Which character meal do you like?

[jmatias]

We've done the character breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen before and had a good time. Don't know much about the others.

Is the Princess breakfast good? How about the Storyteller Cafe?

We will be staying at GC.

Thanks for any recommendations!

 

[KMH1]

We went to all five character meals just two weeks ago. It was the two of us and our fourteen month old daughter. Our meals usually lasted between 1 1/2 and 2 hours (we don't rush character meals).

Based on our experiences, this is our favorite order of the meals we went to:
1) Lilo and Stitch at Paradise Pier's PCH Grill: Lilo, Stitch, Minnie, Daisy, and Pluto (a smaller restaurant and five very attentive characters, very good breakfast buffet)
2) Ariel's Grotto at DCA: Captain Mickey, Pluto, Donald, Chip, Dale, and Max (again, a smaller restaurant and attentive characters (and very cute costumes), good dinner, the kid's meal prices are high $13.99 but kids could easily share one meal because it includes soup, entree, and dessert--way too much for a one year old though!) We also used our Disney Visa to get a free 5 x 7 picture here before 11:30 a.m. and we posed with Mickey and Goofy, so Goofy may be at the meal too.
3) Goofy's Kitchen at DLH: Goofy, Geppetto, Aladdin, Donald, Chip, Dale, Cinderella, Aurora and Pluto (a bigger place, but the characters were quite attentive, though we did miss Aurora in the rotation somehow, very good dinner buffet, but expensive)
4) Storyteller's at GC: Chip, Dale, Meeko, Baloo, Kenai, and Koda (this was a decent breakfast buffet and this might rank higher, but this was our first character meal and Alyssa was a bit hesitant with the big bears, it also seemed that too many people were getting up from their table to see the characters and nobody seemed to be controlling that)
5) Plaza Princess breakfast at DL: Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Perla, Belle, Snow White, Jasmine, Aladdin, and Mary Poppins (good food, but you couldn't serve yourself and sometimes the lines were long, too many princesses and we had the mentality that we wanted to see them all, so we were there too long. Don't get me wrong though...we still enjoyed ourselves, but since Alyssa isn't princess crazy yet, this just wasn't our favorite.)

Feel free to PM if you have more questions.
Amy

 

[Amy&Dan]

We also enjoy Ariel's Grotto/Cap'n Mickey's. I would do dinner if possible, lunch seems continually disorganized! Our favorite way to do this restaurant is to book a seating when it's dark, sit outside and admire the lights of Paradise Pier and then head to the Electrical Parade. The food is a fixed price, non buffet with maybe 7 selections (includes, soup or salad and desset plus a non alcholic drink). It's not as good as the food at Goofy's but it is more low key and a lot cheaper. The last time we were there we had the best character interactions we have ever had at any character meal. My son was thrilled to see Stitch and Mickey plus a bunch of others. We missed Ariel but had a wonderful time. As for the princess breakfast, I agree with the other poster. Unless you have an avid princess fan I would skip that. If you do go, try to get the first or last seating to either beat or miss some of the crowds. We went about midway through, had to sit outside (the characters did not come out there so we had to go find them) and the lines for food were awful (think half hour or more). In my opinon this should not be a buffet because they don't have the space to run it. Or they should lose the omlette station as you have to wait in one line whether you get an omlette or not and it takes forever! On top of all that it took so long that by the time we got out, the park had filled up and we had missed that golden time of day when the park is not crowded. But we saw a lot of princesses and we had a great time because my mom and stepdad were there and they loved seeing all 3 granddaughters meet those princesses! But as far as the overall way it was run, it was pretty bad. Food was okay, not as good as the breakfast at Goofy's. This was pretty soon after they started it and I was hoping they had worked out the kinks with the food lines but guess not! Our hands down favorite is still Goofy's and we think the food is really good at dinner. My kids just love to dance with Goofy!

 

[tlovesdis]

We've done them all for breakfast! Here is the order we like them in:

#1 Lilo and Stitch - good food and service and great character interaction

#2 Goofy's Kitchen - excellent food, good service, pretty decent character interaction

#3 Storyteller's - great food, but very little character interaction

#4 Princess - terrible food and service, decent interaction, but for my money, I would not do this one again!

 

[jmatias]

Thanks for the replies. Lilo & Stitch, and Ariel's sounds great! I'll look into those a bit more .

 

[BigPigletFan]

We also enjoy Ariel's Grotto/Cap'n Mickey's. I would do dinner if possible, lunch seems continually disorganized!

As disorganized as it may be it always has been less busy which has allowed for your server to visit more often and even more important, the characters! They spent more time with us, took more pictures and played with us. I have done this character dining experience on my last two trips and will do so on my next on this July. Plus you get cotton candy for desert!

 

[Mom2my2daughters]

We did Goofy's Kitchen and Ariel's Grotto and loved them both.

We did Ariel's Grotto for lunch, with a 1:10 reservation, and it wasn't crowded at all. We had the most interaction with the characters here, it was great! They take the kids outside and dance with them and give them maraca's, very lively. The food was a fixed price, many choices for the kids. I didn't find it disorganized at all, we had a very enjoyable and relaxing time. The place is decorated really cute, take notice to your overhead light. Characters there were, Minney, Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Max, Chip and Dale.

Goofy's kitchen is also lively where they do a few dances with the kids also. It is larger so the characters didn't spend as much time with us as they did at Ariel's. When we were there there was Goofy, Chip and Dale, Mulan, Aladdin, Balou, Rafiki, Pluto (whom seems to be everywhere ) Buffet style, with good food and fun for the kids to help themselves. Have I mentioned the dessert yet Yum!

 

[swimrsal]

We loved Goofy's Kitchen the best followed by Storytellers.

We gave up on Ariel's Grotto. We got there at 11:25am for a 11:30am PS. They did not seat anyone until noon! The CM's seemed really confused and people were getting angry (not us though, we were nice and patient). We finally got our table at about 12:10, but by then our toddler was getting sleepy so we gave up and left before they took our order. Oh well... sounds like if they'd been organized that day it would have been fun! The menu didn't look very interesting though, I can tell you that.

-Sally
Disneyland May 9-13, 2005