Beginners guide to character meals

[Guest]

As the title suggests, I need a beginners guide to character meals please.
We are staying off site for 3 weeks during the Summer in 2018 with children aged 5 and 8, and would like to book a couple of character meals.
Please could you advise on the best way to book these and recommended places to eat (with character interactions).
TIA

[Big Donald 1983]

The character meals are popular and do get booked up pretty quick but the best way to book them is on the Disney website.
It depends on what characters your kids like but we enjoy Crystal Palace which is Winnie the Pooh themed, we always eat breakfast there first morning. Tusker House at AK is good, it's Donald Duck safari themed.
If your kids like princess then arkehus in Epcot is good for breakfast but not really dinner.
Also 1900 Park Fayre at the Grand Floridian is nice. Hope that helps :-)

[thepopos]

You make reservations either online (on the Disney World website), with the 'My Disney Experience' app or via telephone (0800 16 90 748).

You can make reservations 180 days in advance and it's recommended that you book asap as some places fill up very early.

You need to give a credit card and they'll charge you if you don't show up. I think it's $10 per person. You can cancel the day before with no charge.

There are quite a lot of character meals. The following are the highlights from my POV:

Chef Mickey (Contemporary Resort): We always do this for breakfast first morning. It features Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy and is a buffet meal. It's pretty casual.

Ohana (Polynesian Resort): They do a breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. Food is served 'Family Style' which means you get a big sharing platter and they keep replacing whatever you want.

Tusker House (Animal Kingdom): Another buffet with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy. It has some African dishes as well as the usual meats etc... Character interaction tends to be very good here and it's a Dibb favourite.

Akershus (Epcot): This is probably the best option for a meal with the princesses as it's cheaper than Cinderella's Royal Table. It normally has Belle, Snow White, Ariel, Aurora and Cinderella. For Breakfast they'll bring a sharing plate of hot items and then there's a buffet for cold food. For lunch/dinner there's a normal menu. Most of the food is Norwegian so it's a bit different!

Crystal Palace (Magic Kingdom): This is a buffet with Winnie the Pooh and friends. It's in a replica of the old London Crystal Palace. It's a great setting and the buffet has a good variety.

It's worth noting that if you visit a hotel for a reserved meal, you're allowed to park in the hotel car park for a couple of hours.

[Wigan Lass]

You can make reservations for any Disney restaurant on the Disney website. You need to set yourself up with an MDE account first (you'll need it to book fastpasses too at the appropriate time). Reservations can be made from 180 days before and you don't have to have park tickets. Character dining is incredibly popular so you should be ready to make your bookings by your 180 days.

Personally, my favourite meals are Tusker House breakfast at Animal Kingdom and Cape May Cafe breakfast at Beach Club resort. Traditional characters at both of these. Crystal Palace featuring Pooh Bear is nice too.

We've booked dinner at 1900 Park Fare and Garden Grill for this next trip. Both get decent reviews

You can search character dining on the website to look at all the options and menus.

Have fun choosing

[Madfish]

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/Cha...als-p-124.html

[Syjen]

Chef Mickeys is a great, informal breakfast option. With a large breakfast selection served as a 'help yourself' buffet. A tip would be to try and book a time towards the end of service, in our experience it's generally quitter and you get more interaction with the characters because of it.
Tusker House at AK is another fantastic buffet option, again good character interaction in a relaxed setting

[fiona88]

We did crystal palace as kids, its buffet so really easy with Winnie the Pooh characters coming round to the table. My brother (5 at the time) was amazed and had Eeyore being very upset at him for not eating his veggies!
Now nearly 30 I've booked Garden Grill at epcot for myself and partner. Characters that show up are Chip, Dale, Mickey and Pluto (I think) at a family-style breakfast reservation. Think it's a great way to get character photos without queueing alongside an early start to the park

Managed to get Garden Grill booking about 80 days in advance, having checked recently, there were still crystal palace reservations available for lunch at around the 20 day mark.
I booked on the website, the only thing is that you need a credit card to book

[Madfish]

Originally Posted by Syjen

Chef Mickeys is a great, informal breakfast option. With a large breakfast selection served as a 'help yourself' buffet. A tip would be to try and book a time towards the end of service, in our experience it's generally quitter and you get more interaction with the characters because of it.
Tusker House at AK is another fantastic buffet option, again good character interaction in a relaxed setting

See more...

Always the problem with sharing opinions, not everybody sees it the same. We didn't like CM and not much better for TH but love CP.

I would suggest OP also takes a look on TripAdvisor as there will be thousands of reviews and at least with that number you should get s fair balance.

[sha9]

A lot of it depends on the characters you want to meet. I don't really remember having a poor experience at a character meal but didn't get a great vibe from Chef Mickey's. We do like Tusker House and Crystal Palace and Akershus is great for princesses without the expense of Cinderella's Royal Table. Garden Grill is good because it's not a buffet, the food is brought to you on platters, so you don't risk missing characters. It's a set menu though so you would have to like what's on offer.