Skip the character dining and meal plans

I think everyone finds value in different things. For the OP value is in nice accomodations on a monorail resort. Not character meals.

We like to dine out. No way am I cooking on vacation. We used to do tons of character meals but those have tapered now that the kids are older. Instead we do other sit down meals.
 
My kids are older now, so we wouldn't bother with character meals. But, it's really a personal decision. We also prefer to stay offsite, and I don't mind cooking (simple meals) over vacation. I completely understand that others would make different choices than we do, and I'm fine with that--what a dull world it would be if we were all alike!

I do have some lovely photos and memories of character meals when my kids were younger--especially my boys. When he was little, my older son would collect lipstick kisses like most people collect autographs, he was so adorable and charming with the princesses. Now, he's a surly 19yo, but I miss the little boy with the lipstick on his cheeks!
 
Eh, that's an entirely personal opinion.

We love the character meals. Yes, they're expensive and my ASD kid doesn't each much, but she loves meeting characters so it works for us. I'd rather meet 4 characters in an hour, while eating in the air conditioning then stand outside waiting in lines for them. Two birds one stone for us.

We are DVC members and usually do a 1 bedroom also, but we never cook. Honestly, cooking on vacation is my nightmare. I'm not interested. I don't even like doing granola bars or pop tarts and stuff for breakfast. That's just not a vacation for me. I could understand all this if you're working with a budget, but I just don't go to Disney to scrimp on this stuff. The food, buying stuff, restaurants, etc is all what makes the vacation for me.

Agree. My girls loved the princess breakfast at Norway. And a happy accident when we checked in we have the same last name as the cm. The girls thought that was funny. We keep a few things in our room. We don't cook on vacation either. That's the beauty of disney, you can customize your vacation to fit your family
 
Our daughter has never been character crazy. Her first trip to WDW we did many character meals. IMO, felt it was pretty crazy in there. You can be up at the buffet and a character or two is reaching your table then rush mode sets it, gotta' get back. Just don't find it enjoyable and not worth the cost for the food that is offered. We're DVC members and always stay in a 1BR. We bring quick breakfast items and snacks/drinks but the last thing I want to do on vacation is make a dinner or a lunch everyday. We've never done the dining plan, honestly never really looked into it because of my husband. He wants to eat what he wants to eat and where. Doesn't want to follow some guide lines/rules.
 


On our first trip when DD was 7 and DS was 5 we enjoyed several character meals. It was one of our trip highlights. We went at the end of May for 10 days at it was scorching out. We LOVED taking a lengthy break in the a/c to visit with our favorite characters. We never felt rushed. My kids ate plenty of food and enjoyed all the attention from the characters.
We saved money on our resort, staying at Pop Century (which the kids loved), and had park hoppers which we ejoyed to the fullest.

On our second trip the kids were 12 and 10, we splurged on our length of stay (two weeks at the end of May/beginning of June), saved on the resort (Pop) and saved a bit on food by paying OOP and eating in the room at least once a day. We often shared meals since 3 quick service was more than enough for the four of us. We enjoyed a couple signature meals, but no characters at this point. We did 10-day tickets with WP&M, and the water parks were the hit of our trip. We LOVED them!! We really did do park days for 14 days and didn't wear out. We LOVED it all.

On our last trip the kids were 15 and 12. We went for "free" using reward points to cover a campsite and tickets for four days in July. DH cooked at our campsite, we slept in our tent, we did two major parks and the water parks. We LOVED staying at the campground. The weather was fabulous, we didn't even need the window a/c unit we brought to cool the tent at night. Ft Wilderness was soooo relaxing and quiet and such a difference from the hectic and crowded parks. We didn't miss the two major parks we opted to leave out. We didn't mind leaving the parks to go back to the campground to eat. It was a GREAT trip.

Like you, OP, we chose to make our vacation our own each time. Doing what we wanted, in the way we wanted, based off our group, our ages, our wants and needs each time.
And we had a great time! Every time!

More people need to take that advice. Don't just do what everyone else says you need to do. Do what you love and what works for you.
 
It is so great that Disney offers a variety of options. The DVC units are good if you want to cook or not cook. We are DVC owners and never cook. No thanks on vacation not for us. My wife is my carer and has to do all the cooking at home as well as a full time job. Wash and dress me. Shop etc. Worry about me I am very ill and often in hospital. We are two adults and we do some character dining. My wonderful supportive wife is A CEO at home and carer with the weight of the world on her shoulders , seeing her pose and smile with Minnie is priceless to me. Back home we hardly eat out. Save all our money for these trips. We eat onsite and offsite and sometimes get a takeout. But go nowhere near a cooker ..

But if that works for you great. But I can assure people character dining is not a waste of money for all.
 
When my daughter and nieces were young, we'd do the character meals. I always figure, time=money in Disney World, and we felt the money spent on a character meal was worth the time we saved standing in meet-n-greet lines (no FP in those days). We could spend the money and sit inside the a/c at Crystal Palace for about an hour for lunch, meeting Pooh and the guys, or we could spend 30mins. per character standing in hot meet-n-greet lines. Four Pooh guys would take about two hours to meet in the parks, and then we'd still have to eat lunch someplace (probably another 30 mins, or more). We felt it was a decent trade off, spend money for the character meals and then have "extra" time in the parks for rides and attractions. I am also a BIG fan of sitting down in the air conditioning for 60-90 minutes in the middle of the day in August!
 


I think the character meals USED to be a great value when our kids were little. It was worth the price to be in air conditioning enjoying a nice buffet and meeting the characters with no lines. But nowadays I think the prices are really ridiculous and the buffets themselves are not as good as they used to be. I really feel for young families now because the price is so prohibitive.
 
I like the character meals more now with preteen/teens than I did when they were little. Back then, they were eager to stand in line for characters. Now they aren't but still react with joy when the characters come around them. We have four booked for our upcoming free dining! Can't wait.
 
I can't stomach the cost of character meals. Since I started meal planning and paying better attention in my kitchen our groceries are $50-75 a week. I would regret spending the money.
 
We saw Drizella and Anastasia doing a meet and greet behind the castle last week. Lady Tremaine was not with them. If you're facing the back of the castle, turn toward the right and head to the pathway that runs around the side of the castle toward the Frontierland bridge.

We have also seen them in the past, in front of the castle before parades.
 
We usually do one character breakfast per trip, more out of tradition than anything else. But on our last trip the quality had really gone down. The food was just... bad. I get that you're paying a premium for the character interactions but the food needs to be decent in order to justify the huge price. So OP I'm with you on this one.
 
I agree with doing without the dining plan it just wasn't a good fit for my family. Two of my kids are still of the age where character meals are a must so we do one or two depending on how long we are at Disney.
 
My advice to first timers with kids the "right" age is to do at least ONE if its in the budget. Knowing they are expensive and the food isn't very good, but that you'll get some time with characters without long lines and are likely to end up with some great photos (my favorite photos from my kids first trip are character breakfast pictures). But don't schedule a ton of them, they take time.
 
hello!
I wish someone had told me to pass on the character dining. All I heard was " you have to do character dining!" From everyone I knew. So we booked several. No big deal- we were able to cancel them all....
You might say, what?! Why would you cancel them?
Just sharing our experience....we decided to book a 1 BR villa at grand Floridian. That's not "budget", right? Well, it kind of is...we economize in other ways.
--We said no to the meal plan. We have a full kitchen in our villa. We went to grocery store and spent $120 on groceries for the week.
--we do only one park a day. It's really not a big deal, we just plan around it
--we but Disney merchandise ahead of time on Amazon and etsy (princess gowns, t shirts, etc.)
This allows us to buy the random hot dog or bubble wand etc. without stressing over it
So why no character dining? Because it is expensive!!! And, at least for us, we really didn't enjoy it. We went to one- at grand Floridian, dinner. It was outrageously priced and the one character we hoped for and were told would be there, didn't show up :(. Lady tremaine. We had already seen and got (free) one on one time with Cinderella and he Prince during their dance at the grand Floridian lobby...and we also saw Cinderella at her castle....so a third timing seeing her for over $100 was just crazy....
It was also loud, crowded, a long long wait outside of our fast pass reservation time (not fun with a 4 year old) and then another long wait for the characters to make their rounds....maybe other experiences with dining are better but I say save your money for things like the Princess Tea and other one on one experiences.
Just my two cents! We are so glad we don't have to rely on dining anywhere at Disney with or without a meal plan it is outrageously priced! I wish someone had told me :). Best wishes as you plan---


I will agree that the character dining can be really expensive and a real PITA. I was so happy and relieved when we had our last character dining this past trip. First, we had free dining, but even just the tips with the character meals can get pretty expensive and then the whole, oh can we go get food now, or no we might miss this character, okay hurry run and grab something and come right back etc. And then there's the really slow characters that take FOREVER to get to your table and even then sometimes somehow "skip" your table. I am def. NOT a fan of character meals, however my kids still like them, so for now we do them, but def. not doing as many next time.
 
Just curious. Where did you take that photo of Drizella in your avatar? I have always thought the only place to meet her is at Grand Floridian Cafe. Is there another, more affordable way?
It was at the GF character breakfast but Lady Tremaine was not there :(.
Just curious. Where did you take that photo of Drizella in your avatar? I have always thought the only place to meet her is at Grand Floridian Cafe. Is there another, more affordable way?
 
OP, I understand how you feel about the character dining. As a meal, it is not a good value but for those who like character interaction, then it is a good use of time and money. We stopped doing character meet and greets a long time ago because the kids outgrew them. But on this last trip, I could imagine myself resurrecting that practice with a grandchild in the not-too-distant future (my sister just welcomed her first grandchild to the world last month). Different strokes for different folks. And what does not appeal to you during one phase of your life may be something you want during another.
You’re right! I should have been more specific about, it being our first trip to Disney, this is what happened and why we feel that way about character dining :) life changes dramatically! I have MS and it has progressed since this post and now a character breakfast is probably the BEST way for us to meet characters so that I don’t have to wait in line...I am humbled!
 
Uhhh, not exactly. If you rent through David's Vacation Club Rentals it is more like $3100 to $3700 depending upon location. AND, having a kitchen at your disposal for a week is PRICELESS!
Yes...a little mermaid room for five nights this year is 3000 with a meal plan...so it really CAN Abe a great value to do the villas OF you don’t mind doing most or all meals at the villas...which are stunning!
 
Can you say a bit more about the dance at the Grand Floridian? I've seen a reference here or there to it, but can't quite figure out the details. Can you actually meet them, or just watch them dance? Any chance for an autograph? I'd love to help my daughter meet Prince Charming (or any other princes) since she's seen all the princesses and just loves character hunting.
Oh gosh staying in the GF was a Dream because Cinderella and the prince made more than one appearance a day. Cast members can give you tips on where they might arrive from and good viewing areas. If I remember correctly there was a promenade of children who the characters interacted with. I wish i remembered more details but the cast members at GF were very helpful.
 

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