Top Character Meals

[cba]

My family is heating up for a Disney vacation for next year, and have a seven year old-daughter and a going-to-be 4 year old girl who adore character meals. We've only been to Chef Mickey's and The Crystal Palace in terms of character meals. Other than that, any other good good character meals to think about?

 

[lebeau]

Girls that age, I'd have to recommend one of the princess meals. Either the castle or Akershus if you can get them. I have heard Akershus is the better of the two, but have yet to experience it first hand. 1900 Park Fare is an alternate if you want to see all the Cinderella characters instead of a variety of princesses.

Garden Grill is a hidden gem. It's smaller, so the characters spend more time at each table. Food is good. It's a rotating restaurant with views of the boatride.

We've had mostly good experiences at O'Hana for breakfast. But the place is huge and it can take a while for all the characters to get around.

 

[tchauvin]

Good to know about Garden Grill that is the Character meal we chose....yay!!!

 

[cba]

Thanks, I didn't think about the Garden Grill and frankly I don't know much about the Garden Grill, but it sounds like it's pretty good!

 

[lebeau]

Thanks, I didn't think about the Garden Grill and frankly I don't know much about the Garden Grill, but it sounds like it's pretty good!

Character-wise, you get Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale. Those are four great, fun characters. And because the character to guest ratio is high, you see more of them. During our hour-long meal, each one came to our table at least twice. The interactions there are the best I have ever had at any character meal.

The kids enjoyed the rotating restaurant aspect which was new to them. It's neat to be able to watch scenes from the boatride below slowly pass while you eat.

The food is served family style. As a result, you don't have as many choices. But the quality tends to be better than what you get at a buffet. You get fish, turkey, flank steak and sides. I thought it was yummy even if it wasn't the star of the show.

We consider Garden Grill to be the most under-rated character meal on property.

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

For little ones that age, there's always Cinderella's Royal Table for breakfast, lunch or dinner at MK. Also, Princess Storybook dining at Akershus hall in Epcot for breakfast, as lebeau had said. The plus side of either one of these for breakfast, is you get to walk into an almost empty park if the ADRs are made earlier in the morning.

 

[ExtinctJenn]

I second, third, fourth, whatever Garden Grill. It's our absolute favorite character meal simply because you get amazing time with the characters. Unlike most others where you see each character once and it's only enough time for a pic and an autograph, at GG they go around the circle probably 4 times or more during your meal and tend to be more playful because they know they don't have far to go.

Since some photos were shared, I just have to share too (LOL)... this was DS6's first time meeting Mickey (he was 10m old at the time).

 

[crispy]

Glad that I booked Garden Grill for our upcoming trip!

I also recommend Akershus. The food is okay, but if your daughters like the princesses, they will be in heaven.

 

[MITCH 112198]

1900 Park fare, Garden Grill, and Norway one( sorry forgot the name).

 

[plaz10]

I'm so happy reading these reports!

I have Garden Grill, Akershus and Crystal Palace booked for our next trip in 40 days! We've never done any of them and can't wait! I'll be able to give you some reviews when I return!

 

[lisak09]

We really enjoyed Garden Grill, as others have said, the interaction with the characters here is fantastic. We also ate at CRT on our last trip. Although my girls were a little older(16, 9) and slightly less impressed with the princesses! I would reccommend it for you as it sounds like your girls are the perfect age for this

 

[olinecoach61]

We did cinderellas royal table for breakfast for the first time last week and it was great! There were four or five princesses and the interaction was great. Also the food was pretty good!

 

[CinderMama]

While we do enjoy a few of them, including Crystal. Palace, Garden Grill is our absolute favorite! It is a nice escape from the chaos of the parks. The fact that the food is served family style adds to the relaxed atmosphere, and the character interaction has been great every time we've eaten there. Chip once sat down and served my son his Mac & cheese, while Mickey drew our other son a picture. You can't beat that!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We have two girls - they will be 4 and 6 by the time of our next trip. Let me start off with the character meals we've done that we've enjoyed (beyond Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace, which we also enjoy for early breakfasts).

1. 1900 Park Fare Breakfast - Alice and Mary Poppins are what make this meal special (I wish i could say the same for the Mad Hatter, but we never get a good one). On our first visit, Alice spoke in riddles which was a lot of fun. On our second visit, Mary Poppins actually sang with my girls. This is also our fave for food. I am still trying to justify keeping it on our schedule for next trip.
2. CRT (we've done lunch and dinner) - While I prefer the food and service at Akershus, the setting w/CRT trumps everything for a first princess meal IMO. It's just very cool to eat in the castle and I know both of my girls still talk about their visits. The service at our last dinner here was pretty bad- as was the food...but no regrets.
3. Akershus (we've done lunch and dinner)- If you can swing it, doing this one as well as CRT is a lot of fun. Like I noted before, we prefer the food and service here. My kids also enjoy that the princesses do their parade around the dining room. We are all huge fans of the cold bar. My girls love the cheese, meats, and I think they'd like me to bring home a whole tub full of shrimp salad.
4. Hollywood and Vine Breakfast - while this one usually appeals more to the younger ones, we loved this meal. The food was great, the service wonderful, we were out before 9am w/an 8:05a adr, and the character interaction was some of the best we've ever experienced.
5. 'Ohana Breakfast - The food was not the greatest when we went, but the service and character interaction was top notch. It may not be something we do every trip, but we would return.

We are trying a few new things this upcoming trip...
-Garden Grill
-Cape May breakfast
-1900 Park Fare dinner

The only character meal that we've done and didn't really care for was Tusker House breakfast. I know most people love this one, but the morning we went it was a mess. It's sad b/c I was really looking forward to more interesting breakfast food in a more unique setting, but the service was bad, character interaction awful, and food gross (either dried out, undercooked, or highly picked over). Our experience was likely the exception and not the norm, but it's worth noting since I've seen others with experiences similar to ours as well.

 

[olinecoach61]

We have done crystal palace, a family favorite, CRT for both breakfast and dinner, Tusker House - never again, Play and Dine - awesome. If your children like Disney jr I would highly suggest play and dine. I was great, the food was good, we were there for breakfast and the character interaction was great. We prefer CRT for breakfast, if you get an 8:05 reservation you get into the park before the general public, that was pretty awesome!

 

[lovetheears]

Love this thread, I wanted to change from the Crystal Palace since my kids arn't huge Pooh fans and the time wasn't what I was hoping for. Just was able to change for Play and Dine which I am glad to read good reviews on!

 

[Mrs Potato Head]

We absolutely love Tusker House in AK. But we always make late breakfast reservations so halfway thru the meal they start turning over to lunch and we get a little of both. I'm not a fan of Chef Mickey - I thought the food was so basic and not too much variety for dinner. Of course we love the Princess Dinner at Akershus in Norway (3 year old DD especially does). Have never tried the Garden Grill but have heard alot of good reviews. Planning to check that out during our January trip.

 

[bmarkelon]

We kind of love them all! It's always hard for us to narrow them down each trip and choose the ones that make our itinerary. We have always loved Ohana at the Poly and Tusker House at AK, they are a couple favorites. We also always love Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's, we always choose one of these. I think Play and Dine at HS would be a great choice for your 4 year old, it's Disney Junior characters and super fun interactions. Singing and dancing with the characters. If she likes princesses then you cannot beat Cinderella's Royal Table but if you only want to use 1 credit or spend less money Akershus will please your princess fix.
We are finally trying 1900 Park Fare for dinner next week, looking forward to that one!
I just think that with little ones you can't go wrong with any character meal, they are just so magical for the kids...the best trip memories are made during character interactions for us!!!
Enjoy and happy planning!!