doing:
Tusker House
Hollywood and Vine
CRT
Akershus
Chef Mickey
Crystal Palace

We love character meals and not having to wait in lines for autographs. This will be our third year seeing the characters this way.

 

[DeckedOut]

I agree with many other posters and say 'you can never have enough character meals'. With that said, it depends on if your kids are into the characters that are at the specific restaurant. This next trip My kids don't want to do Hollywood and Vine or Crystal Palace. But are still all about Micky and any classic Micky friends. For a MK breakfast Stitch at nearby Ohana's sounds much cooler this trip than Pooh at CP. Last trip it was the reverse.

 

[LovinPooh]

I have all of those places as well OP. Just different meals... I agree, never too many character meals!!!

 

[Chelley00]

For me, there is no such thing as too much character dinning. .

Me either. Every trip we pack in as many character meals as we can. For us it's part of the experience of Disney. The kids love them, we enjoy watching all the kids interact with the characters, and we can sit and let the characters come to us instead of waiting in line for them!

 

[DCDisney]

From my experience I think it is too much. We did a very similar plan when my kids were 4 and 6 and after the first 2 meals in a row it just wasn't as special to the kids any more. The food was mostly eh eating at all those buffets too. On our next trip we alternated days with character meals and days with "regular" meals like Coral Reef, Sci Fi, Rainforest Cafe and I felt like it was a much better balance with characters and food types. The most telling thing to me was that 4 and 6 trip we ate 6 character meals and Le Cellier. You want to know which was my kids favorite meal....yep, Le Cellier even though it took 2 hours of sitting still 2nd favorite was Ohana breakfast I think because it was somewhat calmer than the others and food was brought to us. Even now that my kids are older we still enjoy character dining and usually do Crystal Palace and Tusker House. They are never the best meals of the trip but always enjoyable. As a parent too I really felt exhausted after the character meals of trying to plan when to eat and when characters were coming and it was just chaotic in general. Even for little kids there are lots of very enjoyable non-character options.

 

[slytherinbratz]

Honestly CRT is not worth the 2 credits! I prefer Akershus Royal Banquet in Epcot! Princess experience and you save a dining credit. Plus there is no such thing as to much character dining! I'm going December 1st - 13th and this is what we have booked. Now its 3 of us all over the age of 30 years. I like having mine booked way in advance to. I actually have a schedule for each day and what parks we are attending and where we are eating. I scheduled dining to go with extra magic hours so we don't have to leave the park.

December 2nd: Tony's Town Square
December 3rd: Cape May Cafe*
December 4th: 1900 Park Fare*
December 5th: 50's Prime Time Cafe*
December 6th: Kona Cafe*
December 7th: Akershus (Jodi Benson at the CP)*
December 8th: Woflgang Puck*
December 9th: The Crystal Palace*
December 10th: Coral Reef* (Whoopi at the CP)
December 11th: 1900 Park Fare for breakfast*
Chef Mickeys for late dinner
(extra dining since we arrive late on the 1st)
December 12th: Planet Hollywood

We have 5 character dinners planned and we love them all. In fact all are repeats except for Chef Mickey's. We have never ate there. Plus we also do the autographs and pictures. Its so much fun no matter what age. Again I do recommend Akershus over CRT or if you want to do it just do it once and if you go to Disney again never do it again. Food wasn't all that great and it seemed to take forever for all the characters to get to the table.

 

[shawnh199]

IMO you can never have "too many character meals". My daughters love them, but so do my DH and I. I think we will continue with character meals as long as we want, even if my kids think it's a drag when they get older. We do the deluxe dining plan (or pay OOP for extra meals when on regular dining) so that we can do character meals every morning for breakfast at the park we are going to for the day. We do plenty of other TS meals so my girls do get a good bit of variety, but I wouldn't give up the character meal experience for anything (especially while they are young.)

And, you can't beat meeting characters in the restaurants and not waiting in long lines in the parks unless you just want to. On our trip in Dec 09, we filled up 2 autograph books because we were able to meet so many different characters because we had so many in restaurants. We were able to pick and choose who we wanted to see in the parks and got to meet characters we might not have had time for if we had been in lines for Mickey or Minnie (or others we met at restaurants).

My only advice is to may fit in Tusker House for breakfast. It was our favorite of all the character meals we did and is a must do for us on all future trips!!
And - make sure those camera/camcorder batteries are charged up and ready to go each morning. You might want to take a power strip for your hotel room if you have lots of things to charge at night (cell phone, cameras, etc.) - it really comes in handy!

Have a really awesome trip!!!

 

[queenof3]

I don't think it is too much but you may see Cinderella three times at three different restaurants! Just double check what meals have what characters because 1900 Park Fare is differerent depending on the meal and CRT used to have the mice at a certain meal too. I think it is so worth it to not stand in line as well! We alway enjoyed our character meals! HAve a blast!!

 

[mom2rtk]

I don't think it is too much but you may see Cinderella three times at three different restaurants! Just double check what meals have what characters because 1900 Park Fare is differerent depending on the meal and CRT used to have the mice at a certain meal too. I think it is so worth it to not stand in line as well! We alway enjoyed our character meals! HAve a blast!!

No more mice at CRT. Back in February this year the changed so all the meals have princesses.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

We will be in WDW in March. We have 3 character meals scheduled.

Garden Grille - arrival night
CP - first day in MK before park opening
Tusker House - AK day before park opening
Also Chef's de France to see Remy for lunch

I would have probably scheduled more, but I have 2 boys, so we don't do the princess meals.

I love the character meals. Like someone else mentioned, it is great photo ops. We will be going during the busy spring break season, so the price of the meal more than pays for itself in not having to wait in character lines in the parks.