Character meals with young kids?

[cmorrison87]

How has everyone's experience been with character meals with young kids? Planning a Fall 2019 trip and wondering how many character meals I should plan for. My boys will be 3 and 22mos. Are they too young? Wanted to try Chef Mickey's, Tusker House and possibly Garden Grill. Do you recommend breakfast/lunch/dinner?

 

[DisneyWishes14]

My DS was fine with the character meals when he was younger as long as it wasn't "face" characters (princesses, Mary Poppins, etc.) whom he was terrified of. I have a friend whose daughter was terrified of fully costumed characters. It just depends on the child. If you aren't concerned with them being scared, my biggest recommendation would be to lean toward doing the seated or family-style meals as opposed to buffets (Garden Grill for example). I found doing buffets to be quite difficult with younger children as there was so much up and down to get food for multiple people. It was much easier when servers were bringing the food to us. With kids that young, I think you would be ok with one character meal and I would pick GG just for convenience sake.

 

[cmorrison87]

Thanks! I didn't even think about getting up and down for buffets. Good advice.

 

[10CJ]

How long is your trip? Have they met characters before?

With kids that age I might just do one. Garden Grill is good because they bring the food to you.

 

[3gr8boys]

On our first family trip, the youngest was 13 months old and he ADORED our character meals. At GG, Chip and Dale both spent tons of time with us because multiple times as they started to leave he cried and they came back. (That said- If we had taken the oldest at that age he likely wouldn't have enjoyed the interaction. He was always scared at parties with entertainers in costume. Each kid is different....)

Menus or predicting what schedule will work best for the little ones may dictate which meals would be best for your crew. Looking back, we have enjoyed character meal breakfasts (love GG and CP breakfasts) the most- interaction is great at all meal times, but somehow breakfast food just suits us better in AYCTE situations.

Happy planning!

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We have done character meals on 4 trips with a 12 month old, a 15 month old, a 2.5 year old and 14 month old, a 3 year old and almost 2 year old.

My oldest LOVES them. She was mesmerized at her first one at 12 months. Really cute reactions. Now at 3, she is so into it and gets super excited. She loves character meals (and talks about them all the time.)

My youngest is more shy. He is not afraid of the characters - it is more that he is shy and doesn’t love attention. He does like seeing the characters!

I think it all depends on the kid. We have had great experiences with ages ranging 12 months to 3. I obviously don’t think it’s too young

I also agree with family style being easier than buffet. We often have other adults with us who can help out when we go up to get everyone’s food. But if we were traveling just us and the kids, I would choose family style over buffet.

 

[Meriweather]

DGD has always adored characters.....and still does. She has been to many. I think I liked Garden Grill best, but they have all been fun.
We leave in one week and are taking DGS on his first trip.....we'll see what he thinks. Hope with his big sister there, he will love them too

 

[KrazeeK120]

When my son was 18 months, we did GG and Tusker House, both for lunch. Lunch is a little more predictable than dinner with little kids, I think. If the day goes south for whatever reason, dinner is the most likely meal to be affected.

This time, he will be a few days shy of 3 and we are doing late breakfasts at Tusker House and Crystal Palace that will end up counting as lunch for us.

My son loves all characters and is very excited to meet them, but all kids are different.

 

[unrequited23]

I would pick a meal where your kids tend to be in the best mood that offers food they like to eat. For us that is breakfast. Next trip we are doing a 10:40 CP breakfast, but treating it as an early lunch. (We tend to eat earlier at Disney to stay ahead of the hunger/account for unexpected delays. Lunch is between 11 & 11:30, dinner is around 5.)

If you don't know how your kids react to characters I would try to figure that out ahead of time. Chick-fil-A on family nights, Chuck E. Cheese, some HS sports events would be likely to have characters/mascots in costume. Another idea is to schedule your character meals later in the trip after the kids have seen the characters in park.

My youngest was not fond of full costume characters when he was 2.5. We could hold him and the grown up could give Mickey a high five, but that was as close as we could get...except Pluto. He ran up and practically tackle hugged Pluto when he crouched down to meet him at Ohana. Kids are weird.

 

[Atrain13]

My daughter, at the time of our last trip was 2 and that trip was her first time with characters. We were lucky and she did great. I do know that it just depends on the kid.

 

[ttintagel]

When we had dinner at the Crystal Palace, I was fascinated watching Pooh and the gang move around the dining room. They made all kinds of adjustments in their routine depending on the age and reaction of the people at the table, from infants to seniors. They'd be very slow and gentle if a kidsseemed scared or intimidated, and then switch to totally goofy with older kids and adults. It was a joy to watch.

 

[Riss]

We recently took a 2.5 year old to a couple of his (and our) first character meals and he did well with all of the characters, we thought he was going to be shy and not be able to approach them by himself. We only did 2 character meals, though, Hollywood & Vine with the Fantasmic package and Crystal Palace, doing dinner for both of them. I think maybe we should have done more had we known that he would take to the characters like that.

All of the characters were really great, in our experience at both locations, and were nice and patient taking pictures with him, and whoever else wanted to jump in. They also had a great time playing around with the adults as well.

 

[HopperFan]

How has everyone's experience been with character meals with young kids? Planning a Fall 2019 trip and wondering how many character meals I should plan for. My boys will be 3 and 22mos. Are they too young? Wanted to try Chef Mickey's, Tusker House and possibly Garden Grill. Do you recommend breakfast/lunch/dinner?

Hated buffets until they were old enough to carry their own plate to the table. Working that hard to eat in addition to the high price of the meals just was a lose/lose for me. Garden Grill is a great option not just for the characters to your kids ages but they wait on you so you can really focus on enjoying the meal and interaction.

I would suggest you study the reviews for any buffet meals to see if the characters/menu/location and structure (some are chaos) will work for your family. Plus is you don't have to book for some time and as you get even closer you can cancel if you think it won't work well for your kids at that time.

 

[MissionMouse]

Each child reacts to characters in their own way and characters normally have a CM with them if the character is a full costume. This helps them navigate crowds and provide the navigation. As others have noted the character do adjust to the general age and visual and verbal cues from the child. It is something we questioned before our first character meal as you really don't know until that first meal or two depending on the costumes. While family style is nice as the mean is served to you table it does provide a controlled serving arrangement with a smaller option of food choices. It does ensure you are always at your table which can remove a level of stress you could experience at a buffet serving line as the character may make by your table while you are getting food items from the serving line. Personally, we entered the buffet with the expectation we would be assisting our child, the meal is not really the focus of character meals...it is after all the characters. We did find dining at buffers to create a level of concern not to miss the characters by leaving your table at the "wrong" time. Overall, food was fairly good food...but characters are the focus and getting that special picture.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Last year, we went with a 7yo and an almost 2 yo and ate at 5 character meals over 12 nights. Both kids loved them. The family-style/ plated character meals that we went to (CRT, Garden Grill, and Bon Voyage) were definitely easier than the buffets (TH and CP) because we didn't have to worry about timing our trips to the buffet and potentially missing a character. A huge benefit to the character meals is that because they are all buffet, family-style, or in the case of CRT and Bon Voyage, plated with an included appetizer, the kids could eat almost immediately after being seated, rather than waiting 20 mins for their meal to be prepared. We prefer dinner, but that's just because of our normal schedule. We aren't early risers, so breakfast isn't really enticing to us. At lunch time, the kids wanted to be going in the rides rather than spending a bunch of time inside eating. Dinner worked great because my toddler would nap in his stroller mid-afternoon (which allowed us to take turns riding height-restricted rides), and would wake up refreshed in time to eat dinner at a restaurant and enjoy the parks until closing.

In reference to the character meals you mentioned, I did notice that you have a lot of overlap with the characters. CM has Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. TH has Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Daisy, and GG has Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale. Personally, I would cut either CM or TH. I've never been to CM but they typically don't have the greatest reviews. TH is generally reviewed pretty well as far as character meals go, but it was probably our least favorite meal of the whole trip. None of us really care for the food and the character interaction has been rushed both times I've been there. GG is great because it's family-style and since the restaurant is a bit smaller than some of the others, the characters usually make it around more than once during the meal and spend a good bit of time with the kids.

 

[Lisa F]

I would book all 3 and then see how your kids do with the first, assuming you have another adult. I'm a single mom so buffets before he coudl carry his own plate were pretty much off the table, but by my first solo trip with him he was 5. It was still dicey and something family style was MUCH easier. If you have a second adult it would be a bit easier as you can leave someone at the table with the kids.

 

[petrola]

What Lisa F said! If you are traveling with another adult, the buffets should be ok. If not - you may want to consider how many plates you are going to be able to carry at once! But if you do have more than one adult I would do all three. fwiw, my favorite character meal is Garden Grill, DH loves Tusker house and DS and DD love Chef Mickey's! so you picked 3 of our favorites. The more character meals we do, the more meals I get to eat and enjoy my food. No characters means LO gets bored after his last bite of food and wants to leave. My little guy LOVES characters and they hold his interest at meal times, so every little bit of holding his interest helps! lol Have fun!

 

[crabbygal902]

How has everyone's experience been with character meals with young kids? Planning a Fall 2019 trip and wondering how many character meals I should plan for. My boys will be 3 and 22mos. Are they too young? Wanted to try Chef Mickey's, Tusker House and possibly Garden Grill. Do you recommend breakfast/lunch/dinner?

I started taking my kids to character meals at 6 months, so yours aren't too young, IMO! The baby with character pictures are precious to us now that our kids are teenagers.

With littles, I really like the AYCTE places like 'Ohana and Garden Grill so that your food is brought to you family-style. You don't have to keep getting out of your seat and deal with the crowds at the buffet when someone wants something. I'd plan just 2 character meals on opposite ends of your vacation since they are so high-energy and expensive. Dining with the characters is a great way to kick off and end a vacation, dinner for your first night and breakfast on your last morning to avoid schedule overload on already busy park days. We treat character meals like a very special event and plan plenty of time to relax, enjoy, meet the characters, and eat.

 

[MomOTwins]

At those ages, we found the characters are the best part of the Disney World trip since they can't go on many rides that are height restricted, but love seeing Mickey and princesses! The littles have no patience for lines, so character meals are the BEST for us! We prefer lunch because (1) it gets you out of the heat for some midday down time; and (2) that is the kids' biggest meal at home, otherwise I felt I was spending a ton of money for the 3-year olds to nibble to corners of a mickey waffle. Assuming you have another adult, getting up to grab a plate for each kid from the kiddie station is easy as pie.

 

[MudQueen22]

Each child is different. I might guage it on how they respond to the Chick-Fil-A cow or some other costumed character that is local to you before booking a ton of them.

Our kids liked the character meals.

The first time we went, dd was 5 and loved the princesses. She enjoyed the princess meals the most, but she also enjoyed the meals with any assortment of the fabulous 5.
On our second trip, dd was 7 and ds was 23 months. He loved every character he met. Although he liked the fully costumed characters the most (Mickey, Pluto, Pooh, etc.), he also enjoyed interactions with the princesses.

Like others, I prefer the family style character meals (Garden Grille, O'hana) over the buffet meals (Crystal Palace, 1900 Park Fair), but I would not let a buffet stop me from booking since my kids do like them all so much. Just note that you will need to fix plates in shifts with your DW/DH if you do the buffet meals.