Trying to figure this all out. [Dining in Particular]

[danlott71]

We are going to Disneyland on July 15th for 8 days. There will be 3 adults and 3 children (ages 7 yrs old, 19 months, and 18 months). We will be staying at the Park Vue Inn. While we are there we plan on going to the beach one day and also to the Aquarium of the Pacific. One night we plan on going to Medieval Times. We plan on buying our Disneyland tickets through Get Away Today Vacations. If anyone has input on any of these please share your thoughts.

My main question though is about dining at Disneyland. It is all very confusing to me. Do you need reservations? If you do not have reservations how long is the wait? I also can not figure out the character dining stuff. Where are they located and when are they? Do you have to stay in a Disneyland hotel to be able to do them?

I have tons of questions, but I am trying to figure them out by reading through the forums. Lots of information.

Dan

[MammaSilva]

First of all, welcome to Mouse Planet. Second of all, a few basic answers then more questions.

Character dining: No you don't have to be staying on property to do a character meal. There are 5 character breakfast:

Ariels - princess meal - inside DCA and you do have to have admission ticket to attend, set price and the breakfast is served "family style"

Storytellers- at the Grand Californian Hotel -buffet or ala cart - lessor known characters and very low key interaction

Lilo & Stitch - inside Paradise Pier hotel - buffet or ala cart - characters, Lilo, Stitch, Minnie, Daisy and Pluto

Miss Minnie & Friends - Plaza Inn - strictly buffet - characters - Minnie, usually the 100 acre wood crew, chip and dale, other characters rotate in and out.


All of them have their fans and people who don't care for one but love another, your personal mileage may vary.


As for Medievil Times, with two toddlers, I don't think I'd recommend it. If you are planning to hire a child care service and leave them at the hotel while the adults and 7 year old attend the show then you'll have a good time. The show is not toddler friendly at all.

[MammaSilva]

Sorry about the double post but I realized I'd forgotten to say that you do need to make priority seating (Disney version of reservations) for all the character meals. You can call 60 days 'out' to make your PS for that day. There are other restaurants you would want to make PS for if you're planning to eat at the Blue Bayou, Carnation Cafe, Cafe Orleans or the Italian place over in DCA, sorry but the name escapes me at the moment.

[Drince88]

What about the big character meal in the Disneyland Hotel? Is it Goofy's?

[MammaSilva]

What about the big character meal in the Disneyland Hotel? Is it Goofy's?

and that would be the 5th one I just forgot to put it in the original post, Drince88 is absolutely correct

Goofys Kitchen - Disneyland Hotel - brunch and dinner - buffet only - characters - the only one I know for 'sure' is Goofy, we were there recently and had Goofy, chip and dale, a prince and princess and Pluto. There may have been more but I don't remember anymore than those.

[HisKid]

One possibility is to do a character breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen on the day that you are going to the beach, so that your DL day is not taken up by breakfast, and you get to have some Disney fun on 2 days, but only needing a ticket on 1. DEFINITELY get a reservation through Disney dining.

[Matterhorn Yodeler]

Well, I think the character breakfast subject has been covered by previous postings, so I'll talk a little about priority seating.

The "sit-down" waiter service restaurants have a reservation system known as priority seating. You can call (714) 781-DINE up to 60 days prior to your request. There is no charge for this service, so you should take advantage of it. A PS is a must if you want to dine at the Blue Bayou. If so, may I suggest that you arrive about 15 minutes before your reservation to check in and at that time request waterfront seating. You will then be immersed in the Blue Bayou experience. Other PS restaurants at DL include Carnation Cafe on Main Street and Cafe Orleans. Most of the Downtown Disney restaurants are on the PS system. Also, restaurants in the hotels.

There are many alternatives to dining at a PS type place. In Disneyland, the Plaza Inn offers nice meals in a buffeteria style. There's the French Market in New Orleans Square and a personal favorite is Redd Rockets Pizza in Tomorrowland.

And there are fun snacks galore like the corndog wagon on Main Steet, a Dole Whip at the entrance to Adventureland, Bengal BBQ in Adventureland, etc. etc.

During the summer, mealtimes will be extremely crowded, so you might want to eat off hours, like a 3:00 PM lunch for quicker service.

If you have specific questions, just ask!

Enjoy your trip!

[adrianne]

regarding the Park Vue Inn -- good choice! That's my favorite off-property place to stay. You can't get much more convenient, and it's comfortable and very clean.

[julezdisney]

The Disneyland section of Allears.net has an entire section on dining including restraunts and menus.

[dawnid]

I think most of the PS info has been posted but I didn't see this: You are supposed to be seated within 15 minutes of your PS time unless you make a special seating request when you arrive (i.e. waterside at BB). If you don't make a PS waiting time in July for a table service restaurant are normally > 1 hour or you can't get in at all.

I'm a big fan of PS, especially if you have little ones with you. You can always cancel and there is no charge for the service. Nice alternatives without PS but with air conditioning Plaza Inn or Pizza Port.

[Malcon10t]

I think most of the PS info has been posted but I didn't see this: You are supposed to be seated within 15 minutes of your PS time unless you make a special seating request when you arrive (i.e. waterside at BB).

Interesting, I have never heard this. I have always been told it is the next available table for our sized party at the time of our PS. We have had waits of longer than 15 minutes (but we are usually there during very busy times.) We've also gotten in earlier (as they were holding the table.) The way it was always described to be is not a reservation, but more of a fastpass or "call ahead" seating.

[dawnid]

Many moons ago when I worked at WDTC our spiel to educate travelers about PS had something in there about "first available table normally within 15 minutes". The CM's have always been really great about seating me within that time frame, the only exception was when I've asked for a waterside table at BB. Our party size is usually between 2-6 so that maybe why I've never had to wait (?) long.

[Bytebear]

I have done walk up at Blue Bayou and gotten right in, but it is rare, and you definitely do not get a waterside table. Note, BB is not cheap, but the food is above the quality of the buffeteria eateries that make up most of the restaurants in the park.

[jacandjan]

You might check the Getawaytoday web site for character breakfast tickets since your buying your Disneyland tickets there anyway. We bought ours from them last year and they were slightly cheaper.

[danlott71]

Thank you to everyone that replied, really like the idea of Goofy's kitchen then the beach. Then on another day maybe the aquarium and Medieval times for dinner. Already promised my boy dinner at Medieval times, so will have to make do the best we can with the little ones.

It will also be my son's 7th birthday on July 12th and mine is on the 11th. Are there any special birthday things to do?

[DLmomof2]

Go to city hall and get a birthday button. Plaza Inn has Pat E Cake birthday celebrations where you decorate your own cake. Can't remeber how much that costs now. I am sure someone else can tell you though.

[ssturgeo]

When picking up the birthday pin at city hall...do not forget to pick up the phone and listen to the birthday call from Goofy!!

Birthday Buckets
These buckets come in Princess, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh, or Sorcerer Mickey themes. They are filled with treats, like a collectible stuffed animal, happy birthday pin, and stickers. They are topped off with an individual birthday cake. They are available at many full service resort restaurants. You can order them when making your dining reservations. You can also order birthday balloons.

Plaza Inn Pat-A-Cake Brithday Party
The cost is $15.99 per guest (under 3 free) which includes, cake, punch, party hats, a special Happy Birthday cup and Mickey Mouse Plate. Everyone at the party enjoys punch while decorating their own birthday cake with icing and toppings. There is even a top prize awarded to the best cake! There is also a photo opportunity with Mickey and Minnie at the end. The picture must be purchased separately, it is not part of the $10 per person package. If you buy the photo at the Plaza Inn instead of at the Photo Supply shop you can buy 3 sheets of photos in various sizes for $29.99. A CM mentioned that this is the better deal. There are usually two seatings per day, usually at 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.. Parties are 40 minutes each. Call Disney Dining up to 30 days in advance to book a party. Children under two are free. AP discount applies.

[emsmom]

We always have to do a Goofy's breakfast and my "kids" are 16, 19 and 23...the food isn't that great but I look at it as great memory, the pictures are priceless. Thankfully they also love Napa Rose so we go there too... Storytellers also does non character meals that were good for lunch when we met my brothers family. He has 2 yo twins and a five yo. Oh...when we do the Goofy breakfast we have started doing it on the day we leave, our flight is usually mid day and this way we don't miss a morning at the park and have something on going home day to look forward to.

[danlott71]

It looks like we will be doing the breakfast at Goofy's kitchen. It is a little ways from our hotel (Park Vue Inn) to the Disneyland hotel. What would you suggest for tranportation? We will have our car at the hotel, but do not really want to hassle with parking. Can we ride a shuttle? What do they cost? How is the parking and what does that cost if we drove ourselves? Is walking an option?

[twindaddy]

It looks like we will be doing the breakfast at Goofy's kitchen. It is a little ways from our hotel (Park Vue Inn) to the Disneyland hotel. What would you suggest for tranportation? We will have our car at the hotel, but do not really want to hassle with parking. Can we ride a shuttle? What do they cost? How is the parking and what does that cost if we drove ourselves? Is walking an option?

I might be wrong, but I recall valet and self being $12 a day. We went through the same debate for our upcoming trip, and determined that is was an easy 10-15 minute walk, but since you are walking through DTD, you can stroll and stop along the way, so its not like you are walking through some barren wasteland.

You could also drive to DTD, park for free for three hours, and then move your car back to the hotel after breakfast. That just seems like alot of effort to me. I would probably just walk it, but thats just MHO.

[MammaSilva]

It really isn't as bad a walk as you'd think, cross the crosswalk, go thru the bag check, cross to the exit of the entry plaza....stroll thru DTD to the hotel. If you're going back into the park after the meal and the monorail is up and running you can save a few steps by taking the monorail back into the park.

If you have a mobility issue and still don't want to drive you could always just call a cab, it would be about 7 or 8 dollars but they can drop you off right in front of the entrace to the hotel ...walk thru the lobby out the back door, stay to your right and the entrance to Goofys is just beyond the coffee shop.

[Malcon10t]

It looks like we will be doing the breakfast at Goofy's kitchen. It is a little ways from our hotel (Park Vue Inn) to the Disneyland hotel. What would you suggest for tranportation? We will have our car at the hotel, but do not really want to hassle with parking. Can we ride a shuttle? What do they cost? How is the parking and what does that cost if we drove ourselves? Is walking an option?

Walk. Its maybe 15 mins. Walk like you are going to DL, but pass through to DTD. Walk all the way through DTD to DLH. Walk past the pool and straight into Goofy's.


ETA: Didn't see Mamma's post.