What is the best character dining experience?

[GoldieLocks5]

Hello! I'm new to the boards.... planning my family's first trip to WDW in March/April... my ADR date is Oct 1st - so I need to figure this all out!!

My 3 sons will be 5, 2, and 2 when we are there (yes, crazy 2yo twin boys).

They love Mickey, Donald, Toy Story & Nemo characters... also Lion King.

We are on the dining plan...

I'd like to book at least one character dining experience - just trying to figure out which is the best - not necessarily food wise, but time with the characters, how fun the restaurant is, etc.

Thanks for any ideas you can share!!

 

[Hook326]

We really liked Tusker House for breakfast at AK last year. We took a pic with Donald outside (which you have the option to buy. They will take a pic with your camera, too) and then we met Mickey, Daisy, and Goofy inside. We really enjoyed the food, too. I read that they are adding lunch as a character meal, too, starting early December.

We went to Chef Mickey's last year, too, for lunch and weren't crazy about the food or atmosphere (birds flying inside and kind of cafeteria looking!). We got to meet Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto though! I know other people love CM, too, so it's probably worth a try if you can get an ADR!

At both places we had great character interaction!

Unfortunately, there are no character meals with any Toy Story or Nemo characters. The Garden Grove used to have a meal with Rafiki and Timon, but I don't know if they still do. I don't think the Garden Grove is covered under the DDP though.

This year we are trying Garden Grill (just dinner for character meal) at Epcot (Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale) and I am super excited about this! Have heard good things about food and character interaction. I wanted to try Ohana for breakfast this year, too (Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch) but it just didn't work with our schedule. Hope this helps!

 

[debrapagliasotti]

Tusker House bkfst (they are adding char @ lunch starting mid Dec)
Garden Grill @ Epcot...meal served family style & great char interaction
Cape May @ Beach Club bkfst
Chef Mickey...food can be hit or miss, but the interaction is pretty good

 

[trvlr4301r]

We just had dinner at Garden Grill a couple weeks ago. We have tried all the other character meals and I really liked this one. Cape May breakfast with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy in their beach attire is also one of my favorites. I would say that was the best one for breakfast and Garden Grill for dinner.

 

[Daphne W]

Our favorites are:

Tusker House (breakfast)
Chef Mickey (breakfast, lunch or dinner)
Cape May (breakfast)
Garden Grill (dinner)
Crystal Palace (not specific to the characters you mentioned, but great. Pooh and friends)

I hope this helps! We love character dining. I feel that we save time in the parks because we don't have to stand in line to see characters as much.