Which Character Dinners/Breakfasts should we do?

[Mom2Boys]

When we were there 2 yrs ago we did Chef Mickey breakfast and Crystal Place dinner. We are going in May with family. Some are coming in at different times. We would like to do character eating at different places with each family. I would like to do those two again but add one more dinner and one more breakfast at different places. What ones have you done that you like besides those. Thank You
Paige

[Goes4FastPass]

What's the makeup of the group, how many children? Ages? Genders?

[jakeybake]

We have 2 must do buffets each trip. 1900 Park Fare and Cape May Cafe.

We love the atmosphere and the food at both locations.

Hope this helps.

Jay

[Hayden's Dad]

Donald's Safari Breakfast was excellent, One of the few places you are guaranteed to see Daisy.

I like Crystal Palace for lunch instead of Breakfast it seems to be less crowded.

1900 is very good, and you have characters there that you don't necessarily see in the parks.

Chef Mickey's is great good interaction and good food.

Of course there is CIndy's which is excellent, but pricey, and all of the princesses can be found in the park

Akershus in Norway is nice but the space is crowded. A good place to meet Mulan who can be difficult to track down.

I hope this helps. Have fun

[AmberB]

My family loves Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner.

[mjaclyn]

During our trip a couple months ago we took DD to Crystal Palace and Cape May Cafe for Breakfast and had Dinner at CRT. We'll be heading down to WDW again in January and will be having meals at Crystal Palace and CRT while we're there. In the past we've had character meals at Chef Mickey's, Liberty Tree Tavern, O'hana and the Empress Lilly (LONG time ago). My personal favorite is Crystal Palace because it's right in the Magic Kingdom. As far as the characters go, DD received LOTS of personal attention at the Cape May Cafe - more than at Crystal Palace because it was less crowded. I think the new Tusker House buffet is a character meal as well - you may want to try that one. It seems to me that unless you're staying at a resort with a character meal, it's always easier to eat it inside the park to cut down on travel.

[CaptainJessicaSparrow]

I second the Liberty Tree Taven!!!

It's my absolute favorite character dining.

Or at least, until they ever make a Villians Dining experience. Man, that would be great.

[DDuck66]

I second the Liberty Tree Taven!!!

It's my absolute favorite character dining.

Or at least, until they ever make a Villians Dining experience. Man, that would be great.

They used to have a Villains Dinner at 1900 Park Fair in 2001. I think it changed right after that. Eating with Captain Hook and Smee was great!!! That dinner had the most interaction of any character meal that I had ever been to. Since that is gone, LTT is our favorite now.

[Hayden's Dad]

I wanted to add the the Garden Grille and The Land in Epcot was great as well.

We didn't have such a great time at LTT. It was just ok. I think we must have caught it on an off night.

[baby minnie's mommy]

The 'Ohana character breakfast at the Poly is nice because they bring the food to you. This can be helpful if visiting with family and don't want to miss the conversation, plus you don't have to time your visits to the buffet in between the character visits. The food is all-you-can-eat served family style.
:mickey:

[Magic Smiles]

Donald's Safari Breakfast was excellent, One of the few places you are guaranteed to see Daisy.




Funny, we just did this character breakfast last week. Thought it was TERRIBLE. The characters were good, but the food awful.

Chef Mickey's on the other hand, food great, character interaction too quick for me. Probably because I don't have a small child, they seemed to rush by us.

[lockedoutlogic]

Dinners - Liberty Tree and Garden Grill

Breakfasts - Cape May Cafe, Chef Mickey's and Park Fare

Ohana is also good for all mealtimes


The other character locations/times are completely skippable...

And I would limit yourself to 1 or 2 of these per trip at the most....the food quality is good, but typically not as good as the other sitdown locations.....and remember you are actually overpaying for character meals...economically speaking...it is not a good value...especially breakfasts

[IloveDisney71]

We love the Crystal Palace for breakfast. We've eaten there 3 times and never had a bad experience. The food was great each time. We did experience an indifferent waiter on the 16th of December. We saw him once when he brought our drinks and once when he brought the bill. :( I guess he figured we were on the dining plan so he'd get his 18% no matter what.
I used to recommend the Liberty Tree Tavern. We have eaten there on 3 previous occasions and had great food, service, and character interactions all three times. However, on 12/16/07, that was not the case. The food was cold and the character interactions were very limited. Goofy never did more than shake 2 people's hands at our table. When we tried to get a picture he just moved on. We were very disappointed. :(:(:( We will probably skip the LTT on our next visit.

[grego77]

I honestly have only "really" enjoyed one character meal...mind you, this is coming from a 24 year old! LOL. I first go by food, THEN entertainment!

Garden Grill is awesome. The food is great, and the characters add so much to the experience. My aunt who went there with me in Sept is begging me to make another reservation!!!

Liberty Tree is also good, and the characters are fun, but the food is nowhere near as good.

I really disliked Cinderella's breakfast mainly because it was New Years Eve and there were A LOT of people, and none of the characters seemed interested in conversing with me and my girlfriend at the time. Plus the food was pretty bad. But, to each their own.

Good luck! :mickey:

[Hayden's Dad]

And I would limit yourself to 1 or 2 of these per trip at the most....the food quality is good, but typically not as good as the other sitdown locations.....and remember you are actually overpaying for character meals...economically speaking...it is not a good value...especially breakfasts

I disagree to a certain extent. I think it depends on what you hope to accomplish. I agree that the food is not spectacular at all the resteraunts, but I never thought any of it wasn't good, yes it is either preplated or a buffet, but the food was still good, and while some character meals are better than others it depends on when you go, what kind of mood you are in the interaction of the charcters and so on. Liberty Tree Tavern is at the bottom of our list, but several people before me raved about it. Donald's Safari breakfast and Cinderella's breakfast are at the top of my list, but others here have said they didn't have good experiences there.
We went to 11 character meals during our last trip in November and never regretted or felt we overpaid once, now mind you we were on the premium dining plan so we never shucked out cash, and that may be the difference. I may feel very differently if I had to pull cash or credit card out of my wallet for all the meals, but that is why we use that plan. There were a couple that were absolutley outstanding, but none were bad. But my wife and I are Character-aholics and that was our priority, plus we have a little boy and that was what we wanted to do. I think no matter what character meal you choose you will have a good time, just check to make sure it is characters you and your family want to see. Have fun and interact with the characters, play with them if they are face characers ask them about their movies the more you interact usually the more they will interact:mickey:

[playdead88]

our favs are breakfast with cindy and the girls at CRT and our other fav is at cape may cafe at the beach club - lots of character time and great food!

[DizneyFreak2002]

Is DOnald's Safari Breakfast now at Tusker House? I know it closed down at Restaurantosaurus.... What kind of food do they serve now???

[Nurse Kim]

For our trip we are planning a few character meals since it's our first trip.

Chef Mickey's dinner
Ohana's Breakfast
1900 Park Fare dinner

We are planning a 7 day trip but our meals are planned every other day. Does this sound like a good plan.

[Hayden's Dad]

Is DOnald's Safari Breakfast now at Tusker House? I know it closed down at Restaurantosaurus.... What kind of food do they serve now???

Yes it is in Tusker House and is quite good in my opinion. The food is your typical morning buffet, but there is a lot of room and the characters are really good. They are Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Daisy

[TheMartellFamily]

We feel that 1900 Park Fare was a big dissapointment to us. We did not like the food, and the chaos that was there. Some characters came twice while we had to ask to see Cinderella and Prince Charming. They kept being pulled away so we asked when they realized what was going on.
One we have done and have never been dissapointed in is Chef Mickeys. We enjoy the breakfast with the wide selection of food and great characters. This is one buffet that will feed everyones hungers. We have also done the dinner buffet, we ended up enjoying the breakfast more. This is of course just our opinion.

[moe513]

Crystal Palace is great for any meal. The food is great and the characters are fun.

[DizneyFreak2002]

Yes it is in Tusker House and is quite good in my opinion. The food is your typical morning buffet, but there is a lot of room and the characters are really good. They are Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Daisy

Thanks for the info.. I was disappointed when I heard Restaurantosaurus was closing.... I loved that breakfast.... I am going to have to try Tusker House now...

[d_m_n_n]

My family loves Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

We have eaten at many character meals, but this is our new favorite and IMO would be excellent for visiting with family. The food is good (and plentiful) and the atmosphere is so, so relaxed. The characters spent a lot of time with us when we were waiting for dinner, but then took the cue that we wanted DSs to eat and they did more of a fly-by. After dessert, they came by to visit again...having a chance to say good-bye. We had tried to eat here on every one of our recent trips and for some reason it never happened...I'm sorry it took so long for us!!

[Disney Yankee]

We always go to Chef Mickey's, and we have always enjoyed the Breakfast.:number1:

Crystal Palace has great food, nice atmosphere. Especially if you like Pooh.:pooh:

[DizneyFreak2002]

Liberty Tree for dinner was pretty good... Not my first choice, but, not a terrible choice either... Chef Mickey's if my favorite dinner character meal...

[luvdiznee]

We just found out how good Goofy's Beach Club Buffet is for breakfast. :mickey: