Talk to me about Character Dining.

[glvsav37]

1st trip to UO/IOA in a veeeery long time coming up this summer. We are regular WDW guests and love character dining. I heard there are some character meals available, but i'm having trouble finding real concrete information on them.

We will be staying at the Hard rock and don't mind traveling to a different resort or the parks for the meals.

Kids are 8 and 12, and their favs are Minions, SpongeBob and Hop. Can anyone shed some light on where we could dine with them or is the character schedule/locations more random? Thanks!

 

[mjhtvchick]

1st trip to UO/IOA in a veeeery long time coming up this summer. We are regular WDW guests and love character dining. I heard there are some character meals available, but i'm having trouble finding real concrete information on them.

We will be staying at the Hard rock and don't mind traveling to a different resort or the parks for the meals.

Kids are 8 and 12, and their favs are Minions, SpongeBob and Hop. Can anyone shed some light on where we could dine with them or is the character schedule/locations more random? Thanks!

Universal seems to be in a bit of a transition in this area so some information available here and on the other usual websites and forums is not accurate at the moment.

That said, I would go to the source - Universal's site has a Dining page - https://www.universalorlando.com/we...ing&attraction_interest=&attraction_location= In the selections at the top of the page, under "Dining Types", choose "Character Dining"

Right now, I believe there are only 2 available:
- the Despicable Me Character Breakfast at Sapphire Falls: https://www.universalorlando.com/we...icable-me-character-breakfast-lsfr/index.html (also see this vlog/review by the Trackers:

)
This seems to be in a temporary test location at the moment so not sure what the long-term plans are.
- the Marvel Character Dinner at Cafe 4 Diner in Islands of Adventure: https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/things-to-do/dining/marvel-character-dinner/index.html

There are other hotel restaurants listed on that main Universal page but I don't think there are any current offerings - best bet would be to contact the hotel or restaurant directly to confirm.

 

[macraven]

I was last at uo in October
Character dining I did was at the hotels

Breakfast at islands dining room/rpr
Bart and Homer Simpson would visit with guests while they ate
Characters and employees circulated around the room and tm would use your camera/phone to snap pics

Also when I was there the hotels have specific characters to visit dinners for select hours
It was 5-8 while I was at rpr
The 3 deluxe hotels host this event on different nights of the week

Peeps order off the main menu and characters are present when it is at those hotels
Characters vary
Shaggy and group, Simpson’s, etc


For the parks, mjhtvchick talks about it in the above post

 

[kabbie]

I think mjhtvchick is right about Universal going through a transition with their character meals. The description of both The Kitchen at Hard Rock and Islands Dining Room at RPR used to list character meals with days & times, but no longer as of Dec 2017.

I’m hoping they introduce more options than the Despicable Me breakfast at Sapphire and Marvel Dinner soon.

I had wanted to do the Superstar breakfast with Spongebob, Minions and Hop, but looks like it’s been discontinued for time being.

 

[wellesleyprincess]

My opinion is roughly like Jen's at the end of the video posted

The character interaction is great. Particularly at the resort breakfast and from what I hear at the minions and Grinch ones, but if you're expecting Disney levels of a buffet your going to be disappointed. Think more your typical resort/hotel brunch. It's not bad but it's not a huge selection.

 

[glvsav37]

thanks for the replies.
@wellesleyprincess Yes, we are mainly interested inn the interactions—get to meet some characters we otherwise wouldn't and i'm not the kind of person to spend time on line in the parks to meet them when i could be doing rides. Food is secondary.