What are YOUR Top Three Character Meals?

[MamaBelleRN]

We made our first trip to WDW in October 2015 and we did BOGx2 (breakfast and dinner), CRT dinner, H&V F! lunch, Sci-Fi dinner, TH breakfast, Raglan Road, and Via Napoli dinner. With our family of six (four children ages infant to 8 years), it felt like too many TS meals for our seven-night stay. Our next trip we will be staying between 10-12 nights and we will be a family of seven (ages infant to 11).

I want to do fewer TS meals and focus mostly on character meals. I know for sure we want to HDDDR, but not certain what else to try to book. Thoughts had been for Chef Mickey's, 1900 Park Fare, Akershus and T-Rex. Our favorites were TH and BOG, so we may repeat those. What would you recommend for a young family?

 

[Disneylover99]

H&V dinner
CP lunch or dinner
GG

 

[eastendlights]

Breakfast-Garden Grill, 'Ohana, Cape May
Lunch-Tusker, CRT, Garden Grill

 

[butterfly71076]

Breakfast- Garden Grill, Tusker House, 1900 Park Fare
Dinner- Chef Mickey, Hollywood & Vine, Crystal Palace

These are our must dos for each trip.

 

[ErinsMommy]

Chef Miceys Crystal Palace and O'Hara

 

[Tonberry]

T-Rex and Rainforest Cafe are both LOUD, which works in your favor if your kids are also loud, rambunctious, and scream a lot.
1900 Park Fare - Both breakfast and dinner are awesome in terms of character interactions. We found the food was good, but not wonderful. We would go back just for the characters alone.
For breakfast, our favorite is Tusker House. The food is always great and hot. They have lots of choices too. The characters are great too!

The only reason we do Hollywood & Vine is for the Disney Junior characters for the kids. When our kids grow out of Disney Junior, we will never go to H&V again. They seated us in a booth that had maple syrup all over it. Good thing I noticed before I sat down, or it would have been a long day. The table was still dirty, the buffet food was lukewarm at best, the waitress was slow and took 15 minutes to get our drinks refilled, then botched our check and double billed our dining plan.

 

[Mazz519]

Chef Mickeys 1900 Park fare either meal, Crystal palace

 

[CynBeth]

We don't have kids but love character breakfasts and our favorites in terms of the variety of food are CP, Cape May, and TH. The characters and servers are always great to us.

 

[VAfamily1998]

We really liked the Garden Grill in Epcot.
It is not a buffet, dishes are brought to you and served family style--which I really liked when my kids were younger because I always felt it was hard to bring multiple young kids (we have 4 that are approx. 2 years apart each) up to get food, and also allow the adults to get their food too!
The characters were Chip and Dale (my kids' favorite!) Mickey and Pluto. The restaurant revolves into the "living with the land" ride so it's fun to see the change of scenery.

 

[BLLB]

O'Hana for breakfast

 

[ChasingLeslie]

1. 1900 PF dinner
2. Tusker House breakfast
3. Crystal Palace any meal

 

[DISNEY1975]

All breakfast.....

Crystal Palace
1900 Park Fare
Cape May

These are all based on the food. For characters, I would have to throw in Tusker House, Chef Mickeys and Cape May. I love seeing Mickey in different attire!

Im trying Minnies Springtime Dinner for the first time this upcoming trip. Ive never done a character dinner, or buffet dinner. Should be interesting!

 

[MamaBelleRN]

Thanks for all the replies! Last trip I ended up canceling Akershus breakfast, 1900 dinner, and Chef Mickey's breakfast. It seems like 1900 and Chef Mickey's might have to make the cut for this go around. And maybe squeeze in CP too! The fun dining is just one of the many reasons this next trip is going to be longer

 

[MeganMango]

I have always found breakfast food is way better at character meals!!! I have eaten at every character meal except for Garden Grill (Looks like a cool restaurant, but I've never been a huge Chip and Dale fan).

My top 3 for FOOD experience in order:

1) Tusker House breakfast AND lunch- GREAT variety of food. Lots of dessert options too, and if you book a late breakfast reservation, you'll likely get to experience the lunch food too!!! I like the few African options they offer while also keeping the american favorites!!! Lots of kid friendly options as well as more adventurous options for adults!!

2) Chef Mickey's breakfast- Food was top notch here. So much offered, I remember a lot of different fancier meat options than just bacon. They also had a delicious dessert area!

3) Akershus breakfast- I would rate this as #3 because there's not as much variety. It isn't a buffet but it is all you can eat family style. The cheesy potatoes are a must!!!! Cold items were on a buffet, hot options were brought to your table. You can also request mickey waffles with no extra charge. I definitely did! Also love the fact that it comes with a photopass picture (if you have memory maker).

Top 3 for CHARACTER interactions:

1) 1900 Park Fare DINNER- Character interactions out of this world. The step sisters, evil stepmother, and Cinderella/Prince Charming made you feel like you were apart of their fairytale! Food was "good" but not spectacular. Found myself hungry an hour later from not eating that much from the food not being quite as tasty as i'd hoped. Definitely would do this meal again just for characters.

2) Tusker House- Great character interaction here. The bonus is the food. Characters came around more than once since I stuck around for a while since it was pouring outside.

3) Crystal Palace- Character interaction was good here!! Really enjoyed Pooh and friends' playful personalities. This also is a great place because it's in Magic Kingdom, and also because pictures turn out FANTASTIC because of the great lighting.

 

[mkla2015]

With 2 young kids, our trips always include multiple character meals. These would be our top 3 for food and interactions-

1- Tusker House Breakfast
2- 1900 PF Dinner
3- Crystal Palace Breakfast

 

[MarieShedsky]

Crystal Palace, Hollywood and Vine, and maybe Tusker House. First time at Chef Mickey was great, the last time I went (just a few months apart) was terrible.

 

[Caseheidi]

We always eat at Crystal Palace. Great character interaction, and we enjoy he food no matter which meal.

We have done breakfast at Tusker House many times and had great success.

We love dinner at Garden Grill. Food is great, and I kind of love that it is family style and I don't have to hit a buffet or look at a menu. And I like that it feels a little more private (we have always sat on the top ring) and not as noisy. We are doing our first breakfast here next month, and can't wait.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Breakfast - Akershus

Dinner - 1900 Park Fare and Crystal Palace

 

[LSLS]

1900 Park Fare
Cape May
Akershus

 

[nursejackie]

1. 1900 Park Fare breakfast
2. Crystal Palace breakfast
3. Garden Grill breakfast