Character dining experiences??

[ChiTownGrl]

Hi all, I'm planning our first family trip to WDW in April 2005(Spring Break) for 4-5 days. Me, DH, DD (4), DS (1). I would like to have a couple of character dining experiences for my children. Here are a few questions: are they worth it? is the food good? which would be suitable for my kids age groups? how far in advance would I have to reserve for a princess/cinderella b/l/d?? what is better breakfast/lunch/dinner? do you have to stay on the property to do this?? Any other recommendations would be appreciated!!

Thanks!

 

[Kaycee]

Hi ChiTownGrl, welcome to the DIS!

I think character meals are definitely worth it. While you can find characters in the parks, there are often long lines and if you want to see certain characters you just have to hope you'll be lucky. At a character meal, the characters come to you and you know who you'll see depending on which meal you choose.

The food at most character meals, with a couple of exceptions, is buffet and it's usually pretty decent.

I've never gone with children the ages of yours, but if they like Pooh characters Crystal Palace in MK would be a good choice, with characters at breakfast, lunch and dinner. If they like Mickey and company, Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary would be good, with characters for breakfast or dinner.

As far as princesses go, if you are asking about Cinderella's Royal Table, only breakfast is a character meal, and that one is very hard to get. There is also a princess breakfast in Norway at Epcot.

1900 Park Faire has a princess dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming.

And no, you don't have to be staying on property to enjoy any of these meals! Just call 90 days out from the date that you want to eat there to have the best chance of getting in to the one (or ones) that you choose.

If you want to see menus and pricing, try this site:

http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm#res

Happy Planning!

 

[dmaz]

We went in April, when our dd was 4 and our ds was 8 mos. Our son loved it all. We went to Crystal Palace, Donald's at AK and Chef Mickey's. We could not get either princess breakfast 60 days out.
We will be going again next month and I made sure I called for the princess breakfast in Norway as close to 90 days out as I could.
If you're kids enjoy the characters they'll probably enjoy any of them. As for you, I'd check the menus on debs site to decide.

 

[cobbler]

I have done Chef Mickeys, The Garden Grill, Crystal Palace (and formerly Olivia's where Pooh was) and Cape May and I like them all.

I tend to do a lunch for the character meals (with the exception of Chef Mickey's - thats always breakfast) and schedule it a tad later in the afternoon so it can be kind of a lunch/dinner and then all you need later is a snack or something very small. Saves on money.

Yes it is worth it to me because the characters come to me and I can sit and relax and get a lot of the main characters without waiting or trying to co-ordinate times for when they will be where.