What's your favorite Character Dining

[MrsBergs]

We are planning on going to Disney World at the end of September 2015. I have a DD age 3. What would you suggest for character dining.

Thank You

 

[StirlingSilver83]

Well I am assuming she's into the princesses. So I would suggest cinderellas royal table, akershus banquet hall, and 1900 park fare dinner. Also if she's into the Disney junior characters there is Hollywood & vine. Crystal palace is a must do for breakfast pre rope drop. The Winnie the Pooh characters are there. Then there is chef mickeys with the classic 5 (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, goofy, and Pluto). But if u do chef mickeys go for breakfast bc in my opinion breakfast is way better than dinner lol.

 

[JamJamFam]

The Play N Dine at Hollywood and Vine was SO much fun! If your three year old knows Handy Manny, Sofia, Doc, and Jake, he or she will be in HEAVEN. My kids loved the character interaction and dance parties there. Don't miss it! Especially since those characters will likely be the first ones your little will outgrow.

We did a character meal each day of our trip. My least favorite was Akershus. CRT was better! Our second favorite was Tusker House. The breakfast buffet was absolutely delicious. If you get the 8:00 am reservation, you can head straight to the safari with virtually no wait. Awesome!

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

We just went first week of December. We did, Chef Mickeys, H&V, CP, and TH. I have a son who will be 3 in a few weeks. He LOVES the fab 5, and the look on his face as MIckey walked to him at our table for the first time at CM was worth the price..maybe... Thank goodness I got a pic!!!
H&V, while he loves all those shows, those characters made him nervous, lol. Jake was awesome and took extra time and ended up getting a hug out of my son, but their big faces freaked him a bit.
TH characters were the best!!
If your daughter is into princesses, my daughter, now 13, was a princess fan, and we've done all those meals as well. We really liked all of them, so I cannot narrow it down for you. CRT is $$$, but it's in the castle, so there is that! 1900 for us, was a nice little get away from the parks.
My daughter would probably pick Akershus, since Belle was a fav back then, and she wore her Belle dress and had a nice pic taken with Belle.
Good luck picking, I think she'll enjoy them all!!

 

[MandiC]

The Play N Dine at Hollywood and Vine was SO much fun! If your three year old knows Handy Manny, Sofia, Doc, and Jake, he or she will be in HEAVEN. My kids loved the character interaction and dance parties there. Don't miss it! Especially since those characters will likely be the first ones your little will outgrow.

We did a character meal each day of our trip. My least favorite was Akershus. CRT was better! Our second favorite was Tusker House. The breakfast buffet was absolutely delicious. If you get the 8:00 am reservation, you can head straight to the safari with virtually no wait. Awesome!

This shows how different two families can be. Maybe it depends on which meal? We had dinner at Akershus, the food was just okay but the princesses were awesome. They had so much more time with the princesses and overall seemed more rushed, I also preferred the atmosphere more. It was cozy and the decor was 'castle-like', oddly enough in the castle it didn't feel like you were in the castle and it was noisy, we couldn't even hear the announcements or wishing ceremony. We had breakfast at CRT and the food was not very good, the kids didn't get a choice in what they wanted either so they didn't eat more than a few bites and were hungry shortly after. Considering the price difference we much preferred Akershus.
Hollywood and Vine was okay for us too, if you have Disney Jr loving kids it would probably be worth doing if you plan a HS day. The food is typical of buffets.
My personal favorite character meal was definitely Tusker House. The food was really quite good and I was surprised my girls even really liked the characters. If you were to ask my daughters which was their favorite meal the younger one would say Akershus and my older one would actually say California Grill.

 

[JamJamFam]

We did breakfast at Akershus and dinner at CRT. Funnily enough, we had the same Aurora at both places! She remembered us and was really great with the kids.

We thought the character interaction at CRT was better - they took more time with our kids. It was also my birthday at CRT so they made a huge deal out of it.

Wherever you choose, OP, you're going to have a blast!

 

[Dawnlight]

We LOVED Tusker House at AK; we were there for brunch (10:20 reservation), breakfast items, then transition over to lunch items. The character interactions were great! We rope-dropped the Safari, then did one of the trails, followed by A Bug's Life before we went to our reservation.

We also enjoyed Crystal Palace very much, for an early dinner.

We did a late lunch at Akershus; the food was good, but we preferred the buffet character meals (there is a buffet for appetizers, but entrees are ordered and the desserts were shared).

 

[JamJamFam]

Oops, double post!

 

[NicoleLarson]

Well two of my favorite are Ohana (because they bring the food to you!!!) And cape may. There's so much up and down up and down at character meals that we really like the fact that ohana is family style. Cape may is always much more relaxed and we always have the best character interaction there.

 

[ktlm]

There is just something special about eating in the Castle! Cinderella's Royal Table (CRT)! She will get her picture with Cinderella in the lobby. She will eat in a castle. She will have 4 princesses come to the table- Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. She will be given a wand at the table and a wishing star. It is the perfect Princess experience for a 3 year old!


We have done CRT multiple times and we have done Akershus (the other multiple princess meal) multiple times as well. For us it has always felt like Akershus the characters were rushed, the tables were too close together, and the food has seemed to kind of go downhill in the last couple of years. DD is now 8, and last year for the first year she decided no more Akershus. She still wanted the castle though.

 

[msmama]

My favorite (and didn't see it mentioned) is Garden Grill in the Land pavillion at Epcot. The way the tables are situated, I feel like you get more time with the characters, and the interaction is better. Characters are Farmer Mickey, Pluto and Farmers Chip and Dale.

The food is served family style and it's always been on of my favorite meals, too!

 

[Mamabear523]

My 2 1/2 year old isn't into the princesses and LOOOVVEs toy story and the Disney junior characters, someone mentioned you could dine with them (DJ) I haven't been to Disney since I was 8 soo I'm way out of the loop . How and where do I book dining with the Disney junior gang and is there anything with toy story or cars ?

 

[hcox31]

My 2 1/2 year old isn't into the princesses and LOOOVVEs toy story and the Disney junior characters, someone mentioned you could dine with them (DJ) I haven't been to Disney since I was 8 soo I'm way out of the loop . How and where do I book dining with the Disney junior gang and is there anything with toy story or cars ?

From what I understand, disney jr characters (jake, doc etc) are at Hollywood and vine in DHS.

 

[Happyjen27]

My 2 favorite experiences have been CRT because it's in the castle, and Chef Mickey because of the Fab 5.

Now, disclaimer. Dining at CRT made me feel like a diary cow going through the gates to get milked. It is a well oiled machine with all the excess time squeezed out to ensure they can get the maximum number of diners in and out. Even so, it's eating in the castle. Worth every single penny.

Chef Mickey. The food at dinner was downright disgusting. Truly. My daughter eats anything, and she was disgusted. You have not met her, but her palate isn't at all discerning. Again, worth every penny and withstanding the gross food just to have the Fab 5 hugging your young'un and doing the napkin twirl. We did TH, and that food was better, but the interaction wasn't as great as CM.

 

[kcp1377]

We love Ohana. Not that impressed with Chef Mickey's (we've done breakfast and a few dinners and the characters always seem rushed). Ohana has always been laid back and we love the food at the table (as you can imagine, getting 6 kids 8 and under food from a buffet can be a bit stressful!) Akershaus was wonderful if you're looking for princesses. Our girls got to dance with their favorite princesses (Cinderella and Snow White) so it was worth every penny. I think the kids ate their weight in strawberries!

 

[crl]

We love Ohana for a late breakfast. It's all you can eat brought to your table, so no going to stand in line with little ones. If you pick a later time on your non-park day, you'll have more time with the characters. At least that's been our experience.

 

[mindygirl5238]

I'm going to throw in Garden Grill as well. It has Mickey, Pluto, Chip & Dale. Although that may not be first on your list with a 3 year old girl, our (at the time almost) 3 year old girl LOVED IT. I think that this is probably one of the best in terms of character interaction. Although they aren't princesses in flowing gowns, they made our girls (& us) laugh so hard we could barely breathe. Our girls must have hugged them all 10 times, they just couldn't get enough. Plus, the food was delicious.

As far as princess meals go, I'm going to say Akershus. Sure dining "in the castle" is a nice thing to say you did. But as the previous poster said, I agree that Akershus has more of a castle feel, the food is better, the princess interaction is WAY better, and it's only 1 dining credit if you are on the dining plan.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

My personal favorite and my 4 year old son's too is Crystal Palace for lunch. The food is really good, and the price is not ridiculous. It provides an excellent break from the hustle and bustle of the Magic Kingdom. But best of all is the characters. All the Pooh characters, Winnie, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore are just sooooo much more huggable than any of the other characters because they don't have any hard face parts. LOVE THEM!

Every family is different. Even though my son LOVED disney Junior he HATED Play and Dine, I think he thought the characters were creepy. The only one he wanted anything to do with was Oso:

 

[katyjeka]

We love the Garden Grill!!!

 

[TinksMyGirl]

We love both Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's. CP being a buffet allowed everyone to get up and move around so it didn't feel like it was too long between characters.