Character Dining at Disney
 

Hi:

We'll be heading to Disney in March and our 4 year old would love to dine w/the likes of Cinderella, Snow White, Mary Poppins, etc. Can someone point us in the direction we need to go to make reservations. We don't care if it's breakfast, lunch or dinner. If we could see a few characters at once all the better. Also what should we expect to pay? Thanks

Check the Disney website link below:
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw...p;x=11&y=8. There are many options. We're doing the tea party at the Grand Floridian in May with my niece, but it's a bit pricey from what I recall.

In California, your best bet is GOofy's kitchen for a character meal... not cheap, but the kids love it! The only characters at the Grand Californian Hotel (Storyteller's Cafe) are Chip n' Dale, less than thrilling. The best time to see characters is on Saturdays...on Main Street. Just our experience... hope it helps.

California or Florida?

FYI- We took our kids when the youngest was 6. She wasn't disturbed by the costumed adults but there were some kids who were flipped out by the over-sized Chip and Dale (or whoever they were). Make sure you know who'll be there and prepare your child ahead of time. It's a shame to spend that much money only to have your child run screaming.

Thanks for the responses and help thus far. Sorry...should have said we are doing Florida not California. Thanks

We did the Princess Breakfast at Epcot with our four-year old last year, and it was wonderful. The food was decent, and the atmosphere very controlled (i.e., not chaotic). Each "princess" (I think there were five or six present) came by our table and signed autographs, posed for photos, and spoke with our daughter. It was a real winner. The only drawback is that the Norwegian pavilion where the breakfast was held is a long walk from the front gate, but as long as you are prepared you'll be okay.

Hi,
The Contemporary has a breakfast with the characters, but I suggest you make reservations quickly because they always get booked very fast. Also, there is a breakfast and also a dinner with the characters in the Magic Kingdom right near Cinderella's Castle. As you walk in, go down Main Street. It's pretty much at the end of Main Street to the left. I think there is an ice cream shop attached to it.

The Grand Floridian also has a breakfast and a dinner with the charactes. I think that is at 1900 Park Fare.

Go to a bookstore and get the Birnbaums Walt Disney World Guidebook. It's great and it will answer every question you can possibly think of.

Hi, could you tell me how you get the reservations at the Epcot for a Princess breakfast?? or the Contemporary for that matter. I have been trying to get a Cinderella breakfast for weeks for the first week of April and it has been impossible. Thanks.

The number to call for the Disney Princess breakfast at Akershus (the Norway pavilion at Epcot) is the same as that for the other character dining events: (407) WDW-DINE (939-3463). Make your reservations as far in advance as possible.

We took our two toddlers to the Chef Mickey's Breakfast at the Contemporary Resort. The food was fine, but you're not going for the food so it really is secondary. All the characters went to each table the staff did a good job of insuring that when it was your turn, it was your turn and your kids could talk to Mickey, etc. by themselves. We we're able to take plenty of pictures and my kids were grinning from ear to ear. We had a very early seating which worked out well as we didn't have to wait for a table to open.

My wife also took our not quite 2 year old daughter to the Princess breakfast at Epcot. They both enjoyed it but not as much as Chef Mickey's.

In terms of character greetings, we found the shortest lines to be in Mickey's Toon Town towards the latter part of the day and at the Animal Kingdom, just after we left the Lion King Show.

Agree that making a reservation as early as possible is your best bet. We went when school was in session so it made it a little easier to get reservations.

We just got back today from Disney in Florida. Depending upon where you book your breakfast, each hotel or area that has a breakfast has different characters. The meal at The Grand Floridian (sp) seemed to have more princesses and characters that girls would prefer. Cinderella and Mary Poppins were both at the Grand Floridian. You could choose between breakfast or a buffet dinner there and at Chef Mickey's. Chef Mickey's, which is at the Contemporary Hotel had Mickey, Minnie, Goofey, and Pluto. You should go ahead and make make your reservations now. My friend made hers after we got there, for a meal at Chef Mickey's and she had to wait almost a week for a time that was really too late for a 3 year old to be eating dinner (7:40pm, but that was the best time available a week in advance). There is an excellent Disney World guidebook by Birnbaum that has a list of each of the different meals, the locations, and which characters appear at each. The breakfast meals that I saw ran @ $12-15 per adult and the dinner meals were @ $25 per adult with children's prices about half. I also watched the tea party at the Grand Floridian a couple of times in passing. The little girls were just precious. They each got a special princess doll, but I thought the price was a little high. It was $200 for one adult and one child. I don't remember the price for each additional child, I think @ $35.00. If you can find a copy of the guidebook I mentioned, it puts all those meals, teas, ect in a chart where you can easily compare the characters, locations, and prices. I think the key is to make your reservations well in advance, whatever you decide. Have a great time!

If you are staying in a WDW concierge level room, ask your concierge to get reservations for the princess breakfast.

It has worked for us twice.

Thank you all for your comments and help. We tried for the Cinderella's Royal Table Breakfast at her castle and have had no luck at all for April. All booked up, completely. So, the other option is the buffet princess dinner at the Grand Floridian where I was told that the Princesses will be there, we may do that one, there are openings, it is $27.95/adult and like half for the kids, just not sure if we should do this one at the G. Floridian, or wait till next year when the girls are a little older and for sure get the Cinderella Royal Table breakfast at the castle.

We were staying at the Grand Floridian and had made reservations for the buffet dinner at the hotel last year, but after the Princess breakfast and a "surprise" visit by Cinderella over lunch at her castle, we decided to cancel. If nothing else works as far as a formal character event, you might try making lunch reservations for Cinderella's castle. My four-year old still had some quality time with the glass slipper woman herself.

Yes, thank you, I will try the lunch reservations at the Castle, maybe Cinderella may show up for it. Do I call the normal WDW Dine number for that lunch also?? Thank you.

As I mentioned, my kids had plenty of time with the characters at Mickey's Toon Town, as there were very few people in that part of the park after 5:30 or so. We went to the park late in the morning which meant my toddlers were still raring to go when the park started to empty out later in the afternoon, early evening.

While we got some great picyures at the character breakfast, we were able to take significantly better pictures later that day.

Guess what I'm suggesting is that you'll have plenty of opportunities to meet the characters if by chance you can't get into one of the character dining sessions.

Hi, just wondering if those of you who posted on this and helped with this topic have any thoughts on purchasing the Disney "Magic Your Way" passes, we are thinking of buying the passes with the NO Expire option but am curious if this really is the truth and that it truly never does expire, will we be able to use it in future years at the parks?? We are debating which passes to buy, this year will be a short stay, only three days, but with two little ones I am sure we will be back for many years to come and was wondering if this is the most economical way to buy park tickets...if so which website/vendor?? Thanks. Carrie

I believe the ParkHopper passes we purchased for our November trip also have no expiration date. I'd look into the relative merits and cost of the Park Hopper versus the Magic passes.

Carrie,
The no expiration passes truly don't expire. Disney changed their pass set up as of the first of the year so now you have to pay a bit more for non-expiration passes where it used to be included in the price, but you're then safe from any increase in prices in the future. I've found the cheapest (and easiest) way to buy passes is on Disney's website where you get a 15% discount. You can pick them up at the gate or hotel then or pay to have them mailed to you.

Carrie - sometime Cinderella makes an appearance on the ground floor of her castle during the day or evening. There's no published scheduled so you have to be lucky to find her but if she's there you don't need to dine in the restaurant. The restaurant is upstairs. She doesn't appear at lunch or dinner in the restuarant proper.

Several years ago we ate dinner at the restaurant. Cinderella was downstairs, we waited about 20 minutes to get her autograph. By the time we saw her, our table upstairs was ready and we were seated at a window seat overlooking Cinderella's merry go round. Dinner was decent. When done, we came downstairs and the SpectroMagic Parade was going by. All in all our luck was very good that night.

The moral of this long story is that you don't have to do a character breakfast to see the characters, though it does make it somewhat easier. On that same trip Mickey selected my girls to take on a personal tour of his house in Toon Town. They spent a good 10 minutes with Mickey as he took them by the hand and showed off his house. Definately the highlight of the trip for them (ages 7 and 4). Again we were lucky, just in the right place at the right time.

Thanks so much for all of your comments, our girls are still so young that I know we have tons of opportunities in the future for the "character breakfasts" so maybe this year we will just get lucky and be in the right place at the right time!! Thanks again...

I am also looking for details about character breakfasts. Has anyone been to the breakfast at the Polynesian Resort as I understand they have characters there too.

I think that Chef Mickey sounds great. Do they dress up in their traditional costumes or as chefs?

Emma jane, chef mickey is wonderful. Our kids loved it when we went several years ago, but the adults liked it, too. You can make ressies up to three months in advance and i would advise you to do that as they sell out immediately. For more detailed info, check out the disboards.com and mousesavers.com for everything disney (and then some! :) ) Have fun!

EmmaJane,
We took our two toddlers to Chef Mickey's back in the fall. Most of the characters are in their usual attire. However, Mickey is dressed in a Chef Outfit. (Maybe Goofy, too.)

The staff did a nice job on making sure that when it was your turn with the character, it was your turn by making sure other kids didn't monopolize the characters time. Both my children got personal attention from the characters and plenty of time for a couple of pictures with each.

We found getting there near when they first opened to work well as we didn't need to wait in line for a table to open.

BTW, assuming your kids can make it to the end of the day, we found Mickey's Toon Town to be fairly quiet by 7:00 p.m. As a result, we had no problem walking right in and getting photos with Mickey, etc.

Another way to go is to do Chef Mickey toward the end of their breakfast. First we had a light breakfast, then hit the parks for the early entry. Did tons of rides with little crowds. At 11am, we left the park, rode over to the Contemporary and had the last seating at Chef Mickeys as more of a brunch. The kids had the characters practically to themselves, including all 5 characters in one photograph together with the kids. There was dancing and all kinds of tomfoolery. Our timing was perfect.

By the way, the posters on disboards.com gave me that tip. That's a sample of information that is available over there. Much more detailed than generally what you'll find at a board like Fodors because of the very narrow topic covered by that board.