Character dining w/4yo

Stephanie HD

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 24, 2017
I've been to Disney several times but have never done character dining. We are taking our 4yo DD for the first time in February and plan to do character dining 2-3 times. Right now we are thinking about Minnie & Friends lunch at Hollywood and Vine in DHS, Akershus Banquet Hall lunch, and the Tiana icecream social and boat ride at MK (DD is dead set on this one.)

Anyone who has done these, how long was the entire experience from start to finish (including wait times)? I want to have some idea so I can hopefully plan a FP around meals. And did you feel like between the food and/or character interaction you got your money's worth? TIA!
 
The ice cream social gets some REALLY bad reviews. I guess, if she is a favourite princess it might be something to do, but, if seeing the parade is an important part of the experience, maybe look for something else? Oops, she is dead set? Well, fingers crossed it is not disappointing.

I have a 4 yo dd too. We are doing Akershus breakfast, 1900 PF (breakfast and dinner), Tusker House breakfast, and Cape May Breakfast, and CRT dinner
 
Last edited:
4yo dd here too. (And a 2yo dd)

We're doing:
Dinner at 1900 Park fare
Breakfast at akershus
Breakfast at tusker house
Breakfast at cinderellas royal table
Breakfast at be our guest
Breakfast at crystal palace
Breakfast at chef mickeys
Breakfast at trattoria al forno (bon voyage)
We're also doing tianas ice cream social, but have two other days we can see the parade close up.


Out of those, if you only want to do 2-3 I would do these:
Dinner at 1900 Park fare
Breakfast at akershus
Breakfast at be our guest (this is qs)
Breakfast at chef mickeys
Breakfast at trattoria al forno (bon voyage) this is rapunzel/Flynn rider and Ariel/Eric
 
I've been to Disney several times but have never done character dining. We are taking our 4yo DD for the first time in February and plan to do character dining 2-3 times. Right now we are thinking about Minnie & Friends lunch at Hollywood and Vine in DHS, Akershus Banquet Hall lunch, and the Tiana icecream social and boat ride at MK (DD is dead set on this one.)

Anyone who has done these, how long was the entire experience from start to finish (including wait times)? I want to have some idea so I can hopefully plan a FP around meals. And did you feel like between the food and/or character interaction you got your money's worth? TIA!

We love character dining and still do one or two even now without kids. We prefer breakfasts and dinners to avoid interrupting touring and make planning easier. A 7:30 breakfast has us ready for rope drop and allows us to mostly snack until dinner. If it's in the park, the added bonus is getting inside early. CRT and CM are favorites.

I have an upcoming 4 day girl's trip during Food and Wine. No toddlers but we are celebrating a 14 year old's birthday. She hasnt been to Disney since she was 4.

Our plans:
Day 1- no reservations since we fly in at 11 and want to keep the day clear for touring.

Day 2- The birthday- 7:30am Minnie's Beach Bash- a first for us. Chosen because we want to be sure that we get pics with Mickey and Minnie and we've been unable to get an early enough Chef Mickey's. We are considering just keeping it even if a CM becomes available because no one in our group has ever been to Minnie's BB and a couple of us have been to CM's many times.

8:10pm Ohana's- A must for us every trip and the birthday girl is a meat lover.

Day 3- 12:30 Sci-Fi Dine In- our only scheduled lunch. Another must every trip for those in the group who have been multiple times. A lunch will work here because without kids who will want to see the shows at HS, we expect to be finished touring by lunch.

Day 4- 4:05pm BOG- super excited about this one. just scored it yesterday for the perfect day and time.

Character meals we have done multiple times and loved over the years starting when we had littles- Chef Mickeys, CRT, Crystal Palace

Character meals we have done and liked but not repeated over the years starting when we had littles-1900 Park Fare

Character meals we have done and disliked over the years starting when we had littles- Tusker House - we have even given it more than one chance.

We've considered Askerhaus and even booked and cancelled for our upcoming trip. Our hang up is that the menu is unappealing so we end up back at CRT- you just can't beat meeting the princesses in the castle.

When we've gone with littles and wanted several character meals, I always base it on what characters we want to see since I avoid waiting in line for them and pictures plus a decent (not the best) meal is my goal- killing two birds with one stone so to speak,
 
Last edited:
We've done 2 trips with The Littles (ages 3 and 4 now) and have done quite a few of the character meals. We prefer breakfast just because our kids do best at that time of day and we don't have to take time out of touring. I usually allow 2 hours, but have never taken that long. I'd say plan on at leas 1.5 hours. My thoughts on the ones we've done...

Breakfast at Akershus: This was my favorite. Like someone else mentioned, the food didn't sound especially appealing, but it turned out great. No one went away hungry. The character interaction was wonderful. We were there long enough for 2 Princess Processionals (a little "parade" through the restaurant). My daughter got to hold Cinderella's hand during one, and danced with Snow White during the next. Really, I almost cried. Must've gotten pixie dust in my eyes or something.

Lunch at Garden Grill: I think this one is underrated. I'd put the experience above Chef Mickeys. Great character interaction. Characters came around several times during the meal. Also, I like the family style over a buffet. It's just easier to have everything on the table. Getting up to go to the buffet with little ones is just a pain to me.

Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table: I'm glad we did this one, but I'm not rushing back to do it again. We had breakfast following a BBB appointment, so it was a special day. They give the kids a choice between a magic wand and a sword at the end of the meal. My son still loves the sword 1 year later. If I had to choose a princess dining though, it'd be Akershus. Hands down.

Dinner at 1900 Park fare: Loved the characters and we managed to get some great pictures, but the kids just didn't do well with this one. My daughter ended up having a total meltdown and I really didn't get to eat. I'd like to have a do-over with this one. Maybe we'll give it another go in the future.

Be Our Guest: We've done several breakfasts and one dinner here. Loved the dinner because it's the only way to meet the Beast. My daughter was nervous about meeting him (she was just under 4 at the time). The CM seating us was fantastic--she told us that the Beast was the sweetest Beast she'd ever worked for and let us in on the secret that he's ticklish. My daughter couldn't wait to meet him and was blowing him kisses as we left. We like to do breakfast only if we get a PPO reservation. If you're on a dining plan, it's a fantastic use of a QS credit. We found that 2 adults and 2 kids could easily split 2 meals. So yay for saving QS credits for later! And, you may get to ride 7D before the park opens.

Dinner at Crystal Palace: Glad we did it, but not my favorite. I won't be clamoring to do it again.

Breakfast at Chef Mickeys: Glad we did this one, but it doesn't rank high on my list. Maybe I'll look into it when the kids are older, but I felt really rushed. Between getting photos and autographs and making sure the kids had everything they needed, I didn't really get to enjoy my meal.

Breakfast at Hollywood and Vine: My kids love all the Disney Jr. characters, so it was a good meet and greet. Food was good, but it's not something we'll do again.

Dinner at Ohana: Not a character meal, but by far, the best meal we've had at Disney. We've already decided that we'll do it again on our next trip. My daughter (my super shy daughter) participated in the hula lesson (they were handing out leis, and she'd do anything for a necklace). My son wouldn't do participate because he was too busy shoving noodles in his mouth. So, everyone was happy. Highly recommend this one.

I'd probably choose meals based on the characters you want to meet so you don't spend time or FPs to meet them in the parks.
 


For the lunches, I would plan at least 90 minutes each and possibly 2 hours depending on how quickly you get seated. We've had character meals where the characters all came around in fairly quick succession (1 right after the other) fairly early in the meal, and others where they came later in the meal, and others when the characters were more evenly spaced. We have at times needed to linger long after we finished eating to wait for the final character to come past. It's best if you don't have plans requiring you to rush out.

We've never done Tiana's ice cream social so I can't speak to timing on that. Since it includes parade viewing, it could be somewhat long depending on the ADR time you reserve, since I believe they'll stagger the arrivals.

As for "getting your money's worth"... the food is definitely not worth the money it costs, so the value is in the characters. Whether you consider a 1 or 2 minute character interaction interrupting your meal to be of value is something only you can decide. We do character meals for the fun and because we don't spend much time in the parks waiting in line for meet & greets; but I personally believe character meals are over-priced for what you get.

Enjoy your vacation!
 
I've been to Disney several times but have never done character dining. We are taking our 4yo DD for the first time in February and plan to do character dining 2-3 times. Right now we are thinking about Minnie & Friends lunch at Hollywood and Vine in DHS, Akershus Banquet Hall lunch, and the Tiana icecream social and boat ride at MK (DD is dead set on this one.)

Anyone who has done these, how long was the entire experience from start to finish (including wait times)? I want to have some idea so I can hopefully plan a FP around meals. And did you feel like between the food and/or character interaction you got your money's worth? TIA!

I would avoid Hollywood and Vine like the plague. It is the worst meal we have had at Disney in a long time. Akershus is wonderful. The interactions are fantastic and we really enjoyed the food. I booked it again for an upcoming trip. For a four year old, I would book Akershus and Tusker House, but we tend to like more exotic food.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top