Which character dinings are best for my family with 3yo son?

[Shellee999]

We will be at WDW in August for 5 nights. My son will be 3 1/2 at the time. He is pretty good at restaurants now, but if he's tired (which I assume he will be in WDW), he can be cranky. So I would like to make many of our meals be character dining. I've only been to Disney once in my adult life, so planning isn't easy. I tried to narrow down which ones we're interested in, but as you'll be able to see, I didn't narrow it down all that much lol. Any opinions on how you'd rank them?

CRT - I just really want to go here. Hoping my son will like it too!
Crystal Palace
Donald's Safari Breakfast or Lunch
1900 Park Fare - I'm leaning more towards no for this one
Garden Grill
Hollywood & Vine - This will probably be a definite for us because of the Disney Jr. characters
Mickey's Backyard BBQ - trying to decide if my son will get enough out of it to be worth the 2 TS credits
Ohana's Best Friends Breakfast - son doesn't know Lilo and Stitch, so I'm leaning towards no, but I heard it's a lot of fun

 

[BMC423]

Hello!
Last year we did a few character meals and IMO the best ones are always breakfast.

We did the Hollywood & Vine lunch, and while we really liked the characters the food was just ok. This year we are going for breakfast and expect it to be better. Also I think its a nice way to start your day.

We have always done a Crystal Palace Breakfast, even before kids. I think this is a really good one and if you can get a reservation for before 9 you can be inside the park before it opens which is a really great time to get some castle pics.

Another one of my favorites was Cape May for breakfast. You didn't mention where you are staying but this one was really good.

The others on your list I haven't tried so can't really comment. I will say this my son was two last year and he did really enjoy meeting all the characters. It can be a bit overwhelming especially towards the end of a busy day. Hope this helps!

 

[HunnyJar]

We have two little ones (ages are on my tickers) and the character meals we enjoyed best this past trip were..

Garden Grill - The best character interaction of all the character meals we have been to period. The restaurant is not really large so the characters are able to spend quite a bit of time at your table and usually will come around multiple times. We have some really great pictures of Chip and Dale trying to feed one of my daughters. Just a lot of fun and the food is also good.

'Ohana - I know you are thinking about dismissing this restaurant because your son doesn't know the Lilo or Stitch, but I think he would be just fine if he likes Mickey and Pluto. The breakfast is a lot of fun and the setting is beautiful. Unlike so many of the character meals 'Ohana and Garden Grill are both served family style. No buffet lines or plate carrying here. Also the character and kid parade around the restaurant to Hawaiian Roller Coaster is a lot of fun for the kids.

Cape May - Fantastic, fantastic breakfast buffet. Fresh food and many different kinds to choose from. Minnie, Donald and Goofy in their beach wear is also a lot of fun to see and they were great with my kids. We saw them multiple times and Goofy even took my oldest daughter for a few minutes of play time. It was super cute.

We also did Chef Mickey's this trip and while I really like it for my family if you aren't used to the chaos it might be best for when he gets a bit older. My two littles ones loved that they have a party every 15 minutes, but your son might not. And we also dined at Crystal Palace this past trip, but it was not a good meal and I am not sure when we will put it back into our rotation. But we do love seeing Pooh and friends.

** Afterthought.. I forgot to mention that the characters are generally REALLY good at sensing as to whether or not a child will be okay to visit with. If it looks like your son is not waiting interaction, they usually will just wave and see how that goes before either staying or moving on.

 

[maggie blossom]

My daughter was just under 3 first time we took her and Garden Grill was perfect. Not crazy loud or overwhelming. Character interaction perfect there for young child IMO

 

[MSSANDRA]

We have done most of these. While we do love Character meals, do consider a few none character meals just so every meal is not an over exciting, he may not eat meal.

CRT- have done it with boys. Fun and much quieter that some of the others. More interaction with face characters (not a good thing for my 5 year old as he gets really shy around them). Expensive or 2 credits.

Crystal Palace- Like this one but it gets crazy in there. He should know the characters. We like breakfast or dinner better than lunch.

Donald's- One of our favorites for breakfast. Have not done lunch yet. Have heard some negative feed back lately though.

1900- Done this one with boys too. Characters were ok, but food was really good and it was less crazy that some of the others.

Hollywood and Vine- It continues to get poor reviews for the bad food. We rated the food in line with a ryans. Characters were good and service was great here. Will not go back here.

Garden Grill-Very different- Very calm. Good characters. Much easier to get your kids to eat as they can not really see the characters till they are almost to you. Food is very differnt (family style) but good. Great for shy kids.

Ohana's- Have not done this one as our DS does not know these guy either but it's my BILs (a CM) favorite place. He says food and service is top notch.

We also like Chief Mickey- Wild crazy fun and ok food.

 

[zmanandshan]

Hi,

Our favorite character meals are:

Garden Grill (Dinner)
Crystal Palace (Lunch)
Cape May Cafe (Breakfast)

 

[Shellee999]

Thank you so much for your responses. I still have some decisions to make, but it's great to see the opinions based on DS' age!

 

[aubriee]

We are taking my 3 y/o GS to WDW Feb 4th-11th (Yay, just two more weeks!). We don't want to stand in lines for characters, but want to get pictures of him with them, so we planned alot of character meals. It's his first trip, but my husband and I have been many times, so this trip will be very slow paced and is based strictly on what will be fun for him. I may take him over to Universal one day to do just the kiddie stuff and give my husband a chance spend time at WDW doing his favorite coasters and ToT. (I have APs for both). Anyway, we have character meals booked at:

1900 Park Fare (breakfast and dinner)
Crystal Palace
Chef Mickey's
Donald's Safari breakfast
Hollywood and Vine (breakfast)
Ohana
Cape May
Garden Grill
T Rex (not a character meal, but cute)

Except for T Rex and Hollywood and Vine, we've done all of these in the past and enjoyed them. Hollywood and Vine gets awful reviews and we've eaten dinner there and agree, but he loves those characters so we're going. After all how bad can breakfast be. We're also taking him to the Coral Reef and plan to ask to sit next to the big aquarium.

I think the only character meals we missed were CRT and Akershus. I wanted Mickey's Backyard BBQ, but read it was not going on during our dates.