Which character meals are "Must Do" for you??

[irishtigger]

Crystal Palace
CRT
Ohana's
Cafe May Cafe -- breakfast
Akersus -- breakfast

 

[916chipndale]

My family always does crystal palace on our first might and chef miles breakfast on our last full day crystal palace has good food and characters chef mickey food is decent and good characters tusker house breakfast is also good also garden grill is a good but it is family style the food is pretty good but the character interaction is AMAZING each character came to our table 2-3 times and never rushesd

 

[Tara]

We've pretty much done them all multiple times now and the only one we feel is a must-do is Tusker House and somehow we end up doing CRT every time because my son requests it, but I could skip it every other time if it were left up to me. In both cases, we don't go for the characters - they're just what DS likes. Since he doesn't care about characters, we don't make a special effort to do other ones - we usually just eat in our villa for breakfast.

Next week just DS and I are going and we're doing DxDP and staying at a moderate, so we have a lot of meals planned. I picked (he doesn't know we're going!) the following breakfasts:

Tusker House
CRT
Akershus
Crystal Palace
Hollywood & Vine (we're doing EMH morning at Studios and then this breakfast at 10am - but we have to eat somewhere and DS doesn't do counter service)

Our dinners are Flying Fish, Citricos, California Grill, The Plaza and Yachtsman Steakhouse, BTW. We've never eaten at FF or Plaza, but the others are ones DS always requests. (I've trained him well. )

 

[AirGoofy]

We've done all the character meals except for CRT for dinner, which we are trying this year. Having a meal inside a castle is pretty cool, so CRT would be a must do. As for the others, we have enjoyed Akershus, Cape May, and Ohana the most. Chef Mickey is definitely better for breakfast than for dinner.

 

[alicat07]

You guys are the best!!! I'm sending this thread to her so she can get an idea of what she wants to do! Keep 'em coming! This is a fantastic reference!

 

[wishin2go2disney]

Let's see....
Ohana Best Friends Breakfast at Poly
Akershus at Epcot for breakfast
1900 Park Fare Dinner
Chef Mickeys
My new fav - Cinderella's Royal Table at the castle for dinner during Wishes

 

[MomtoEmIs&Ow]

We have done 1900 PF dinner, CRT dinner, Crystal Palace lunch, and dinner, Chef Mickeys dinner, and Ohanas breakfast. We had good food and character interaction at them all. I think that our favorites were Crystal Palace, Ohanas & Chef Mickeys. I know CM gets mixed reviews , maybe we hit it on a good night!

 

[mom2val]

We always do a late breakfast at Tusker and LOVE IT!!! We also love Crystal Palace and 1900 Park Fare. Last trip we tried Garden Grill and enjoyed it.

 

[hipporina]

We have done lots of them and my entire family loves 'Ohana breakfast the most! Great character interaction and wonderful food. We have been twice and both times were equally wonderful.

We also really like Chef Mickey's for breakfast. It has such a festive atmosphere that really makes you feel Disney.

 

[pixarmom]

We love Garden Grill!! It's our boys' favorite restaurant and our arrival night tradition every time.

Our boys range in age from pre-school to pre-teen and our oldest has loved it since he was 18 months old. It's a relatively relaxed setting to meet characters - circular booths with high sides - and it slowly rotates so the kids see different views from the Land ride during dinner. The characters are Mickey, Chip/Dale and Pluto. Food is served family style instead of buffet, so you take a seat and both the food and the characters come to you. We've been to a number of other character meals (including Chef Mickey's) and we really love this one - the character interaction is outstanding. We usually see each character twice per meal, and they take a lot of time with the kids. We highly recommend it!!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

A must do character meals:
Crystal Palace (we go every Disney trip)
Tusker House Breakfast buffet
Hollywood and Vine (food is ok but my son LOVES it b/c of sing/dance ever 20 mins)
Cape May
CM (we really did not enjoy dinner but we will try breakfast b/c my son loves the characters)
CRT
1900 PF (we have done breakfast and dinner, breakfast food much better than dinner but the characters at dinner is different and great)

 

[GrumpyBelle]

The character interactions at both Chef Mickey's and 1900 PF (dinner) were excellent. We enjoyed the food more at Chef Mickey's. We have also done Donald's breakfast at Tusker House and found the food and character interaction to be very good as well.

 

[♥Cleo]

I love Chef Mickey's it's my #1 favorite for dinner b/c of the desert bar! +I'm like a little kid w/ my taste in food. There is pizza & mashed potatoes & a really good salad bar. It has the most kid friendly foods. The kids will love it!

 

[bangzoom6877]

Crystal Palace at MK!!! Great character interaction and a wonderful place to see Winnie the Pooh & friends without being in the heat!

Chef Mickey's at Contemporary Resort!! The classic 5 are there, very cute place too!

Last time we went to Crystal Palace for dinner and Chef Mickey's for breakfast. The food was excellent at both, and both were very clean. We didn't care for the server at Crystal Palace but that can happen anywhere, anytime. This time we are having breakfast at CP and dinner at CM, and looking forward to taking our kids to see some of their favorites again!

 

[Ariel on Land]

For the kids- CP. Last time we were there, the boys hardly ate they were SO excited. They just watched Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet walk around. I don't care for the food all that much there, but this was the one restaurant that DH said we HAD to go back to because the kids just loved it so much!

For me- I know I'm in the minority around here, but I LOVE Garden Grill. THe Chipmunks are just AWESOME!!! Even Mickey seems to have a little extra time on his hands at this place. And my second choice is Princess Storybook Dinner in Norway. Even as an adult, I just LOVE the princesses!! I really hope we're blessed with a little girl one day so she and I can get all "princessy" together! Food's good here too!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Chef Mickey's is the only one that comes to mind.

I wasn't too impressed with 1900 Park Fare or Crystal Palace, and I really disliked Garden Grill. I thought Liberty Tree's characters were great, but I didn't like the food that much.

 

[SuperSequin]

I'm getting old (and so is my mother as a matter of fact...) and we still both LOVE the character breakfast at Crystal Palace with all the Winnie the Pooh characters! They're friendly, they all come to your table at a convenient time (and if you're up getting food when they come to your table, they'll make sure to come back), and they're willing to take their time to interact with you. Not to mention the FOOD! It's so delicious- everything is fresh and there's such a wide variety, everyone will find something they love! I promise, you won't be hungry till dinner!

 

[badblackpug]

Chef mickey (a really fun party-like atmosphere with the "fab five" )

Aukerhaus (this is new for us this year, but my little girl is super into princesses now)

Cinderella's Table (we are doing this on the night of MNSSHP so the kid can have their pics taken in their costumes. Even my big boy likes it here because they give him a sword)

Hollywood and Vine (my little girl loves Playhouse, and doing the "hotdog" dance. We only do breakfast here, though.)

Crystal Palace (my big girl loves the Pooh characters)

Tusker House. this is really more for the food...we love their breakfast buffet

...the character interaction at 1900 Park Faire is great, the food is meh.

Cape May buffets breakfast was good, we weren't real thrilled with dinner.

...I apologize for not having read he entire thread... but if no one suggested it, even though it is not a character meal, Hoop De Doo Revue is great fun, and my kids love it!

 

[kristina87]

I just got back from my very first trip there. I wanted to make a point to do as many character meals as possible. Cinderellas Royal Table breakfast was amazing, 1900 Park Fare for breakfast was also great. We did the crystal palace for lunch on the first day, took about 90 minutes, but the characters were really fun. The best for princesses besides CRT is Akershus storybook meals, I don't recommend the food at dinner though! When we went it was Belle, who you took a picture with in her yellow gown before being seated, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, and Cinderella.

 

[Steelersfan]

I'd say:

Akershus breakfast (princesses and sometimes no cinderella)

1900 Park Fare (you may not want this because you will already meet Cinderella)

Chef Mickey's

Tusker House Breakfast

Crystal Palace (lunch or breakfast)

These are all good options