MVMCP or Character Dining

Would you do a couple of Character meals or the MVMCP?

  • MVMCP

    Votes: 7 77.8%
  • Character Meals

    Votes: 2 22.2%

  • Total voters
    9

HollyJoy

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 4, 2004
Taking my 10 year old daughter on a surprise trip this December and are on a budget. Because of this, we are NOT doing a dining plan, but were thinking about doing possibly two Character meals (deciding between Crystal Palace, O'hana Breakfast, and Hollywood and Vine). My question is, would you do the character meals, or the MVMCP?
 
Tough one. Is your daughter more into rides or characters? By age 10 my son was pretty much over meeting characters so I would probably choose MVMCP.
 
I think she’d get more out of the party than two character meals. Plus there’s plenty of characters at the party.
 
Party is more fun and you can meet plenty of characters. I prefer to just eat where we want and meet characters separately.
 


I also have considered doing the MVMCP, but for the cost it does seem like it is still a very busy party with the lines for characters on the longer side so I think it can be a toss up -- use the party to ride rides with somewhat shorter waits or do characters - might be tough to take advantage of everything.

I guess it depends on what characters she is into. I think at the Christmas party there are possibly more character opportunities - some who don't normally have a meet and greets. My boys at 9 were into the character meals and even at 12 they dealt with it but were by no means really into the characters. So a girl at 10 is tough to know if or who she will be into it. Keeping it a surprise you will have to secretly see how much she loves a certain character.

We have done CP and honestly felt that has been on of the better character meets - if she is into those characters. If you are on a budget then sometimes you can catch the characters during their meet and greet times with out using FP. Just this past trip we met Mickey and Goofy using the Disney visa meet at Epcot, we met snow white as we were leaving MK happening to see her show up, we met Jasmine in Morocco - again just catching her at the right time with very little wait. Anna and Elsa were a 25 minute wait and We did do a FP to meet Cinderella and Elena (those were my 5DD must do and the 12 yo brothers went to ride the speedway).

You can try to combine experiences -- such as doing the tusker house rivers of light dining package -- you pay a little more for the package, but you will have your character meal and will get the rivers of light special seating. You could also do this with H & V BUT that restaurant often does not get great reviews on the food.

If going to the party I would limit to one or 2 characters so that you can make sure you take advantage of many other aspects of the party night.
 
Out of the choices you gave, I would personally rather do the party. But I'm not a 10 year old girl.

I realize you're trying to make it a surprise trip so outright asking her opinion is a no go. But with some smarts, maybe you can bring up the subject of character meals and/or the Christmas party and gauge where she's at with them. If you've been to the character meals and/or Christmas party in the past then you can pull up old photos and blame it on you being a 'mom' as a way to kick start the convo. If not, then you could find some videos online from the various vloggers of the Christmas party (and maybe the character meals if you can find them), blame it on falling down a 'youtube rabbit hole', and use that as a jumping off point in to the convo. Then you'll have a better idea of what she would prefer to do.
 
Out of the choices you gave, I would personally rather do the party. But I'm not a 10 year old girl.

I realize you're trying to make it a surprise trip so outright asking her opinion is a no go. But with some smarts, maybe you can bring up the subject of character meals and/or the Christmas party and gauge where she's at with them. If you've been to the character meals and/or Christmas party in the past then you can pull up old photos and blame it on you being a 'mom' as a way to kick start the convo. If not, then you could find some videos online from the various vloggers of the Christmas party (and maybe the character meals if you can find them), blame it on falling down a 'youtube rabbit hole', and use that as a jumping off point in to the convo. Then you'll have a better idea of what she would prefer to do.
I can totally ask her opinion, as she knows we are saving for a future trip. She just thinks it will be in 2019! haha :)
 


I can totally ask her opinion, as she knows we are saving for a future trip. She just thinks it will be in 2019! haha :)

I would definitely ask her if either are of interest. My DS10 has zero interest in character meals at this point. Have you thought about any other options? Dessert parties? A special tour? A signature meal? HDDR? a spa appointment? I only ask because we are not huge fans of MVMCP and find the holiday decorations and events at the deluxe resorts and other parks to be a lot nicer and are either free or already included in the price of your park admission.
 

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