Character dining or non character dining

[marcyleecorgan]

you can have an overpriced restaurant meal anywhere. Disney is the only place that you can meet the Characters

 

[MudQueen22]

I love love love them!!
Agree with marcyleecorgan.... you can get a pricy meal at any location; you can only have dinner with the Mouse at Disney.

 

[dchronister]

We are almost past the character meals with a couple of exceptions! If we have children with us we have to do Garden Grill, the food is good and the characters are good! This trip it will we me and my oldest DD24 and we were going to skip a character meal this time but now since the new character meal with Snow White and some dwarfs and the evil queen, we have to give it at least one try! After she leaves I will be solo for the rest of the week and won’t be doing any! So, it all just depends on circumstances! The only place I will go to a character meal for the food, is Garden Grill, the rest of them would only be for the experience, not the food, buffet food is not the best, and I’ve had almost all the character meal experiences so been there done that!! So, what are you feeling?

 

[Disneypapa]

IMHO, character meals are something you would do with young children and once or twice is enough.

 

[ilovebassets]

Generally no to buffets except Tusker House breakfast (because we love the food and decor) and Crystal Palace (because the kids are big Winnie the Pooh fans). Even then--only when we're on the dining plan because I just cannot bring myself to pay those prices out of pocket.

We prefer the family style set up of Garden Grill breakfast and wish more places did it like that. Way more relaxing.

 

[jsternad]

I really love it still, even if my kids weren't with me (11 & 7). If it was just my husband and me at WDW (what a dream!!!) I would love to do a few of my favorites, but one or two would be enough. Favorites - Garden Grill, Crystal Palace, and the Wilderness Lodge Story Book dining was so fun and yummy. The ambiance isn't super "CHILDREN" there and the menu is more grown up. I felt it was really romantic!

 

[jsternad]

I dont have experience with it yet. I have a few character dining experiences booked for our trip & now wondering if too many. Im not a fan of buffets myself, and my son is picky. I think he would love meeting the characters tho. I have Storybook Dining at Artist Point, Minnies Seasonal Dine @ H&V dinner for Fantasmic seating, Cinderallas Royal Table breakfast & Be Our Guest Dinner, and Tusker House breakfast. Thoughts on any of those?

This is JUST my opinion, but I LOVED the Story Book Dining at Artist Point. We did it for dinner and my kids both loved the food (pasta, entree) and the characters. I loved the food as well. I could eat a gallon of the mushroom soup! We did a H&V bfast a few years ago and I just was not a fan. Probably because my kids don't watch Disney Jr all that much and the characters weren't the ones they know the most. Crystal Palace is MUCH better, food wise, and character wise, I feel. Everyone knows POOH! CRT was great if your kid loves the Princesses! We did lunch there and my daughter and nieces were in HEAVEN! And it is really neat to get to eat in the Castle. The food was very good. The BOG Dinner was one of my FAVS! I had been there for bfast and lunch and was totally underwhelmed. Dinner is a whole different experience. I was hesitant since I wasn't a fan the first times we were there but I LOVED the dinner. Food was great, and the dessert for the kids was SO fun. They gave them a white chocolate "Chip" tea cup to paint with edible paint and my kids had a ball and were super busy with that so my husband and I could have a nice conversation. The main dining room is spectacular, so request that, no matter the wait time. It's worth it. Only been to Tusker House once and wasn't a huge fan. There is SO much to see in AK, and I feel like it's time better spent on rides/animals/etc. You can see characters everywhere in the other parks. You can only see animals at AK! We actually rarely eat in AK, it's usually a half day park for us.

 

[RamieGee]

My kids are still young (8 and 4) so for us it's a must. I try to do one a day during our trip.

We do a ton, too, now that the kids are little. I think we have 5 scheduled for our next trip. It’s as much as part of the experience as rides for us. I prefer meeting characters this way, rather than waiting in lines. I don’t think we’ll do many when the kids are older, though. Maybe 1 for nostalgia and photos.

 

[Arguetafamily]

We enjoy character dining because the kids enjoy it. It gives them a chance to see the characters without having to wait in lines.
Depending on the restaurant the food can be pretty good.

It's all part of the experience for us, it's fun!

 

[danceintherain]

I dont have experience with it yet. I have a few character dining experiences booked for our trip & now wondering if too many. Im not a fan of buffets myself, and my son is picky. I think he would love meeting the characters tho. I have Storybook Dining at Artist Point, Minnies Seasonal Dine @ H&V dinner for Fantasmic seating, Cinderallas Royal Table breakfast & Be Our Guest Dinner, and Tusker House breakfast. Thoughts on any of those?

How long is your trip? How old is your kid? Which characters are must see? When are you traveling?
It's easy to get on here and get caught up in everyone else's experiences. But, the reality of a first trip is often very different. I'm actually glad I got my "first planned trip" over with before kids were a factor, because by the time ODS was born, I knew better what we would be able to accommodate as a family.
The good news is that unless you're on the dining plan, and have prepaid for all those meals, you can cancel with a little bit of notice once you're there and see how the first one goes.

I actually prefer meeting most of the characters in the parks. Then I can put it on Memory Maker and not mess with taking pictures myself. Plus, there's a better backdrop for photos in general. Also, it's tough to get my kids to eat under perfect circumstances. Getting pulled away from their food every 10 minutes doesn't work particularly well for us, right now. Especially when that distraction means I am pulled away from my food to facilitate an interaction or take a picture.
Thinking back to our last few trips, I think we've done 1-2 character meals per trip, and it has been plenty. The lines for characters in the parks have been negligible for the most part. 3 TS meals is our max for our entire trip now, because scheduling more than that gets complicated. Last trip, we did 1900 Park Fare dinner and Trattoria al Forno breakfast plus Big River Grill for dinner.

That said, the only in park character meals we haven't done are Crystal Palace (no huge Pooh fans...) and Akershus (too many dining options in Epcot, and my husband HAS to get Fish & Chips every time we're there, so he has pushed back every time I've scheduled ANY Epcot TS meal). The resort meals are more difficult to access/plan, and the two resort meals we did our last trip were fine, but my kids weren't into them enough. I thought they were wonderful choices, but DD was particularly prickly. I wish I would have dropped at least one of them, but I got too attached.

Before DD grew into her opinions and it was mostly ODS to worry about, the character meals went much better. He's always been a more "go with the flow" type of child.

So, anyway, I answered "other" to the poll, because there are a lot more factors to consider.

 

[Wild4Walt]

We occasionally do one but I'm not for a lot of chaos while dining so I try to avoid character experiences that are buffets. We recently did Garden Grill at Epcot and found the experience a lot of fun. It's all you care to eat family style dining so that was a huge plus. We did breakfast and the food was so fresh and so good. The characters did come around for photos but if you're not into it, it's easy to wave them along.