Character Meals Questions

[Reminisce71]

I would love to take our 4 boys to a character meal while we are in Disney World.

They are ages 10, 9, 5 and 2.

What would be a good one for them?
Where do I call to reserve it?

We don't care if it is sit down or buffet. If the buffet is cheaper, that would be best. lol Our kids eat a lot!

 

[ToyStory Fan]

I've been to Mickey's Garden Grill (The Land at Epcot) Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale, 1900 Park I think (at the Grand Floridian) Mary Poppins and friends (Alice, Mad Hatter, Pinnocchio, Geppetto, Pluto, Goofy), Cape May Cafe (at Beach Club), Minnie and friends (Goofy, Chip and Dale). For the most part the food offerings are the same just presented differently. Garden Grill has a server bring it to you and you can request more of specific items as you need them (this is a sit down now that I think about it). 1900 Park Fare/Fair? and Cape May Cafe is buffet-eggs, waffles, croissants, yogurt, fruit, cereals etc.

Garden Grill is cool because the dining area slowly rotates through the scenery of the Land boat ride below. Garden grill may be tight for a party of 6 i I remember the layout right.

At Cape May only the "other" Characters go table to table, Minnie only takes photos and autographs at the entrance to the Cafe. Last week when we went ot Cape May Cafe, they wouldn't/couldn't do aPS for us (party of 11) on only a day's notice, but they told me to show up at opening time (7:30) and they'd do their best...Here I am thinking great I'll have breakfast by 9 if I'm lucky and bam within 10 minutes they had our table ready.

Call (407)WDW-DINE for setting up your PS arrangements.

 

[CRCrazy]

Chef Mickeys at the CR has a fun character meal - every 15 minutes or so, they stop and have a little party - music and napkin twirling included. The characters vary sometimes - Minnie, Mickey, Pluto, and Goofy were there the day we did it. They serve both breakfast and lunch buffets.

An inexpensive character meal is the ice cream social at the Garden Grill - they offer this every afternoon from 3 - 3:30, but you have to call ahead for a priority seating - I think they make the sundaes in advance. For about $7 - same price for adults and kids, you get a really nice sundae - same basic stuff, but different designs for kids and grownups - includes homemade vanilla bean ice cream, a huge chocolate chip cookie base, then a waffle cone glued on with chocolate, lots of chocolate molded decorations - yum! I think it was extra for whatever kind of drink you ordered, but I know my five year old ordered water - she doesn't like soda or juice - and they brought it to her in a nice insulated Epcot souvenir travel cup with reusable straw - the kind that clips to the cup to seal - no charge!

The characters were Farmer Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale, I believe. This was the best character interaction we had on our trip - they came by about four or five times - the restaurant was really slow - They sat down and played with my kids - goofed around with Mom and Dad - awesome!

If your kids are into Pooh characters, they are currently at Tony's for breakfast and lunch - going back to Crystal Palace on Dec. 16.

I hear a lot of boys like Donald's Restaurantasaurus - breakfast in the AK. I think it's Donald, Mickey, Chip and Dale but I'm not sure - we'll be trying this one in Dec. It's set up like the kids are paleontologists!

Happy Choices!

 

[weloveminnie]

Crystal Palace would be fun to have a character meal.

 

[travelitis]

All the character meals are all you want to eat whether it's buffet or served to your table.

 

[Jordan's MOM]

My Ds's favorite (he is 10) is breakfastsarus at AK. It is the only one that has Donald Duck. It's a breakfast buffet that has EVERYTHING you could want to eat. We like a 8:10 Ps that puts us getting gone just as the park opens.


Jordan's mom

 

[vicnmickey]

We had a wonderful time at Chef Mickey's with my then 8 and 9 year old. The atmosphere is wonderful and the food was good too! The buffet had just about anything you could imagine from fried foods to fruit and muffins. I think your boys would enjoy it.
Call 407-939-3463 for reservations. Most of the Character Breakfast fill up fast so you want to make ressies as far in advance as possible!

 

[crisi]

Here are some things to think about:

1) Is your 2 year old going to respond well to characters? If not, a character meal will not be pleasant for anyone. For this reason, a good idea is to schedule you character meal for later in your trip. You can cancel if you discover one of your kids is going to scream through the meal.

2) What characters do you want to see? Some people need to have breakfast with Mickey, some with Pooh, and some with the Princesses. Then you can go to www.wdwig.com and see which characters appear where.

3) Are you interested in family style (all you can eat served at your table) or a buffet (all you can eat, but you have to go get it)? We really like family style with small kids, since it gives Mom and Dad a chance to eat as well.

4) Where are you going to be? If you are heading toward the MK, Crystal Palace (Pooh, buffet), Cindy's (family style, princesses) Chef Mickeys at the Contemporary (buffet, Mickey and Co.) or Ohana's at the Poly (Family Style, Mickey and Co) are good choices, but Cape May (over by Epcot/MGM) would be out of the way. (You can do this the other way too, if Donald's Restrantasaurous interests you, plan your trip to be at AK that day).

Now go visit www.wdwig.com and figure out what is the best breakfast for you. You should have narrowed your choices considerably.

(edited to fix punctuation, I apparently can't tell the difference between a declarative statement and a question this morning).

 

[travelitis]

You can prepare the 2 yr. old for seeing the characters by telling him/her that Mickey is as tall as daddy (or whoever). I did this with an 18 mo. old ds and 2 yr. old dd, and it worked great. My dd is very wary of strangers, but the characters were just interactive stuffed animals to her. She cried leaving GG because she wanted to take Mickey home with her.

 

[melomouse]

Can't add too much to crisi's excellent post, but eanted to share our experience from last week...

Called several times pre-trip for PS for Chef mickey and Liberty Tree for a night they had MNSSHP. No luck. Walked into Chef Mickey's around 6:30 PM, got seated in 15 minutes, lots and lots of character interaction - more than for DD's Bday in August.
At MNSSHP, we still hadn't eaten when we got there. Walked into LTT 8:10 PM, seated w/ party of 5 in 10 minutes. Characters came back to us several times and sat down with us - I really thought Minnie and Pluto were going to eat w/ us!
Of course, if CP was open - may have been a different story.
Point being - so much also depends on time of year, time of day, size of your party - ages of kids.
And for some reason - Chef Mickey is still my favorite. I think it's because I love Donald!

Let us know what you decide! Enjoy!

melomouse

 

[sha_lyn]

Donalds breakfastosaurus in my DS' favoirte, and is near the top for the rest of us too. The food is wonderful, the CM's friendly and very interactive, and the characters are great.

 

[J&J]

Go to a character breakfast each one is fun for young and old. Our favorite is Cape May Galley.

 

[GlennandAnn]

We took our then 2 year old DS to the ice cream social at the Garden Grill, and it was the first time he would let the characters near him! It was a great experience for us. The ice cream was delicious and it was inexpensive. For actual dining, we would recommend Donald's Breakfastasaurus in AK. The food was really good, and the characters seemed to pay more individual attention to each child. 1900 Park Fare's food is more geared toward adults with just a small part of the buffet dedicated to children's food (mac and cheese, etc)- unless this has changed. One nice touch about 1900 Park Fare is that the Mad Hatter makes appearances there, and this guy is hysterical.