Which character meal

[Robsie71]

Which character meal (breakfast or dinner) would you choose and why? Trying to decide but all get similar reviews so difficult to choose between. Looking for good character interaction and good food (asking too much?)

Thanks

 

[cdatkins]

Which character meal (breakfast or dinner) would you choose and why? Trying to decide but all get similar reviews so difficult to choose between. Looking for good character interaction and good food (asking too much?)

Thanks

Plaza Inn has a lot of characters, and you get a picture with Minnie beforehand. Food is not as good as Storytellers or Goofy's though.

 

[gpjacobs]

I haven't been to the character meals at the Storyteller's Cafe or PCH Grill yet. That said, I'd recommend Plaza Inn over Goofy's Kitchen - especially if you're NOT staying at the DLH.

Goofy's Kitchen was downright chaotic during our last visit and the food, while good, wasn't spectacular. I also prefer to have a late morning meal, after conquering a lot of rides at rope drop, so the fact that Plaza Inn is actually in the part earns extra points in my book.

 

[22Tink]

Storyteller’s has better food IMO but Plaza Inn breakfast is our favourite character meal. The food is still good and they have the most characters (we saw around 10 on our last couple of breakfasts) We like to rope drop and book the latest breakfast seating. Goofy’s is our least favourite but we haven’t done PCH Grill yet.

 

[poptart90]

If you want to meet a lot of diverse characters in a short amount of time...Plaza Inn, hands down. They hustle the characters to every table quickly and if you want, you can be finished anywhere from 30-40 minuets total meeting everyone. Food is marginal, as others have mentioned. And I saw in another post someone complaining about the coffee out and having to request CMs make more coffee. Exact same thing happened to us, plus all the juice was out! And the adults have to take turns getting food, or the kids will miss out on characters. That said, if meeting characters and photos are the emphasis (as it was for us) the character list we got was: Minnie (outside meet & photo), Chip, Dale, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Captain Hook, Rafiki, Max, Fairy Godmother, and Suzy Mouse. That said, there's a rushed feeling in that the CM's are working to turn the tables quickly to accommodate the next round of guests. Doesn't mean they will ask you to leave, of course. But far from a relaxing morning meal, IMO. More like a Breakfast FP - ha!

If a nice meal is important, I'd vote for Storyteller's. Delish choices. Characters are Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip & Dale. They do a really cute parade with the kids (maybe every half hour? Or it seemed like that!) through the restaurant. We also did not feel rushed to leave. After meeting everyone, we stayed and enjoyed 2nd's in peace. The Characters would stop by, but were masters of the "oh, we've met before" wave and nod...moving on. All around enjoyable experience for us & the kids. Plus, they made a tasty mimosa!!

 

[CanuckMama]

Storyteller’s has better food IMO but Plaza Inn breakfast is our favourite character meal. The food is still good and they have the most characters (we saw around 10 on our last couple of breakfasts) We like to rope drop and book the latest breakfast seating. Goofy’s is our least favourite but we haven’t done PCH Grill yet.

Can I ask why Goofy's is your least favourite? We're planning that one as we want a dinner option, but I'd like to be prepared for whatever we might run into.

 

[poptart90]

Can I ask why Goofy's is your least favourite? We're planning that one as we want a dinner option, but I'd like to be prepared for whatever we might run into.

Dark, COLD (as in air temp), and very very marginal food, IMO. It's barely lit in there. The air temp is ridiculously cold - DH went back to the room for blankets and jackets for us while we waited on the final characters. You meet the main group: Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip & Dale. Nice interaction, but not enough to offset the negative in my opinion. The song parade is cute (everyone twirls their napkins to the music as the characters walk by) but it can disrupt the meets to where we ended up having to wait an entire cycle to catch a character who had to quickly depart to join in yet another song parade...was a bit annoying as my nose was freezing off! Still, the kids loved it, so all depends on what's important to you and your family!

 

[22Tink]

Can I ask why Goofy's is your least favourite? We're planning that one as we want a dinner option, but I'd like to be prepared for whatever we might run into.

The food has been not great every time we’ve gone and we just prefer the variety of characters at the Plaza. If you’re wanting dinner I think Goofy’s may be your only option though. My kids did enjoy it and the parade is fun. I’m sure you’ll be just fine with that choice!

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Speaking of diner at goody kitchen... does anybody who’s been recently know if they have sugar free desserts there? Not so much cake and cookies as much as like jello or pudding or ice cream ?

 

[DisTXMom]

Plaza Inn breakfast. Love the number and variety of characters and we found the food better than Goofy’s or PCH. If you are a Stitch fan, PCH was good, just not as memorable as Plaza Inn.

 

[poptart90]

Speaking of diner at goody kitchen... does anybody who’s been recently know if they have sugar free desserts there? Not so much cake and cookies as much as like jello or pudding or ice cream ?

Yes, they had all the options you listed the last time we went, plus peanut/treenut allergy free desserts. If you have a concern, mark it under your reservation. The chefs are great at coming out to discuss dietary needs. We have a peanut/treenut allergy in our family and a chef always walks the buffet with me and advises me on what's safe ahead of our meal. I imagine they would answer the same questions about sugar-free desserts if you asked.

 

[GenGen22]

I have done all except Goofy's kitchen. We just got back from our trip and went to the Donald's Seaside breakfast at PCH Grill and we absolutely loved it! The character interaction was awesome!! Stitch and Donald were always goofing around and making everyone laugh. They did a mini dance party with the kids which was too cute! My DD22 loved the omelette bar as it had a lot more options than most have. I also like the food at Storytellers but since it's the newer version with Mickey & Minnie you wait forever to meet Mickey and Minnie. So, I liked the older version of Storytellers because the character interaction was much better. Plaza inn has the most characters and the food is also good but my daughter's favorite is now PCH Grill.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

I have only done Plaza Inn and Goofy's, both for breakfast. Plaza Inn is a lot of fun with characters, plus as others have said it is nice to be "greeted" at the start by Minnie and get your picture with her. The downside to me, (I am a very simple, basic eater) is that the menu has changed. I was VERY disappointed last year to find that out. I also realize I should have asked on here before committing to the high price (for me) meal. A few examples are they no longer have plain scrambled eggs (but will make them for you on request ), I used to enjoy the plain shredded hash browns (I don't think any character meal offers these anymore). Those have been replaced by seasoned and skinned cubed potatoes. The dessert offerings seem more limited now. They used to have these amazing mini chocolate muffins.

Goofy's I went to once on my actual birthday. Honestly it felt like a regular buffet that happened to have a few characters thrown in. It did not have the ambience or cuteness of Minnie's. A plus though for Goofy's is because it is inside the DLH you do not need park admission when you go. I've read many a time on here that can be a fun way to start off a trip

Have fun whatever you choose

 

[violina]

The only one I haven't done is Plaza Inn (though we're trying to do that one this year). Of the ones we've done, I think the food at Storytellers was great and I really enjoyed it. The people in our group who do not enjoy characters really loved the food as well, so that helped.

Goofy's has good food but can be out of the way, along with PCH. However I will say that PCH was the most relaxing and the most entertaining as far as character interaction goes -- we opted to go there before leaving Disneyland and heading to the airport and that was a great decision for us.

 

[MWGum]

We were there in September of last year.
•Goofy's Kitchen (It's Chef Mickey for dinner): As others have said it can be a bit chaotic and is probably the largest character dining area. It did take awhile to see all of the characters due to the dance parade. We didn't think that it was too cold. We did this on our first night.
•PCH Grill: This was one of our favorites due to the different characters (Stitch was a favorite). The area is also quite small so you get more interaction with the characters.
•Plaza Inn: The number of characters is a huge plus for this one. We did feel a but rushed, but didn't let that cut our time short. Also, being in the park is a plus.
•Storytellers Cafe: This was on our last morning. We had to ask multiple times for a character that never came to our table and we were ready to leave. A CM finally took us over to Mickey so that we could see him before leaving.

All in all, our kids loved all of them. We scheduled our breakfasts later in the morning to be more of brunch. We would eat something quick from our hotel room and then just did the character dining for Bruch and did an early dinner to cut down on the number of full meals in the park.

 

[GeneralTso]

Plaza Inn is a great experience. Lots of good characters.
Goofy's has super high energy and is a lot of fun for little kids.
Food is standard Disney buffet food no matter where you go there.

The princess breakfast at Storytellers is fantastic. If you have a kiddo that likes princesses-this is a must. Food is presented very beautifully. A very nice change.

 

[stardusty21]

We prefer Goofy's kitchen on our arrival day. It generally is not a park day for us and Goofy's Kitchen gets everyone in the Disney mood. I asked my daughter if she wanted to go to another this trip and she said she wants to go to Goofy's.

 

[Robsie71]

Thank you all...this has been really helpful, lots to think about and like the idea of breakfast on our flight day as we wont be in the parks that day...last little Disney fix before we leave

 

[Mich1218]

We did Minnie's on our last day in the parks, it was a MM and we'd already used our entry on an earlier day. So it was kind of like a PPO for us. The restaurant was very empty-characters came around multiple times. At one point, Hook, Minnie and Tigger were just sitting at a table together pretending to talk. It was really funny. We finished up right around RD for the rest of the crowd. One of our best character meals. We've also done Minnie's at 10:30, but that earliest one was the best.

 

[mouschievous]

We did Minnie's on our last day in the parks, it was a MM and we'd already used our entry on an earlier day. So it was kind of like a PPO for us. The restaurant was very empty-characters came around multiple times. At one point, Hook, Minnie and Tigger were just sitting at a table together pretending to talk. It was really funny. We finished up right around RD for the rest of the crowd. One of our best character meals. We've also done Minnie's at 10:30, but that earliest one was the best.

We did the same thing and had the same general experience. Pulling FPs at breakfast was great! Unlike those with later seatings, we never felt rushed at all, and the kids got long interactions with all the characters.

We did Goofy's years ago and I agree that it had a very "basic buffet" feel to it, I think in large part due to the size of the space. At Minnie's, we could always see the at least 3 characters it seemed. Even if they weren't in our immediate area, we could see them. Maybe that was because there are so many characters, or maybe because it is smaller. But at Goofy's, I couldn't see characters at all times and in fact it seemed they had a hard time getting to every table. It somehow just wasn't as magical.