I finally have our room booked (Old Key West) and now we are starting to look at what character meals to do and find out if the dining plans are worth getting.

Really my daughter (will be 3 almost 4) will want to see Mickey and MInnie and all the princesses. If Moana and Maui are at WDW she might lose her mind in happiness. All the others are meh to her.

I heard to try and eat in the castle for lunch as the wait with reservations may not be as bad and there is a decent chance that a lot will be there. Also that Chef Mickeys is good for breakfast.

That said, we aren't huge breakfast people so is getting a dining plan worth it? I can't really find the prices for just dining with a credit card and not using the plan so not sure what the break even point is.

Window table at Royal Table at night was pretty
Amazing. Fireworks started right after we ordered.

Also really enjoyed Akerhaus at Epcot. You meet 4 princesses.

O'Hana has been our favorite for Breakfast.
Is at the Polynesian Resort. (MM, Min, Pluto, Goofy and others have always been there and really interact with the kids. Pics/pics/pics.

Fast Pass for evening characters at EPCOT
(7/8pm) not an overload. Just prior to Illuminations.

We take the last sitting for lunch at the Castle, not rushed out. Got pics with every princess, Cinderella, and others. Pricey, but worth it.

We've always had dinner at the Brown Derby at Hollywood, got the Fantasmic package. Great seats and area is reserved. Check it out on My Disney Experience. You get app/entree/dessert and tickets. Cost is close to same if ordered separately, plus you get the Fantasmic seating.

The character breakfast at animal kingdom is our favorite for Mickey and friends. The food is better than chef mickeys and has a little bit less of a Chuck E. Cheese feel to it. Akershus for princesses is a good choice. Be prepared for the food and service at Cinderella's castle to be underwhelming (I can only speak for lunch). Different set of characters at the Park Fare restaurant at Grand Floridian and it is one of the lesser known and less expensive options - Mary Poppins, Alice and Mad Hatter, Pooh, Tigger and Piglet. This group spends a good amount of time at the table and are very engaging with kids.

Fire_Aggie said:

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The character breakfast at animal kingdom is our favorite for Mickey and friends. The food is better than chef mickeys and has a little bit less of a Chuck E. Cheese feel to it. Akershus for princesses is a good choice. Be prepared for the food and service at Cinderella's castle to be underwhelming (I can only speak for lunch). Different set of characters at the Park Fare restaurant at Grand Floridian and it is one of the lesser known and less expensive options - Mary Poppins, Alice and Mad Hatter, Pooh, Tigger and Piglet. This group spends a good amount of time at the table and are very engaging with kids.

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Came here to post the same about the Animal Kingdom breakfast. The food was outstanding all three times we ate there. And I think if you make a reservation for 10 or 1030, you can bridge the transition between breakfast and lunch and sample dishes from both buffets.

Did you all get the dining plan or just pay as you went?

We do not get the dining plan because we stay off site.

I am fairly cost conscious and the character dining experience was not worth it to me, we will not be doing another one. Ours was at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. The food was OK, the characters were fine but I just didn't think it was worth paying a premium when I can see the characters for free elsewhere in the park and the breakfast buffet wasn't really anything special.

Not to be a total debby downer, character dining was one of the few disappointments on our trip. Overall we had a great time and I actually have to pace myself and not go back too soon.

If you are going when it will be crowded, the character meals are worth it. You don't have time to stand in lines all day to see characters and still enjoy rides and being at Disney.

Breakfast at the Crystal Palace was cool. Its with Winnie the Pooh and friends. If you book a time before the park opens, there are plenty of great opportunities for photos with the castle. We went into the park, and then got to ride down Main St. on one of the old timey cars with hardly anyone in the park.

We didn't get a meal plan when we went (stayed on property at Coronado Springs), but we did do Cinderella's Royal Table Breakfast. To me, it was worth it. The experience of getting to go up in the castle was cool, plus we got to see five princesses in that span and actually have some decent time with them. We saw Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, and Aurora. That freed up a great deal of time to do more rides throughout the day.

The only other characters we had to wait in line for were Tinkerbell, talking Mickey, Anna and Elsa (did a FastPass for this one as the line would have been 2 hours), and Tiana. We saw Goofy walking around at Blizzard Beach and bumped into Mary Poppins in the afternoon. And we met Belle at the Enchanted Tales play.

For breakfast every other day, we ate quick things in our hotel room. We had purchase fruit and muffins and such and just ate before heading to the parks.

Side note: I want to recommend using touringplans.com when planning your trip. That thing was a lifesaver. You can create a custom touring plan for each park, inputting the most important rides, shows, and experiences for you and your family. It is on point with knowing the traffic patterns of each park on each day of the year, giving you the best, most efficient experience you can get. Our touring plan was precise to the minute and we never waited more than 30 minutes for a ride.

I found the dining plan to be worth the expense. It has been a hot minute since my last trip so things are different. I heard there is a package delivery charge at the hotels now if you planned on shipping snacks and stuff. I preferred Tusken over Mickey's in the contemporary. You can do pre-rope drop reservations for it and be done with Animal kingdom early and have a middday pool and nap for the kiddo and return for the pandora stuff later. You can also do pre-rope drop reservations at the Beast's castle and the character breakfast their in magic kingdom and beat the crowd if your kid is an early riser like mine. Things might be different with the new rope drop procedures though. For magic kingdom most people go straight and right for activities. Go do pirates, magic carpet (jasmine and Aladdin might be there), splash mountain and whatever characters are st the end of splash mountain first then have fastbpass Peter Pan and story time with belle. I'm going to stop I need to call my Disney Anonymous sponsor now.

Pros and cons of dining plans -
For Dining Plan - without it, the $50-60-70 buffet price , even for kids, is steep
- easy and somethings like the snack per day come in handy
- part of the fun is planning where to eat, so many choices and experiences
- you've paid so no nickel and diming every meal
Against Dining Plan
- if you have little ones, that is a lot of meals that they may not eat and if paying on your own they can always eat off your plate
- you still pay tip on Dining Plan and that gets expensive if you're spending 4 Dining credits per meal then realize your tipping on value of $200 dinner
- you can bring your own water in the park so why pay for credits to use for that
- some of the character meals and fancy restaurants require 2 dining credits per person

We've done both - but prefer Dining Plan - Really depends on what you want - you save money by skipping breakfast, making sandwiches or doing McDonalds but when we are there we are on vacation so we don't worry about cost of food - we plan on eating in the parks, we've paid for it up front and can enjoy.

That said, for character meals we like Hollywood Studios and Wilderness Lodge for breakfast, Askerhaus for princess lunch, Chef Mickey and Grand Floridian for dinner.

Restaurants we love -
Ohana!
California Grill
Canada
England
Yacht Club

Did the Mickey and Minnie breakfast. Other characters were there too.

Kids enjoyed it.

With the dining plan, if you skip breakfast, can you use that credit to upgrade dinner? Or are they a Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner credit?

Thanks for all the info

We have gone with and without the dining plan. We prefer not to do any table service while at Disney with our kids. There are some really great places but with young kids we would rather experience the park and not have to worry about being at such and such place by a certain time. It's also hard to figure out when they will be hungry or needing that small rest during the day.

So even if we had a dining plan it still wouldn't pay for the character meals. It really then just depends on your snack credits. With 3 kids that don't really snack that much the plan just doesn't make sense for us although we do love our snacks while we travel the world in Epcot.

As far as character dining. We do try to go once on a day where we aren't in the park. We have done a few but on our next trip we will be going to Chef Mickey's for the first time (I kinda don't want to go here due to mixed reviews). My plan though is to get an early dinner then ride the monorail to the Poly and get the banana fosters desert from the Tambu Lounge. It's the desert they serve at Ohana and it's amazing!

edit: I am pretty sure that you can't upgrade. However, your reservations just show how many credits you have so you can buy adult food with your child's food credits. At leasts that is how it was on our last trip. This was never a problem for us at any of the places we ate.

BQ2001 said:

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With the dining plan, if you skip breakfast, can you use that credit to upgrade dinner? Or are they a Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner credit?

Thanks for all the info

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There are quick service credits (counter service) and table service. The time you eat the meal doesn't matter. You can use the credits for any meal.

Some thoughts on table service dining and character dining...

Magic Kingdom
Be Our Guest (dinner) - Food is good. You get to meet Belle and the Beast.

Cinderella's Royal Table - 2 DDP credits and the food isn't that good. The best part is being able to meet the princesses and not have to deal with the lines.

Crystal Palace - We have only gone for breakfast and love the buffet. You get to meet Winnie the Pooh characters. Be sure to try and make reservations prior to MK opening. It is neat to walk down Main Street with very few people in the park.

Liberty Tree Tavern (not character dining) - I really enjoy eating here when I am spending the entire day at MK. It is basically a Thanksgiving feast.

EPCOT

Le Cellier Steakhouse (Canada - not character dining) - 2 DDP credits and the steaks are good, but I feel it is quite a bit of money to spend for an a la carte meal.

Biergarten (Germany - not character dining) - Authentic German buffet. It is good, not great.

Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (Norway) - Princess dining. I am not really crazy about the food, but it is a "princess" meal for only one dining credit.


Animal Kingdom

Tusker House- Mickey & friends character dining for one dining credit. I did not like most of the food. It is a buffet.

We normally don't eat in Animal Kingdom.......if we do, it is Flame Tree Barbecue for lunch.

Hollywood Studios

50s Prime Time Cafe - Old Fashioned American comfort food. It is a neat place to eat.

Mama Melrose's - We always eat here. It is basically a casual California style Italian restaurant. Food is good.

The Hollywood Brown Derby - Heard good things about the restaurant, but I am not crazy about spending 2 dining credits on it.

Hollywood & Vine - Character dining for 1 dining credit. You get to eat with Mickey & friends.

Resorts

Contemporary Resort - California Grill is two dining credits. If you are going to go there, be sure to dress a little "nicer" than theme park clothes. The food is good and if you can get a late reservation to watch the fireworks off the observation deck.

There is also Chef Mickey's. It is basically a "Golden Corral" dinner buffet with Mickey & Friends. If I had to choose one Mickey & friends dining, it would be Chef Mickey's.

Grand Floridian - 1900 Park Fare has a breakfast and dinner buffet. We have eaten the dinner buffet with Cinderella characters (you take a picture with Cinderella and Prince Charming....the step sisters and stepmother are walking around). The food is much better than Chef Mickey's. The breakfast has Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter, Tigger, and Winnie the Pooh. It is a breakfast similar to Crystal Palace, but not in MK.

Polynesian Village Resort - Ohana is my favorite restaurant at WDW. I love the breakfast with Lilo & Stitch, Mickey, and Pluto. It is a family style buffet and is delicious. I would put it a notch below Crystal Palace. Dinner is another story. It is also a family style buffet (no characters) and you will leave completely full.

If you want to see pricing, I would suggest purchasing the "Magic Guide for Disney World" app. It will show you all the menus and prices. It also has other features that will help you navigate WDW.

Awesome thanks

Hoop dee doo review at fort wilderness is great. Not character dining but all you can eat fried chicken and ribs, all you can drink beer and wine for adults.

Allears.net has all the hotel and park restaurant menus posted, including full service and counter service/snack venues.