Which Character Meal Would You Recommend?

[scrapah1]

Hi,

I am very new to this board and so excited to see others so passionate about WDW.

We are taking a larger family vacation next April and have never had a Character Meal before. We will have 12 people total in our group (2 - 1 Yr Olds, 2 - 3 Yrs Olds and the rest ranging from 31 - 70).

I would absolutely love your opinion on where to go, what you like/don't like, what to expect? Anything and everything that you could tell me would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[scrapah1]

If there is a thread that already exists, please point me there as I don't want to waste anyone's time (I tried looking but didn't find it so I thought that this might be the fastest way).

Thanks again!

 

[Heard02]

I would suggest Crystal Palace (Pooh Characters) or Chef Mickey's. (the fab 5 characters) I love them both!
We've also done Ohana, Cape May, 1900 Park Fare, Cinderella Royal Table and Hollywood & Vine, but the two I suggest above are my favorite!

 

[Tigger969]

For my kids it's Chef Mickey @ CR for breakfast & Crystal Plaza for lunch or dinner in MK.

Food is good and the characters spend plenty of time with the kids...and you don't feel rushed.

 

[scrapah1]

Fanstastic, thank you so much! I will check into these now!

 

[scard192]

Chef Mickey for the "Disney" experience. CP for the food (and characters); we had the best lunch there. My 3 yr old grand daughter LOVES the princesses and she had the best time at Akershus; the look on her face as the princesses came to our table was priceless.

 

[scrapah1]

You all are wonderful!

Another quick question, if you are doing a Character Breakfast, do you still stand in line for pictures with the characters?

 

[Stitchnut]

Chef Mickey's has my #1 vote, followed by Ohana (Lilo &Stitch). Stitch loves to do silly things when visiting tables. My daughter was holding a Stitch plush animal and when Stitch saw it, he took it and walked off and having fun with my daughter. My daughter told Lilo and Lilo went over to Stitch and "scolded" him. He gave my daughter a lot of attention and she ate it up and still talks about it three years later. Another one that we like is Liberty Tree Tavern in M.K. They have Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale dressed in colonial outfits. Character meals are a lot of fun- enjoy yours!!!

 

[Tigger969]

If I remember correctly once you check in at Chef Mickey's you go into a line for a family pic..then take pics w/ the characters as they rotate around the room. At Crystal Plaza we just took pics w/ characters when they were at our table.

 

[Stitchnut]

You all are wonderful!

Another quick question, if you are doing a Character Breakfast, do you still stand in line for pictures with the characters?

No, the characters make rounds to the tables otherwise a lot of kids would be standing around them. The characters visit each table and interact with your family, do autographs, and pictures. We have always been visited by all the characters as they rotate. The restaurant also has a prop area before you are seated for a group photo. Then during your meal a CM (cast member) will show you the photo package and you can decide to purchase that. A nice souvenir.

 

[Macduffy]

I really liked Donald's Safari Breakfast! The characters moved quickly (which meant a shorter wait time to see them) and the food was GREAT! I also liked it because we got a chance to see the park while it was empty - very neat! Chef Mickey's was great too but I hated the travel time to get there.

I really didn't like Crystal Palace (for supper anyway). The ratio of characters to tables was unbelievable and we waited for 45 minutes JUST to see Tigger.

Garden Grill was fun too - we saw the characters TWICE!

 

[jwfla422]

We really like Garden Grill. It's nice because you don't have to get up and down risking missing any characters that may come by your table. You might even get 2 visits because the restaurant isn't as big as many of the other buffet restaurants. And, the food is really good.

I do somewhat agree with a previous poster who mentioned Chef Mickey's for the character experience (not really for the food) and Crystal Palace for the food and the character experience there is pretty good as well.

But we usually go to CP for lunch. We went to Chef Mickey's for breakfast last month and I still think it's over rated. It wasn't that busy yet after being there over an hr we gave up on Pluto making it to our table.

The food is definitely not worth the $$ either. It's really gotten expensive. If you're on the DDP or free dining then it would be worth a visit. But $80+ for 3 of us for breakfast (with the Tables of Wonderland discount) was just quite much for what they had there.

It was dd's birthday so I wanted her to get that full character experience and honestly it was somewhat disappointing. While some of the servers sang happy birthday at other tables with a character present my dd just got the cupcake with the candle (which was nice but...) not really fair when you see everyone else getting sung to It should be all or nothing.

 

[JoePa4Ever]

3 character meals are "must do's" for us on each trip: Crystal Palace brkfst, Chef Mickey's brkfst, Ohana brkfst.

Crystal Palace - nice/open atmosphere, good buffet featuring puffed french toast , good character interaction w/Pooh characters, we also like the 8:05 adr on a non-emh day because you get into the park before opening & walk down a near-empty main street (allows for really good castle pics) and we're done in time for rope drop @ MK

Chef Mickey's - fun/upbeat atmosphere w/occasional monorail passing by overhead, very nice buffet selection, good character interaction w/Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy & Donald

Ohana - only Cape May Cafe is more relaxed/calm of character meals than Ohana, food is good & is served family style: mickey waffles, sausage, bacon, biscuits, eggs, fruit, warm brkfst breads, etc. good character interaction w/Mickey, Pluto, Lilo & Stitch - Pluto & Stitch are a riot!

 

[DAZY3BYZ]

With a group like that, I would definitely pick Chef Mickey for the "Disney experience". The Fab five are there and taking the monorail to get there just makes it feel so "Disney". When we were there in August, we saw a large extended family all dressed for the event. Grown-ups in khakis and white shirts and little girls in Minnie dresses and little boys in Mickey hats. They take your photo before you eat and it made for what must have been a wonderful family memento. We love CM! It was our first character meal on our first trip back in 1999. Our then 7 year old son (who's now 17 ) had to meet Mickey so we decided spur of the moment to eat at CM so we wouldn't have to wait in line. Definitely can't do that these days! Make your ADR as soon as you can! CM is now our tradition every visit and my now 17 year old still enjoys every minute of it.

 

[GoHerbie]

I'll throw in a recommendation for the princess dinner at Akershus. We loved it so much last year that we're doing it again this year. At the entrance DD got pictures with Aurora, and then Ariel, Cinderella, Alice, and Jasmine visited our table. Afterwards we danced by the big Epcot lake (name escapes me at the moment) with reflections of the "Eiffel tower " and Venus sparkling on the water. On the way in & out we had wonderful photos taken on our photopass. It was truly a magical night, DW and I had as much fun as DD.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

With 1 and 3 year olds, I'd pick a character meal with face characters or a mix (like breakfast at 1900 Park Fare). What if the kids don't react well to the big furry animals? It could make it a very difficult meal.

 

[tinkgurl]

I suggest Chef Mickey's!

 

[scrapah1]

You are all absolutely amazing, I can't thank you enough. I had no idea where to begin and you have given me such a fantastic starting point.

We are very excited about this trip and for me, half the fun is in the planning and getting excited about it all.

PrincessTrisha - you raise a great point about the possibility that the kids might be afraid of the characters. It is definitely something that I am wondering about too!

Thank you all again for your help, and if you have any more tips, please share!

 

[chanti]

*grin*, We've never done character meals either and since we are going for 21 days to disney, I think we went a bit overboard on booking our character dining experiences (Basically, we couldn't choose)

Unfortunately I can't advice you as we haven't done them yet, but I am very happy reading all the comments here because it is nice to know that a lot of the things we booked are highly recommended

 

[mamarissa]

i *loved* donald's safari breakfast! the characters didn't seem as rushed as chef mickeys and the food was pretty good too.

we also loved the food at 1900 park fare and the characters were great too--my son thought the mad hatter was the funniest thing! and again, not rushed at all. your younger ones might really like seeing winnie too!