Character Meals @ Disney
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Character Meals @ Disney
Although I'm a seasoned Disney traveler, it was always before kids until now.  We never did character dining except at the Garden Grill, and that was by accident.
I've gotten through my book and this board that the following are great choices. If you've had experience with any of these, would you mind sharing it? I want to start calling for reservations ASAP!
Cinderella's Royal Table - Was this worth the $? Were all the Cinderella characters there? This is dd's favorite princess, but I don't want to even try for a reservation if it's overpriced and just as good as other princess possibilities.
Goofy's Tavern
Chef Mickey's...if anyone has been to both, are they very similar as far as characters met? One better than the other?
1900 Park Faire - similar at all to the Royal Table deal? I've gotten that the characters there change somewhat, but then I also read that it's often Alice in Wonderland also, and that's about the only thing at Disney we're not interested in, LOL!
Akershus Princess Storybook Dining in Norway, Epcot - good?? Several princesses there when you went?
Really, just any experiences you've had with these in particular would be appreciated. Thanks!
We did Cindy's Royal Table back in 2005 before it became even more expensive and included the photo and all, so my experience may not be relevent. However, it did feature Cindy, Belle, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow. No Ariel. I have heard Ariel IS at Akershus. We avoided Akershus due to the menu.
I've never heard of Goofy's Tavern!! Where is that??
Chef Mickey's is a fave that we do every year. You'll see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Chip and Dale. It's a yummy buffet.
1900 Park Fare. Another that we do yearly. The BREAKFAST is Alice, Mary Poppins, and Mad Hatter. The DINNER is Cindy, the Prince, and, best of all....THE STEPSISTERS AND STEPMOTHER!!! They were hysterical! We were quite accusatory with the sisters and they hemmed and hawed and played with their hair trying to make excuses for their bad behavior. Anastasia refused to sing for us without her sister, but when Drizella came along she had no problem honoring our request and performed a lovely solo after announcing to neighboring tables to be quiet so she could sing. It was my favorite. This too, is a buffet, both for breakfast and lunch.
I just returned this week from an 11 day stay there, so if you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
(where are you staying??)
Thanks for the info on Park Fare. That's what I was wanting - the stepmother and stepsisters!!! DD is nuts for the 'bad guys'...she would love to meet Anastasia, Drizella, and Lady Tremaine just as much as Cindy and the prince. That tells me that we have to try to do that one for sure, at dinnertime. I somehow missed that Alice in Wonderland is breakfast. THANK YOU!!
Off hand, I can't remember where Goofy's Tavern is....
An 11 day stay....oh you lucky lady!!!
Also, Deanna, in my opinion character dining is way overrated. It's not like they SIT with you or anything.... They stop by your table for a minute and pose for a picture and sign an autograph. It can be frustrating, trying to figure out if you have enough time to dash to the buffet without missing a character stopping by. And you have to stop eating and take pictures when they come, and all photos have messy tables in the background (and often foreground) and your child often has ketchup or chocolate milk on their face, too. We do the meals, don't get me wrong, but mostly because they're tradition for us and we like buffets (picky eaters) but I really hate the constant interruption. Natalie can meet all her princesses at the MK in Toontown by waiting in specific lines at the store they have there, and Ariel is found across from the Pooh ride in Fantasyland in Ariel's grotto.
Park Fare opens at 4:30 (at least last week they did) and if you have a reservation for the earliest seating possible, and if Natalie shows up in her Cindy costume, she MAY be chosen to 'open' the restaurant and walk in with Cindy. You have to get there early and look cute. :o)
I made an error in my first post by saying Park Fare is a buffet for both breakfast and lunch...I meant to say breakfast and DINNER. Park Fare does not have a lunch.
We did the breakfast at park fare in march. Food was yummy, place was very nice.
We ate at chef mickey's when we went years ago, at the time it was our fav character thing we did.
We ate at the castle, but didn't do the character meal, it was unmemorable, but my dd did love the atmosphere.
The favorite place we ate was at Narcoosies (spelled that wrong), it is at the grand floridian. We had a late dinner, think 9 pm or so. But it was our last night during the fireworks, they dim the lights and play the music. It was AMAZING. This is a very nice place though. We did the dining plan, it took two sit down meals each. We ate filet and lobster, I think our check out price was over 300 for the 5 of us (thankfully it was on the plan!). Anyway, not sure if you were interested in something like that.
What's 'MK' stand for? We only went to Toontown once, SEVERAL years ago before kids of course, so I don't know what MK is. Thank you so much for those helpful hints. I think I had read that Ariel is found where you mentioned. Thank you for the meal insider info as well. I didn't know there was a store where she could meet them either, so if you could explain MK I'd appreciate that, too.
We're staying at Caribbean Beach Resort, a first for us. We prefer Coronado Springs because it's quiet and laid back, and usually very few kids. It's booked though, so we're trying a new place.
Do you happen to know any tricks on meeting Hook and Ursula? Outside of Lady Tremaine, those are her very favorite villains.
MK is Magic Kingdom. :o) In Toontown, in the MK, there is just one large store (there's not much there, after all...Mickey's house, Minnie's house, the Barnstormer ride, and a preschool playground) and it's a store as well as a queue for lining up to meet characters. You'll see signs for 'Princesses' '100 Acre Wood Friends' and the like. There are always three lines going at once for three different groups of characters. They do NOT get specific as to WHO EXACTLY is in there.
I don't think you can meet Ursula...she is HUGE in the parades, so I can't see how they can have meetings with her. She IS in the nighttime parade (Spectromagic) at the MK, and possible the afternoon parade...I don't remember about the afternoon. She is also at the Hollywood Studios in the Little Mermaid show.
Hook is sometimes just wandering around, especially near the Peter Pan ride. You'll just have to get lucky, or ask at City Hall in the MK when you arrive to see if he'll be around that day. He's in the parades, too.
It's possible the character meet and greets in the Toontown store also have a 'villains' category. Too bad....Park Fare USED to have a whole Villains dinner!!
Kaye- really aren't considering the meal plan, so I'm not sure if I'll regret that or not. DH and I always spent sooooo much $$$ on food when we went alone, but we ate high end the whole time. The food is so good! We had favorite restaurants and such. With Natalie, she's so picky these days. I know that it seems like it's a good deal, but I don't want to make reservations for dinner. I just don't *think* I want to deal with the meal plan. I might regret it. A few friends of mine said that they thought it would be better for older children (over 7), but littler ones it didn't seem to really pay off. Not sure, just what I was told by people with 4 and unders. We'll see if we regret not getting it! It doesn't cover breakfast does it? Sounds like it really paid off for your great dinner at the Floridian.
Kate- LOL!! I was thinking it was a smaller place in Toontown that maybe I didn't remember. Wasn't thinking of the park itself. What a goof I am. Now that you're saying that, I seem to remember the lines you're talking about for meeting characters, because I think I waited in one myself back then. Cool! That sounds great. I think you are now officially my Disney go-to girl!!!!!
I don't remember seeing Ursula in a parade, but back then I didn't even know who she was either, so who knows. I can imagine that she would be large and not conducive to meeting. If we can see her somewhere, that would be great, so I'm making a note on the parade it sounds like she's in.
I cannot imagine how FLIPPED OUT Natalie would be over a villains dinner!!! That would be so cool! We just got the coolest DK book about Disney Villains. Dh and I have really enjoyed reading it alone, just as much as reading through it to her.
Regarding the dining plan...it is not specific as to breakfast, lunch, or dinner. For the cheapest 'basic' plan, you EACH get ONE snack credit, ONE counter service credit, and ONE table service credit PER NIGHT. If you're there seven nights you each get seven. You can use them whenever you want for whatever you want. You can blow all your snack credits in one day, or do seven sit down dinners in one day if you want. They can be used at breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
We've had the plan for the past three or four years. We have used in all ways. We tend though, to eat poptarts in the room in the AM, have a counter service lunch, and a sit down dinner per day. You could have a sit down breakfast though, and a snack lunch, and counter service dinner. Or a sit down lunch, counter service breakfast, and pay out of pocket for dinner. Or a sit down breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all in one day!
It's not as worth it as it used to be since now it now longer includes an appetizer or gratuity. Our counter services though were running about $50 and up for the four of us. Our sit downs were all about $100 for four.
I, personally, like the plan, however, I have always gotten it free because I travel during hurricane season which is when they offer the free dining.
They have a deluxe plan that is about double the cost and gives you THREE sit down meals and two snacks per night per person. I DON'T advise that one as sitting down three times a day is waaaay too time consuming.
As far as it not paying off for little kids, I disagree completely. Your character meals alone will be pricey, averaging about $13 for kids under age nine, and the meal plan is only $10 per night for kids. So for three dollars LESS than your ONE character meal, Natalie will ALSO get a counter service meal AND a snack. Adult character meals are around $25-30 each, so again, the $35 or whatever it is for adults per day on the plan is also a good deal as you, too, will then have a counter service and snack on top of it all. Snacks are good...they can be soft pretzels, any dessert in the Main Street Bakery, chips/doritoes, ice cream, smoothies, fried dough, popcorn, etc. etc. Some snacks are worth more than others. I cringed each time we wasted a snack credit on a bottled water. Snacks are anything $4 and under basically.
Also, at places like Cosmic Rays in Tomorrowland and Pecos Bill in Frontierland, you can order a combo meal of ribs and chicken for $13, or an eight piece chicken strips meal for like $9 and split it with Natalie or your DH. Even though you'd have a counter service credit each, you won't always have to each use your own, cause you can split some of the larger meals. My point is those larger meals mentioned above are INCLUDED in the plan!!
Also, the counters and tables include the entree, a drink, AND a dessert, so it's PLENTY of food with plenty of opportunities to share. I mention this just in case you're thinking the plan is a bad idea because you don't technically get THREE meals a day (on basic anyway) but with splitting you CAN all get three. :o) (and the counter service entrees ALWAYS come with fries or apple slices or chips or salad, etc., it's not JUST a hamburger)
I haven't read all responses yet. My favorite is Chef Mickey...When we go to Disney, we always do a breakfast there. Yes, character breakfasts are expensive, but Disney is expensive.It is so much fun, and the kids have a blast.
We enjoyed our food and certainly got our moneys worth with the dining plan. However it seemed like our trip was all about food. I wouldn't do the dining plan again, because of that. We spent about 1000 for the plan (5 days). We had some leftover food credits that we used at downtown disney and got food for the car..LOL. However I think we could have spent less for food, but we ate at very expensive places. When we went to disney last time we only did 2 or 3 sit down meals.
Personally what I would do is look at where you are planning to eat. Put a price down for a meal and add it up. Personally with a child nat's age, I probably would not order any food for them, they would eat off of my plate. I feel like the portions were just huge. And you can still do that with the dining plan and then bank up credits.
Also you do get a snack a day, so think about is that something you will use. It can be a drink, or a mickey head ice cream. If you didn't have the plan would you spend that money anyway.
We just felt like we spent a lot of time on food, making sure we used our credits all up and got what we wanted. It made it more work. It also took more time to eat (we wouldn't of sat down). My kids are older though and they love to do the rides. We spent an insane time at the parks, the first day we were there from 7 am to 3 am. They got really bummed when we took a break to eat!
Thank you for the info ladies! I know that DH and I easily spent $600 on food for a 5-day stay when we used to go alone. I do think that we will split meals with Natalie though. We eat bkfast in our room(donuts or poptarts), then counter lunch and sit-down dinner. We have some fave restaurants, so we'll be going to those a t dinnertime!
I just called for reservations this morning and NOTHING! Not bkfast, not dinner, nothin'. I have read to keep calling everyday, so I'm trying not be bummed. It's 3mths.from now. I really thought at least ONE of the things I needed a reservation for would be available. 
How often should I call??? I'm thinking bkfast, lunch, and dinner are good reminder times to call. Any suggestions?
Park Fare Dinner is my primary goal really. I'm so glad we didn't go in April like we originally thought. That was only 3weeks in advance, a spur-of-the-moment deal. I'm sure we wouldn't have had a chance then. DH and I always made reservations for our DW trips a good year in advance before, but with moving and a job change, we wanted to wait this time around.
We did a character lunch at Disneyland here in CA when DH got home from Iraq and the wait was over 4 months long! It's insane! I had explained my situation of not knowing an exact homecoming date (which prevented us from making concrete reservations) and they made note of it so I could call back closer to the date for them to squeeze us in. I think that's one of the things they should make reservations for so far in advance!
Just call whenever you think of it. You can make ressies 180 days in advance, which is why you're finding nothing since you're at 90 days. :o(
Keep calling, AND, if you STILL get nothing, make sure to check every single day at the front desk at your hotel. We were late in making our dining ressies, too, and the two times I tried WHILE at Disney to get better times or restaurants, I DID get them with NO problem. I don't know if they save a few or if people cancel that day or what.
Also try 45 days before your trip...that is when people who have purchased a package vacation have to pay in full. Sometimes those people realize they can't swing it and cancel everything.
Good luck...let me know!
Deanna, we bought the basic meal plan for our stay in December. I made all our dinner reservations, and some restaurants use 2 or 3 meal credits - since we are actually going to be there 10 days, we have 10 days worth of meals - but we are only doing 7 days of Disney Parks. We planned our meals around our activities. Kate is right - I began making our reservations 180 days before our trip - in several restaurants, even @ 180 days in advance, I couldn't get the time I wanted. Disney has turned into such a business!
I have an Excel spreadsheet for our entire trip. I'm hoping the meal plan is a plus for us, we've never done anything like that before.
That's crazy because DH and I never once had trouble getting into restaurants at this time of year. (late Nov. early Dec.)We never made one reservation and were never turned away. We just decided to eat and did it, several years in a row. I think ONE time, the weekend after T'Giving, we couldn't get in to the steakhouse in Canada. That's about it. We had sit downs for almost all lunches and dinners as a couple. Character meals are different though I guess.
I made one reserv. today for a character meal at the Tusker House, just in case. She told me that many people cancel the day of, so to do just what you said, Kate, and try every day while we are there if we don't have any luck before. The 45days before is also a good point, so I'll remember that, too.
Karen- I HIGHLY recommend the Pepper Market at Coronado Springs. They have the BEST steaks and mexican as well!!
Thanks!
Deanna, we had trouble too. We had to be very flexible with our scheduling. I probably only called a couple of weeks ahead. I just said, okay we want to eat here, what's available? They almost always found something for one of the days. But I also found that we could go to the park and go first thing and say, we want lucnh here, what is available. We got into everything we wanted that way. We were willing to eat at odd hours. But as I said, we spent a LOT of time on food. Without a dining plan, we would of just eaten somewhere!
Deanna, early December has become a very popular time to go. It is more crowded then it used to be. Also Pop Warner football plays down there the first week or so of December.
I would just keep calling though. Hopefully, there will be some cancelations, and you can get what you want.
I didn't know that about Pop Warner Debbie! Kaye, I think we're pretty flexible with our eating also. I just want the Park Fare Cinderella dinner, taht's really my only requirement. Bkfast is in the room, lunch is fast food,although I'd like to do one at Garden Grill, and dinner will be Pepper Market, and hopefully Park Fare and Chef Mickey's. We only need 3 nights of dinners at the parks. We did the 3-night because we thought 4 might be too much for a 4 year old. I will keep in mind the idea of 'same day' if needed, and keep my numbers and cell phone handy. Thanks guys!
Yes, Pop Warner is 12/7 thru 12/13 I believe - we are going 12/1 thru 12/10.....
We knew this when we were booking, hopefully since we will be staying @ the CBR we won't be overrun with it.......been told that they normally stay in the budget resorts and are quite noisy at all hours, what with cheerleading practicing, etc.
Deanna, thanks for the Pepper Market recommendation.
And again, since you are staying @ CBR as well, if we can both swing a few minutes, I'd love to meet you.
Also, there is a huge training convention down there and alot of people are taking their kids.
When we went, we did an ice cream social with the characters at MK one afternoon. And, I think we did a late breakfast with them.
Just by walking around the different parks, we saw every character we wanted to see. At one shop in MK, we saw all of the princesses at once. It was a shop on a little cul de sac off of the beaten path. I thought DD was going to faint when she looked over and saw that. She was able to get her picture with all of them and autographs.
Tayjar- I wonder if that's the one that Kate mentioned in Toontown? I'm looking forward to that, too!
I made a reservation at the Tusker House for a character breakfast (late one), but I'm not sure if I will keep it or not. I've read good things about it. Still will keep trying on Chef Mickey's or Liberty Tree Tavern (sorry, I named it wrong earlier as Goofy's Tavern!), but Park Fare is my main one.
I think just walking around and seeing the characters will be SO MUCH FUN! Natalie will have a heart attack when she looks over and sees a princess.
One more question - when you do a character breakfast, does it matter if it's late or early? Is it all the same regardless of the time? I made the Tusker House one for 10am. The 8 am would have taken us about 40min. to get there, plus getting up and ready, and that just seemed like it would kill the fun having to get up so early.
We'll be there Dec. 3-6. Karen, I hope we can work out a meeting. Do you have tickets to the Very Merry Xmas Party on 12/4 and 5? MK closes early those nights for that, which I just found out. It closes at 7 those days. We're not doing tickets for it. $60 for each adult and I think $40 for Natalie. I'm sure it will be nice, but I could have stayed an extra day for that price!
Deanna, we are doing MVMCP on 12/9. We are doing Cirque du Soleil on 12/4 (DH's b'day - *his* request! LOL).
I wanted to add, that they usually tape the Disney Christmas Parade around the first Saturday in December. If you are going to be there then, I would check to see when it is taping. They say the crowds at Magic Kingdom that day are horrible. You might want to avoid Magic Kingdom that day if you are there.
We went the 3rd week in December several years ago, and it was my favorite trip!! It did get cold, really cold, for half of our stay. But, the crowds were low, it started getting busy the day we left, and the Christmas decorations were great! It was just a lot of fun, and put us in a great, festive mood for Christmas.
Debbie- The Christmas decorations are beautiful there aren't they? I really love that despite the warmer weather I'm still able to get in the Christmas spirit because of the decorations. The first Saturday in December is our last day there, although we won't be leaving until late afternoon. (Our flight doesn't head back until 7:30pm or so.) I'll keep the parade in mind and will ask about it. Thank you so much for the heads up on that!
We were there several years ago Thanksgiving week (NEVER, EVER plan to go that week! UGH!) and there were a good bit of Christmas decorations up - I am REALLY looking forward to seeing the parks with all the Christmas decorations - it will put me in the Christmas apirit too!!!!
We've gotten there at the tail end of T'Giving week before and it was NUTS. By that Sunday at noon it was like a ghost town.
We decided to do VMCP and I'm so excited!!! It sounds like it will be great. We're doing that on Dec.4th. We decided it's a special event that will be so cool, and we'll likely not have a chance to do it again, so we're spending the extra $. I think it sounds like a great time!
I may be to late, but I just remembered something I read somewhere that I thought was a great idea if you want to save some $$. Have a bite to eat in your room for breakfast and then have a late Character Breakfast if you can, get the latest one (which may be 10:30 or 11:00), this can count as a sort of Big breakfast/lunch and you can save $$ on getting lunch somewhere.
The very Merry Christmas Party sounds so fun! I'd love to go at Christmas time!! It's going to be amazing. We could have gone to the Halloween thing in the evening but my kids were just 3 and 5 and it cost to much, in our opinion. But I would definitely spend the $$ on the VMCP!
oh, if you are going to Hollywood Studios, and like Pizza, I wanted to tell you that my kids are still talking about eating lunch in PIZZA PLANET from Toy Story. The pizza was pretty good too. It was a fun place to eat.
Of course every time ANYONE brings up ANYTHING about Disney World, my son starts talking about all the rides and just talks and talks and talks about Disney World until I have to tell him that "that's enough Disney talk" LOL
We went to the MVMCP!!! It was great. My boys were 5 and 3. My youngest actually stayed up the entire time, until midnight, because he took a nap. My 5 yr. old crashed in the stroller. We loved the parade, and the hot chocolate(it was cold), and all the special activities. It even snows on main street! We had so much fun. I don't think you will regret the party.
We did the Halloween party last year. My boys LOVED it. They got dressed up in costumes. The parade and special fireworks were awesome. It also was not very croweded, so we didn't have to wait in lines. They also got to trick or treat, which they thought was cool.
I'm even more excited now! Thanks for that info girls. DH and I are huge Christmas lovers anyway (my Dh is seriously Chevy Chase from Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)
Thanks also for the tip on Pizza Planet - she would love it. I know we are planning to go to Hollywood Studios to see the Little Mermaid show, so maybe that will work in for a meal. If so, we'll do Pizza Planet! Also a good idea on a late character breakfast combining as lunch.
We also ate at pizza planet...we are true toy story fanatics, we loved it!
We saw the mermaid show years ago, it was very nice. My fav show is the lion king show, worth the whole trip in my opinon.
Just returned from Disney. EVERYWHERE we tried to eat (that was sit-down) were reservations only. I was very annoyed! If you plan on eating at a sit down restaurant, you need to plan ahead!
Yvonne, you were there during free dining, that's why it was so booked up. :o(
For dinner/lunch, the RainForest Cafe is fun! We went to the one at Animal Kingdom but there is also on in Downtown Disney!
Make sure you have reservations for that as well.
One place NOT to eat( in my opinion), is the Biergarten in Germany at Epcot. We tried that when the kids were 3 and 5. They would eat NOTHING there, and honestly, I don't think I ate much either. I'm sure the food was good, if you like German sort of foods but I didn't like it. There was a show with Alphorns which was neat but other than that, the show was sort of lame. I felt like we pretty much flushed that money down the toilet.
I didn't like the Beirgarten, and we ate the Rainforest once. Do you think we need reservations for Pizza Planet???
No, Pizza Planet is a counter service restaurant. No ressies needed (or accepted) for any counter service place.
I didn't know it was counter service. Thanks! Bonus for us! That's one thing Natalie DOES like to eat...pizza. Whew! Kaye, I missed your post somehow...we LOVE the Lion King show. I agree with you! The first time we saw it we were blown away! We really just want to see the Mermaid show because Natalie loves Ursula. She's one of my favorite villains, too.
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