Which Character Meal?

[RuthieT]

If we could only do one... Which Character Meal would you recommend for taste and characters?

 

[mrsmoore]

If your girls are into the Princesses, I would go with Ariel's Grotto. I thought the food there was great! It is the best of the three I have done so far.

 

[DizNee Luver]

Depends on who you & your kiddos are most interested in seeing:

Minnie & Friends have more of the classic characters (Minnie, Pooh, Tigger, Capt Hook, etc) They have a buffet......the made to order omelets are really good.

Surf's Up with Mickey is the only meal with Mickey Mouse. They also have Stitch which is a hit with a lot of kids. (we've also seen Minnie, Max, Goofy, Daisy) This is a small buffet but they offer some different selections.

Ariel's Grotto is for the princess lover. The meals are served family style. You see Ariel when escorted down the staircase & then 4 more princesses make their rounds.

Goofy's Kitchen is a louder, bigger & fun meal. You'll see Chef Goofy as well as Pluto. (we've seen Minnie, Chip, Dale, Alice, Baloo, etc). The reason I say loud, is this is a big restaurant & the kids dance & play games with the characters thru-out the meal. The buffet is huge!

Storyteller's has the more "animal" type characters. (we've seen Chip, Dale, Meeko, Brer Fox, Kenai, etc). You can either do the buffet or order off menu. Keep in the mind the menu prices are steep to cover the character experience.

So with that in mind......we like all of them. They're all different & we always find something we really like to eat. Hope that helps!

 

[Liat]

For sheer number of characters I would say Minnie and Friends. The food is middling, we've had great stuff and not so great stuff.

We enjoyed Surfs Up, but found it more inconvenient to get to, but there was hardly anyone there and we had Daisy basically sit at our table for half an hour and it made my DD's day.

We liked Goofy's too but not nearly as much as Minnie's. The characters didn't spend as much time at the tables and it was much much louder and busier.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

If your girls are into the Princesses, I would go with Ariel's Grotto. I thought the food there was great! It is the best of the three I have done so far.

We love Ariels lunch!!! One of the best meals we've had in Disney.

 

[kurlyred]

Just wanted to chime in on this one, since our family has a MAJOR preference...

We ADORE the StoryTeller Cafe buffet Character meal so much that we make it a PRIORITY at least once, each trip to Disneyland. Chip and Dale, and the Park Ranger, make the ENTIRE trip worth it!!!

-KJ

 

[granismith]

We ate at Goofy's kitchen and the food was really good (I don't like buffets) but the food was great! The characters were very sparse though. Goofy at the entrance for a picture that you can purchase. Pluto, Snow White, Dale & Baloo were the only ones walking around. There is alot of construction going on right now and it was noisy in the dining room, so we asked to be moved. I think it made us miss out on some of the Character interaction though!

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Just wanted to chime in on this one, since our family has a MAJOR preference...

We ADORE the StoryTeller Cafe buffet Character meal so much that we make it a PRIORITY at least once, each trip to Disneyland. Chip and Dale, and the Park Ranger, make the ENTIRE trip worth it!!!

-KJ

It's always interesting how people have such different experiences. We really liked the food at Storyteller's Cafe but felt the character interaction was terrible. The park ranger went on break two tables before ours and never returned. Dale was out only a couple minutes during our meal and never came to our side of the restaurant. Most of the characters we did see were at the very end and acted very rushed. We were at the restaurant for 1 hour and 20 minutes, so it's not that we didn't stay long enough to try to have a good experience.

My boys love Goofy's Kitchen. After having been there for dinner several times and breakfast a few times, DH and I decided that we like the late breakfast/brunch on the weekend best. We can then eat some breakfast type things and some lunch type things around lunchtime. DH and I aren't always thrilled with the experience and find the character interactions spotty, but, like I say, our sons love it and ask periodically to return. Maybe they're so attached since it was the first character meal they went to or because they like the food or who knows why?

We had the very best character experiences once we finally tried Minnie's breakfast at the Plaza Inn. I was sorry I hadn't tried it when the boys were younger, but they had a fun time anyway even at the grown up ages of 9 and 11. The food doesn't impress, but we got the custom omelets, so that helped.

 

[momstable]

It's always interesting how people have such different experiences.

I agree. We had very spotty character interaction at Plaza Inn. A couple characters were great, a couple were terrible, and a couple skipped us. I made a point of going to one of the hosts/leads and mentioned that our kids were sitting patiently for the characters, not mobbing them. It wasn't right that they were skipped when they were following the rules and behaving. I was polite, and she responded by pointing out our table to the characters. We were tucked into a corner and they kept missing us. The food was only so-so.

At Goofy's kitchen, even during the re-furb, we had AMAZING character interactions. Baloo practically took up residence at our table. It was the earliest seating, 7am, and there were few diners. I guess they were bored, or they loved the fact that we interacted with them. We went back another time for dinner, that was good, too. lots of interaction, and I think I like the food better.

Surfs up wins for being fabulous with serious allergies (went with friends, 3 adults. Friends have major allergy issues). The characters were good at interacting with us, even without kids. Breakfast food was pretty good, too.

The Princess Meal at Ariel's wins for food quality. Really liked the meal. However, my DS is 13. He chose the meal, not me. The Princesses, mostly, didn't seem to be able to figure out how to interact with him. He wore a top hat with Mouse ears on it, stood up and bowed every time a Princess came by. Asked her to dance. Most of the Princesses acted as if he were a stalker, not a prince. Mulan was nice to him, though. I had thought they would appreciate being able to interact with someone who wasn't 5 and sticky, but I was wrong.

So, your mileage may vary, depending on the day, the crowds, the cast, and your party. Have a good time whichever you choose.

 

[JoRo]

If you have a princess in your party - for sure Ariels Grotto - we prefer lunch because of the choco deserts.

We love the Mickeys Surfs up because we get a Mickey fix. This next trip we are doing Goofys kitchen just for something different.

Good luck

 

[oumagic]

Last September, my son (7) loved Storytellers and my daughter (5) loved Ariel's (we did breakfast at both). On our trip in October, my wife said that we will be doing dinner at Ariel's and breakfast at Plaza or Goofy's, so that kind of tells me that she preferred Ariel's over Storybook since we are going back to one and not the other. I actually liked both of them. By looking at the DD's in your signature, Ariel's would be my choice!

 

[ToodlesRN]

Our son loves goofys kitchen, we usually go for dinner time. Alot of characters come around and they play games. The food is good as well, this is only place where he will actually eat a full meal!!

 

[shanni]

We can only do one character meal, and we chose Ariel's for breakfast. I chose it because I have 3 girls who just love princesses. I decided to do breakfast instead of lunch because while I think the lunch options look very yummy, I didn't think my girls would touch it. They love breakfast foods though, so we're doing the latest breakfast we can, hoping that it will hold them until mid to late afternoon.

I know that some of the other choices have more characters, but looking at them, they really weren't characters that my kids were familiar with, so it wasn't really worth it to me. If I'm going to spend that much, I want my kids to be THRILLED with who they are seeing, KWIM?

(My disclaimer: We haven't actually been yet though, so I'll tell you in a few weeks how it turned out! lol!)

 

[smile4stamps]

I've been to Minnie's and Goofy's and had a much more enjoyable time at Minnie's. My next trip I plan to do all but Ariels. I am an adult who is mostly solo but will be going with my Best Friend to a few of them next month. Since I don't have kids sometimes it is hard to get the characters to interact but I love them just as much as the kids do!

 

[Dash&Maggie]

Just booked Goofy's kitchen for our first trip to DL in June! We've done several of the character dining experiences at WDW and Goofy's kitchen looked to be the most similar to Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. We can hardly wait!

 

[lapdwife]

We've done them all and as far as my favorite food- Mickey's Surf's Up. Now, we're bringing dh's parents for their first visit this weekend and made ressies for Goofy's. Hubby felt that one has more character interaction... I really think it depends on the day. Both Goofy's and Surf's Up are great because they get the kids up and movin and groovin with the characters.