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Character Dining in WDW

Walt Disney World: Which is the best?

From Tim W
Posted August 23, 2010 at 5:40 PM
Which restaurant has the best character dining in all of WDW? Which one has the best food and which one the best theme? Are there any that are bad?


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From Carrie Hood
Posted August 23, 2010 at 6:38 PM
It really depends on which characters your looking to see, they offer several which are geared towards a set of characters.

My personal favorite is the O'hana "Best Friends Breakfast" with Lilo and Stitch. There is a huge list of the character dining on the Disney Dining website. My husband and I go to this every year we're down in Orlando, Stitch is our favorite and they have amazing food!
In the past a lot of people seem to enjoy Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Hotel which features Mickey and Friends. Others love the Crystal Palace which is Winnie the Pooh. Just make sure you call WELL in advance, some of the popular ones can fill up 6 months in advance. This is really true for Cinderella's Royal Table and the Princess Breakfast. Most of them are based on Characters rather then food, I don't do much character dining unless it's a character I want to see so I can't really vouch for food recently.
Anyone else on that one?

From Anthony Murphy
Posted August 23, 2010 at 8:18 PM
I always liked Liberty Tree Tavern dinner, but they might have gotten rid of that one!

From Rob P
Posted August 24, 2010 at 1:04 AM
Our favourite was always O'Hana's. But did they change the characters recently ? They used to have Minnie, Chip and Dale and Goofy.
The food was always good at O'Hana's too with the fire pit playing centre stage.

From Joe Brown
Posted August 24, 2010 at 7:20 AM
We've only done breakfast at Chef Mickey's and Ohana. And lunch at Garden Grill. Ohana is our favorite of those 3. None of these have been bad. We really liked the food at Garden Grill, but Ohana was just a really fun time.
I still wish Disney would give the older kids a character dining option. We are going this year with our 9 yo and 3 yo. The oldest would love to dine with some pirates or Indy Jones or some Star Wars, but really doesnt care about dining with Pooh, etc.

From Amanda Jenkins
Posted August 24, 2010 at 8:02 AM
We've done the character dining at Garden Grill, Ohana, Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's and Liberty Tavern. My favorite was the Liberty Tavern until they stopped having the character dining. This past Jan. when my husband and I went for an anniversary getaway, we were suprised to find the characters back at the Liberty Tavern. We found out that they were there because the Crystal Palace was being refurbised. I just loved seeing Goofy, Minnie, Pluto, and Chip & Dale dressed in colonial gear. Chef Mickey's is now my new favorite since you get to see the original fab five.

We leave for Disney World in a little over three weeks. Our sons are now six and three years of age. We are going to try (for the first time) Tusker House's Safari Breakfast with Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Mickey, and Pluto. I'm curious to see if this will become a new favorite. We also will be eating at our usual: Chef Mickey's, Ohana, Crystal Palace, and Garden Grill. Personally, I would love a chance to eat with the Princesses just so that my little guys could get a kiss or two from them.

I have always thought that they should make a character dining at DHS with Pixar characters. Plus, now that Disney owns Marvel...perhaps a hero dinner or two. And on the subject of boy meals...how about a Star Wars meal for kids. Even if you didn't have Darth Vader, how about using Mickey and the gang dressed up in Star Wars costumes. My boys love the toys of them, and I know they would get a big kick out of seeing the "real" Mickey dressed up as Luke Skywalker, Goofy as Vader, Donald as Darth Maul or a storm trooper, Minnie as Leia, etc.

As for best food...I would go with either Chef Mickey's for breakfast and then it ties with Crystal Palace for best dinner. We like having a wide variety to choose from.

From Joshua Counsil
Posted August 24, 2010 at 11:18 AM
I used to enjoy Ohana's alright, but I've found myself enjoying it more without the characters now. I'll be right in the middle of a good conversation, then BOOM - a character comes in and interrupts. It's a bit awkward, really, especially considering the character can't talk back to you. Until they get the interactive voice/lip synchronization running with the restaurant characters, I'll avoid it.

From Mike Shirley Jr
Posted August 24, 2010 at 12:15 PM
Crystal Palace....hands down....no question.

From Thomas Caselli
Posted August 24, 2010 at 12:59 PM
I have been to many character meals over the years at Walt Disney World. I have enjoyed them all, but I think that Chef Mickeys at the Contemporary Resort will always be the best.

From Anthony Murphy
Posted August 24, 2010 at 8:06 PM
1900 Park Faire dining with the Wicked Stepsisters is always fun.

I will say that Cinderella's Royal table is better than you think. Three course meal and a professional picture with Cinderella. Sounds pretty good to me!

From Scott B
Posted August 26, 2010 at 5:20 AM
That is good to hear about Cinderella's Royal Table. We will be going there in a couple of weeks (Got lunch reservations MONTHS ago). I have a three year old daughter at home that is beyond excited about it.

From Anthony Murphy
Posted August 26, 2010 at 10:34 AM
Then yes, you will have a blast!

We went to the character lunch with my family (youngest is a 16 year old BOY) just on a whim thinking "what the heck, lets see what everybody is killing themselves over". We were very impressed and definatly thought that it was a better value than expected (still expensive, but that is a gimme). We got a three course meal, a visit from all the major princesses, a professional picture with Cinderella in her waiting room, and a wishing star with a wand (for the girls) or a sword (for the guys). Yes fellas, we ALL get a sword.

The food is also pretty good, especially for Magic Kingdom, a place not known for its strong food. I recommend the porkchops if they have them!

From Timothy Tong
Posted November 7, 2010 at 12:16 PM
The best Character experience for us so far is dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table.. An outstanding meal and character experience at the only Disney Castle in the world that you can dine in.. We will be trying lunch at the Castle Christmas Eve for the first time and have a reservation for Dinner once again at the Castle on Christmas Day.. Other notable include Norway Pavilion Princess Akershus.. You get a picture with the princess and only takes one dining credit. Don't miss Mickey's Backyard BBQ with Mickey and Minney.. We are going to do their Christmas edition this time out with festive decorations and costumes on Dec 23rd.. Will be neat to eat Turkey and all the fixins with Mickey. Garden Grill is good.. Same palate as Liberty Tree Tavern.. Get to see Mickey, Chip and Dale, and Goofy.. Usually sold out, but we scored Candlelight Processional Dinner Package with Garden Grill this upcoming trip.. So definitely availability with this package. Will be trying Chef Mickey's as well for supper..

We usually avoid breakfasts.. We aren't breakfast people.. But Ohana's, Chef Mickeys, and Tusker House for breakfast sounds brilliant.

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