Thoughts on Character Meals

[H20Babie]

DS has decided he would like to try the following 3 character meals:

• Chip'n Dale's Harvest Feast at the Garden Grill (part of Candlelight Processional package) (dinner)
• Chef Mickey's (dinner)
• Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tucker House (breakfast)

My only concern is that many of the same characters are at each of them.

He's not really into Winnie the Pooh or the princesses. (I'm considering O'hana but wish the character meal wasn't solely at breakfast). These are the only ADRs that I am planning this time around. Any other suggestions?

 

[Victoria]

The character meal at Garden Grill is my absolute favorite. Great food, great atmosphere, and lots of face time with the characters.

Chef Mickeys is a take it or leave it for me. Insanely noisy and overcrowded. I know it is a character meal but I still have no desire to eat surrounded by 150 4 year olds...some of which were crawling under our table. Some place like Liberty Tree Tavern offers a great character meal (with yummy food) without feeling like it is feeding time at the zoo.

I have never done Donald's Breakfast but have never heard anything bad about it. I don't know how your son feels about Winnie the Pooh characters, but Crystal Palace is good too. Very crowded, but I don't feel like it is as chaotic as Chef Mickey's though. :shrug:

 

[joanna71985]

One of my favorites is LTT dinner. The characters are Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale. It is very laid-back and relaxing. The food is brought to the table, which is nice. And it is very good.

 

[RussJT]

We went to Chef Mickey's for dinner while were were there a few weeks ago. I don't think that it was as crowded / noisy as meny seem to make it out to be.

I thought the prime rib was good and the kids really liked the sundae bar.

My kids really liked the character breakfast at 'Ohana. Everything was served family style and was very good.

You are right, the ones you have listed will have similar characters, but without doing Crystal Palace (Pooh) or any of the Princess meals you are going to be limited. We have several last time that overlapped characters. The kids stills eemed to enjoy them, especially since the characters are usually in different outfits at each.

 

[disney21]

Liberty Tree Tavern is also a favorite in my book. It's a great place to sit and relax after a day in MK- and have Great food!! However, I do enjoy Chef Mickey's a tiny bit more!

 

[solferino]

The character meal at Garden Grill is my absolute favorite. Great food, great atmosphere, and lots of face time with the characters.

Chef Mickeys is a take it or leave it for me. Insanely noisy and overcrowded. I know it is a character meal but I still have no desire to eat surrounded by 150 4 year olds...some of which were crawling under our table. Some place like Liberty Tree Tavern offers a great character meal (with yummy food) without feeling like it is feeding time at the zoo.

I have never done Donald's Breakfast but have never heard anything bad about it. I don't know how your son feels about Winnie the Pooh characters, but Crystal Palace is good too. Very crowded, but I don't feel like it is as chaotic as Chef Mickey's though. :shrug:

I would ditto this- I love the Garden Grill meal- if we could do it 2x a trip I would! We did CM for the first time this past trip and probably won't go back, but would consider doing the LTT one again if I had to choose between that and CM's.

Never been to Donald's Breakfast, but have done 'ohana and 1900PF. I liked 1900 better because of the food variety.

 

[Mrs.PhD]

I really like chief Mickey and Garden Grill. I would not worry about the same characters in the same places.

After all WDW is all about Mickey!

We do have to do Chrystal Palace every time, but my kids like Winnie the pooh.

If you son like Play house Disney the lunch at H&V is good. We are doing that this year. We did it a few years ago, but my friends wants to do it again this time (her son really) so back we go.

 

[H20Babie]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

We're pretty much "Poohed" out -- we live in Winnipeg, home of Winnie. DS is getting to that age where certain things are now deemed "too babyish" ... lol.

LTT might be one other or a replacement ... can't celebrate Christmas without turkey

 

[RussJT]

We might be taking a very quick trip back around Halloween. (We will need to decide within the next few days as we are approaching the 180 day mark for ADRs.)

If we do it, we'd probably only be there for a long weekend and will go to MK and EPCOT only. We have never done Garden Grill... so that is a consideration for us.

 

[mpoppins76]

I would say Garden Grill, definately. The food is delicious and there's ample time w/ the characters.

 

[Iknewagirlnamed]

I love Chef Mickey. Excellent assortment of delicious food, wonderful service from the Servers and great character interaction.

 

[progroupie]

I'd consider switching Chef Mickey's for Liberty Tree, I find Chef Mickey's very overrated. It's hard to get much interaction with the characters and I think the food is subpar. And that would get you more Chip'n'Dale time! And I think Chip'n'Dale are great for boys who are in that stage, they're playful and fun without being baby-ish.