Top Character Meals?

[cristyhas3]

How would you rank these character meals as your faves/not to be missed? We're planning on going to at least 2 of them. We've done Minnie's before and loved it, but not the others. My kiddos will be 8, 6 and 3 when we go in March.

Surf's Up
Bfast with Minnie
Goofy's Kitchen
Ariel's Grotto

Thanks!

 

[Girimama33]

Ariel's Grotto (lunch or dinner)
Surf's up
Minnie's in the park
Goofy's

 

[cristyhas3]

Ariel's Grotto (lunch or dinner)
Surf's up
Minnie's in the park
Goofy's

Thank you!! My DDs really want to go to AG.

 

[Girimama33]

We love the food there. The princess interaction is nice, but limited compared to other character meals. We are going back next week...hopefully eating the Tri-tip.

 

[Peri]

Minnie is wonderful for younger kids (like yours)
Ariel - so great, especially for girls
Surf's Up - okay, but nothing to write home about for us
Goofy's Kitchen - a bust - food is very low-end and characters are scarce although, as a disclaimer, one year we had a fabulous Jasmine who sat on the floor with our granddaughter and talked to her a long long time (for some reason the restaurant was sparsely populated that day). That was wonderful, but a one-off.

Those are my rankings - even the "worst" though, as you can see - is well worth it in my opinion- so Enjoy@@

 

[DharmaLou]

We only went to 3, so I'll rate them in the order I liked them:

Plaza Inn (Minnie & Friends)
Goofy's Kitchen
Ariel's Grotto

 

[DisSarahK]

Minnie and Friends ~ hands down our favorite. We've done it on every trip. The more you interact with the characters, the more they will interact with you. I've attempted to snag Captain's Hook sword which caused him to challenge my husband to a duel--completely entertained my children and all the little kids around us. He then "kidnapped" my daughter and took her outside to wave to everyone outside. Later in the park he recognized us and tried to steal my wedding ring. My little boy likes to have bouncing contests with Tigger. You get the idea!

Goofy's ~ we tried this for the first time on our last trip. Maybe we lucked out, but we had a great time! I believe we had the first seating for breakfast. Baloo led my children to their table and we saw a ton of characters. It was a wonderful meal, but I've read some poor reviews.

Ariel's ~ I was disappointed with the princess interaction here. Yes, they all stop at your table, but it seems like they do a picture and keep on moving. We don't plan on doing this meal again--especially not after doing a Disney cruise where the princesses really interact a *lot* with your children. I think my daughter would cry if she didn't get a lot of interaction from the princesses.

 

[cristyhas3]

Thanks everyone!! I'd love to hear more input, too.

 

[mad hatter fan]

Goofy's Kitchen
Minnies

Our favorite is Goofy's Kitchen. We have always thought the brunch food to be very good. We did try the dinner twice and everyone thought the food was good except me but that is just personal preference not bad quality food. We have always had good service. In fact, this last July our server Castro was wonderful. He even noticed DS9's excitement over the gummy worms in his cup of dirt dessert and brought him out a whole cup full of worms with cover to take with him, LOL! That made my son's trip!

We have always had very good character interaction at Goofy's too. Usually we'd see between 5-7 characters. In July, DS9 had a mini sword fight with hook with his butter knife!

Minnies I thought the food was ok but not great. The character interaction on our two times there was awesome. I don't remember how many we saw but I remember it being a lot and that they took quite a bit of time with the kids.

Oh and the one and only time we tried Ariel's was a few years ago. The princesses just posed for a photo and then were off. The main problem though was that they were all in a bad mood! Even looking back on the photos, not one of them could pull off a convincing smile, LOL! Made me wonder what could have happened to make all of them so unhappy/grumpy.

 

[pixiewings71]

Our favorites are~

Minnie & Friends, amazing character interaction and decent food, we didn't feel rushed and we loved how much time we got with the characters and how many there were.

Ariel's Grotto, how do you not love eating somewhere with Princesses. The food is very good (top character meal food for our family) and we love the atmosphere, never feel rushed here either. We prefer to eat here for lunch.

Goofy's Kitchen, hated it, food was not good, service was terrible (and you pay a tip before you are seated because you pay for the meal when you check in), there were many characters but only 3 came to our table and we were there with small children who waved excitedly at each character as they walked past our table on their way out to a break. We won't go back.

We have not the Surfs Up! or Storyteller's breakfasts so I cannot report on those.

 

[jmac323]

We've done Minnie and Friends and Ariels.

At Minnie's we had me, DH, DD who was 2 1/2 and DN (nephew) who was 10. We all thought the breakfast was really good. Lots of options and my nephew was in heaven haha. The characters were plentiful and very interactive. They were great at gauging my DD's reaction to them and I think we might have had even more interaction had she not been so shy.

We did Ariel's this year with DD6 and DD2. They both loved it. I thought the food was very good, ambiance was nice and they accommodated our large party well. The princesses were very friendly accept Ariel oddly enough. She was rushing people through the photo taking and was very short with people. The princesses would stop and interact for awhile as well as stopped to take photos.

We are going back in a couple weeks and we're going to do Minnie's again!!! Can't wait.

 

[SCRAPBOOKQUEEN]

While it's been since 2006 since I've been to DL, my MOST memorial experience was at Goofy's Kitchen. In 2004, we went to DL. My daughter met Aladdin and he was so nice to her. She fell in love with him. He spent quite a bit of time and it was so nice. she had a great time.. Fast track to 2006 - well all she wanted to do was see Aladin. She consistently asked me if he would remember her. Well what do I say???? I tried very hard to explain this one. So we arrive, no Aladdin. She was disappointed but she did ok with it. I get up to go to restroom and who domI run into??? Aladdin. AND it was the same Aladdin as 2004. I could not believe my eyes. I stopped him, told him that this was the only thing she asked for was to see him and if he would remember her or not. He asked her name, where we were sitting and said he would take care of it. When Ingot back to my seat, it took a few minutes but he he comes. He walks around the corner, she does not see him at first and then she sees him, he stops, looks at her and then says "Taylor, is that you?, she looks and then with a look of amazement and tears in her eyes she runs to him and says you remember. he hugs her, and talks about their last visit two years ago and sits by her as if they never left off. Folks, it was the most magical moment of her life and mine. It was heart warming. So, I know that this was a long story, but Goofy's Kitchen and Aladdin will always hold a special place In my heart. My daughter is 15, and to this day she still does not know the "whole" story of how Aladdin met Mommy on the way to the bathroom. Maybe someday, but I want to hold on to this ne a little bit longer.