Best Character Dining

[RosalieW]

Hi everyone,
I am new to this forum and planning our very first trip to Disneyland CA. We've been to Disneyland Resort in Paris and we had a lovely time. We would like to visit DL in CA in the off season: sept' 15 - sept' 19 2014.

I would like to know what the best restaurant is to meet characters, not kind of rushing, but really taking some time to chat with you and take pictures at your table. Is it possible to know which characters mostly visit which restaurant? Or is it totally random?
We would stay at the Disneyland Hotel, so we thought about dining at Goofy's Kitchen, and definitely in Ariel's Grotto as well, I would love to meet my favourite princess, Sleeping Beauty.

Do you guys have some advice for us? When is the best time to go (the least busy moment)?
Are there places in the park where you can meet some rare Disney characters (who you don't see often in the park?)

Thank you so much!

[Disney4us2]

Welcome to Intercot!

Goofy's Kitchen and the Plaza Inn (inside Disneyland) both have good character interaction with a variety of characters. The food at Goofy's is much better and a better selection than the Plaza Inn. Another character breakfast that we love is the Storytellers Cafe with Chip & Dale and his critter friends. They have a good buffet, but you can also order off of the menu.

Last year we ate at Ariels Grotto for lunch. The princesses did not visit long with us at all. The food was ok, not fantastic but not bad. It was also VERY expensive. Maybe they didn't visit long since my DD was 12. almost 13 at the time. If you are going just to see the princesses it should be ok... just prepare to pay the high price. It was over $80.00 for just the two of us.

As far as the best time to go. The time frame you are looking at is getting to be the start of the Halloween Time at Disneyland. Haunted Mansion may or may not be up. They do a Nightmare Before Christmas overlay on HM. Space Mountain may have the Ghost Galaxy overlay as well. Halloween Time has become very popular and so brings the crowds. More near the end of Sept than the middle.

For counter service restaurants, we love Whitewater Snacks in the Grand Californian Hotel, Jolly Holiday and the Plaza Inn in Disneyland. At DCA... hands down, we love Flo's V8 Cafe in Cars Land.

Have fun planning.

[RosalieW]

Welcome to Intercot!

Goofy's Kitchen and the Plaza Inn (inside Disneyland) both have good character interaction with a variety of characters. The food at Goofy's is much better and a better selection than the Plaza Inn. Another character breakfast that we love is the Storytellers Cafe with Chip & Dale and his critter friends. They have a good buffet, but you can also order off of the menu.

Last year we ate at Ariels Grotto for lunch. The princesses did not visit long with us at all. The food was ok, not fantastic but not bad. It was also VERY expensive. Maybe they didn't visit long since my DD was 12. almost 13 at the time. If you are going just to see the princesses it should be ok... just prepare to pay the high price. It was over $80.00 for just the two of us.

As far as the best time to go. The time frame you are looking at is getting to be the start of the Halloween Time at Disneyland. Haunted Mansion may or may not be up. They do a Nightmare Before Christmas overlay on HM. Space Mountain may have the Ghost Galaxy overlay as well. Halloween Time has become very popular and so brings the crowds. More near the end of Sept than the middle.

For counter service restaurants, we love Whitewater Snacks in the Grand Californian Hotel, Jolly Holiday and the Plaza Inn in Disneyland. At DCA... hands down, we love Flo's V8 Cafe in Cars Land.

Have fun planning.

Thank you very much for your advice!

We are planning to go from September 15 to September 19, 2014. I guess this is the start of the Halloween season

[Gator]

We had a good character meal over at Paradise Pier for breakfast. Pluto was a lot of fun, as was Stich. The food was good too.

As for Ariel's Grotto, the above poster has a different opinion than me. Yes, the princesses were quick...unless your kids talk to them and start conversations. My kids are very chatty so we got a lot of time. And I thought the Tri-Tip I had was excellent. My wife really liked the cioppino. And the desserts were really good. I'd go there again for sure.

I guess my main wish is that DisneyLand had more character meals in the middle of the day. I'm a small breakfast eater, so I hate spending tons of money on that meal. They really do need to add some character lunches and dinners.

[Lacy]

We have had really good experiences at most of them (have not been to Ariel's Grotto). We had a lot of character interaction at Mickey's surfside breakfast and Paradise Pier - they also had dancing with the characters at least every half hour or so.

We like Goofy's kitchen for dinner as that has become our one traditional meal that we always have. The dinner is a bit more expensive than the breakfasts but I can only pay a lot for breakfast so many times so think the cost for dinner at Goofy's is worth it.

But for convenience I don't think you can beat the Plaza Inn breakfast! And we've had great character interaction there as well - captain hook and other less common characters.

[dvcmember83]

We really liked Ariel's Grotto and Goofy's kitchen! The food at Ariel's Grotto was especially good!

[Cinderelley]

We are going to be celebrating my friend's 50th birthday. Which character meal do you think would be best for him?

[rjmdds]

Does anyone know if the proposed changes to the characters at Goofy's Kitchen has occurred? From what I've read they were discontinuing the "random" character appearances and keeping the same 4 or 5 standard characters. Is this true?

We are going to DL for the first time this summer and are BIG character fans. We loved the idea of the general randomness of the characters at Goofy;s Kitchen. But now, not so much.