We will be doing a lot of character meals in January as we have little ones with us this trip. Any recommendations?
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We will be doing a lot of character meals in January as we have little ones with us this trip. Any recommendations?
I would recommend doing a few of the meals that are family style since that will cut down on character misses and multiple trips to a buffet line with a toddler in tow. Seeking out meals with their favorite characters always ales for a better experience. Also the more you interact with the character the more the characters inyeract. They take their questions from the guests.
We really enjoy 'Ohana for this reason but Garden Grille is set up the same and is also now available for all 3 meals. 1900 Park Fare was a blast and the food was the most diverse. The biggest choices were available at Crystal Palace (all 3 meals there have many many options to please the pickiest eaters). Chef Mickey is way crazy & loud. Tusker House has been pretty consistent but not always timely and a little rushed. The best character interaction we have had was Cape May & Hollywood and Vine (breakfast). Our least favorite (gasp) was thebprincess bfast in Norway but it has been changed a few times since our meal there. We have been to them all; many multiple times so if you have specific questions let me know.
Thanks! Great info!
I second the suggestion of Garden Grill. The food is good, the character interaction is excellent, and it is served family-style, so no buffet trips, but still lots of choice.
It is much quieter than other character meals, and we have better character interaction than any other meal as well.
We also like Tusker House for breakfast, and if you're after princesses, Akershus in Norway is a much better choice than CRT.
Enjoy!
It depends a bit on what you like to eat, how old the kids are, what characters you want and if you are on dining plan.
We never do the dining plan so we tend to stay away from dinners because they can get quite pricey. Dinner at Hollywood & Vine for my family of 4 (2 adults, 1 10 year and an 8 year old ) was about $180.
Food wise - Do you prefer a buffet or family style? Buffets give you more variety but you do have to get up which can cause you to miss a character. Family Style lets you stay in your seat but there is less variety. Both princess meals have you order from a menu though Akershus adds a small buffet with cheeses and assorted meets. Tusker House has a more interesting menu than the other buffets but some people do find the African themed food to be too exotic though it is one of our favorites.
Character wise- Certain characters can only be seen at certain meals. So if there is a special character that is a must do, you might want to do that meal.
Here is what you can generally expect but it can vary
1900 Park Fare- Breakfast - Alice, Mad Hatter, Pooh, Tiger
1900 Park Fare- Dinner- Cinderella, Prince, Step Sisters, Lady Tremaine . **Step sisters are lots of fun **
Ohana - Breakfast -Mickey, Pluto, Lilo, Stitch ** great character interaction Mickey waffles and yummy Hawaiian bread.
Chef Mickey's Breakfast/Dinner- Mickey, Minnie, Pluto Goofy, Donald ** This meal can be very loud**
Cape May breakfast - Minnie, Goofy, Donald- **nice atmosphere**
Crystal Palace- Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, & Piglet
Cinderella's Royal Table- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner- Princesses of course. Quite expensive
Hollywood & Vine Breakfast/Lunch- Disney Jr- Sophia. Doc McStuffins, Handy Mandy, Jake
H&V Dinner- Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy & Goofy. They change costume seasonally which is super cute
Akershus -Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner- Princesses
Garden Grill- B, L, D - Farmer Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale
Tusker House - Safari Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Daisy
Our personal favorites are
Ohana . The character interaction is always great. The food is served family. The pineapple bread is delicious and my kids love the Mickey waffles. They also have a nice parade for the kids to join in.
Tusker House- The buffet has a lot more variety than the other buffets. If you make reservations toward the end of breakfast, you will get both breakfast and lunch foods.
The Garden Grill. This was our first character meal when my kids were toddlers and infants. This is usually a nice quite meal and because the restaurant is a circle, the character interaction feels very private
I also like Cape May. It is very pretty.
I found the H&V dinner to be expensive but loved the different character costumes.
My daughter loves the princesses at Akershus but it is not our favorite foods.
Crystal Palace is very popular but we do not usually eat there because my kids are not interested in the Pooh characters.
I also loved meeting the Beast at Be Out Guest but it is not a traditional character meal since the Beast does not come around. He is available for photo ops at the end.
Hope this helps.
We are huge fans of the breakfast at Tusker House, both for the food (some variety from the standard breakfast buffet fare) and the characters (Goofy, Daisy, Donald and Mickey). We also went to the breakfast at Garden Grill (Chip, Dale, Pluto and Mickey) during our last trip and had some of our best character meal interactions ever. Chip and Dale were hysterical, playing with our two year old son, trying to feed him, making a paper airplane out of a napkin and tossing it at me, etc. The food was served family style, but was all you care to eat and well made. I would definitely suggest either of these being good choices. Depending on how little the little ones are, we also enjoyed our breakfast at Hollywood and Vine on our last trip, with the Disney Junior characters. The buffet was pretty good, and the entertainment of the music and singing and dancing was thrilling for our son.
I have a feeling there will be a wide variety of responses, but our favorite is the character breakfast at the Beach Club. It seems a little smaller, and we've had lots of interaction with the characters there.
We too love the character buffet breakfast at Cape May/Beach Club. We went this most recent trip with my high school graduate whose first character breakfast was there when he was 4.
I would second what is said above - review the options for character meals and choose from those that have the characters your child(ren)/you really want to see.
However, as they say, please try to be sure the kids and you understand that the list of characters may change, although in the about 25 character meals we've attended over the years, there's only been a change once. One time at Cape May, Goofy was absent, but Stitch was there instead. We were teasing that that ole rascal Stitch must have tied up Goofy so he could come over himself!Quote:
Originally Posted by mermaidmarian