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Which Character Dining Experience would you rate as the best and why?

Answers posted to the list:

Oh gee, that's a tough one to pick just one - I loved Chef Mickey's for dinner cuz I love the Mouse. I think that the food is basically the same at all the character meals. Mostly buffets. I enjoyed the Crystal Palace even though I'm not a Pooh fan. I mainly due lunch or dinner character meals. I'm not a breakfast person so I've only done one breakfast buffet and that too was Chef Mickey's. My main reason for picking a particular meal is the characters that are there. I did enjoy the meal at LTT before MNSSHP cuz the characters were in their Halloween costumes. Even though I usually dine solo cuz I travel solo, I've never had a problem getting attention from the characters. Of course it probably helps that I carry on a "conversation" with them. I've even had a couple of the characters sit down at my table with me while I was eating.

Pam

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My favorite character meals are: Garden Grill in Epcot's "Land" Pavillion. This restaurant features a slowly revolving floor (you overlook the Land ride during part of your dinner) and your food is brought to you by the servers. I found our kids had better character interaction here since you have the characters all to yourself when they visit your table. Food is good, too! I think this is the hidden gem of character meals (I make a lot of Priority Seating reservations for my clients and this meal isn't as popular as some of the others). We ate here after the Candlelight Processional on the CP dinner package last time. Chef Mickeys. We had a good dinner here. It's the opposite of Garden Grill in that it's a buffet and it is very busy and loud. That's not all bad though - there's a real enthusiasm about the place (including the napkin dance where people twirl their napkins above their heads - our kids loved that) The food is good for a buffet. My all time favorite character meal used to be the breakfast at Wilderness Lodge (pre-plated with Winnie the Pooh and friends) - they don't offer that one anymore. The Animal Kingdom one I found was average - not as good as Garden Grill or Chef Mickeys. Liberty Tree Tavern gets high marks from most people - we thought that one was average, too.

Tim

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I definitely loved Chef Mickeys for breakfast, but I haven't tried the dinner there yet. When we went to WDW last June we went to the one in Animal Kingdom and I thought it was horrible.

Stacey

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My favorite character meals have been: 1. The Crystal Palace for a late morning breakfast after an early entry/magic hour. 2. The Garden Grill for lunch.

Bob

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Chef Mickey's Character Breakfast is Great! Great Interaction and a bit of showtime too!

Dennis

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Our experience is very limited, but of the 3 or 4 character meals we've done I'd have to say the Garden Grill was best. Very relaxing, with the slow rotation; sit down as opposed to buffet; good food; and plenty of time with the characters.

Kim

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The thing about Garden Grill that is so nice is that the characters just keep coming to you rather than you having to stand in line. We had so many visits with Mickey, Pluto, Chip & Dale last year that we hardly had time to eat. We also really enjoy Donald's Breakfastosaurous at Animal Kingdom.

Joey

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I'd have to agree with Kim about the Garden Grill. The characters spend so much time with your table in there. We had a blast in there just this past December. We went there for my daughter's 14 birthday dinner and they made a huge deal out of her! She tried to play that cool 14 year old act, but mostly laughed and had the best time. Chef Mickey's might come in second, but lately, I don't know. If you were asking me about Disneyland, Goofy's Kitchen was extra good, on the same level of character attention as Garden Grill, easily! We have done each of these only once, but hope in the future to be able to repeat, money and time allowing.

Kathy

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There are so many really nice character meals. Probably the most enjoyable for my family was Breakfastosaurus in Animal Kingdom. The characters included Mickey, Donald and Goofy (and maybe some others) and was very upbeat and lively. Not only were the characters entertaining but so were the servers. It maybe too early for most vacationers but I'd recommend it to those who want to visit AK in the early morning hours. (I'm told the best time to see the animals.)

Milton

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We've had early PS's for Breakfastasaurus twice, both times before official park opening. We went through a special gate and were met by a CM who escorted a group of us over to the restaurant. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a rather large, unorganized line. Both times we waited upwards to 30 minutes before being seated. both times we too finished our meal before all the characters made it into our dining room. We are two adults, who's grown nieces happen to love Donald..and this is one place where we can actually find him. Once he showed up at our table he did spend the requisite time to have some pictures taken, for we adults, we got the pictures we came for, along with a mediocre breakfast, at best. However, I felt bad for all the little ones who were waiting "patiently" to see all of the characters.

I think the problem here is the multiple dining rooms and not very good coordination of rotating the characters so there is always one in each section. Seems we had feast or famine, and when they did arrive, everyone was rushing as they had finished their meal and wanted to get on with their day, plus there was still a horde of people outside waiting to be seated.

I think we now have enough pictures of Donald and will skip the AK breakfast when the nieces are along!! We haven't done many character meals, but we did enjoy the characters at the breakfast at cape Mae - Beach Club. Place wasn't busy at all and goofy, chip and dale and Minnie spent a lot of time clowning around with us. As two adults that was a fun breakfast. We had dinner before MVMCP at Liberty Tree Tavern. wasn't too impressed with the dinner, but the characters were easy to find and Pluto was a riot. We've had better meals here at lunch, when the characters weren't present.

Peggy sue

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