Best non buffet character meal!

[krinicone]

I cannot decide which character meals to do for our upcoming trip this nov. I keep 2nd guessing myself. We want to do 2, one for breakfast and another for a nice dinner. So going for story book dining at AP or CRT for dinner one night. I was thinking of doing breakfast at Ohana since we will be staying at BLT. But I’ve heard Garden Grill is awesome too. We have 9 ppl so it’s not gonna be easy making ADRs. Last trip I ate at CP and Tusker house but wasn’t impressed and I’m thinking maybe it just seemed too chaotic bc they were buffets. I want to give the character meals another shot for my kids sakes but I want to try and enjoy them as well!

 

[rdaky]

in my experience, ALL character meals are chaotic. We've been to non-character buffets and they're usually less chaotic than a non-buffet character meal.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Best non chaotic is Garden Grill.

 

[Jessirip]

We really loved Bon Voyage at Trattoria. We did a 12:05 ADR and treated it like brunch, then had a nice leisurely walk to World Showcase. The characters were so good, and the food was delicious! Flynn and Rapunzel were hilarious and interacted with each other throughout the dining room. We also did CRT, but I liked Bon Voyage better (the guys were fun ).

 

[KayaWildfire]

The best non chaotic ones are Garden Grill, CRT, and AP. I believe it is due to the lack of parades taking place during the meal. We haven't done Bon Voyage yet. The problem with CRT is I believe that they seat groups larger than 8 separately so if that is important to you that may be an issue.

 

[cassie58]

We like Cape May for brft - while it is a buffet, we did not find it loud or chaotic, and had good character interaction. We love CP and TH, but they are definitely always bustling. Also enjoyed Bon Voyage as PP mentioned, and used both to walk into Epcot - have done as early brft and walked into Epcot for rope drop, and did Frozen first w/ FP for Soarin later, or could do late brft after taking advantage of early time in park, especially Bon Voyage since ADRs are till noon!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I would choose GG over O'hana. I found the food at O'hana to be overly salty and the tables were so close together. GG food is good and the character interaction has always been fantastic.

 

[Kerriowl]

Garden Grill is the least chaotic character meal I have ever been to. Due to the round layout of the seating, you really don't even see the characters until they are at your table, or the one next to you. All the food comes to you, and it just feels much more relaxed than any other character meal.

 

[flyersfan444]

I love GG for both food and character interaction. It felt very relaxed.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

We did both GG and Bon Voyage and loved them. I'd highly recommend either as a non-buffet meal that still has great character interaction.

What part of your prior experiences did you find chaotic? Realistically, the basic level of jumping up and down for pictures/autographs/interaction is going to be there at any character meal regardless of how the food is served. I do think that the plated ones are better, since you're only getting up for characters, not food, but I wouldn't call any of them particularly relaxing.

If the little parade stressed you out, I'd do GG over Bon Voyage. Ariel leads a parade at the latter but there isn't one at the former. GG also has the benefit of being bookable PPO so you can snag a first ride on Soarin' before the RD crowd.

 

[Nancyg56]

I would choose GG over O'hana. I found the food at O'hana to be overly salty and the tables were so close together. GG food is good and the character interaction has always been fantastic.

Anywhere over 'Ohana is less chaotic lately. How cluster that place can be!

Garden Grill for any meal is a nice character meal. It is not chaotic, and relatively speaking, kind of quiet.
Storybook dining at AP is not that frenzied atmosphere that some of the other character meals have. CRT was loud and pretty disorganized the last dinner we had there. I am not going again for a good long time.

 

[BK2014]

We did not find Storybook Dinning to be chaotic or frenzied at all. And the interaction with the characters was great.

 

[Shelleyfs]

We did Bon Voyage at Trattoria last trip and it was wonderful. I didn't find it overly hectic. We saw each of the characters, the food was really good and they fed us fast enough so we could get going, but not too fast. We didn't feel rushed. Then it was a nice boat ride to HS or we could have walked to Epcot.

 

[PuppyPrincess]

I vote for 1900 Park Fare. Both the breakfast and dinner were wonderful and the character interaction were super at both!

 

[nkereina]

Another vote for Garden Grill. If your party will fit in a booth, request the lower level booth and you won't even know you have neighbors. DH and I sat in one and we couldn't see (barely hear) our neighbors on either side. It felt like we were dining alone in the place, save for the occasional person that would walk by. This was also good for character interaction.

 

[Turksmom]

We must have had an off morning at Garden Grill. The food was good, characters were great, but we were a party of 5 in one of the outside booths. So much up and down and half of our party isn't even in photos because it was too hard to slide all the way around to the outside. For those who did get up to meet the characters, there was a lot of squeezing and shuffling as servers were leading other guests to their tables. I wouldn't rule it out if the kids want to go, but I wouldn't consider it relaxing either. I thought Bon Voyage breakfast was much better for quality and atmosphere (if you like non- chaotic).

 

[elaine amj]

I don't think any character meal is peaceful and quiet lol. I actually don't like meeting characters at character meals - I don't like having half eaten food in the background if my photos. I would sooner go to the actual character meets.

BUT - we have gone to quite a lot of character meals mostly for non-character reasons. My kids chose to go to Garden Grill because they were fascinated with the idea of a revolving restaurant (and I refuse to pay inflated prices locally haha!!)

We have gone to GG twice now and the character interaction at GG is the best in WDW in my opinion. Not much time for eating since u are up and down with characters (my SIL didn't eat much at all - she was too excited haha!). My 3 year old niece adored it and it was like a private meet and greet. The characters typically come at least 2x, sometimes 3x and spend plenty of time.

Unlike some reports, We didn't have issues with other diners squeezing past us to get to their table (Maybe one or two groups passed through? No big deal)

I do agree that it is not conducive for a whole group to be in a character photo. Not that much space to slide in and out. However, that is the case in most character meals since the tables are pretty squished in together. Large group photos are better reserved for "normal" meet and greets IMO.

With a group of 9, it is possible to get a set of tables together in the lower booths. I was worried about that as we were a group of 7, but when we got there, they set us up in a lower booth section that could seat up to 9 people easily.

 

[22Tink]

Garden Grill! We’ve only done breakfasts but it had the best character interaction and excellent food. That sticky bun is delicious. It’s the only must do meal for us.