1. The price for character dining is between $25.99-29.99 for adults and $12.99-18.99 for children (3-9). Children 2 and under eat off parents' plates and are therefore free. When we make our reservations we have to have an exact headcount. I believe we pay before we eat when we get there. There are going to be A LOT of people that want to eat at the character dining.
2. The characters are randomly selected that day and we will see 3 to 4 characters.
3. The lady I spoke to mentioned her favorite was Mickey's Surf's Up Breakfast in Paradise Pier because they have special food you can only get there. I believe she mentioned mini Mickey Mouse waffles.
4. I mentioned that most of the children in our party are younger and wouldn't know Chip 'n Dale and she said that their (Chip 'n Dale Critter Breakfast) dining experience would include characters from Brother Bear and possibly Baloo from Jungle Book, so the kids might not know them. She suggested that we go to Minnie's, Mickey's or Goofy's for recognizable characters. I mentioned that we know more of the Pixar characters. If we're flexible we may be able to get a reservation, but we have to decide soon so they can accommodate us.
Tips for Meeting the Disneyland Characters
- Pick up the daily schedule at the gate when you enter the park. It lists where the characters will be and when. The most popular characters appear on a pre-published schedule, but others like the Queen of Hearts just show up, entering the park next to the Opera House or it's a small world.
- Be prepared with an autograph book and pen. The souvenir shops in the park sell special autograph books, but any book that's about 6 inches wide or larger will work just fine. Once you see the over-sized gloves these characters wear, you'll understand why a larger, felt-tipped pen works best. If you wonder why they hold the book up to their face, remember that they can only see straight ahead through the eye holes.
- A Disney photographer will usually be on hand to take pictures of the characters and their pals. You'd be surprised how many things can go wrong - people stepping in front of the lens, your own finger in the corner or even worse, equipment trouble - so it's a good precaution to pick up a free Photo Pass and even if you take your own photos, too, it's free and good insurance.
- Lots of kids come to Disneyland in costume, especially little girls. Not only do they seem to enjoy it, but pictures of them all dressed up and posing with a character are priceless. At Disneyland, children are classified as adults at a young age, and only those under 9 years old are permitted to wear costumes into the park.
Disney Character Dining
If you wait to reserve a character meal until you arrive at the park, you're likely to have a disappointed child on your hands. Call 714-781-3463 to make your reservations, up to 30 days and at least two weeks in advance. The least expensive of the Disneyland character dining options are inside the parks: Minnie and Friends at Disneyland and Ariel's Disney Princess Celebration at California Adventure. Character dining in any of the Disney hotels will cost you almost twice as much.At any of these places, the characters will stop by your table, so have cameras and autograph books ready when you sit down.
- Minnie and Friends Breakfast in the Park: Served at Disneyland's Plaza Inn, this all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast ends at 11 a.m. Less expensive than the hotel breakfasts, it also has more characters, including Minnie Mouse.
- Ariel's Disney Princess Celebration: Head to California Adventure's Ariel's Grotto for lunch or dinner with the Disney princesses.
- Chip 'n Dale Critter Breakfast: An all-you-can-eat buffet and menu items served at the Disney's Grand Californian Hotel Storytellers Cafe. It's the most low-key of the character breakfasts, but we find the goofy ranger character more than annoying.
- Goofy's Kitchen Breakfast: The most fun, food wise (peanut butter pizza, mac'n'cheese - for breakfast!) with lots of dancing and quite a few characters on hand. It's located at the Disneyland Hotel.
- Surf's Up! Breakfast with Mickey & Friends: All-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at the PCH Grill in Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel. This is the only character breakfast outside the park where Mickey puts in an appearance.
Meeting the Characters in Disneyland
Eating with the characters is fun, but you'll find characters all over the park, too.For a special treat (at extra cost), try the Discover the Magic Tour, a family-oriented tour where you all interact and work with Disney characters while hunting for hidden treasure and dodging dastardly villains. Recommended for kids between 5 and 9, it includes lunch and a souvenir gift. Strollers are not recommended and if the young'uns are under 18, an adult has to come along, too. To avoid disappointment, reserve up to 30 days in advance at 714-781-4400.
Most of the time, Minnie and Mickey are in their Toontown houses, but because you're guaranteed to find them there, lines can be nerve-wrackingly long, especially with an impatient little one holding your hand. Other places where the characters regularly hang out:
- Pixie Hollow: Tinker Bell and friends (next to Tomorrowland)
- Toontown: Minnie and Mickey
- Fantasyland: Disney Princess Faire
- Frontierland: Captain Jack Sparrow (on Tom Sawyer's Island)
- Critter Country: Winnie the Pooh and Friends
Meeting the Characters in California Adventure
- Condor Flats: Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars
- Hollywood Pictures Backlot: An assortment of characters show up here on the main street, and Mickey often pops out just as this section opens in the morning, wearing his California beach attire.
6 comments:
I don't know if it is that good of a choice since we will loose 2 hrs for the meal and another $500. Since we will have to do this for the first day when we are all togther, we won't be able to get everything done in the day. I also want to point out that Mom has paid for the majority (if not all) of the trip for each of us. I don't want to add more to it. There will be opportunites for us to see the characters inside the park and there is food elsewhere in the park (and what we can bring with us) that does not have this time consuming or expensive.
My vote is no. If you are anamat that we have to go, then I think we could split up for the 2 hrs.
PS. We can make mikey mouse pancakes at the hotel.
I already gave my two cent objection to Mel and Mom about the expense of character dining, but I will go along for the ride if that is what everyone wants to do.
I am disappointed that only those under the age of 9 get to come in costume. I hope that I can return my Prince Charming costume. :(
If Captain Jack Sparrow is on Tom Sawyer's island I think I would like to pop by to see that. I wonder how much these characters make doing this... maybe I should drop off a resume when I am down there.
Then do we want to skip the character dining? I agree it will take a lot of time and it's expensive and possibly not worth it for three characters.
People might think you're the real Prince Charming... Yeah, drop off your resume. The kids would love to live at Disneyland. On the third day you will have free time you can see Sparrow. Or on the first day while we go on the haunted mansion.
I think I'd vote for not going too. I think it would be fun, but I personally think it would be more fun to spend more time in the park itself riding the rides. But that's just me.
I think I'd vote for not going too. I think it would be fun, but I personally think it would be more fun to spend more time in the park itself riding the rides. But that's just me.
Here's a thought Mel and I just had while talking. It seems like one of the reasons for doing the character dining is that June has some amount of money that has to be used at Disneyland. The character dinner is one way to use that. As long as it can be used elsewhere within Disneyland, if we skipped the character dining and used that money to eat our meals in Disneyland, that could save us a lot of time. We wouldn't have to spend time leaving the park to eat. We could spend that time in the park instead.
I'm a math-y-ish person, so here's some math.
- We're spending 3 days at the two parks in total.
- We're supposed to get there at 8am every day (which is probably optimistic). Let's say we leave at 8pm every day (which again may be optimistic. I don't know that all the kids will be able to go that long, especially not all three days). That gives us 12 hours per day. 12 X 3 = 36 total park hours.
- We're estimating it will take an hour to leave the park and eat each time (again, probably optimistic). We'll do that twice each day (once for lunch, and once for dinner). 1 hour X 2 meals per day X 3 days = 6 hours of meal time.
- That means of our possible 36 hours at the parks (which is probably higher than it really will be) we'll be spending 6 of it (possibly more) leaving the park, scarfing our food and getting back in to the park.
Especially considering this is supposed to be one of the busiest times of the year, I think we should try and maximize the amount of time that we're in the park. If we have 6 extra hours in the park that could be six or more extra rides the kids get to go on. I think that would probably be more memorable for them than 1 character dinner.
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