Are Character Meals at Disney World Worth It?

we are going in may, so i can't tell you if it's worth it BUT if you are going to do it SCHEDULE it now

Chef mickeys was awesome & frankly a nice break.
You take the monorail over & it goes right into the hotel.

We did the princess meal but I have a girl that loves them, with boys you can skip it.

Not worth it! They are expensive and time-consuming just as you suspect!

I would STRONGLY suggest that you download the free Disney app for your phone when you get to the partk. We used it the whole time we were there at Christmas. It will tell you "where" in the park the characters are at any point in time, where they are scheduled to be, wait times, restaurants, shows, parades, etc. It's great!

Some characters you can only really meet at character meals, others you have to wait in line. I HATE waiting in line simply to get my picture taken with someone (fictional or no.) At character meals, they tend to spend a little more time at your table that you get at the Character meeting points.

I was last at Disney World two years ago and did not do any character meals at Magic Kingdom. I only had one child, a boy then two-years old, who is not into princesses. He likes TIgger and Pooh, but they could be seen in one shot at the Character Meeting place across from the Winnie the Pooh ride, so I didn't have to go to Crystal Palace. My son did love the animatronic musician in the Starlight Cafe. Kept him very entertained while we ate, it's a quick service meal with a variety of foods. Very good for my family.

There are two character dining experiences I would swear by, though.
#2. Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. Food is a buffet, hot and delicious foods of so many varieties. (Anyone who says Animal Kingdom won't take a full day obviously doesn't start with this place.) The characters you meet are Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Mickey all dressed in safari gear! They spent a bit of time at our table and the Goofy was particularly wonderful with my son. Loved him! And, they start breakfast reservations before the park opens. So you aren't necessarily loosing park time to eat there.

#1. The all-time best meal and best character experience I had at Disney World was another breakfast. Lilo & Stitch's Ohana Breakfast at Disney's Polynesian Resort. You don't have to stay there to eat there. The breakfast is all-you-can-eat family style of delicious Hawaiian-inspired fare. So yummy! The characters are Lilo, Stitch, Pluto and Mickey (decked out in a Hawaiian shirt.) The characters were particularly wonderful with all the children. I am guessing because it's not in a park, they don't feel they have to rush people through quite so quickly. They did such a good job engaging my son (who is Autistic) both my husband and I were crying in our delicious Kona Coffee. This is the one character meal we have agreed will be a part of EVERY visit we make to Disney World. We did this the morning we were leaving so it didn't take up time on one of our park visit days and it gave us a last visit with characters before getting on the road home.

I researched my trip for more than six months before we went. I was obsessed.

Enjoy!

I definitely do at least one when we go to Disney. We did a princess dining experience and it was awesome because each princess came to our table personally so we were able to get a good photo op as well as autographs. It definitely was worth it in my opinion because when characters come out and do a quick meet and greet, you stand in line FOREVER and sometimes, they have to cut everyone off so the character can move on to a new location w/in the park so your kid may not get to meet them:( I think it's worth the splurge:)

With boys, I would choose Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary resort for your character meal. They have Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto. Each comes to your table. It's a buffet with kids item, ice cream bar. Not far from Magic Kingdom. Riding the monorail from Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary was part of my kids' favorite part. I have a son (and two daughters). We did character meals in Cinderella's Castle, the Winnie the Pooh one, another at Park Fare (I think it's called) and Asherkush in Epcot. Chef Mickey's was everyone's favorite.

Nah, I would skip it.

Your meal won't take much longer than a normal meal. They have the characters on a routine so they make sure they all stop at each table. It is a Great way to get pictures and autographs (if they want them) without waiting in huge lines.

My favorite picture of my youngest son is with Cinderella, he's holding up a piece of bacon as if to say "want some??" SOOOOO cute!!

Have Fun!

M.

You have to get there 15 minutes before your time and sign in, then wait for the table that is your party's size. Then you get seated and it takes 1.5 hours or more per meal. This is what the DISNEY reps keep telling me.

My dd loved the character meals. We have so many nice pictures too. The characters would come by the table and wait for you to get your camera ready and take the picture.

With boys, I'm not sure I would do a princess meal. BUT, The Crystal Palace is nice with fun characters and one of the best buffets around. It is nice to have some time to sit and relax your feet and have a nice meal and let the characters come to you.
If you do decide to do this meal, I HIGHLY suggest you get reservations.
As another person suggested, you can take a boat or monorail from Magic Kingdom over to The Contemporary and eat at Chef Mickey's, which is my son's favorite place to eat! You catch the boats outside the entrance to Magic Kingdom OR the Monorail out and to the side of the entrance. BUT again, making reservations is a must. :)
Just my two cents,
R.

We did the meal plan when we went to Disney (different than your trip as we stayed on property and we were there for 6 days). The meal plan is awesome and a $$ saver.

We did 2 character meals and LOVED both of them. We especially loved the Winnie the Pooh character meal (my daughter was about 4 at the time and the rest of us were adults and we all LOVED the Pooh characters.)

Have fun!!

See, I was going to disagree with the other mama's, but we stayed in a Disney Resort, and purchased their food package, so we were able to use that for the characther breakfast. We went to the Lilo and Stitch luau breakfast, and not only got to see them, we also got to meet Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Not to mention the food was delicious!! So, seeing as how you are only going to be there for two days, I can see where it wouldn't be worth it, but my nephew and son both LOVED it, when we took them!

I have girls so they did LOVE the princess one. For boys, not as worthwhile I'd think. But if they like Whinny the Pooh, I heard that meal is really really great.

One of my favorite memories of my now 14 yo's childhood is at Disneyland. We ate breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and pals and she kept jumping up and running over to Pooh and giving him the biggest hugs. She couldn't hide her excitement. Every time she saw him or Piglet she would squeal with excitement. I don't even know if she ate anything.
We have been to three character dinners/meals. I find them well worth it. The kids get personal attention from the characters, at 4 my daughter thought it was THE POOH!!!
We have done a Pooh and pals dinner at Disneyworld and Mickey and friends dinner. The dinners were family style, the breakfast at DL was buffet.

We had many trips to Disney with our daughter when she was young and we ALWAYS did character dinners or breakfasts. She loved it.

Pricey, yes but you are at Disney and all Disney is pricey. Worth it, Yes at least it was to us plus the food was good. We do not go cheap when we go on vacation... we do not go into debt over it either.

We always stayed at the Polynesian resort on the monorail line, never bought into a meal plan, we prefer to eat where we want and when we want and not be dictated by some rules of the park.

The favorites we had were Chef Mickey at the Contemporary, O'Hana Breakfast at the Polynesian, the regular Polynesian luau (not character), breakfast inside MK with Winnie the Pooh.

All the food we had was good and the characters come to your table for pics and autographs.

Just remember, if you go cheap you will get cheap. Just use your time wisely because it flies by!!

If your kids are not much into the characters then I would skip the meals with any of them, the food is really good but they can be expensive. They have character meet and greets at ALL four parks. There are some characters that only come out for the Halloween and Christmas parties (Seven Dwarfs, Captain Jack, step sisters, etc.), but the regular ones will be around all the parks.

Hollywood Studios and Epcot have indoor meet and greets which is very nice in the hot months here in Florida. Magic Kingdom has one area (that I know of) that is inside and the rest are outside.

Have fun, wear sunscreen and drink plenty of water (the fountains in Disney have filtered water just and FYI), it is getting hot here now.

There's the Crystal Palace with the Winnie the Pooh characters. It's set up like a buffet and it's one of the least expensive ones. Our kids enjoyed it.

One trick you might want to try when making a reservation--we couldn't get a reservation for 4, but, surprisingly, there was a reservation available for 6! So, we reserved for 6 & just decided that if they asked us, we would say that 2 people couldn't come after all. But, they said nothing to us. :) I agree with everyone--totally check out as many character meals as you can!

my neighbors went to the princess breakfast. it was the highlight of the trip and a great photo op. THe girls still tell me all about it anytime Disney is brought up, and it was over a yr ago.

Just wanted to also recommend Chef Mickey's. I see you are trying to get a reservation there, I'd keep trying until the very end. My husband actually called when were were already down there a few years ago and was able to snag us a last-minute reservation thanks to a cancellation. All the characters are there and our kids loved it. Hope you can get in! We also did Crystal Palace and liked that too. Both meals are buffet-style and super kids-friendly obviously.:) Good luck and have a blast!

I would absolutely have at least one character meal. Definately do a princess meal. My daughter was 2 and wasn't into the princesses so we did a different one but now wish we had done the princesses too.