Which Character Meal Would You Choose?

[Kevs mom]

We will have 11 kids with us on our April trip (two 6 year olds, a 7 year old, an 8 year old, two 11 year olds, three 12 year olds, a 14 year old, and a 15 year old). Can anyone recommend a character meal that they might all enjoy? I know it is a big age gap but we have never done a character meal and would really like to this trip. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Darth Sidious]

We always do Chef Mickey's. I'm 18 and I still like it alot, but then again my family is full of Disney freaks, there is nothing about DIsney we don't really not like... so every family is different. But i think its good, it has good food, its right inside the Contemporary so it's easy to get to MK after breakfast or EPCOT even. We don't do any other character meal and we really haven't for many many years and we have been going for 16 years. But like I said, every family is different.

 

[loopner67]

We will have 11 kids with us on our April trip (two 6 year olds, a 7 year old, an 8 year old, two 11 year olds, three 12 year olds, a 14 year old, and a 15 year old). Can anyone recommend a character meal that they might all enjoy? I know it is a big age gap but we have never done a character meal and would really like to this trip. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

This will be a tough one to answer because it will depend on your group's likes and dislikes.

Chef Mickeys (In Contemporary) seems to be rated the best and supposedly is a crowd pleaser. We are going to have DINNER there when we go in early March.

We did the Ohana breakfast 2 years ago and we loved it. It's in the POLY hotel. They serve the food "family style" which means a bunch of food served at your table - not a buffet. That might help make up your mind. For the younger kids, they'll like the "parade" around the restaurant that I think happens once an hour. Fun! It had Mickey, Goofy, Chip and Dale (now I think it has Lilo - not sure about Stitch)

We are trying the character breakfast in AK this time. My boys thought the theme seemed cool and they wanted to see Donald (he hosts that one).

It'll depend on if you have girls in that group, but there's a princess breakfast in the castle and in Norway (Epcot). We only have 2 boys, so we stay away from those.

If you want to see Pooh Characters, the place to go would be the Crystal Palace. We might try that for a different breakfast if we decide to add another one.

We had a character dinner in the Liberty Tree Tavern (MK) two years ago and we liked it (Thanksgiving style dinner - served family style). You see Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Chip N Dale.

Hope I helped in some way.

 

[Msslaydbug]

We enjoy Chef Mickeys for dinner and Donalds for breakfast.

 

[DISNEYMOM11]

My whole family LOVES The Crystal Palace ! Everyone LOVES Pooh,Eyore,Piglet and the Gang. Its not too noisy and when You are finished You are right there in the Magic Kingdom to start your day. We also like Cape May Cafe !(Near Epcot)

 

[bucky1023]

We had a character dinner in the Liberty Tree Tavern (MK) two years ago and we liked it (Thanksgiving style dinner - served family style). You see Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Chip N Dale.

I've eaten at Liberty Tree a few times and really like it. The food is great!! The characters are cute and the staff has always been amazing.

 

[WaltD4Me]

I think with that group I would recommend Chef Mickey's. It is a fun breakfast and everyone always loves to see Mickey.

I'm a big fan of character meals, I think I've done almost of all them and with kids those ages I'd go with Chef Mickey's. -- The one at Animal Kingdom is also fun because it features Mickey, Donald and Goofy, but I still would go with Chef Mickey's for the fun factor.

 

[GGOOFY1]

It really depends on what characters you want to see. I like looking for the ones that offer a buffet. But, the kids love eating in the Castle.

 

[Hugpug]

I did 2 this last December LTT and Chef Mickey's. I liked both. First you have to decide what meal. Chef Mickey's does Breakfast and DInner. LTT only does Dinner. I hear Crystal Palace is real nice think I might try that next. As for AK Since I don't care for AK I can't comment. There is the Casle CRT but very hard to get. With the group you have I would choose Chef Mickey's or Crystal Palace.

 

[Emmo]

Hi, I have done Breakfastasorous (sp?) at AK, and Crystal Palace at MK dinner and they were both good times. They are both Buffets and they have a nice range of foods. AK has Donald, Mickey, Goofy and Pluto and MK has Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet. AK has some really funny servers who make the meal fun whilst the characters are busy with other people.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

I would say Chef Mickey with the Mickey characters or Crystal Palace with the Pooh characters. We enjoy both of these places but I think Crystal Palace is our favorite.

 

[imatoad]

We're two adults with no kids, and we love Chef Mickey's!

 

[Pixiedust34]

With that many kids, I'd stick with a buffet so everyone can get what they like and help themselves to seconds at their own pace. With the family style meals (LTT, O'Hanas), you might get stuck waiting for the waiter to bring you more food (whatever the kids gobble up quickly) frequently. A buffet lets everyone get what they want when they want it, and kids have fun picking their own food.

Chef Mickey's has a festive atmosphere with fun classic characters.

Have fun!

 

[pooh2001]

For a large group - I would go with Chef Mickeys - they can squeeze tables together, so everyone sits with one another. Lots of space, large dining area. Easy to get to, off the monorail from MK. Mickey, Donald, Chip & Dale

Crystal Palace - may be a tight squeeze to move some tables together - or the people sitting on the 'wall' side will have a hard time getting out. Pooh, Tigger, Pilet, Eyeore

CRT - no way, expensive - a large group is mushed into a long table along the wall - no space to move around. Fairy God Mother & Cinderella

Norway - great for girls in the group. Not for boys. All princesses. Small dining area. No way can they sit a large group together.

LTT - dinner is nice, I have only seen a round table holding 8 people. Family style platters of 'Thanksgiving foods'. Not sure is the dining room on the left can hold a longer table - maybe possible. I would call and ask. Chip, Dale, Goofy, Minnie (characters may have changed since our last visit).

Just our 2 cents

 

[The Sweetness]

I cant think of a better way to kick off the magic than dinner at CMs. You get the main event (meeting Mickey Mouse ofcourse done for sure, first thing) Also, the food choices are varied to suit anyone (IMO). Not to mention a make-your-own cupcakes and sundaes bar (or am I mistaken(its been awhile)) What kid (we're all kids at WDW) wouldnt enjoy that?

 

[TheIncredibles]

Chef Mickey's - I was also going to bring up what pooh2001 said; the ease of the monorail should be a big plus for that size of group. Also, Chef Mickey's is buffett syle whcih will take a load off of you - they can get exactly what they want, when and how much. The atmosphere is lively and the characters should interact well, especially that many kiddos.

May i suggest a very fine adult beverage for yousomewhere that evening...

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

We will have 11 kids with us on our April trip (two 6 year olds, a 7 year old, an 8 year old, two 11 year olds, three 12 year olds, a 14 year old, and a 15 year old). Can anyone recommend a character meal that they might all enjoy? I know it is a big age gap but we have never done a character meal and would really like to this trip. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

chef mickeys with this age group. i think it's your best bet

 

[annie1995]

We really enjoyed Crystal Palace. We ate two time for breakfast, and once for dinner. All meals were wonderful! Garden Grill at Epcot is really good too. It is served family style, and the resturant slowly rotates around, so your scenery changes while you are eating, It also overlooks the ride living with the land. The food there was really good too! I think we saw Mickey, pluto, chip and Dale there.

 

[java]

We really enjoyed Crystal Palace. We ate two time for breakfast, and once for dinner. All meals were wonderful! Garden Grill at Epcot is really good too. It is served family style, and the resturant slowly rotates around, so your scenery changes while you are eating, It also overlooks the ride living with the land. The food there was really good too! I think we saw Mickey, pluto, chip and Dale there.

OK so I have to know do you know what you are having yet? Are you going to find out or wait? Totally off topic I know but I thought your siggy was so cute. (by the way I have boy,girl,boy,boy....)
Now back to topic I am the only one I guess that HATED Chef Mickey- we went last year for our third time and swore it would be our last. The food was Terrible! And the service was worse. We were there for breakfast. Everything was cold. They didn't have a cereal without sugar and they even had the M&M's to add to your cereal! (kids loved that I didn't) And the napkin spinning... unfortunately I had read here about someone's phobia of the flying napkin debris and that is all I could think about when the spinning began.(not a pretty sight) So I vote no for Chef Mickey's.
We like Donald's in AK and I do a girlie girl one in Norway with my dd- but that is all princess- so if they are girls that would be my pick- Although boys might be into the castle theme and it is not too baby-ish.And Liberty Tree is a much more relaxed kind of meal- (it is basically swanson dinner type food- but I liked it(Turkey stuffing mac and cheese)
We amazingly have never done the Crystal Palace. But I think we may try it this year. It always seems to be so crowded from the outside but I guess it is good.

 

[frayedend]

I didn't read all of the posts, but my experience last week was this...

Chef Mickeys...Good Buffet, good characters, but did not have an omelet station (that I saw) and the scrambled eggs did not seem very good. Had Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale, and Pluto. They also do a thing where the kids get to swing their napkins in the air, fun.

Poly... Family style with a plate of food. It had fruit, bacon, sausage, mickey waffles and I think that was it. The eggs were horrible, runny and powdery tasting (do they use some kind of instant eggs??) Characters the same as Mickeys but also had Lilo and Stitch. Stitch came to the table but Lilo only went to one spot and you had to wait in line. I don't know why Lilo didn't come to the table. The parade around the restaraunt with the characters was fun for the kids.

Grand Floridian... Better buffet with a small buffet table for the kids. Omelet station with good omelets. All the rest basically the same as Chef Mickeys. Characters are a bit different. They had Alice, and the Mad Hatter, and Mary Poppins as well as some of the standard characters. Mary Poppins is there for pictures when you walk in but did not come to the table. So I thought it was the best food, but my 2 boys did not like the characters as they aren't into Alice in Wonderland or Mary Poppins. No parade or anything while we were there.

Funniest thing at GF was when we sent our 5 year old to get his own cereal (he's getting very independant now). They have things you can put in your cereal such as fruit, but also m&Ms and chocolate chips. Well he came back with a bowl of M&Ms and chocolate chips. No cereal in it at all I figured what the heck, we're on vacation so I asked him if I could have some of his "cereal" too