Hi Miranda, We went to Disney World in April. We did one character breakfast (Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort)and I would do it again in a heartbeat. How it worked for us is that you get there at your assigned time and you get to your seat. The food is buffet style so you can go get it as you want. The characters come out of the kitchen area one by one and stop at every single table. They sign autographs, hug, take pictures and move on to the next table. It was a brief amount of time at each table, but it was just perfect and my boys (ages 4 and 7) LOVED it. Even though it is expensive, it was so worth it. We would do it again in a heartbeat. By the way, if mom and dad want to get in on the pictures, they will do that too. They don't just take one picture. If you ask them to pose for more, they will. I know you mentioned trying to save money and so were we. We took the last breakfast time at this buffet, and used it for more of a brunch. Since it was a buffet, it was all you could eat so the kids ate before the characters came out. However, once all the characters had come and gone, then the kids truly ate, all the excitement was over, so they got their appetites back. That was one less meal we had to buy at the parks.
Also, you didn't ask for this but here's another tip. If you go to Epcot, they have a building where there are all of the main characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy), they are there all day long signing autographs. There was a HUGE line all day long also. However, the building closed at 9pm on the night we were there, we went and got in line at 8:50pm. The line was about a tenth of the length that it had been all day and as long as you are in line before closing time, they let you in to meet and greet them.
One last tip...you can take snacks in. We took goldfish, peanut butter crackers, bananas, apples, teddy grahams, PBJ (we stopped at a Wal Mart and bought a loaf of bread, peanut butter and found jelly packets at the parks). It saved us a bunch of money and also a bunch of time (some of those food lines are long).
Hope you have a fantastic time!!!