Over did it with character meals?

[Mpim543]

We are heading to Disney for a few days before our cruise. I feel as though I over did it on character meals. Which are "musts" and which would you get rid of? We will have our young daughter with us.

Arrival day: pm @ 1900 park fare

Day 1
CRT @ AM
Ohana pm dinner

Day 2
Akershus @ Am
Hollywood and vine at pm

Day 3
Crystal palace @ am
Be our guest @ lunch

 

[MDonna]

I could be mistaken, but I believe Be Our Guest only has characters during dinner. (However, personally I think the Lunch service is a much better deal in terms of quality vs price. The B&B ambiance at like 1/3rd of the price, with the lunch dishes still being tasty.)

 

[Mpim543]

I could be mistaken, but I believe Be Our Guest only has characters during dinner. (However, personally I think the Lunch service is a much better deal in terms of quality vs price. The B&B ambiance at like 1/3rd of the price, with the lunch dishes still being tasty.)

Good to know! Thinking it must be cool to dine inside the castle as well.

 

[popcenturylover]

Yeah, BOG only has characters at dinner and 'Ohana only has characters for breakfast. 'Ohana's dinner is our favorite meal, though! Enjoy!!!

 

[Disney4family]

The only character you could meet at BOG is the Beast and that is at dinner. [As you leave your dining experience, you can meet with him - you do not have to. Since his "makeover", he's more cartoon-ish than movie-ish. While you dine, he walks through each dining room and waves (as you applaud him (thank him) for allowing you to dine in his castle).]

I don't think you've overdone it with characters, especially since you are travelling with a little Mouseketeer.
My kids are teens now and still insist on going to our traditional, "must-do", character dining.
I have pictures of them with the characters from when they were 3 to 13.

You have a meal with Cindy & "Friends", the princesses, the Fab 5 and Pooh & Friends. Seems like a nice variety for your princess.

http://allears.net/dining/menu/1900-park-fare/dinner
http://allears.net/dining/menu/akershus-royal-banquet-hall/breakfast
http://allears.net/dining/menu/hollywood-and-vine/dinner
http://allears.net/dining/menu/crystal-palace/breakfast

 

[21stamps]

It depends if you want to have your day dictated by dining, or if you want to free up your schedule to be a little more spontaneous and enjoy the parks.
I did 2 TS per day in 2015 with a 5 year old. I regretted it, and did not do it again in 2016. We spent a lot of time waiting to be seated and going to the restaurant itself. It was hectic.

 

[SteamboatJoe]

Table service dining, particularly with characters, is very time consuming. I sat for nearly 2 hours at Tusker House because the characters had just visited the table I was seated at so I had to wait for them to go through the entire dining room before they got back to my table. It ended up working out and I saw everything at AK I wanted to see that day but it can be a risk. If your daughter is too young to ride the bigger rides, though, I don't see what you have scheduled as a problem. You're getting two birds with one stone, food and characters (with a good character variety to boot). As someone who typically doesn't really like to wait in line for characters, this is probably how I would do it.

 

[disneygirl76]

We are heading to Disney for a few days before our cruise. I feel as though I over did it on character meals. Which are "musts" and which would you get rid of? We will have our young daughter with us.

Arrival day: pm @ 1900 park fare

Day 1
CRT @ AM
Ohana pm dinner

Day 2
Akershus @ Am
Hollywood and vine at pm

Day 3
Crystal palace @ am
Be our guest @ lunch

I think you made great choices!!!!! They are not all character meals, so you do have a break at 'Ohana (my personal favorite meal) and Be Our Guest at lunch has no characters! It sounds like a dream trip!!! Have fun!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

It depends if you want to have your day dictated by dining, or if you want to free up your schedule to be a little more spontaneous and enjoy the parks.
I did 2 TS per day in 2015 with a 5 year old. I regretted it, and did not do it again in 2016. We spent a lot of time waiting to be seated and going to the restaurant itself. It was hectic.

Yeah I've since abandoned even one TS per day with the two year old. Just not worth the time, expense, or headache.

 

[drizgirl]

The key to dining at WDW is to know your family well enough to know when the break will be welcome, and not just disruptive to the natural flow of things.

If we're going on a hot day and not taking a break, we schedule a TS meal mid-day as an escape from the heat.

If we're going on a really busy day we make an ADR to avoid waiting in long counter service lines.

If we're going when our schedule is not settled, we choose an early resort breakfast or late resort dinner at a time we wouldn't be in the park anyway.

 

[docdebbi]

my question is if you are going on a disney cruise or a different line. If it is Disney you will meet most if not all the characters there for no additional charge. So if it IS a disney cruise, and you want to free up time and money, i would cancel some of them. If not, this is a nice selection

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

Good choices

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

My first thought would be, that that is a lot of food. We usually only eat one big meal a day, especially if we are eating at a buffet. If you get your money's worth at Crystal Palace by stuffing you face, you might not be hungry by the time of your BOG lunch reservation. On the mornings we did breakfast buffets, we weren't hungry until around 3-4, and even still we weren't hungry for a large meal. Also, as previous posters have said, it can take 1.5-2 hours for a meal, you do two a day you are eating for around 4 hours, if the park is only open 12 hours (assuming you would do open to close), that only leaves 8 hours worth of rides and other fun activities. I know everyone is different, and plans their days different, but we get the most out of our time if we only do one sit down a day. I hope you have a great time on your cruise!

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Also, depending on the age of your daughter, she might be tired during the dinner character meals. Nothing worse than finally getting to see the princess you have been waiting for rotate to your table, and realizing that she is slowly drifting into sleepyland.

 

[KrzyKtty]

Entirely depends on you. Almost all of our dining are character meals. We are doing Hollywood and Vine, Tuskers, Akershus, The Garden Grill, The Crystal Palace,and Cinderella's Royal Table. We see it as a way to relax for a time, and more importantly skip Character meet and Greet lines lol! Outside of Anna And Elsa, and the Disney Visa Character Spots, we are not doing any Character lines. Other than BOG, we don't tend to do QS. It makes my husband to cranky lol!

 

[contrariwise]

A lot of good responses above. Some think it's perfect; some too much. Maybe after the first day of the trip, you'll have a better idea of which camp you fall into. If it's too much, cancel or move around the later ADRs. In my experience, you can cancel up to midnight the night before a reservation.

 

[Gemma89]

I'm coming with my bf in September and we're hoping to book about 5 character meals. For us it's a great way to meet the characters without standing in line all day in the parks, allowing us to stand in line for the big rides which we love!! He's 26 and I'll be 28 by the time we go and we're still trying to fit more in as we get up to our ADR booking date! We're looking at 1900 park fayre, akershus, Crystal Palace, Ohana, Hollywood and vine and I'm trying to talk him into the new one with rapunzel and Flynn

 

[PrincessL]

Like PP have said it totally depends on your family's preferences. Being a family with younger children we are huge fans of character meals as we do not like to wait in Character lines. If we can get a break eating and meeting characters it is a win-win! We have 5 scheduled for our upcoming trip so in my opinion you can't overdo it lol! I will say that we fall into the camp that only does 1 TS per day as its not a realistic expectation to have good behavior for any more than that for our boys. We found that one bad meal can ruin a good chunk of your day... not to mention the time it takes. Your line up looks great though!

 

[thomas998]

Arrival day: pm @ 1900 park fare

Day 1
CRT @ AM
Ohana pm dinner

Day 2
Akershus @ Am
Hollywood and vine at pm

Day 3
Crystal palace @ am
Be our guest @ lunch

1900 at dinner is good if you are a Cinderella fan.... But you also have the CRT the next day which makes me wonder why you want to do both.... We've done both of them and I would never every recommend CRT at breakfast one of the worst deals you'll ever get.... Yes you do get to dine in the castle but unless you are fortunate enough to be near a window it really doesn't even feel that magical... I would go 1900 and skip CRT between those two.

Akerhus... Again you've got princesses here... so unless you really want to do the princesses and avoid meet and greets for them at other places it makes sense but for eating I would suggest their lunch menu is better than the breakfast at this place.

Hollywood and Vine is good food... but know that the characters are Disney Jr character which may or may not be a turn off for your daughter depending on her age.

Crystal palace is a good choice and one we always do though usually for dinner or lunch... But if your daughter likes pooh its a good one to hit.

Be Our Guest is garbage and only a character meal at the dinner service and even then it isn't like characters go to your table instead you get a photo op with Beast when you are done but you'll have to stand in line for that which can eat into your time... but the food is just down right bad.

I am curious as to where you are staying because you've thrown in 2 places that are at resorts... to me 1900 is worth the extra effort to get to it but I wouldn't do Ohana unless I was already staying in the Poly.

 

[contrariwise]

Be Our Guest is garbage and only a character meal at the dinner service and even then it isn't like characters go to your table instead you get a photo op with Beast when you are done but you'll have to stand in line for that which can eat into your time... but the food is just down right bad.

I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I wanted to highlight the above, because it can't be stated enough. I have eaten at BOG for breakfast and lunch, and the food is pretty darn bad. Any fast food breakfast is far superior to the crap they serve for breakfast, and lunch is just ok. The castle is really well themed, and certainly worth seeing, but you must go in expecting bad food.