Where to put character dining in a touring plan?

iMadHatter

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 13, 2018
I have been searching for advice about when to schedule character dining into a touring plan, and haven't really found much advice. We will be staying in the DLH for 5 days in early August, and my two DDs are really wanting to experience the Donald Duck Seaside Breakfast as well as Goofy's Kitchen. We've tried Plaza Inn before. As I'm trying to figure out a basic plan that will fit our family's needs, I keep struggling to pick a time for these meals. I'm trying to plan a time so I can reserve them at my 60 day window, too.

Do you recommend at the beginning or end of a trip?
I see each breakfast meals are only open to 11 or 11:30. Does that mean I can schedule a meal to start at 11:00, or is 10:00/10:30 the latest reservation time?
Is Goofy's Kitchen better for breakfast or dinner?
How long should I plan on these meals taking?

Any advice or suggestions would be VERY much appreciated!
 
We are going to Storytellers on the day we leave (we leave in the afternoon) so we don't take anything away from our park time.

I know Storytellers seems to, at least from what I can tell, offers brunch until 2. That might fit your timeline better if you wanted a later breakfast. I know they've improved their character lineup over the last year or so, maybe check into that one also?
 
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If you will be arriving the day before you start your park days, dinner at Goofy's Kitchen can be a very fun way to kick off the magic. That way you get dinner, characters, and lots of fun, without using any of your park time. On average, character meals take about 90 minutes. Add a bit more time if you have slow eaters.
 
We enjoy doing Goofy’s Kitchen on our arrival night as a fun way to kick off our trip and have our son meet some characters before actually visiting the parks. Depending on when your arrival time is, that may be a fun option. I thought the dinner there was good. We aren’t big buffet fans in general, but the food has always been fine and it’s more about the characters anyway.

We’ve never done Donald’s Seaside Breakfast. We prefer Minnie’s breakfast at Plaza Inn on a park day. You can make the earliest reservation possible for that day and enjoy entering the park before everyone else. We also enjoy the variety and amount of characters at Minnie’s, but there’s no Stitch if that’s who your kids are wanting to see.
 


Donald's is really fun. It's smaller than Minnie's and has fewer characters, but that can mean more interaction and for a longer time. And Stitch is always so much fun!
 
You can (usually) make reservations close to the ending time of the meal (not necessarily right when the meal ends, but usually within 10 to 15 minutes). Personally, I would not do that because you might end up feeling rushed or miss out on characters. (I don't know if that really happens very often, but I recall seeing the characters making one last round of the room right around the end of the mealtime and then heading out of the dining room. So if you weren't at your seat when they came by, you missed out on that character. This was at Storytellers and they were transitioning to lunch, which doesn't have characters, so it might be different that a place that closes after breakfast is finished.)

I would plan on 60 to 90 minutes for the meal, just to give yourself time and make sure you get to meet all of the characters.

If you're planning on doing two character meals, I would do one early in the trip and one later in the trip. Basically, spread out the character meals so there is something fun planned for the beginning and end of the trip.
 
We always do it on departure day breakfast. It doesn’t take park time and is a good way to end the trip. Just did Storytellers again last weekend for the first time in several years. It was not crowded, and the characters came by several times and good interaction. We were staying at the GCH, so it was so easy to just walk down there.
 


We’re doing Goofy’s on our arrival day. While it’s technically a park ay for us, it will only be a half-day and we will be using it to get “first visit” buttons, see the castle, and ride the Disneyland Railroad. So Goofy’s feels like a nice ending to our “intro” day and beginning of the rest of the trip. If we were also going to do a character breakfast, I’d do it early on the day of departure. Sort of book-end the trip.
 
We have family in San Diego and usually head there after a few days at DL. Storytellers at GCH is our breakfast tradition on the day we drive down. It extends our "Disney" a little longer without a park day.
 
Thank you so much for the replies. I really like the idea of using character meals as book ends. I think we will do one on the day of our arrival and one on our departure day. I'm getting really excited for our disney time now!
 
Just another person chiming in to say we used to do a character breakfast on our departure day. They do take a while (all the waiting around for characters!) and doing it with antsy kids who are eager to get to the parks can be challenging.
 
Aloha,
Depending upon how much time and $$$ you have, my family and I have always stayed on property and planned our character meals when there is no rush to do rides. For example, the first day of arrival at DLR. We tour Downtown Disney and enjoy a character meal for dinner. Hit the parks using EMH the next AM. For any lunch character meal, we enjoy EMH and do the character lunch at 10:30 after we enjoyed the rides for 3 1/2 hours with relatively light crowds. We relax and enjoy the character meal, take a break from the parks and return later in the PM using MP.
 

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