Which Character Meal?

[MamaBear58]

Is one better than the other? I’m not a big buffet person but can usually handle it for breakfast. On the other hand, my son adores Chip ‘N Dale and I believe they are only there at night? Thoughts?

 

[cedricandsophie]

We have done both. I think breakfast is better food. But also love chip and dale so it’s a toss up. I’d probably go with the characters you love. The dinner food isn’t awful. And there is sushi and wine available if needed.

 

[pharmama]

We went for dinner specifically to see Stitch who is DD13's favorite. It was the only sit down meal we ate at the Aulani restaurants (we cooked in our room for almost all other meals). The food was OK, not amazing, and it is pricey. There were lots of food options though.

I will say that the character interaction and little "show" they do is very cute- especially for younger kids- though DD7 and DD9 still enjoyed participating in that. How old is your son?

 

[MamaBear58]

My son will be 12 and my daughter will be 9.

 

[spacecanada]

We preferred the dinner meal. The morning seemed too chaotic and loud for us; the dinner had a set storyline that progressed through the evening that we really enjoyed -- and I think older children would appreciate as well.

If you are staying at the resort you will have opportunities to meet all the meal characters, and more, out and about over a few days. I wouldn't do it just to meet a specific character unless you're staying elsewhere. (And characters can change if one isn't available that day.)

 

[Pbeh]

Looking at Aulani for the first time. How do character meals work here? Is it like WDW where you make them on my disney experience? Do you have to call for reservations?

 

[alohamom]

If you are staying at the resort you will have opportunities to meet all the meal characters, and more, out and about over a few days. I wouldn't do it just to meet a specific character unless you're staying elsewhere. (And characters can change if one isn't available that day.)

+1 on this! There is a number you can call on the room phone that tells you the up to the minute character meet and greet schedule. We have seen Stitch and Donald just walk on by. Chip even proposed, down on one knee with a flower to my teen daughter-she was over the moon!

 

[Cinderella94]

Looking at Aulani for the first time. How do character meals work here? Is it like WDW where you make them on my disney experience? Do you have to call for reservations?

The My Disney Experience app is unfortunately totally unrelated from Aulani. You can make them on Aulani's website, though - no need to call. Just keep track of the confirmation emails they send you for your records because, since there is no Aulani MDE, there's nowhere on their website to see a comprehensive list of all your reservations.

 

[Cinderella94]

We've done both. It's hard to tell you which to do because they're totally different in menu and which characters are there. Dinner is pricey. If you can eat your weight in crab legs (like I did) then you'll love dinner. If there's a certain set of characters you know you'll want to see, whichever of these meals that has those characters is a good way to get that done at all at once. If we were going to pick only one to do again, it'd probably be dinner. Note that we dined as two adults and no kids so the kid's entertainment isn't a factor to us at all.

 

[Dreamer24]

Where can I find a list of characters for each meal?

 

[Cinderella94]

Where can I find a list of characters for each meal?

There isn’t a definitive one as it’s always subject to change depending on availability. For the most part, I’ve seen (and experienced):
Breakfast: Mickey, Minnie, goofy (but one day walking by we did see Pluto instead of goofy)
Dinner: Donald, chip, Dale and stitch

 

[tink too]

We've done both. It's hard to tell you which to do because they're totally different in menu and which characters are there. Dinner is pricey. If you can eat your weight in crab legs (like I did) then you'll love dinner.

Thank you for the info on both character meals. I'd booked breakfast and couldn't decide if we should book dinner too, but as we're not fond of crab or sushi and our DD is a vegetarian, I think I've made the right choice for us.