Has character dining gone downhill at Disney restaurants?

[DodgerGirl]

I can remember when character dining was such a joy for everyone during a Walt Disney World or Disneyland vacation but even before the pandemic I noticed that character dining started going downhill and I can never figure out why people still pay huge money for character breakfasts and dinners when they really aren't worthy of eating at. Is it because for Disney restaurants character dining is a huge deal for families who have kids who want to take photos with the characters while eating or is a way for the restaurants to offer special deals during certain times? Take for example I cannot even figure out why Cinderella's Royal Table is the most popular restaurant in Walt Disney World and why it gets so booked for character breakfasts when the only princesses that appear there are Tiana Ariel Cinderella and Belle and when the pandemic happened Cinderella's Royal Table slowly went downhill and they don't even cater to kids by having a kids menu for the character dining there and I find it shocking that now Cinderella only appears there to wave at diners and for the price alone they should've made Cinderella talk to kids and take pictures and for the character meal the price should be lowered. Another restaurant that has gone downhill for character dining is Be Our Guest and I cannot figure out how Be Our Guest is popular with people. What I find surprising is that The Beast only appears for dinner at Be Our Guest and if Disney was smart they could've had a character breakfast themed to Beauty And The Beast with Belle and Cogsworth and Gaston appearing and not just only The Beast for dinner but I think the price alone caused Be Our Guest to go downhill. Finally I noticed another part of why character dining is downhill. It seems that every time you go to the character breakfast that your family's table gets ignored and I cannot understand this. Take for instance when I would go to Goofy's Kitchen in Disneyland I would see families next to us whine and moan about Goofy visiting other tables including my family's table and the people would simply walk out if that character didn't show up. I witnessed this when we saw Aladdin and Jasmine coming to our table at Goofy's Kitchen and we waved and waved for them to come to our table but they never came and spent the entire time at the table next to us. It used to be that characters would stop at every table then take a break and new characters would show up and this I feel has caused character dining to go downhill too. If Disney could make changes and lower prices for character breakfasts it would be so much better

 

[Narcoossee11]

Why would Disney change something that is working GREAT financial for them ??

As you said, guest are booking and spending $ for the experience.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it .

 

[Misha72683]

I mean, my opinions are based on a trip from several years ago, but the characters meals were worth it for what they we’re. Be Our Guest was My husband’s favorite meal of the trip and he has requested to eat there again this time. we didn’t do Cinderella’s Roual Table last time, but my mom really wants to this time because she was wants the experience of eating in the castle. The experience is as much part of the value as the food and honestly the only character meal that we found had bad food was Hollywood and Vine.

 

[FCDub]

OK.

 

[mom2rtk]

When is the last time you were at a character meal? Goofy's Kitchen hasn't had Aladdin or Jasmine there for more than a decade.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

We always booked the character meals so we could get the character meets without having to wait in line. This trip we are only eating at Cinderellas Royal Table becAuse it’s the castle. No characters, no meal for us.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

There wasn't far downhill for it to go foodwise, but since COVID the characters do not visit tables, so you currently don't get the one on one interaction at all.

Lower prices - that isn't gonna happen.

 

[bluejasmine]

While it upsets me that we get less for the money, I feel like the character meal restaurants should lower their prices since your not getting the true experience (through no fault of Disney, thank COVID) I really dont see how character meals can be brought back the way they were for the unforeseeable future bc of COVID, this protects Guests and CM alike.
Ive heard so much lately about the restaurants food quality going downhill since they reopened but I there is still a lot of issues between supply issues and staffing issues.
Personally I feel like this is the new norm, you can accept it or move on from it. Those appear to be our only choices,,

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I have always felt what set Disney apart from any amusement park was the experience. When you went on an attraction or ate at a restaurant, it was all about the experience. From having a dance line with princesses to ending up with a whole table of ketchup or posing for pictures with Mickey Minnie chip and dale etc or it was what made the experiences fun and magical and we were willing to pay for this. Without this I will not pay the same or more for less. Trying to recapture that which no longer exists because it was such a big part of your past just makes me sad. Time to move on with new memories than to try to recreate lost ones.

 

[FutureWorldShowcase]

We've typically done 3-4 character meals each trip. My kids are big into characters and this was a quick and easy way to meet a bunch while sitting and eating in air conditioning rather than standing in a long line, often outside in the heat. With the current changes to character meals we are talking about doing one or none on our trip this summer. It makes me a little sad that we'll be missing something that's always been a major part of our trips in the past, but it sure will save a bunch of money.

 

[MiraclesTakeTime]

I do think they leave something to be desired in their pandemic state, but there isn't a lot to be done about that until Covid clears out. It would be nice to see the sticker come down a bit until then.

 

[DodgerGirl]

When I first went to Walt Disney World in 1997 for the first time my mom tried desperately to get a spot at Cinderella's Royal Table for a character breakfast but they were sold out and full and we settled for the now closed Soundstage Restaurant in Disney Hollywood Studios which was great and the only character we had a problem with was Esmeralda from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame but we got her autograph and photo when we were leaving the restaurant because she was so busy at the other tables. But one restaurant that started going downhill since I went there in 2004 is Storytellers Cafe in Grand Californian Resort at Disneyland and what shocked me about that place is their character breakfast and it seemed that Chip And Dale were the only ones who appeared there and what they should've done was have Pocahontas do a character breakfast there along with Meeko and have some characters from Brother Bear as well for the breakfast. But I do think Disney Parks will in the future lower the price of character dining and improve them to keep them from going downhill

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I don't do a lot of character dining so can't speak to a general trend, but I think breakfast at Topolino's (Riviera Resort) is outstanding. I would go even if there weren't any characters. It is pricey but you can order more than one entree. And the food is good. I also think the distanced character interaction is done really well. We take our time but typically see three or four rounds of all characters parading around.

 

[Brett Wyman]

While it upsets me that we get less for the money, I feel like the character meal restaurants should lower their prices since your not getting the true experience (through no fault of Disney, thank COVID) I really dont see how character meals can be brought back the way they were for the unforeseeable future bc of COVID, this protects Guests and CM alike.
Ive heard so much lately about the restaurants food quality going downhill since they reopened but I there is still a lot of issues between supply issues and staffing issues.
Personally I feel like this is the new norm, you can accept it or move on from it. Those appear to be our only choices,,

I get that the loss of full interaction stinks. Its definitely taken away from the experience of character meals and meet and greats. We arent really booking too money character meals right now ourselves. But Disney isn't paying the character actors any less to be there because they ARENT hugging you. If anything they are making more now. And of course food prices are through the roof. It just wouldn't make any sense for them to lower prices and lose money right now. And as plenty of people have said, character meals are pretty much 100% sold out all the time at these prices.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

When we had little ones we did every character meal many times. Both at DL and at WDW. I've never had a character skip our table. I've had the staff, the server or the character handler triple check that we got to meet each character. The only meal that this didn't happen in was Minnie's over in DL. As I understand it there, you aren't guaranteed to meet every character that appears. There are MANY characters (or where at least) roaming and only some will visit your table area. It's still several characters just not all characters you see. It is actually been our favorite meal.

Topolino's as mentioned above is one of the best breakfasts offered, since they dropped it from Garden Grill. There is a great system in place since the pandemic.

I will say that I do think the buffet meals are lower quality food. Not bad but typical mass produced foods that are just avg. You are clearly paying for the characters but folks are fully aware of this.

Be Our Guest is an excellent restaurant with pretty high quality food. We've never dined there for the characters. That's a meal that just happens to have a character appear, vs. a character meal. There's a difference.

The only place I'll agree you have a point is with Cinderella's Royal Table. Hubby and I were just discussing it last night actually. What they've done post pandemic is a shame. It is not worth it at all. Before that, it was very special.

 

[hulagirl87]

We were just there this past week and did 4 character meals. Garden Grill was amazing! The characters were so interactive and fun! We ate at Cinderella's Royal Table and saw Cinderella, but wasn't anything super special. Ate at Chef Mickey's but can't say that was too exciting. The characters kind of just danced past and stopped briefly for pictures. Tusker House was great! The characters were having so much fun and spent some time at the tables, distanced a bit and stopping for pictures, taking time to make sure we got the pictures we wanted.