How many character meals without the dining plan

[Mazz519]

We usually do 2 but lately have been doing just 1, Always one with Mickey and Minnie usually Tusker House in AK

 

[starry_solo]

The first time I went to WDW, we did Akershus and CRT. We also did hoop de doo revue and a dessert party. And a walk in for Tusker House breakfast-about to turn to lunch.

Second time, we did grand floridian tea, BOG for breakfast and lunch, dining with an Imagineer and dessert party.

Three of us both times, no dining plan.

 

[ttintagel]

We generally have the QS dininug plan and get a couple of TS meals out of pocket. Only one of those is a character meal, but take that with a grain of salt since I don't have little kids.

 

[BarlowFamily]

Every family is different. Four character meals would be too much out of pocket for my family, but might be just fine for yours.

Have you considered Chip and Dale's campfire at Fort Wilderness? Our DS4 loved hanging out with Chip and Dale, they play corn hole with the kids, sign autographs and take pictures. And it wasn't crowded at all. You can make smores, stay for a sing-a-long and outdoor movie...and its free! We brought our own smore supplies, or you can purchase some.

Garden Grove at the Swan has a more affordable character breakfast on the weekends, that's another way to meet Chip and Dale as well as Pluto and Goofy. Pluto and Goofy are there every night for dinner too. This meal is NOT on the dining plan, so its less crowded and way easier to get a reservation. If I remember correctly, breakfast is walk-in only. Dinner you can make an ADR.

Have fun planning and enjoy your trip!!

 

[Nancyg56]

I am not are that I would do more than one or two OOP because I find them pretty costly. YOur family might be comfortable with the price, so book what makes financial sense for you.

In terms of Character meals in general, I find them a great way to extend Disney while we eat. A lot of people feel the dining takes a lot of time away from the parks, however my family is like the one up thread who feels that the parks are not going anywhere.

 

[TeamSy]

We do anywhere from 2-5 depending on our schedule. 99% of the time it’s breakfast because we like the food better. I hate buffet lunches and dinner. We never feel like we’re taking away from park time and it starts the day off really fun!!! We still get it all done in the parks, and in fact we feel it SAVES park time because it’s characters we don’t have to wait to meet in the park, and we get to sit and eat with AC lol. I’m sure that will change once we have to start paying more, but for now our daughter is still under 3 so we just pay for 2 adults. We’re doing our usual week in September and going to Tusker, Crystal Palace, BOG dinner for the beast, which I guess you can sort of consider a character meal?, and Akershus this time around. There are SO MANY awesome character meals I feel like you HAVE to hit multiple or it will take YEARS before you get to all of them lol. We LOVE so many of the hotel character meals but usually save them for when we are staying at that particular hotel. Ohana is my favorite breakfast!

 

[_19disnA]

If you don't have the dining plan, then it depends mostly on your budget. There seems to be a range of participants on this forum who vary from: 1) pinch pennies to afford Disney to 2) club level since money is no object types. If your family is the go-go-go type, you are probably less interested in formal meals. Only you can decide that.

 

[wendlle]

We aren't on the Dining Plan, it's too expensive. We have 6 character meals planned over the space of 2 weeks.
We LOVE character meals, this is because our kids are small - very small. so much easier to see characters at a meal than waiting in lines.
We have the following scheduled for September:
O'hana Best Friends Breakfast
1900 Park Fare Dinner
Crystal Palace Breakfast/Lunch
Cape May Cafe Breakfast/Lunch
Disney Jnr Play & Dine Breakfast
Storybook Dining Dinner

 

[goodeats]

Honestly the character meals aren't that much more than the table service meals depending on what you ordered. Last trip we paid OOP and did two character meals (CRT and Tusker House Breakfast). We also had several TS meals and non character buffets too.

Next trip my oldest daughter will be a Disney Adult, so we will avoid most buffets/prix fixe experiences. She just doesn't eat that much so it would be hard to swallow the adult price tag. Maybe one or two at most.

 

[jormom1030]

We don’t do anymore than 2, but usually stick to 1.

 

[KenHutch]

If you can easily afford it go for all 4 I wish I could say more but because of Signature restaurants and Character meals I always do the Dining Plan. Our next trip is scheduled for 10 days (unless I decide to give Universal a couple pf them) and we will probably do 9 character meals.

 

[CynBeth]

We usually do 3 character breakfasts. Our favorites are Crystal Palace, Cape May, and Tusker House.

 

[rosiebean]

I’ve never been on the dining plan, and usually do one character meal per trip...occasionally two. Not because of budget, but because of our preferences. We would eat the same even if we were on the DP. As others have said, the only person who can answer your question about number of character meals vs budget is you. If you want to do every character meal and can afford it, go for it!

 

[bumbershoot]

You know what you can afford and where you want to spend you money and time.

Agreed.

al Forno breakfast would be our only possibility

That’s a good one.

 

[studiojmm]

I don't think there's a right answer here since it depends on your family's eating style, enthusiasm for characters, and attraction priorities in addition to your budget.

We are a family of vegetarians who find that the character meal buffets are our best meals. We tend offset the cost of that by eating breakfast in our room, packing in a bunch of healthy snacks (veggies and proteins), and only sit down to one meal a day (usually in the middlish of the day, so could be late breakfast, lunch, or early dinner).

We supplement our sit down meal with whatever we are carrying and purchase snacks that strike us throughout the day (which could include popping into a quick service spot and then splitting an entree). Disney does offer vegetarians more choices the average theme park, but the fact that most quick service and even many table service menus tend to have 1 vegetarian entree and maybe a couple of sides is part of our decision here. At home, we don't typically eat places where we all have to order the same meal.

Another consideration is how you want to use your time. Character meals mean you don't have to stand in line to meet those characters. Depending on crowd levels, that can be considerable. If you visit once or only every few years and you have to eat anyway, the additional cost factors differently.

We are going to be annual pass holders for the first time Sept 2019-2020, so the deal with my daughter for cutting cots is one character meal per trip, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[tinkerbella16]

We do quite a few and we never have the DDP. We do this mainly because of my niece and those characters we won't have to worry about meeting around the parks and we can focus on more rides. We do love character breakfasts though and really enjoy the interactions and food, so it is worth it to us. Our upcoming Sept trip, we have the following character breakfasts - Garden Grill, Tusker House, Crystal Palace and Akershus. We prefer the prices at breakfast, rather than dinner as well lol.