It's no secret that just about everything Disney does, they do well. Disney Dining is so exception. As a matter of fact, when I was planning our first trip to Disney World the one tip that I kept getting over and over was to take advantage of the many different character meals that Disney offers. I must say, I am hooked on character dining. It is such a time saver and a convenience to be able to wait inside in the air conditioning and have all the characters come to you. I'm just waiting for an opportunity to dine with Tinkerbel and friends because I think that is the worst character line I've personally experienced (only about a 45 minute wait though).
Be aware that many of these coveted character meals book up quickly. Reservations can be made 180 days from the first day of your stay in a Disney resort. That means you can make reservations ahead even further than the general public if they are not staying on site. So, if the first day of your stay is 180 days away you can book dining reservations for anytime the following 10 days thereafter. If you plan to arrive on a Monday and that day is 180 days away, you can make reservations for Friday, which is 184 days away or even the following Thursday, which is 190 days away. They will not let you make a reservation greater than 10 days from your first night's stay.
Here are my favorite character meals in alphabetical order.
1900 Park Faire
(Supercalifragalistic Breakfast and Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner)
On our last Disney vacation we went to 1900 Park Faire for their Supercalifragalistic Breakfast. The restaurant is on the second floor of Disney's Grand Floridian resort. If you are on the Disney Dining Plan this meal will cost 1 table service credit.
For those of you who have never been to the Grand Floridian, you should really take half an hour to explore this beautiful resort. The Grand Floridian is one of 3 resorts that are located on the monorail line (others include the Contemporary and the Polynesian). We were staying at the Polynesian on this stay so it was easy to hop on the monorail instead of walking or driving. The monorail is so convenient. It will run all the way to the entrance of the Magic Kingdom, as well as the Contemporary Resort, the Ticket Center, and the Polynesian. So if you're in the Magic Kingdom it is very easy to leave for a meal and head back later in the day.
The lobby of this hotel is truly grand and the cast members are all decked out in their 1920's period uniforms. It's the most elegant hotel on the Disney property in my opinion. (Side note: Grand Floridian is very quiet. You might want to think about that before booking a room here with young kids.)
With Disney character breakfast experiences, the earlier your reservation the better. That is not necessarily true with lunch and dinner, but breakfast usually begins at 8am everywhere and when you get an early spot you get first dibs on the buffet. The food is warm, fresh, and the buffet is spotless. (When a bunch of kids start descending on the waffle bar, you start to get a little nervous about how truly clean everything is.) You also don't have to wait so long for the posed photo they take of you when you get to the restaurant.
Note: The picture the photographer took (shown above) was not given to us for free. Before you are seated, your party will be posed for a picture. While you dine a cast member will bring several prints of the photo to your table. These prints are available for purchase. However, we bought the Disney Memory Maker, which allowed us to download this picture. (More on the Disney Memory Maker to come in another post.)
As with any Disney meal, breakfast is always the best. For the kids there is a small buffet just for them with Mickey-shaped waffles, syrup, fruit and even whipped cream for the waffles! As for the rest of the buffet, there was an assortment of fruit, waffles, pancakes, muffins, sausage, scrambled eggs, and bacon. It was all good, but it didn't knock my socks off. I would say that it was definitely better than the average breakfast buffet at any hotel. If you have every stayed at an Embassy Suites hotel, the continental breakfast is a good comparison to this buffet. It was definitely better than our Club Level complimentary breakfast we got each morning at the Polynesian (more to come on that later).
We saw some great characters here: Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter, Winnie the Pooh, Piglet and Mary Poppins. Please note that I am told that Winnie the Pooh and Piglet don't always make an appearance. We had fantastic character interactions here and the Mad Hatter was my favorite actor the whole trip, though his over-the-top and erratic/kooky behavior really creeped out my daughter. While in the parks, these characters all have pretty long lines, so it's really nice to be able to sit back, eat a warm meal in the climate-controlled room and let the characters come to you! This dining experience was also very tranquil and not in the least bit noisy, which was very relaxing.
I love this character dining experience because each of these characters generally have a long line in the park. However, if you would rather see Alice, Mary Poppins, Pooh Bear and Piglet in the park you can! The only character I have not seen much in the park is the Mad Hatter. Usually Alice is accompanied by the White Rabbit in the Magic Kingdom.
- You can see Alice (and usually the White Rabbit too) in the Magic Kingdom at the Mad Tea Party (Teacup ride). She is usually there almost all day.
- You can catch Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore right outside The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
- Mary Poppins usually makes an appearance by Prince Charming's Regal Carousel during the day.
Dinner:
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Dinner takes place at 1900 Park Faire every evening. This is a very special character meal with Cinderella. The Prince has usually accompanied her, but on the night we were there, we only saw four characters: Cinderella, Anastasia, Drizella and Lady Tremaine.
Anastasia was a hoot! She told my girls that they were dressed exactly like her old dishwasher!
Drizella was fun, too. She was a little crazy and over the top, but fun to watch and it was fun interacting with her. Be aware, if you have a young man at your table, she will probably ask for a marriage proposal! The poor teenage boy at the table next to us was really getting some pressure from Lady Tremaine to propose to one of her daughters!
The buffet was good, especially the carving station and strawberry soup. We had no wait for our table and the characters came though quickly, which was nice that we didn't have to stick around after our meal was over just to see them. This meal is 1 table service credit if you're on the Disney Dining Plan and definitely worth a try if you have some children who love Cinderella or villains!
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
(Princess Storybook Dining)
Akershus, in EPCOT's Norway, is one of two Princess meals in all of Walt Disney World (the other being Cinderella's Royal Table in the Magic Kingdom). This meal, however, uses only 1 Table Service credit, while Cinderella's Royal Table requires two.
Upon check-in, you will have one posed photo with a Photopass photographer. We were posed with Belle, but I have heard that the Princess can change. Unlike Cinderella's Royal Table, you are not given any prints of this posed photo, but if you have Disney's Photopass, you will be able to download it for free!
We opted for breakfast at Akershus before the park opened. Please note the breakfast is typical All-American breakfast fare: bacon, eggs, sausage, potatoes, fruit and pastries. Lunch and dinner are also offered at Akershus, but these are all Norwegian dishes. If you have less adventuresome eaters, you may want to opt for breakfast since the food selection is pretty safe. We did have a buffet for breakfast with pastries, fruit, smoked salmon, and cheeses I can't even pronounce. The rest of our food was served family style, much like 'Ohana. Again, if you want seconds, just ask your server!
Akershus has a much more relaxed and intimate atmosphere than the other Disney Princess Meal- Cinderella's Royal Table. I was really impressed with the amount of time the Princesses took at each table and each child; we didn't feel rushed in the least.
One fun thing at Akershus is the Princess Parade! All the young Princes and Princesses are invited to walk around the room with either Aurora, Cinderella, Belle or Ariel. My eldest was chosen to walk with Snow White in the Princess parade and she was thrilled! Once they walked a lap around the restaurant, the Princesses gave the girls twirling and curtseying lessons. It was adorable and my daughter is still talking about it!
At 1 table service credit and a meal with the Princesses, you really can't beat Akershus on value alone. But when you add that you get such a personal and relaxed experience, I would say that those factors alone have made Akershus our new favorite character meal!
Chef Mickey's
(Dinner with the Fab Five!)
Chef Mickey's is a buffet style character meal located on the fourth floor of the Contemporary Resort. If you are using the Disney Dining Plan, this meal will cost 1 Table Service credit. The Contemporary resort is on the monorail line, so it's an easy walk from the Magic Kingdom Park (less than 10 minutes) or you can just hop on the monorail from the Polynesian Resort, Ticket Center or Grand Floridian.
We checked in here and waited longer to be seated here than we did for all our other meals combined. That said, it was only around a 25 minute wait total. Luckily, they have a lounge just outside the hostess' stand. Once your table is ready they will take your party's picture by a Chef Mickey statue (see above). They will bring prints of this picture to your table later in your meal and you can purchase them for a price.
Note: I did not buy the picture above; I had pre-purchased the Disney Memory Maker before our trip for $149, which included free download of ALL our pictures. I just asked for our code for the pictures and I was able to access them when I got home. More on the Memory Maker to come later.
Chef Mickey's is where you go to see the "Fab Five": Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald. As a result, reservations here are hard to come by! Try to make your reservations as close to the 180 day mark as possible! I have also heard that you can see the same characters at Cape May Café at Disney's Beach Club with a lot less competition for reservations.
Chef Mickey's is standard buffet fare, with an American theme to the food. They have a pretty good variety and I really enjoyed the parmesan mashed potatoes! You'll see a carving station in the center of the buffet and tons of variety here! The kids have their own small buffet bar with macaroni and cheese, corn, bread, and chicken fingers. I think my girls were too excited to eat, though!
The dessert buffet was great and I actually think it outshined the main buffet. The sweets looked like they were straight out of a magazine!
During your meal, music will occasionally be played over the loudspeakers. When you hear the music it means it's time to pick up your napkin and twirl it over your head! The characters will do the same! While we were seated, this happened two or three times. The first time my oldest daughter looked at everyone like they were crazy. But by the second or third time, she was in on it with all of them!
All-in-all I liked Chef Mickey's. We've now been twice, but it isn't my favorite character meal. I liked being able to see the Fab Five all in one spot, but the ambiance leaves a lot to be desired for me. My husband says it's his favorite character meal, though. He likes how the characters are staggered and there isn't too much of a break in the characters during the meal.
Bear in mind, it is in the Contemporary Resort, which is an older resort with all hard surfaces. The sound was deafening to me! I guess I am a little more sensitive to sound, though, because my husband and daughter told me it wasn't that bad. I would caution you that if you have a child who is sensitive to noise, I wouldn't even try Chef Mickey's. I had a hard time talking across our round table in the back of the restaurant. However, the second time we went we were able to sit in the front of the restaurant and it wasn't nearly as noise. Thankfully, my girls did fine with the noise and the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. It is definitely not as relaxed as 1900 Park Fare, Cinderella's Royal Table or even Crystal Palace. There are a lot of really hyped up kids here, and it's really loud and a little hectic. If your child really likes order and calm, I would skip this one. Lucky for me my kids thrive on chaos! ;)
Cinderella's Royal Table
(Meal with the Disney Princesses)
As Disney dining experiences go, Cinderella's Royal Table is considered the crème-de-la-crème. Booking this reservation takes planning and a little bit of know-how. First, decide when you want to go to Disney and try to plan as far in advance as possible. Dining reservations can be made 180 days in advance. If you are making a reservation online, they open at midnight. If you call the reservations hotline, they don't open until 7am. It sounds like a much better deal to stay up until midnight, but I can tell you that I recently didn't stay up, I just looked online in the morning. The website said there were only a few reservations, all of which were at bad times, but when I called the reservations hotline they had a table available at the time I wanted. I think they must reserve a few tables for those who actually use the reservations line.
Also note that reservations can be made 180 days from the first day of your stay in a Disney resort. That means you can make reservations ahead even further than the general public if they are not staying on site. So, if the first day of your stay is 180 days away you can book dining reservations for anytime the following 10 days thereafter. If you plan to arrive on a Monday and that day is 180 days away, you can make reservations for Friday, which is 184 days away or even the following Thursday, which is 190 days away. They will not let you make a reservation greater than 10 days from your first night's stay.
Cinderella's Royal Table not only requires reservations, but it also requires advanced payment. For all other dining experiences they take your credit card number, but only charge the card if you fail to show up ($10 fee per person). If you are on the Disney Dining Plan, any meal at Cinderella's Royal Table will cost you 2 Table Service Credits per person. The cost of the meal is high (around $50-$60 per person the last time I checked), but you will get a complimentary 5x7 print and two 4x6 prints of your party with Cinderella included with your meal. You'll also get little souvenirs for the kids, but more on that later.
When you arrive, you will be checked in by the Cast Members at the podium, just outside the entrance to the foyer. Once they locate your reservation, you are given a small slip of paper (receipt size) and told to get in line to meet Cinderella. Once it is your turn, the Photopass photographer will scan the receipt the hostess handed you (this is how they know which table to bring the pictures to later on). Then you will get a magical character experience with Cinderella herself. She will sign autographs and take pictures with you. For larger parties you will not receive one 5x7 and two 4x6s, but you will actually receive double that! We had a party of 7 and I think all parties of 6 or more get these two sets of photos. We actually didn't get the same picture twice, I posed my girls with Cinderella for the first one (above), and the entire party posed for the second photo (below). Please note that the foyer is the only place you will get to interact with Cinderella; she does not come upstairs.
While you are waiting to see Cinderella in the foyer, see if you can spot Jaq and Gus, her little mice friends. Hint: They are perched high up and to her right!
After you greet Cinderella, you will go straight up the stairs and into the Castle! I think I was probably more excited than my daughter on this part! I had never been in the castle before and the Imagineers really outdid themselves here. You will need to present your little receipt the hostess gave you at check-in to the Cast Member at the top of the stairs. From here, he or she will take you to your table.
Now comes the fun part! Rather than a buffet like most of the other character meals, you actually get to order off a menu here and it is brought to your table. They have quite a fancy menu here. Please note that your meal includes an appetizer or salad (depends on the menu), an entrée and a dessert. The menu has changed each time we've dined here, so check the Disney Dining website for the most current menu.
The last time we ate here even the children's menu had changed. Kids get an appetizer, entrée and dessert, too! We got our daughter cheese and grapes for an appetizer, I think it was chicken nuggets for an entrée and a scoop of ice cream for dessert. The first time we dined there they gave all of the kids plain frosted cupcakes with sprinkles, edible Mickey ears, chocolate chips, etc. to decorate their cupcake. I think the latter was my daughter's favorite.
Note: While you will likely read many, many reviews which characterize Cinderella's Royal Table as having the worst food in Magic Kingdom, I completely disagree. The food has been good every time we've eaten there, and I thought the service was excellent. The food was much fresher and more upscale than the spread at any of the buffets.
While you are waiting for your food you will hear music come over the loudspeaker and a voice tell the tale of the first Princess who will enter the room. Now it's time to watch your children's faces light up! We have always met the same Princesses here, and Snow White has always been first.
Sleeping Beauty, or Princess Aurora, was next (each time) and though I have seen older pictures of her wearing her blue dress here, we have only seen her wearing the pink one. Each of the Princesses stays perfectly in character while she is speaking with you.
If you want to get her talking about something, ask her if Flora and Merriwether are still changing her dress from pink to blue and back again. You'll like her answer!
This way my baby's first experience at Cinderella's Royal Table and Sleeping Beauty made it so memorable for her! The Princesses will often kiss the forehead of a baby they meet (but each will only kiss one baby per set). My little one got a royal smooch! She wore it proudly the whole day! BTW- that's applesauce above her lip! I promise she wasn't sick!
Ariel was next! Ariel is my big girl's favorite Princess, but she likes to see her with her tail. So even though we have seen her twice at Cinderella's Royal Table, we still stop by Ariel's grotto in Fantasyland to see her wearing her tail instead of her human legs.
And finally there is Jasmine. This Jasmine was really sweet and even tried to put my baby's shoe back on when she lost it. She said, "Uh oh, looks like we've got a little Cinderella on our hands here." Like I said, they stay in character the whole time.
Toward the end of your meal your server will bring each child at the table a wand (for girls), a sword (for boys) and a Wishing Star. The Wishing Star is a small durable plastic star they will hold and use to wish upon during the Wishing Ceremony. The loudspeaker will come on again and the voice will instruct all the children on how to wish upon their star. These little trinkets are such great souvenirs of an incredibly special character meal. This is the only meal in Disney that I know gives out souvenirs included with the price.
All-in-all Cinderella's Royal Table is a must-do for our family. Even with the price, I think it's totally worth it. You would be waiting a LONG time to see all of these Princesses individually and you can't beat the location!
If you would rather skip Cinderella's Royal Table, there is a great Princess Character meal in EPCOT at the restaurant Akershus in Norway. I have heard that breakfast is the best meal there, so book 180 days + in advance if you want to get this slot.
If character dining is not your thing there are other places you can meet the Princesses all over Magic Kingdom!
- You can meet Rapunzel and a visiting Princess (usually Snow White) on one side of Princess Fairytale Hall. (We have never seen Rapunzel at Cinderella's Royal Table.)
- On the other side of Princess Fairytal Hall you can meet Cinderella and a visiting Princess (usually Sleeping Beauty).
- You can meet Ariel (wearing her tail) at her grotto back by her ride, The Journey of the Little Mermaid, in Fantasyland.
- You can meet Tiana in Liberty Square, which is next to the back side of the Christmas shop. She is under a beautiful white gazebo. (We have never met her at Cinderella's Royal Table.)
- Belle is unfortunately not at any posed meet and greet spots in the Magic Kingdom anymore, but you will find her at Enchanted Tales with Belle. She will not sign autographs, but she will pose for pictures with everyone who has a role in the telling of her story. If you want a true meet and greet experience with Belle, I suggest you go to EPCOT to find her in France or dine at Akershus; she is always there. (We have never seen her at Cinderella's Royal Table.)
The Crystal Palace
(Dinner with Winnie the Pooh and Friends)
On our last trip we were able to dine with Winnie the Pooh and Friends. This dining experience takes place in the Magic Kingdom at the Crystal Palace, which is located just off Main Street USA. We had made reservations in advance, but I saw several people inquire about walk-in seating and a few of them were accommodated (they waited a lot longer than we did with reservations). The restaurant was very busy when we were there, which was prime meal time (around 6pm). I'm sure that it would be less busy during the mid to late afternoon. Even with our reservations and showing up only 10 minutes early, we did have to wait for our table. Thankfully we waited less than 15 minutes before we were seated, which was just about the exact time of our reservation! There is no official posed photograph here and no Photopass photographer. All photographs are on your own. 
The first character we saw was Tigger. We hadn't even buckled the baby into her high chair when he came over, so he told us he would come back again, and he did! That gave us an opportunity to run up to the buffet, grab our dinner and then head back to our seats before the next character came.
The buffet was pretty good. All of the Disney buffets have a special section just for kids at the beginning of the buffet line. This section is lower to the ground and just the right height for kids to get their own food. They usually have pretty standard kid items, such as macaroni and cheese, corn kernels, chicken nuggets, rolls and some other assorted vegetables. They also had a soft serve ice cream bar with a variety of toppings.
The rest of the buffet was good, but if you are a true food critic you might want to think about this one. In general, eating breakfast anywhere on Disney property is pretty safe because they will have the standard fare, but lunch and dinner are a bit of a gamble. They did offer a carving station and also had a number of other dishes I liked. They ranged from pretty safe (pasta salad) to fairly surprising (I'm pretty sure I had paella, even though there was no description card.)
All-in-all I thought the food was good, but not amazing. After all, it was a buffet. There was plenty of variety and it was all prepared well. We are not a group of picky eaters, so we just all kind of dabbled in the various dishes and didn't eat some, but got second helpings of others.
The overall atmosphere here is good. The restaurant is pretty with an atrium-like feel. The ceiling in the entryway is completely made of glass and the tables and chairs all have a garden feel to them (iron work on them, etc.).
Please note that if you have a child who is easily overstimulated by noise, you probably want to go during a less hectic time of day. It was a little bit on the noisy side, but very easy to carry on a conversation at our table. My daughters didn't really seem to notice the noise; they were too busy looking at all the characters.
During our meal there were two times when music came over the loudspeakers, which instructed all the children to follow the characters in a parade around the restaurant. If a character is at your table when this happens he or she will finish taking pictures and signing autographs and immediately go to the parade. If you are the next table in line, don't worry! The character picks up right where he or she left off! You won't miss a thing. It was really cute to see my daughter following Winnie the Pooh around the restaurant clapping, skipping and dancing with him. I just wished I had known about that ahead of time so I could have gotten some pictures! It really was adorable.
Actually, Pooh Bear was at our table when the music started, so he gestured to my daughter to follow him and she led the parade with Pooh Bear himself! She was so excited! Just realize that every child has a different reaction to the characters, noise and the parade. I saw some kids do fine when the characters were at their table, but wouldn't dare follow them around the restaurant. After a long day in the Florida sun (or in our case rain) everyone is tired, hungry and slightly unpredictable. Try to be extra patient here!
Personally, I really liked the Crystal Palace and I would definitely dine there again!
If you skip the Crystal Palace character meal, you can still see Winnie the Pooh and the gang in the Magic Kingdom! They are always over by The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride. Please be aware that this line gets very long and the characters take a lot of breaks (probably because they are wearing fur in the Florida heat). The line to see them usually takes a very long time, and I seem to remember it being an uncovered area. Also, the characters will vary. You might only get two or so of the Winnie the Pooh gang.
The Garden Grill
(Chip n' Dale's Harvest Feast)
The Garden Grill is a dinner only character meal in The Land Pavilion at EPCOT. If you've never ridden the "Living with the Land" attraction in that pavilion, you should do that before you eat here. "Living with the Land" guides guests through a narrative about farming, both traditional and futuristic techniques. The attraction even takes you through EPCOT's greenhouse, where you can see hydroponic (soil less) farming techniques.
The fun thing about the Garden Grill is that some of the produce in your meal comes from this greenhouse!
Our meal here was really fantastic. It is served family style, just like Akershus' and 'Ohana's breakfast. We received a variety of beef, turkey, mashed potatoes and fish for the adults. The children were served sweet potato fries, macaroni and cheese, steamed vegetables and chicken nuggets. The server also brought out salad and rolls for the table. It was plenty of food for us, and we didn't feel like we even made much of a dent in it.
While you're enjoying this yummy meal, the restaurant is slowly rotating. Really, it's such a subtle rotation that you won't really notice it. But you do get a front row seat to peer into some of the segments from the "Living with the Land" attraction.
We made one full revolution during our meal, and we were there about an hour and a half. We even saw a few of the boats from the attraction going through, which my kids thought was lots of fun.
During our meal, we were greeted by four characters: Chip, Dale, Farmer Mickey and Pluto.
If you don't know the difference between Chip and Dale just remember this: Chip has a nose like a chocolate chip! Dale has a red nose.
Farmer Mickey was a lot of fun to see. We had a great character interaction here, and Mickey even came around to our table a few times.
Our meal here was great, and we really enjoy eating the family style meals. If you want more to eat, make sure to tell your server, you can get more of just one item or the entire platter! I personally prefer to stay away from the buffets, just since it takes up so much more time. I thought the 1 table service credit this meal cost us was well worth it. We had a great character interaction and great food. We definitely recommend it!
If you skip The Garden Grill, you can still see Mickey and Pluto at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort (breakfast or dinner) or 'Ohana at the Polynesian Village Resort (breakfast only). You can also see Mickey Mouse in Magic Kingdom at the Town Square Theater, EPCOT at the Character Spot, Animal Kingdom at Tusker House or out in the park. You can catch Chip and Dale at the Magic Kingdom near the Diamond Horseshoe daily.
Hollywood and Vine
(Disney Junior Play and Dine)
Located in Disney's Hollywood Studios, Hollywood and Vine has the only character meal with some of the Disney Junior cast. If you're planning to see characters, make sure your reservations are for breakfast or lunch- dinner does not have characters.
Hollywood and Vine is definitely the smallest restaurant I have been in while at Disney World, but we actually loved the small interior. The restaurant is very 1950's diner, and the small space allowed us to see the characters several times during the meal.
We sometimes feel rushed to get the character to the next table, but this was much more free form. There were even periodic breaks in the character meetings to dance with the Disney Junior Play and Dine cast. It really ended up being more of a experience than just a character meal.
We loved seeing Doc McStuffins while we were there!
Sofia the First was so sweet to my kiddos and she loved their Sofia outfits they wore. :)
Handy Manny even gave my baby a smooch!
The entire meal was buffet, and they had a few highlights for our family. The first was the make your own pasta station for lunch, but we also loved the soft serve ice cream for dessert, chocolate fountain and lobster mac and cheese.
Hollywood and Vine was a little chaotic, and not as organized as many of the other character meals. That said, we still loved it and enjoyed the meal. It was a great opportunity to see the Disney Junior characters since they are pretty rare out in Hollywood Studios. Two thumbs up!
'Ohana
(Best Friends Breakfast featuring Lilo and Stitch)
Disney's Polynesian Village Resort boasts one of the most popular restaurants in all of Walt Disney World: 'Ohana! As you'll soon find out upon entering, 'Ohana means "family." In this restaurant, you won't call your server by his or her first name, everyone is "cousin." If you are here to see characters, make sure you have a breakfast reservation! There are no characters at any other meals, so breakfast reservations fill up quickly! This is also the only place where you can meet Lilo and Stitch in Walt Disney World!
Breakfast at 'Ohana is served family style. The "cousin" serving your table will bring you pastries to begin.
Note: there were a lot more of these, I just didn't get a picture until we had dug in a bit!
The skillet of food they brought for the table had sausage, eggs, bacon, breakfast potatoes and biscuits. I really enjoyed the fact that there wasn't a buffet, so I didn't have to waste time going up to get separate plates for my kids and then my husband and I taking turns. It was really nice having it already prepared and brought to the table for us. If you want more of anything, just ask! It's included in the price of the meal!
One thing to keep in mind is the parade the kids are able to participate in during the breakfast. The Cast Members give them maracas and other instruments, and they parade around the restaurant with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. It was really a blast.
Our overall impression of 'Ohana was great. The food was the general Disney breakfast fare, so nothing too unusual there, except for the Stitch waffles and "Stitch Juice"- which is just orange juice and guava juice, I believe. It was definitely worth the time and the Dining Plan's 1 Credit. Ambiance and food were great. Great character interaction, and great time. We highly recommend this meal!
Tusker House
(Donald's Dining Safari)
Animal Kingdom's only character dining experience is at Tusker House in the Africa section of the park. Located across from the Kilimanjaro Safari, Tusker house offers character meals for breakfast and lunch only, dinner is a buffet, but has no characters.
We met 4 characters at this meal: Mickey, Donald, Daisy and Goofy. All of the characters were wearing their safari garb. Safari Minnie has been at the breakfast in the past, but not the day we were there. Be aware that characters are always subject to change.
As with all other Disney breakfasts, the food was traditional American breakfast: sausage, eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, mickey waffles, etc. We were offered the house "Jungle Juice"- which was okay. It was basically equal parts orange juice, guava juice and passion fruit juice. I'm not a huge fan, but it was something different to try. There are also a few African dishes available on the buffet to try! Please note that this is a full buffet, not a family-style meal.
In addition to meeting the characters, our favorite thing about the safari breakfast was the parade! The children are all given African instruments and walk around the restaurant following the characters. So much fun!
In sum, Tusker House is a win! This meal is only 1 dining credit and a great opportunity to see the original Disney cast. The food and service were great and we had a fantastic character interaction. Just be aware if you have a child with sensory issues, Tusker house can be loud and crowded! We were practically sitting with the people at the next table.
Well, those are my favorites! If you are on the Disney Dining Plan, I highly recommend any character meal. It is such a time saver out in the parks! But even if you're not into Character Dining, please take a look at my review of Disney's Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at the Polynesian here. It's a character-free show for any age group!
Thank you so much for taking the time to post all these details and sharing! We are going for the first time this Fall with our two year old, and this post is so helpful!
ReplyDeleteJennie, I am so glad you've found this helpful! Have a great time at Disney!
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