Which character meal to drop?

[snowman]

Cast - myself, multi-trips, not enough character meals possible
DW - third trip. Loves to have breakfast but not a big fan of character meals and loud. Loves Donald.
DS - will be turning 8 on this trip. First trip. Still learning the characters and no clear cut favorites....yet.
12 days of meals, parks and getting our Disney on. Staying at VGF

My "perfect scenario" restaurants:

Breakfast - 1900 Park Fare, Crystal Palace, O'Hana

Lunch - Tusker House, Garden Grill

This would put my wife at maximum saturation for character meals and I really don't want to push her that far. Any experiences with any of these meals that would tip you one way or the other?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I would drop Ohana, unless someone is a huge Lilo/Stitch fan. You have Mickey-Pluto saturation at TH and Garden Grill. With the DS, I might normally say 1900PF but given your resort, it's too convenient to drop.

 

[Lisa F]

I'd drop 1900 PF. My son would only be interested in the pooh characters and you get those at CP

 

[OasterP]

I'm not sure about your son but 1900 Park Fare was my husband and my favorite!! My son had fun too because the Mad Hatter sat with us and played with his cereal, and Mary Poppins and Alice loved on him. Definitely one I would do again. I liked Crystal Palace, but I would only do it if we had a pre park breakfast. I haven't done Ohana yet.

We did Tusker House, and I think it might just have not been the best day but it was SO crowded. But I still thought their food was really interesting.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Cast - myself, multi-trips, not enough character meals possible
DW - third trip. Loves to have breakfast but not a big fan of character meals and loud. Loves Donald.
DS - will be turning 8 on this trip. First trip. Still learning the characters and no clear cut favorites....yet.
12 days of meals, parks and getting our Disney on. Staying at VGF

My "perfect scenario" restaurants:

Breakfast - 1900 Park Fare, Crystal Palace, O'Hana

Lunch - Tusker House, Garden Grill

This would put my wife at maximum saturation for character meals and I really don't want to push her that far. Any experiences with any of these meals that would tip you one way or the other?

Boy, this is a tough one! If just going on food quality, I would drop O'hana. We barely ate anything there - the food is just really overly salty.

If you are more interested in characters, I would consider dropping Garden Grill as you would get your Mickey fix at O'hana and Tusker (you will see Donald there!) and also consider dropping Crystal Palace as you will see Pooh and some friends at 1900 Park Fare.

I would definitely KEEP Tusker House (food is great and you will see Donald) and 1900 Park Fare as the food is good and you get to see a ton of characters (it's truly the most characters for your dining buck of all the character meals). My DS8 has eaten there 3 times and he really likes it. The character interaction is great! The Mad Hatter is hysterical!! I think the 1900 characters would appeal more to an 8-year old than Crystal Palace.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I left Crystal Palace because she says her wife likes breakfast. Breakfast at CP is delicious.

 

[ForeverAlice]

Drop crystal palace or GH IMHO.

 

[tinkerbella16]

That is tough. If I had to choose one, it would be 1900 Park Fare or Ohana. We love Garden Grill, so keep that!!! And Crystal Palace breakfast is great and an awesome start to a day in MK. Maybe drop Tusker House lunch.. if it were dinner, I'd say keep that too lol.

 

[soniam]

I would drop Ohana. We love 1900 Park Fare, but Pooh and Mary Poppins are our favorites. The food is good, and the Mad Hatter is awesome. We also love Tusker House lunch/dinner. Donald is DS favorite. The food is good and more unique than most Disney restaurants.

 

[ontheuptick]

I would drop Ohana. Like the restaurant, but you have the best character meals on property listed.

I would definitely swap 1900PF breakfast for dinner. The dinner characters are better IMO, especially since you already will be seeing Pooh and friends at Crystal Palade. At dinner the Character interaction is great!!

 

[TiggerTrigger]

1900 PF and Crystal Palace are my two most favorite character meals. For us, they have been consistently above average for food, service and character interaction. Garden Grill dinner is also in my top 5, so I'd be inclined to keep your lunch there. We had bad experiences at 'Ohana breakfast and Tusker breakfast, so those are the ones I'd be less likely to keep. HOWEVER, since your DW likes Donald...I might keep Tusker over Garden Grill just so she can see her fave character.

 

[HopperFan]

I'd drop Ohana. Slowest meal ever and we still didn't see all the characters. Felt we lost lots of time.

 

[JZCubed]

Cast - myself, multi-trips, not enough character meals possible
DW - third trip. Loves to have breakfast but not a big fan of character meals and loud. Loves Donald.
DS - will be turning 8 on this trip. First trip. Still learning the characters and no clear cut favorites....yet.
12 days of meals, parks and getting our Disney on. Staying at VGF

My "perfect scenario" restaurants:

Breakfast - 1900 Park Fare, Crystal Palace, O'Hana

Lunch - Tusker House, Garden Grill

This would put my wife at maximum saturation for character meals and I really don't want to push her that far. Any experiences with any of these meals that would tip you one way or the other?

Three breakfasts is wasting valuable Park time unless you plan on arriving prior to Rope Drop.

And getting up and out that early is not a way to endear yourself to your wife's desires.

I'm not a fan of Crystal Palace for either their food or Characters (Winnie the Pooh).

I'm assuming you are on the Monorail line because you have two breakfasts here.
-- Unless your son is really into Stitch, O'hana gets you nothing. Kona is better food.
-- 1900 Park Fare is a lovely buffet. Believe it or not, your wife might might prefer Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters at dinner - they are amusing.

-- Tusker House is your best selection since the meal is hosted by Donald Duck.

-- Garden Grill - with all of the food choices in Epcot, seems like overkill, but you should be able to meet Mickey.

FINAL ANSWER: Tusker House & 1900 Park Fare....Garden Grill for Mickey Mouse if you insist.

 

[ontheuptick]

Three breakfasts is wasting valuable Park time unless you plan on arriving prior to Rope Drop.

They are there for 12 days. My guess is they aren't worried about wasting valuable park time. I wouldn't be either on a 12 day trip!!

 

[LovesTimone]

Cast - myself, multi-trips, not enough character meals possible
DW - third trip. Loves to have breakfast but not a big fan of character meals and loud. Loves Donald.
DS - will be turning 8 on this trip. First trip. Still learning the characters and no clear cut favorites....yet.
12 days of meals, parks and getting our Disney on. Staying at VGF

My "perfect scenario" restaurants:

Breakfast - 1900 Park Fare, Crystal Palace, O'Hana

Lunch - Tusker House, Garden Grill

This would put my wife at maximum saturation for character meals and I really don't want to push her that far. Any experiences with any of these meals that would tip you one way or the other?

I would nix O'hanas the food is just not that good. I would move Tusker house to a Breakfast spot, as Breakfast here is much better in my opinion, not that lunch is bad we just like Breakfast here better. Chef Mickey's is one of our fav's , I know most people don't like it, but we enjoy it every time we go.

I would space out the character meal, with 12 days you should have no trouble doing this.

 

[verleniahall]

I would be dropping garden grill - lots of bad reviews on that one lately

 

[JZCubed]

They are there for 12 days. My guess is they aren't worried about wasting valuable park time. I wouldn't be either on a 12 day trip!!

Then Crystal Palace really makes no sense if the wife wants to avoid Characters and noisy spots....unless someone is a big fan of Pooh. Frankly, Cinderella's Castle is far more charming, even with a young boy.

I'd eat at Kona's 3x on one trip before going (back) to O'Hana for breakfast.

For the record - we split stay at Swan & Dolphin and Bay Lake Tower. We love the food at Swan & Dolphin and also love the convenience of getting to Magic Kingdom from Bay Lake. Our upcoming 11-day stay will be our longest, but we have done plenty of 9- and 10-day vacations to Disney.

 

[Miskey]

Since your wife loves breakfast, I would consider changing Garden Grill to a pre-park opening breakfast. It's much quieter than it is at lunch, it's served family style so more relaxed, the characters are fun, the food is really good, and it puts you in a good position to ride Soarin before the crowds. The lunch is good, too, but we loved the breakfast.

Out of the 5 you mentioned, I guess I would drop Crystal Palace, as it seems to be the noisiest

 

[Dis703]

I would drop Ohana. The only reason to eat here IMO is for the characters. If she loves breakfast you can do better elsewhere.

 

[shortnsassy730]

O'hana breakfast is such a waste. Its boring food and poorly done at that. Tusker House is my favorite character meal. We actually prefer an early lunch because then you can hit the Safari at rope drop when the animals are the most active. I don't particularly care for the food at Crystal Palace, but anything beats O'hana.