Character meals - recommendations and vouchers?

[Arielismyfave]

Hi! I am just starting to plan our first family trip to CA in April and of course DL is included

We went to WDW in December and I'm realizing quickly DL is a whole different animal. Which leads to my thread...

Any feedback good or bad on the character meals? I like aspects of each but with only 3 days at the parks it's not likely we will eat at all.

Researching the different character meals I found where you can buy vouchers for the meals. I saw Goofy's Kitchen breakfast was $17/ch and $33/ad online. The vouchers were $28/CH and $47/ad. What am I missing? Why are the vouchers so much more than the other price?

Thank you so much for your thoughts and help!

 

[sherilaine]

We have never bought vouchers, we just pay when we get there as I have not found vouchers cheaper than paying at the restaurant. If you are only in the parks for 3 days I recommend Minnie's Breakfasf at Plaza Inn in DL. Unless you are staying onsite and would rather do a meal at on doc the three restaurants.

 

[Skiton]

We had a lot of fun at Goofy's Kitchen. The breakfast was really good, too! I can't help with the vouchers, ours were free because we booked the trip through Costco.

 

[tlovesdis]

I think dinner is more at Goofy's Kitchen.

Our favorite is breakfast at Minnie and Friends at Plaza Inn!

 

[disneymum58]

The vouchers from Getaway Today that we bought included tax and the TIP. The restaurants will add tax (8% ?) and an 18% tip to the rates you might see online. At Goofy's Kitchen, this is paid when you check in, before you go get your food.

 

[Skiton]

Why is Minnie and Friends better than Goofy's for breakfast? We could do that instead this year, but I don't like that it cuts into morning hours at the park when lines are short (especially on weekdays, when we can't get in until 9:00, anyway). I'm happy to be convinced otherwise, though?

 

[sherilaine]

Why is Minnie and Friends better than Goofy's for breakfast? We could do that instead this year, but I don't like that it cuts into morning hours at the park when lines are short (especially on weekdays, when we can't get in until 9:00, anyway). I'm happy to be convinced otherwise, though?

I did not enjoy Goofy's, the character interaction at Minnie's was far superior. That is just our experience though.

 

[nikki&petey]

Ariel's Grotto is our favorite. The food is amazing.

 

[ktlm]

We prefer Minnie's Breakfast by far. It is so much better than any character meal we have ever been to at WDW. I think the fewest characters we have seen there is 7, and we have seen up to 12. You never know who is going to pop up their either. We almost always see Minnie, Hook, Fairy Godmother, Rafiki , Max (Goofy's son) and a Pooh Character or two, but we have also run across Tweedle Dum, Alice, Mad Hatter, Brer Fox, Mary Poppings Penguin, Gepetto, andot hers on different trips. We love the surprise of who might be there. We used to also like Goofy's, but they downgraded it to being just like any WDW character meal. You used to see several characters at Goofy's with variety in who popped up. Now they standardized it so that you only see Goofy, Minnie, Pluto Chip and Dale- it is just like your typical WDW character meal now. We were used to seeing all those every time, and also 2 or 3 more, such as the Mad Hatter (who was there a lot), Fairy Godmother, Gepetto, Aurora, Aladdin, Alice. It used to be a must do, but we are skipped it entirely our last trip as it is no different than any of the WDW character meals now. Plus we feel like we now would be paying more for less at that meal-- they took characters away, but they sure didn't reduce the price!

The way we handle Minnie's and park time, is that we book it as a "brunch" at around 10:30 or 10:45, then we get that first couple of hours of really short lines before we go to Minnie's.

Ariel's is pretty much your standard WDW Princess meal, but with the formal picture with Ariel instead of Cinderella or Belle. The one difference is that there is some variety in what Princesses you run across. Last summer we had Rapunzel. We have seen Tiana the last couple of trips. Once we saw Pochahontas, but I hear she is really rare. We have seen Mulan once or twice. Oh...and that rumor about how Belle never does meals in her gold dress at WDW because the dress is too big is totally bogus- every time we have been to Ariel's, she has been there in her gold dress. We used to like the food at Ariels, but they changed the menu in 2014, and we thought lunch was absolutely awful after that change. I actually had to get DD and I both a 2nd lunch after that meal because the food was so bad, neither of us ate it. We did breakfast in 2015 and that food was great. We booked the last breakfast seating to avoid missing park time.

I wouldn't mess with the vouchers. They never save you any money. It is better just to pay when you get there.

 

[JWigs]

The first time we took our lil girl she was tiny so we did our first ever character meal and chose Goofys kitchen.

It wasn't the best experience and we've never done once since. Goofys is far from the park. You can try to take the train down but the CM we asked told us to walk and it took a good 15 mins to work through downtown disney and crowds. Then there was a really long line just to check in for your reservation.

The food was good more like brunch food but spendy. All in all, we wasted 2 hours outside the park and paid almost $100 for 2 adults to eat.

I personally didn't think the pictures were worth it. We saw characters throughout the day in the park and would have been a easier time to stay and eat in park.

 

[Julia33]

Ariels grotto is in my top 3 for food at the parks, we were seriously impressed when we went. As a plus you can sign up for the world of color package and get preferred seating for the show which is well worth it if you are already spending the big money for character dining. It is however, just princesses for the characters you see. The decor is really nice and has an under the sea vibe to it.

I haven't done Minnie's breakfast but it looks comparable to goofy's. I would NOT recommend leaving the parks for eating. It takes away from the experience, and with the way the crowds have been lately, its better to be close to the attractions so you can get in line/get fast passes early in the day (breakfast) or continue to hit the rides in the evening.

 

[Arielismyfave]

Thank you so much!!! We will at least do 1 character meal, it's a matter of which is the best option for time and $$.

Leaning toward Minnie's breakfast, prepark opening. (Although I'll admit I would love to do Ariels meal, but might get outvoted...) How long would you estimate the breakfast is? With that many characters I'm worried it will cut into a lot of the park time.

We will not be onsite but will have magical morning 1 day since we will have 3 day passes.

 

[DLfan4]

we went to Ariels Grotto for lunch and had an amazing time. The main course wasnt that great, but we loved the Antipasta tower and dessart tray, loved the great interaction with princesses, and we loved the view ( we ate outside on the waterfront) .