Too many character buffets?

[maswanson11]

Taking 3 DD's age 12, 10 & 9 in December. It will be the 10 year old's first time to DW.

We have booked:
1900 Park Fare*
Garden Grill
Crystal Palace
Hollywood & Vine
Tusker House*
Akerhaus*

The ones with the * my other 2 DD's have been to on our 2014 trip.

Is it too many character meals? We have 1 each day scheduled. Our only other ADRs are Via Napoli for dinner and BOG for lunch.

All DDs are pretty picky eaters so I was thinking buffets would be a good choice. DH has never been to Disney so he doesn't have an opinion on where we eat.

Help! Thanks!

 

[hakepb]

Are you on the dining plan?

I haven’t heard much good about Hollywood & Vine unless those are favorite characters, or you are taking advantage of PPO Jedi sign up.

Otherwise, I would be OK with the food in the others.

 

[maswanson11]

Yes, we are on the dining plan!

 

[hllb]

Personally it seems like to many to me. But, if you're opting for buffets and your kids love the characters, go for it. Personally, I don't enjoy buffets so I limit it. There is a fair amount of overlap in characters in your reservations. I'd probably list out the characters for each and select a combination that gives you the most variety in characters and hits all your kids' favorites.

 

[hllb]

Personally it seems like to many to me. But, if you're opting for buffets and your kids love the characters, go for it. Personally, I don't enjoy buffets so I limit it. There is a fair amount of overlap in characters in your reservations. I'd probably list out the characters for each and select a combination that gives you the most variety in characters and hits all your kids' favorites.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Taking 3 DD's age 12, 10 & 9 in December. It will be the 10 year old's first time to DW.

We have booked:
1900 Park Fare*
Garden Grill
Crystal Palace
Hollywood & Vine
Tusker House*
Akerhaus*

The ones with the * my other 2 DD's have been to on our 2014 trip.

Is it too many character meals? We have 1 each day scheduled. Our only other ADRs are Via Napoli for dinner and BOG for lunch.

All DDs are pretty picky eaters so I was thinking buffets would be a good choice. DH has never been to Disney so he doesn't have an opinion on where we eat.

Help! Thanks!

Yes, too many, IMHO. The food at these restaurants just isn't, generally, very good and, personally, the thought of eating at them every day kind of makes me queasy. Plus, they aren't the most relaxing, either. I would narrow this down so you aren't doubling up on characters.

Are you doing 1900 breakfast or dinner? I would pick two or three of these tops:

One of these for Mickey: Garden Grill, H&V (I'm assuming you are doing the Minnie lunch or dinner?) OR Tusker House (our personal favorite)
One of these for princesses: Akershus OR 1900 (if you are doing dinner - we prefer Akershus, though it's not really a buffet)
One of these for Pooh and friends: (CP OR 1900 breakfast (though, perhaps your girls are a little old for Pooh?)

There are so many other great restaurants in WDW that will appeal to girls that age that don't have characters - Whispering Canyon, Sci-Fi, Biergarten, Via Napoli, Skipper Canteen, O'hana, etc.

 

[KenHutch]

Is it to many character meals? That depends on your children, when my daughter was in the 5-12 range we did a character meal a day. It saved a lot of time standing in lines at the parks and I let her pick out what characters she wanted to meet and we planned the meals to her desires. The only meal you have listed that I am hesitant about is Hollywood & Vine (really hated that place) but they have characters there at certain meals that you cannot find easily.

 

[nursejackie]

During our annual 17 day trip we used to do 4 or 5 character buffets, but after the 3rd one I'd had enough. Now we do two per 17 day trip, and that's enough. The food is not always top notch IMHO and they are expensive (no DDP for us). We just do our two favourites and then meet any other characters we want to at the parks instead.

 

[Pmlocke]

My wife and I like the character buffets for these reasons. We love the characters. That is what we go to Disney for. We also like the variety of foods. I choose what I want. Finally, we love watching the children as Cinderella or Mickey walks up to their table. It truly makes our vacation. We are in our 60's and we go now without children or grandchildren so thank you to all of you youngsters for allowing us the ability to enjoy through your childrens wonder.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

I'd swap out one or two for a non-character restaurant, it's nice to have some regular meals also. Do any of the kids really want to go to Hollywood & Vine? I'd drop that one and maybe switch to Sci-Fi which is fun for kids.

 

[Cornish Lad]

Taking 3 DD's age 12, 10 & 9 in December. It will be the 10 year old's first time to DW.

We have booked:
1900 Park Fare*
Garden Grill
Crystal Palace
Hollywood & Vine
Tusker House*
Akerhaus*

The ones with the * my other 2 DD's have been to on our 2014 trip.

Is it too many character meals? We have 1 each day scheduled. Our only other ADRs are Via Napoli for dinner and BOG for lunch.

All DDs are pretty picky eaters so I was thinking buffets would be a good choice. DH has never been to Disney so he doesn't have an opinion on where we eat.

Help! Thanks!

To me (and I am 70) the characters are part of the fun of going to Disney. We are heading over for 3 weeks next September (had 2 weeks there last year) and have already planned on booking several character meals during our stay.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I think it's too much. We did two character meals (1900 and Ohana) in a recent quick 4 day/3 night trip and it was a good amount. I suppose the length of your trip may need to be known but 6 sure seems like a lot. We did 1900 park fare for dinner and we really enjoyed that buffet! Can't speak to the breakfast though. Dinner was very fun for older kids and adults. Hollywood & Vine is not very good at all and we've had a bad experience there, not worth a visit IMO. Depending on how long your visit is, I would knock it down to 3 maybe unless you all love character meals.

 

[caribbeandream]

I hear you on taking three picky eating kids to buffets. My only comment is that the character meal at Vine are all from Disney Jr. and your kids are like mine they have already outgrown them. Unlike the Fab Five and Pooh I find those characters are not classics you want to revisit. Just my two cents. Otherwise, if you can afford it I don't think there is such a thing as too many character meals at Disney.

 

[married2mm]

To me (and I am 70) the characters are part of the fun of going to Disney. We are heading over for 3 weeks next September (had 2 weeks there last year) and have already planned on booking several character meals during our stay.

Marvellous!!
We took 87 dmil to her first character meal earlier this year and she loved it also.

And I must be one of the only people in the world to say this but my favorite character meal by far is now Hollywood & vine.(breakfast) and I'm nearly 50-not outgrown Disney junior at all..
The server was attentive, the character interaction was amazing and the food was delicious-
What more could one want?!

 

[TulipMom]

The buffets aren’t awesome except for the character interactions, so I’d cut 2-3 out of your plans.

We really disliked breakfast at H&V. Waited 30 min and the food was pretty terrible.

 

[TulipMom]

Also, if you have picky eaters that’s a lot of expense when they’ll eat very little. A pb&j and a fruit cup is a lot cheaper.

 

[Dakota731]

We are doing one a day too. I’m not crazy about buffets but this trip is for my little one!

 

[lorileahb]

No such thing - LOL! Our trips are usually only 3-4 park days, and we do one character meal a day on DDP. We love it... we book them during the busy times and it gives us a much needed rest, while getting to see some of our favorite characters. Wouldn't have it any other way (until my kids get too old - though, I'm not too old yet!).

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Taking 3 DD's age 12, 10 & 9 in December. It will be the 10 year old's first time to DW.

We have booked:
1900 Park Fare*
Garden Grill
Crystal Palace
Hollywood & Vine
Tusker House*
Akerhaus*

The ones with the * my other 2 DD's have been to on our 2014 trip.

Is it too many character meals? We have 1 each day scheduled. Our only other ADRs are Via Napoli for dinner and BOG for lunch.

All DDs are pretty picky eaters so I was thinking buffets would be a good choice. DH has never been to Disney so he doesn't have an opinion on where we eat.

Help! Thanks!

Depends. How in to them are your crew.

When mine were about the age of yours (i had some boys too) we went to

Chef Mickey's.
1900
Hollywood and Vine
Crystal palace
And last but not least we did Cinderella's (Not a buffet but a character meal)
Plus we did Boma (no characters but is a buffet)

Of course we had a bit longer trip so we did some of the better restaurants too. But it really didn't seem like too many to us. And having seen the characters, we didn't have to wait in line for them in the parks. Now that the kids are older, we don't do nearly as many. But as soon as the grandkids are born and old enough, we'll probably be going back to em. They're nice.

 

[Kay123456]

We get the ddp and also do a character meal per day. Hollywood and vine is one of DDs favorite places to see the characters. As long as you aren’t going there for the food, I say it sounds great. Also, don’t forget that breakfast characters there are disney junior. My DD expects to see the others. If one of your children hasn’t been, then I would say you definitely should keep your plans. Less time waiting to meet characters in the parks, killing two birds with one stone, and you’re using your ddp credits to the max.