best 2-3 character meals for little kids

[ewasilau]

Hi all -
We have a 5-night trip coming up in late January 09 and as we are just now booking, we are only just now going to make ADRs. We are thinking of doing 2, possibly 3, character meals (we don't want to over-schedule ourselves). We have 3 kids, then ages almost 5, 2 and 1/2 and 1. (the older two love characters at other parks we've been to, so I'm not worried that they will be scared). The oldest is a girl, very into princesses, and the other two are boys, none currently know much about Mickey and Minnie (they will soon though!!).
What are your favorite character meals? We want to do a princess one, if we can. Can you list your faves in rank order for me? I'd really appreciate any advice!
thanks!

[Insanity Clause]

If your daughter is into Princesses I would recomment Cinderella's Royal Table. 1900 Park Faire is also very good at the Grand Floridian.

[wdw_bound]

We LOVE Princess Storybook Breakfast at Norway. Princesses are usually Belle (photo op as you enter), Sleeping Beauty, Jasmin, Mulan and Snow White. Food is great (at breakfast - L&D menus are a bit too adventurous for my gang, so I can't comment on them). Our DD is getting a bit too old for the princesses, but we still go back here every trip!

We are trying the Castle in a few weeks, but this can be a very tough ADR to get if you don't book it 180 days out. We've done Cinderella at the GF, it was ok, but we're not in a rush to do it again.

Chef Mickey's is good, but can be overstimulating (noisy!). Our 3 yo ds loves Crystal Palace (Pooh and friends), and is really looking forward to breakfast at Tusker House in AK with Donald Duck. We are also doing the Garden Grill for dinner this trip - have heard great things about it (Mickey and friends)

Have a great trip! January is a good time to go.

[Tinksalot]

If you can't get ADR's at Cinderella's Royal Table you could always try for Princess Storybook dining @ Akershus in EPCOT. We usually have breakfast there and then a lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table as my granddaughters love the Princesses!
As for the younger two I would suggest Chef Mickey's and/or Crystal Palace. :mickey:

[mdhiggin]

I really liked the princess breakfast at Norway, Akershus something or other. We got to see five different princesses. They vary, but we had Jasmine, Belle, Mulan, Aurora and Snow White. They took a picture with Belle before we were seated and they gave us the picture, which was an 8x10 some 4x6s. The picture didn't cost any extra like the one at Chef Mickey's. It came with the meal. Of course, if your DD really prefers Cinderella, she won't find her here, only at the castle. She can see more princesses at once here, though. We like Chef Mickey's too. Donald made my DS13 get up to take a picture with him, even though he likes to think he's too big for that. He secretly loves it. Restaurantosaurus is good. I think most of the breakfast meals have similar food, so it just depends on which characters and atmosphere you like.

[TheMartellFamily]

Have not done the Princesses one in Norway but it does look good. We have done Cindy's for dinner and that was out of pocket one year because out of a family of prince's there is only me and the Queen wanted a little something for her B-bay choice. We have also done 1900 park fare in the Grand Floridian and we did not care for that, for us not alot to choose from we went with another family that had girls. Our family's favorites are Chef Mickeys for everyone. This one has Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto. It is a tradtion to do this on our first day as a breakfast before we head to the MK. It truely is a great starter for any vacation. The other one we like is Crystal Palace in the MK with the Pooh Character. They have a great selection of foods to anyone's appetite. The pooh characters are great too. We have only done the Lunch and Dinner never the breakfast.

[Wrigley]

We really enjoy Crystal Palace at MK. It has the Winnie the Pooh characters, and you get great character interaction. We prefer the breakfast buffet-there are lots of choices to choose from and you get into the park early and get some great photos!

We also really like Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. It is a party theme and it's alot of fun. You also get pretty good character interaction here as well. We also prefer the breakfast buffet.

We haven't done a princess breakfast yet, but we are planning on doing the princess breakfast at Norway on our upcoming trip since we will be taking our DD2. I have heard great reviews!

Enjoy your trip!:mickey:

[joanna71985]

CP and CM are fun for people of all ages, and have really good food too (they are both buffets). CRT is amazing, if you can get. And 1900 Park Fare dinner is a ton of fun. The Tremaines are a hoot.

[SBETigg]

I would look into Crystal Palace(Pooh and Friends), Chef Mickey's(classic Mickey and friends), and 1900 Park Fare(princess) or Akershus or Cinderella's Royal Table at the castle for princesses.

[ewasilau]

Thanks so much! This is great information. My kids would love seeing Pooh and friends, so we'll make that a priority along with a princess meal (I'm thinking at Norway - my DD will like the quantity of princesses there! - if we can get it). Chef Mickey's seems like the obvious 3rd choice if we decide to do one more.

[KylesMom]

Our favorite character meals are Garden Grill, Chef Mickey's for breakfast and Crystal Palace for lunch - we are sure to dine at each of these places every trip! :mickey:

[Disney fans..]

The Princess Storybook in Norway is something we do everytime at Disney. The first time we brought our daughter she was 4, then 6 now 8....she just loves it and asks for it everytime:princess:

[pixiesmimi]

I think our favorite for Princesses was Norway. The food was good and a good variety of Princesses. You get in the park before it opens and that was fun. We have done Chef Mickey's but we found this chaotic and didn't get to eat much. Also, some of the characters never got around to us and this was disappointing. Crystal Palace is good and the food is good. We really liked O'hana's also with Lilo and Stitch and other characters. The food here was fantastic! The boys 3 and 1 loved it. We went to 1900 Park Faire when it was Mary Poppins, Alice and the Mad Hatter. We enjoyed the characters but this meal was not as memorable as the others.

[florida girl]

We just returned from Disney and had lunch with the princesses at Norway. We actually DID get Cinderella at our lunch. We had Belle at the door, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Ariel(with legs), and Jasmin. I wouldn't tell your daughter which princesses will be there just in case they are different on the day you get in. You don't want her disappointed!! Have fun! The experience was great b/c my daughter loved seeing the princesses, however our waiter was one of the worst I have ever had at Disney...but it was still fun! After all we were not there necessarily for the service and food:)

[ElenitaB]

I don't have too much experience with princesses in recent years (once my DS hit 8, our time with the girls was over). However, we do have lots of experience meeting up with our pal Mickey. As far as I'm concerned, the very best place to rub elbows with the Mouse, Pluto, Chip and Dale is Garden Grill. Given the small size of the restaurant and its "in the round" layout, little ones don't have to see the characters in the distance for too long before it's their turn. And the fact that the restaurant turns and presents different things to look at, provides something else for them to focus on (besides dinner) in between character visits. And I don't know if we've just had great luck, but we've always had LOTS of fun with the characters there (like Chip sitting down to play with my DS' Pokemon figures or Pluto "feeding" DS his dinner).

We have a whole bunch of pictures taken at Chef Mickey or Cape May with someone else's children at our table because they were having a hard time waiting their turn and their parents were MIA! ;)

[cal5755]

I am going to agree with Akershus, CRT, Crystal Palace and Chef Mickeys!!


I am just very very sad that LTT is doing away with their character dinner. We went there for the first time this September and it was the best character meal we ever had!!

[kathiep]

Crystal Palace breakfast is a must for us on every trip. Great food and character interaction.

2 weeks ago we did the princess storybook breakfast in Norway. We probably won't do it again. My DD was thrilled with the variey of princesses but she still kept asking to go back & eat in the castle with Cinderella again. Also, the food was only OK and IMO, the character rotation took too long. All 4 princess were in the same room at the same time. Unlike CP, where 2 characters will be in each room & then switch, we spent a long time waiting without any character activity in our room at all.

We also like Chef Mickey's a lot for good character interaction. Plus, it offsets all the princess activities for our DS.