Character Meals-What are They?
Character Meals are Disney Dining experiences where one of more characters come to your table while you are eating at a particular restaurant. It’s one of our favorite ways to fill two needs with one activity–eating and character greeting.
How Do I Get a Character Meal?
Character meals like all other Disney table service meals require a reservation. You can make a reservation 180 days in advance. If you stay on Disney property, you can make the reservation 180 days out from the first day of your reservation. That means if you are staying for five days starting October 6, and your 180th day out is April 3, you actually can book meals for each day of your stay (October 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10) on April 3. To make the reservations call 1-407-939-5277, use the Disney World app, or go online to https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining
What Does it Cost?
Character dining is among the pricier options for restaurant dining. Character meals require a credit card to hold the reservation and ensure you do not fail to show up. Some meals, like Cinderella’s Royal Table require a deposit and will cost two table-service credits per meal if you are using the dining plan.
How Does it Work?
In character dining, the different characters follow a rotation around the dining floor and approach each table for a meet and greet. They are usually accompanied by a cast member handler (it’s hard for some of them to see). The characters will sign autograph books, pose for pictures and interact with the whole family.
Characters are usually listed at “Mickey and friends” or “Princess Aurora and Friends”. You are really only guaranteed to see the named character and usually four of his or her friends. For Mickey Mouse, it’s usually Pluto, Donald, Daisy and Minnie Mouse who accompany him. For Aurora, you could have any of the number of princesses.
Why Would You Want to Eat a Character Meal?
For us the advantage to character dining is mutifold.
1) Being able to eat and get food while we wait for a character avoids long waits (and potential meltdowns in line). It keeps them busy and engaged.
2) I’ve observed it is a little less daunting for our children to have the character approach us rather then them having to approach the character after waiting anxiously in line. We’ve had many more positive character interactions while dining than when we’ve done lines.
3) Character meals are usually buffets. With buffets, we can almost always find something for everyone to eat.
When to go?
Breakfasts are usually cheaper than lunch or dinner, but can interfere with early morning touring plans (if you’re trying to ride a lot of rides in the mornings). Lunch is cheaper than dinner and a welcome reprieve from the heat. It can interfere with naptime. Dinner is the most expensive and sometimes you’re children are exhausted from a long day (unless you left for naptime). Decide where your priorities lie and pick accordingly.
Key tips:
1) Keep your camera or phone ready at all times. Capture as many photos as you can. You may end up with some funny or precious memories (Like when Donald accidentally knocked one of us upside the head when we were getting ready for photos) or when Mickey Mouse grabbed my youngest son’s hand and danced with him around the room. I’m so glad I kept my camera at the ready.
2) Late service hours are tough if your kids are smaller and/or exhausted. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it unless you’re planning on letting them nap sometime during the day. Now that my children are older, they appreciate a later dinner if they’ve had enough snacks throughout the day. On our most recent trips, we headed to the Contemporary Resort and Chef Mickey’s after Magic Kingdom closed down at 7pm for special events/parties like Mickey’s-Not-So-Scary-Halloween-Party (so did other families).
3) Also, if your little one has a heart set on princesses, The princess character meal at Akershus is easier to get into than Cinderella’s Royal Table. It is also less expensive than Cinderella’s Royal Table, though in 2018, breakfast is $50, lunch $49 and dinner $58 .
An Additional Word is Warning for Those With Sensory Processing Issues
Character dining spots can be loud—very loud in some cases. Chef Mickey’s is in a large cavernous area of the Contemporary Resort and with so many families and so much going on (monorails, napkin waving, and singing and dancing included), we’ve found it best to eat at the earliest or latest service hours. (Less crowded means less noise).
As a rule of thumb, the larger the restaurant, the louder the restaurant. Two other large restaurants are the Crystal Palace (MK) and Tusker House Restaurant (AK).
Good Luck!
Hopefully this information helps you plan a great vacation!
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