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Katran
11-27-2006, 08:54 AM
We will be taking 4 kids, ages 4, 8, 13, and 14. Is the character breakfast worth it? What exactly goes on at that?

MammaSilva
11-27-2006, 09:00 AM
You have to be more specific, there are 4 different character breakfasts, Miss Minnie and Friends, held at the Plaza Inn inside the park, there is one at Storytellers, there is the Lilo and Stitch at the PPH and then Goofys Kitchen at the DLH, each have plus/minus depending on just exactly the experience you are looking for.

Hakuna Makarla
11-27-2006, 09:03 AM
I say no, the cost is a lot, and yes you get interaction, but we went to several and not much interaction did we see. now if you really like to pay a lot, and see a few carectors then do it, if you want to save a bundle do not and see the caracters out and about :)

Katran
11-27-2006, 09:04 AM
Thanks. I didn't know what information to provide because I didn't even know there was more than one. But if you don't get much interaction (I thought maybe it was a small group or one-on-one thing) then it sounds like it's not worth the price.

DangerMouse
11-27-2006, 09:04 AM
I've gone to two: Goofy's Kitchen and one at the PPH. IMO no, not worth it. I enjoy the caracter interatction in the park MUCH more than paying such a huge amount of money for a buffet and then needing to BEG and PLEAD for characters to come visit your table.

I would be willing, at some point in the future, to try Storytellers because you can order off the menu and I hear it is much more laid back type of character meal.

MammaSilva
11-27-2006, 09:11 AM
Well I've done 2 of the 4 in recent times, Storytellers is very low key minimum interaction from our experience and yes you can order off the menu but it's still expensive. Breakfast for 2 still set us back close to 50 bucks off the menu, food was ok but not spectacular. Miss Minnies in the park is a scramble style buffet and the food is good, not Napa Rose but good, there is a fresh omlet station, the standard scrambled eggs with sausage or ham or bacon, bisquits and gravy, potatoes, like i said standard breakfast, they have fresh fruit and pastries and waffles as well, juice, milk, coffee, sodas and teas are included in your costs. As for character interaction, I don't know about anyone else but we've never had a problem any time we've done Miss Minnies and we do it on average once a trip. We've never had to beg for characters and they have always graciously posed with the adults in our party as well as Missy...and her autograph book is always right on hand as well. For us it's a matter of enjoying a sit down meal and the plus of not fighting lines to spend a few minutes with characters so I consider it worth the cost. Everyones mileage will vary of course.

Bytebear
11-27-2006, 09:47 AM
I have done the Mother's Day brunch and the Easter brunch at the Disneyland Hotel. It will cost you an arm and a leg, but it's a great way to show how much you love mom. Also, seeing the chocolate and sugar Easter eggs was really neat. It's basically a big buffet with all the expected brunch foods. The characters are all along one wall with 4 backdrop areas for each set of characters. The characters rotate ever half hour or so. Two areas for "Prince and princess" (so four princesses total), "Mickey and Minney" rotate with "Donald and Daisy", "Pooh and Tigger" rotate with "Chip and Dale". I think others came out as well, but don't remember exactly who.

It is more a photo op than any kind of interaction.

DangerMouse
11-27-2006, 09:49 AM
I went to Goofy's Kitchen with my son for his birthday last February. Not one single character (or server for that matter) came to our table. We helped ourselves to the buffet after waiting about 15 minutes for anyone to come to our table.

Goofy finally did come around to a table next to us (they had about 10 seated), and took pictures with just about every single person, but walked away without even acknowledging my son or that it was his birthday. I had to get up and grab him before he left our area and beg him to say hello to my son.

Left a bad taste in my mouth for Character Meals. :mad:

Crazy4DL
11-27-2006, 09:54 AM
We are planning on doing the Minnie's Breakfast this trip as per MammaSilva's recommendation. I saw MS's pictures from her last trip and since they were so awesome we wanted to give it a try.

We did do the Princess Lunch over in DCA last trip and it was GREAT for us. We had a little tiny princess with us and two boys who love the princesses and each Princess came by our table and talked to the kids and posed for pictures so it was awesome. It was worth the money to us but again, everyone's experience can/will vary. It was just a great way to see all the princesses - or most of them with out waiting in lines. The only line we stood in was Aurora's since she was DGD's favorite at the time. Luckily we did because she was not at the lunch.

Crazy4DL
11-27-2006, 09:55 AM
Goofy finally did come around to a table next to us (they had about 10 seated), and took pictures with just about every single person, but walked away without even acknowledging my son or that it was his birthday. I had to get up and grab him before he left our area and beg him to say hello to my son.


:( that is awful, DangerMouse . . . I am so sorry that happened to you and your son. UGH!

Katran
11-27-2006, 10:01 AM
Goofy finally did come around to a table next to us (they had about 10 seated), and took pictures with just about every single person, but walked away without even acknowledging my son or that it was his birthday. I had to get up and grab him before he left our area and beg him to say hello to my son.

Left a bad taste in my mouth for Character Meals. :mad:


That really sucks!! I'd be furious. Your poor little guy! :(


It seems like the consensus is rather 50/50 on the character meals. I'll give it some more thought. We have time. I'd appreciate as many responses as I can get.

Katran
11-27-2006, 10:57 AM
Hey, what about things like the Minnie & Friends breakfast (is that the same as Miss Minnie's that MS was talking about?) or a meal at Ariel's Grotto?

JosieGirl71
11-27-2006, 10:58 AM
I would LOVE to do a character breakfast but something tells me that if my then-11 year old wouldn't stand with Alice for a photo, then he won't truly appreciate the magic of character interaction at the age of 14. :rolleyes: Oh well. I guess I could do it just to embarass him since we will be celebrating his birthday in the park. :~D

MammaSilva
11-27-2006, 11:02 AM
Hey, what about things like the Minnie & Friends breakfast (is that the same as Miss Minnie's that MS was talking about?) or a meal at Ariel's Grotto?


That is the exact breakfast I'm talking about and we've done the lunch/dinner at Ariels, (they don't offer breakfast...or at least not that I'm aware of at this time) The princess meals seem a bit more 'rushed' since the princesses do a route ...seriously they hit every single table skipping none, as they make their circuit thru the dinning room/deck..no table gets missed. The food at Ariels is off a menu and served instead of buffet style and price is comparable to any other character meal and cheaper than Goofys Kitchen dinner prices by far!

emmah
11-27-2006, 11:03 AM
we went to the one at the DLH - goofy's kitchen. there was a lot of character interaction, but i thought the price was excessive - making it a challenge for anyone to really get 'value'. can anyone really eat that much for breakfast? and further more, ought they? we saw people totally pigging out (chocolate pizza for breakfast???) - buffets seem to be a red flag... the food was completely OTT. I like the idea of being able to order off the menu - maybe storytellers is the way to go.

hlbtimes2
11-27-2006, 11:58 AM
We went to Goofys last fall. It was ok, but I expected more from the characters. We went to Minnies in March and had a much better time. I'll post a few pictures from that breakfast.

As for cost, it is expensive, but I dont think its that bad. It was $75 for two adults and 2 kids. A typically breakfast in the park runs us almost $40. So, its more, but its more then just breakfast. We've taken the kids to nice buffets (Mothers day/ Fathers Day) around here and spent about the same amount- and there were NO characters!


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11/hlbtimes2/familychip.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11/hlbtimes2/chip.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11/hlbtimes2/minnie.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11/hlbtimes2/sampooh.jpg

momuvseven
11-27-2006, 12:36 PM
In my opinion sometimes they are worth it. It depends a lot on the personality of your family. Does everyone want to go or would some rather be doing rides? Any picky eaters? The food is good and served buffet style. Are they big eaters? Mine are so we definately get our money's worth! LOL Do you have little ones that really must have autographs and pictures with their favorites? If so it is worth it to me. I can easily take a 100 photos at a character meal. I really dislike standing in line after line randomly trying to collect autographs and trying to keep my child's place in line. On busy days it can be really, really hard to get much one on one character interaction. If your family is split about going then offer them a choice, the meal or shopping dollars. If you go with the little ones then perhaps your partner can take the older ones on some thrill rides during that time.

If you decide to do it I like the Minnie & Friends at the Plaza the very best. You do not have to stand in the standby line, just head right to the receptionist and tell them you have PS. Schedule it for a time later in the week when you will all welcome the rest. You have to plan to stay for about ninety minutes to give time for all the characters to make their way to your table and to get lots of pictures. I suggest you schedule after you have spent the early morning hours on rides since lines are the shortest then and you can all work up a good appetite.

If you spend a few days in the park and decide that you have had enough casual encounters and photos then you always have the option to cancel your PS at the character meal.

AAA cardholders get a 10% discount which helps with the price. There are other discounts available to Disney Visa Card Holders and Annual Pass Holders.

Malcon10t
11-27-2006, 01:54 PM
We've done Goofy's and the kids really enjoy the food. Mine are young adults, so they dont appreciate the character interaction as much, but we still get enough. We are going to try Minnie's next trip though. I keep asking "You sure you don't want to just do Mimi's??" They love Mimi's but need a character breakfast once in a while.

ON THIS SAME NOTE: In June, we will be escorting a 3 (nephew) and 5yo (niece) to Disneyland. For this age group, which do you recommend? Before you ask, the niece LOVES the princesses, but nephew thinks they are "yucky". And nephews fave?? "Superman"... Nothing else exists for him (yet, we will Disneyfy him on this trip.)

Katran
11-27-2006, 02:45 PM
Well, it sounds like Minnie's is the place for us, if we do it, and we probably will. DH and BIL definitely can eat more than their fair share, so we'll get our money's worth just from those two, lol! My oldest probably won't care much about the characters, by my younger two girls and my nephew definitely will. And since this is BIL's and nephew's first (and possibly only, for the forseeable future) trip to Disneyland, we really want to splurge on them.

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I still wouldn't mind hearing some more opinions. You can never get too many for this sort of thing, I don't think. ;)

IdahoMike
11-27-2006, 02:59 PM
Sounds like everyone's experiences are kind of all over the board. We did Goofy's 2 yrs ago, and although it was expensive, we had great character interaction, and the kids had a great time. We were visited by (if memory serves correctly) Goofy, Pluto, Aladdin, Jasmine, Baloo, Louie, Rafiki and Donald. We even did a dance with them on the floor in front of the buffet area.
We already have PS for Minnie & friends in January, and have heard nothing but good things about it. Looking forward to it!

Katran
11-27-2006, 04:12 PM
We already have PS for Minnie & friends in January....


How far in advance do I need to schedule that? For the BB I usually just make a lunch reservation first thing in the morning, but how early should I schedule PS for Minnie?

Malcon10t
11-27-2006, 04:55 PM
How far in advance do I need to schedule that? For the BB I usually just make a lunch reservation first thing in the morning, but how early should I schedule PS for Minnie?
You can make ressies 60 days out. Right now, BB is booked up for a lot of the Christmas/NYE week. I just got the last slot for Christmas dinner
(8:50pm.) The same day ressies will work if its slow, but you may wait if its busy.

Katran
11-27-2006, 05:59 PM
We've pretty much decided to go from January 18th through the 23rd. Is that typically a busy or slow time?

I've never had a problem getting a BB reservation no matter what time of year I've gone, but I always get ressies at in-between times, like 2 or 3 instead of lunch or dinner time. Of course, I've never been to Disneyland during a major holiday either, but the 18th through the 23rd of January isn't a big holiday time.

cpeak
11-27-2006, 09:09 PM
I got priority seating at Minnie's the day before when I was there last week. I thought I wouldn't be able to get in because it wasn't a busy time. I was probably lucky. I had made priority seating elsewhere but I made a mistake in the time. They were able to make reservations for me quickly. I got the time I wanted with a choice between two days. My daughters enjoyed it so much. We say many characters and they stopped by and interacted a while with my 2 DDs. The fairy godmother had a conversation with the girls about what they had been up to a DLR.

ehbowen
11-27-2006, 09:34 PM
Here's a vote in favor of the character meals.

We visited Disneyland resort the Wednesday-Sunday just before Memorial Day. Our first day, at DCA, we did the Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto, and I'm glad we did. We dressed my 3 year old niece in a princess outfit, and got lots of good pictures of her with the various princesses. Besides Ariel and Prince Eric, we had Snow White, Jasmine, Belle, and Mulan. The character interactions were brief, understandably since they have a whole restaurant full to visit with, but they were fun. A lot depends upon you, the guest--if all you ask for is pictures, that's all you get, but if you engage the characters in conversation they are quite willing to reciprocate. For example, I asked Jasmine what life was like in the palace with Aladdin and she started going on about flying in on the carpet that morning but having gotten separated from Abu who ran off into the Adventureland area and had been last seen around the Jungle Cruise--and could we keep an eye out for him? Talking to the characters about their movie usually pays off, as well. The food at Ariel's Grotto was pretty good, too; everyone left satisfied.

On our last day--half day, actually, as we had a 2:30 train to catch--we did the character brunch at Goofy's Kitchen, as it was outside the parks and didn't require admission. The kids got their pictures taken with Pluto while waiting for a table, and while we were there we had Goofy, Alice, the Mad Hatter, Wendy, and Peter Pan. Once again, talking to the characters about their respective movies was a great opener, and it led to a priceless moment between Peter and Wendy when my 11 yr old nephew misidentified Wendy as one of Cinderella's stepsisters--a somewhat riled Wendy turned to Peter for support and he replied, nonchalantly, "Well, that happens." It broke everyone up--Wendy looked as if she was about to break Peter up. Not only were the character interactions fun, the brunch fare at Goofy's was, to my mind, excellent. Besides the standard breakfast fare, including an omelet/eggs to order station, there was an excellent salmon dish as a lunch item and more sweets than any two people could eat in one sitting.

If I were to return to Disneyland and had the budget and time, I would gladly return to either of these venues again.

If you are interested in a character meal, do make Priority Seating requests as far in advance as possible (30 days at Disneyland, I believe). While Goofy's Kitchen on a late Sunday morning was accepting walk-ins, when we visited Ariel's Grotto on Wednesday they were already booked for the rest of the day before noon.