What is your favorite character dining experience?

[MySong]

Ok, so we're booked and ready to go to Disneyland on December 6th! This will be my eighth trip, and I have never done a character meal yet. I would love to hear what everybody's favorite place is! Where is the best food, the best character interaction, and most of all, which characters show up at the various restaurants? My daughter is 17, will she get to interact with the characters (for photo ops) or is she too old? Also, at what point do I make reservations?

Thanks in advance!

 

[silence]

We have done 4 of the character meals on various trips, some more often than others.

I rank them as follows:
Minnie and Friends
Ariel's
Lilo and Stitch
Goofy's Kitchen

Now, coincidently, the place with the BEST food is listed last. We had 2 horrible experiences at Goofy's (along with 2 great), but that is why it gets rated so low. I ranked them on overall experience (food, character interaction and location).

We do Minnie and Friends just about every trip. We do Ariel's when we just HAVE to see the princesses, and DH is not one to stand in line for characters, neither am I for that matter.

Ariel's has the worst food IMO of the bunch, but it wasn't as terrible as I have seen it described here...at least not to me.

Who we have seen:
Minnie and Friends - Minnie, Captain Hook, Peter Pan, Wendy, Pooh, Tigger, Eyeore, Fairy Godmother, Max

Ariel's - Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Cinderella, once we also saw Mulan

Goofy's - Chip, Dale, Goofy, Cinderella, Snow White (note, usually only 1 princess each time, not all every time), Sleeping Beauty, Rafiki, Goofy

Lilo and Stitch - Lilo (sat down and colored with my DD, too cute) Stitch, Max, Hawaiian Minnie I know that there are others, I just can't recall.

 

[tlovesdis]

We've done them all over the years and our absolute favorite for food quality and awesome character interaction is the Lilo & Stitch breakfast at Paradise Pier! We saw Lilo, Stitich, Daisy, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Max. My niece got to play musical islands (aka musical chairs) with stitich and when she was the last one standing with him he took off running through the place and she got to chase him! He even crawled under empty tables and she followed him. It was so cute! She also got to hula with Lilo and Minnie.

We thought the food there was very good, lots to chose from and very tasty!

My second choice would be Goofy's Kitchen, although it would be a very far second!

My last and will never do again is Ariel's! YUCK!!!

We don't do the character meals anymore as the prices are just a bit too steep now and we can do so much more with the money we would spend on breakfast!

 

[lucky1]

First your daughter is not too old to pose for pictures or interact with the Characters.

Here is my ranking:

Lilo and Stitch
Goofy's Kitchen
Storytellers
Minnie and Friends
Ariels

Lilo and Stitch, because of the food buffet is hawaiian style and has the most yummy pinnapple-coconut scones. The tables are not so close together that you can have some very good Character interaction. They have island games that the kids play with the Characters. We have seen: Lilo, stitch, Minnie, Daisy, Max, Pluto

Goofy's Kitchen: Have never been there for breakfast, but dinners have been good. It is quiet large and you might not get to see all the characters just given how large a place it is. Have seen everyone except Mickey. Good place to see Face Characters.

Storytellers: Love the brunch, very california style food. I felt the tables were a bit close together and made it difficult for character interaction. Years ago they use to have Camp counsolers that came out and did activities with the kids, but last couple of times we had not seen it. Characters: Chip and Dale, Pluto, Meeko, Bears (I can't remember their names)

Minnie and friends: Really didn't like the brunch offerings. We never did see a lot of characters the time we were there. (We have only been there once) and did not like the way they had the buffet set up and made it difficult to get back to your table.

Ariels: Have never had a good experience with the food here. They use to wheel ariel out in the front of the resturant for pictures, but I have not seen them do this for a while. Also the princesses come out at a certian time and make their way around the resturant. If you get seated after they leave your area, if you don't linger, you might not get to see them again. We felt very rushed with the character interaction.


These are just my opinions and experiences. You mileage may vary.

 

[bluegrizzlies1]

Minnie and friends because it is in the park and the food is pretty good.

I liked lilo and stitch also but it was a long walk to paradise from where we stayed.

Princesses well food bad to see the princesses good.

 

[MySong]

Wow, that is a lot of great information! I appreciate hearing about what you guys liked about each place, it really helps me. I am still trying to decide, but now I'm kinda thinking that maybe we should go to two of these places! They all sound like they are special in their own way so it's hard to decide!

 

[IASWAM]

We have done the Minnie & Friends Breakfast 2 years in a row, and enjoyed it both times. The food was good (plus all you can eat!) and The characters will interact with anybody that wants the attention. All in all, I give it 2 thumbs up!

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

Lilo and Stitch for sure! We had so much fun there in June. Stitch is my son's favorite character, so when he spent tons of time playing with him, he was just thrilled. Food was WONDERFUL too!

We'll do that one again next year for sure!

 

[TahoeMom]

We try to start our trip with a visit (usually brunch) at Goofy's Kitchen - a tradition for since our 1999 visit! We find it to be te best food selection and the best character selection.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

my favs in order
minnies-grate charcter interaction
goofys dinner-they had grate food
goofys breakfast brunch-good but i liked dinner better
and were gona try princess breakfast becosue we didnt like the lunch. only good thing was the desert lol

 

[talie95]

We have only done breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen so far and it was great. The food was good (nothing phenomenal, but good) and the characters were great. We saw Chip n Dale, Goofy, Rafiki, and Pluto was in the front while you were waiting to be seated and you could take a pic with him and then they brought the pic to your table if you wanted to buy it. The character interaction was great.....Goofy was hysterical....he came over 2 or 3 times and was playing with my 3 year old, rolling up napkins and putting them over her eyes and all sorts of funny antics. All the other characters spent an ample amount of time with us as well. I thought they would just come over, take a pic, sign an autograph, and move on but they really stayed and interacted with the kids a lot. Goofy also did a little "dance party" with all the kids in the buffet area that was really cute. I'm looking forward to trying some of the other meals, like Ariel's, since I have 2 girls.

 

[CableKC]

Goofy's Charecter Breakfast was the best. The decor and food was much better then all the other Chareceter Breakfast that Disney Family and I have attended. I didn't like the Mickey and Minnie Breakfast at DL itself since the food seemed average with long lines and simply too much chaos going on.

 

[Crazy4Goofy]

We have been to 3 character meals and I would rate them as follows:

*Goofy's Kitchen
*Ariel's Grotto
*Lilo and Stitch

We have been to Goofy's Kitchen multiple times and we love it everytime we go. Their food is delicious and very verstile so there is something for everyone. Great character interaction. We got to see different characters with mulitple stops at our table. The kids loved that!! Would definetly do this one again in a heartbeat!!!

Ariel's was not as bad as everyone makes it sound. We went for our first time this past May and we thought the food was actually good but that's us, I guess. The character interaction was good. But, we only got one stop from each princess so that was the downside. We saw Ariel at the door, Snow White, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. The cost was worth it to us because we hate standing in line to see the Princesses. Although we did stand in line two days later at the PFF because my DD14 didn't get to see her favorite princess, Belle. Actually we walked up at a slow time and only had to wait for 20 mins. Drawback- missed Belle again by two families. OH WELL, we tried!! Would do this one again for sure!!

Lilo and Stitch was terrible for us. I got lots of rave reviews here on the dis so we decided to go this past May. But honestly for us it just wasn't so pleasant. The food was pretty good, but as far as character interaction goes, there was hardly any. The only one who came to our table more than once was Pluto. He was cute with my DS 7 so that was good. The man of the hour, STITCH, was awful. We had to wait forever to see him. And that was after we asked our server and management several times for Stitch. He was quick with us and he didn't give us the kind of interaction I have read here on the board. My son was very disappointed as he loves Stitch. I felt very cheated for the money I had spent to see Lilo and Stitch. So, with that said, we would never do it again. But again this is just my opinion.

Hope some of this info helps. I say do what you think your kids would like. It never hurts to try something new like we did. We tried 2 new character meals and ended up liking one.

 

[dizneekrazee]

We have only done 3 of the 5. We do Goofys often, and it is my oldest DS fav of the 3 we have done, and most likely my fav too!! We always do the breakfast. Service is good, food is good, and character interaction is great. We have seen (over the years) Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Mad Hatter, Rafiki, Baloo, and more that I just cant even think of. The first time we ate there, my oldest DS was maybe 3. He was very shy of the characters. Goofy came to our table, and my son went under the table to hide. Next thing you know, Goofy is sitting under our table with my son. It was so funny!! Needless to say, after that, he didnt mind the characters. Who knows what Goofy was *saying* to my DS.

We did Minnies for breakfast last April, food was good, service was good, character interaction was good, amount of characters was superb!! We saw Minnie, Mickey, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Alice, Hook, Fairy Godmother, and more!! Fairy Godmother was sooo sweet!!

We did Ariels for lunch in 2002. Wasnt that great, never went back. Everybody always says how many princesses they see, we only saw Ariel of I remember right. We did see Pluto, Chip, and Dale, and we also saw Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy in sailor suits in the outside eating area (we were inside). Maybe that was before they started all the princess stuff.

This November, we will be trying out Storytellers.