Best Character Meal at DLR About This Page:

[LizCatMom]

Our upcoming trip (in about 1 month) to Disneyland may be our last for a long time. We are heading overseas and don't know when we may be on the West Coast again. It could be in 2 years, but it could be much, much longer.

So, we want 1 good character meals for the girls, who are 4 and 2.5. Yes, we like Princesses, but we also like the Fab 5. We won't mind whether it is a TS in the parks or at one of the Disney hotels.

Tell me your experiences!

[Tink and co.]

We've had the best experiences (and seen the most characters) at the Minnie and Friends Breakfast in Disneyland. Other than Minnie, you never know who will show up. We had the best time one visit with the Fairy Godmother and Captain Hook. The food is good too (buffeteria style), although not exceptional.

If visiting with Princesses is a must, then Ariel's Grotto is the way to go. We've only done the lunch there, and it was good with a variety of choices. It's served in three courses, appetizers to share, main course of each person's choice, and desserts to share. The ceremony and character interaction were fun. We saw Cinderella, Prince Charming, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, Belle, and Pocahontas on our last trip. We've also seen Mulan on a previous visit.

Have fun!

[TuffyCO]

We have done two character meals in DLR.

Ariel's Grotto - was great for seeing the princesses and we enjoyed the meal. We went for lunch and it did seem the princesses were a little rushed as it was very busy. We saw Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, Belle and Cinderella

Goofy's Kitchen - we went for breakfast and it was not very crowded (in February) and we had fantastic character interaction the whole time. We hardly had time to go get food because we would miss someone (I missed Dale, my favorite chipmunk). We saw Goofy, Rafiki, Baloo, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Pluto, Chip and Dale (well except me).

I think you would have a really great time at either!

[queenofheartsfan]

We like Goofy's kitchen!

[DopeyGirl]

We have had the best character interaction at the Minnie and Friends breakfast at the Plaza Inn. ELEVEN characters at breakfast one day! The food was standard "Disney buffet breakfast" fare and was good but nothing to really write home about. But the character interaction there was absolutely outstanding!

Food-wise, we love the Chip n' Dale Critter Breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe. Each time, the food has been great. I like that you can go make your selections from the buffet and they will bring a plate of fresh Mickey waffles to your table for you . . . and if you need more, just tell them because they will load you up with more!

[LizCatMom]

I think I'm liking the idea of Minnie and Friends Breakfast at Plaza Inn. So, my next question is, are there early ressies that would permit you early entrance into the park before the rest of the crowds? Such as, we had an 8:30am ressie at Akershus in Epcot and that was really neat, to get to see the park without all the crowds for a few minutes. Great photo op!

[Tonichelle]

I love Goofy's Kitchen for dinner... I thought Ariel's was over priced and the characters rushed around even though the room was not full when we were there. Disappointing all the way around. Theming for Ariel in the parks (grotto meeting spots or the restaraunt) are really cheesy for Disney... Granted I don't like The Little Mermaid, but I still expect more than what I've seen.

I'm hoping to get to go to Storytellers for breakfast this next trip, we haven't nailed down anything about food except for Goofy's.

[Lilianna]

We really enjoy Ariel's Grotto. If you can sit outside, even better! As you face the water, the tables to the far left must be near the exit route for the characters. We didn't have to go see Ariel inside, etc. Everyone passed by us. And it wasn't just princesses.

Plaza Inn for the character breakfast buffet is packed full of characters! Our breakfast reservation at the Plaza Inn was well before the park was open to the general public. Though we didn't take advantage of it, it would be a great time for photos without strangers in them. I also like the CMs of the Plaza Inn. Granted, we had reservation (or whatever Disney calls them nowadays) and they were expecting us, I felt that we were treated as if the restaurant was just for us.

[Tonichelle]

I do like the idea of getting into Disneyland before park openning... might look into that.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Tink and co.

We've had the best experiences (and seen the most characters) at the Minnie and Friends Breakfast in Disneyland. Other than Minnie, you never know who will show up. We had the best time one visit with the Fairy Godmother and Captain Hook. The food is good too (buffeteria style), although not exceptional.

If visiting with Princesses is a must, then Ariel's Grotto is the way to go. We've only done the lunch there, and it was good with a variety of choices. It's served in three courses, appetizers to share, main course of each person's choice, and desserts to share. The ceremony and character interaction were fun. We saw Cinderella, Prince Charming, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, Belle, and Pocahontas on our last trip. We've also seen Mulan on a previous visit.

Have fun!

I second this about Minnie and Friends for breakfast. I have to say that we thought Ariel's Grotto was over-priced on our most recent visit.

[twins4me]

We were just at DL last month. We were absolutely NOT impressed with Minnie and Friends. I had debated over this because it had not gotten good reviews, however, this was our first ever Disney character meal, so we returned just for this reason. Just before leaving, Cheryl had written a great article on her experience at Minnies and I was so looking forward to it. We were seated around the the back side (coming out of the doors, to the right, all the way in the back, the restrooms outside of the fence were closre to us the the food) and we had about 4 characters come to our table. The kids actually ran around inside as the breakfast was closing to find all of the characters that did not even pay our section the least amount of attention. We had little to NO service from the CMs in regards to clearing our dirty dishes. Our group and another one near us began stacking our dishes on top of the garbage can.

The two days prior to this, we ate at Goofy's and at Storytellers. Both were great meals. We did have the best character interaction at Goofy's. Besides the above mentioned characters, we saw Mulan and Aladdin.

I think after being spoiled at these great places where the CMs wait on you hand and foot, as soon as a glass is empty, they are filling it again, bringing Mickey waffles right to your table, clearing plates immediately, the Plaza Inn just was not going to meet up to our expectations. The juice glasses are small and you have to go to the lines to self serve. We sat outside and a month ago, it was still chilly in the morning. By the time I sat for a few minutes, my coffee was cold already and it would have been great to have someone coming by to top it right off!

After being at the other buffets, I also think the tables at Plaza Inn are way to crowded and not very big.

I know that I am in the minority, but just wanted to let you know what seemed to be consistent opinions with our group of 8. Had we had not have been to the other buffets, we may have though differently of the Plaza Inn. Whatever you decide, it will be magical because you will be at the Happiest Place on Earth!

[Tonichelle]

glad you had a good time at Goofy's, sorry Minnie's wasn't as good as you expected. :

[ilovedisney247]

I'm sorry to the poster who didn't have a good time at Minnie's, but it was going to be my suggestion as well--we saw nearly 20 characters over the course of an hour when I was there in December!

[LizCatMom]

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience at Minnie & Friends and I hope it was just a fluke thing!

Because my girls are still at that age where they like to run off, whenever we are at a buffet, I often ask the hostess/CM to seat us as close to the buffet as possible so we can grab our food and be back at the table quickly. So far this has worked very well and CMs have always accommodated this request, even if it means we wait just a tad longer. Anyway, I did my homework and I was able to get a reservation for Minnie & Friends before park opening for the first full day of our visit (no Early Morning entry that morning!) I'm so excited, I actually like the idea of it being, along with Minnie, a mix of characters. It will be a surprise!

Thank you all for your feedback and I'll share my experience when we get back!

[Tink and co.]

I think one thing to remember about Minnie's is that it's not a typical buffet with wait staff. It's more upscale cafeteria with bus service if that makes sense.