Character Dining Considerations

Character dining is a very popular thing to do at Walt Disney World.  For those that are aware, there are several dining establishments in WDW that have characters greeting you at your table, and occasionally doing a small performance.   You can get your photo taken with the characters, and briefly chat with the speaking ones such as princesses while you enjoy a meal.   However, since there are quite a few choices, there are multiple things to consider when deciding which one or ones to go to.

1. The characters at each restaurant vary, and many popular characters are not at any.  As expected, Mickey,  Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy are the most common.  Others such as some Disney Jr characters may only be available at one dining location.   If you want to save money, and perhaps have more time with the characters, choose a location in a resort or a Disney Springs Resort Area hotel.  The dining establishments in the parks with characters including Magic Kingdom's Crystal Palace and Hollywood Studios' Hollywood and Vine are going to be the most popular,  and usually need to be reserved up to 180 days in advance. Some characters are not all sittings either. At Cinderella's Table, Cindy is the host for breakfast and lunch, but the fairy godmother hosts at dinner.                                                              
2. There are two main types of meals at character greetings: buffet and family style.  Buffet will offer you a wide range of food choices including vegetarian and lactose free.  I have even read that people have had a dish on the buffet, prepared especially for their dietery needs.  Breakfast buffet is the safest choice food wise, because the items offered are very similar to those you would find on typical breakfast buffets. Family style are platters that come to your table, and you share the food as if at the home kitchen table.                                                         
3. There are two notable exceptions to these above two options.  Mickeys Backyard Barbeue is an outdoor buffet meal and show.  At Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom,  the Beast greets guests at dinner only.  This is also the only meal of the day at BOG that is full service where you order off a menu, which is what makes it unique amongst character dining options.                                                                  
4. Remember that character dining is an experience and you are paying a premium for that.   If you are concerned about getting good value for your money,  you won't unless you factor in the experience of meeting the characters.  These are some of the most expensive meals offered in WDW.   On our first trip with our kid we did two, Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's.   The following trip we opted against doing any.  Some character meals will cost you two dining credits if you are on the Disney Dining Plan.                                                                 
5. TripAdvisor (please see a previous post) is a good source of information on how good the food,  value and overall experience is at each restaurant. Posting a question comparing possible choices in a Disney World related Facebook group is another worthwhile endeavor.   Some reviews will even suggest which mealtime is the better option for a particular location. Guidebooks and websites (see a previous post) also offer outlines and even menus to help you decide.                                                      
6. If our kids are any indication,  yours might not eat much with all the excitement of meeting characters. Plus, you could start to hesitate to get food from the buffet,  and run the risk of missing a character visiting your table. And don't feel that you have to have kids to rationalize meeting characters at a meal.  This is Disney World where everyone is free to act like a kid, even if that means chatting up Princess Belle at dinner, or giving a hug to Goofy in a chef's hat at breakfast!

                                     

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