What's the best character dining experience for a little boy?

[Pfsjed]

We're going to the Disneyland resort in a few weeks for my girlfriend's son's birthday. The little guy has never been to a character dining experience and we thought that would be fun for him before he gets too old to really enjoy himself. =)

What is the best character dining experience on the resort - whether DL, DCA, or the hotels.

Order of Importance:
1. Character Interaction
2. Ambiance & Atmosphere
3. Food Quality
4. Price

Thank you!

[clara]

Well, Goofy's Kitchen will probably be alot of first suggestions. However, when I would take my son to character dining around that age, Ariel's Grotto was always a hit for him. The Princesses would just eat him up with love! I'm thinking it's becuase they are used to seeing little girls for a Princess meal but it was always fun for my boy. And I got my most favorite Disney picture ever with Ariel kissing him on the cheek. I cherish it forever.

Goofy's Kitchen is good for character interaction as every so often the bring out all the kids to bang pots and play with Goofy. And all the characters come around all the tables.

This might help for pricing: Disney Dining

[lisaboo]

How old is the little boy? I have two boys. My older one has been to Goofy's Kitchen, Storytellers, Surf's Up with Mickey and Friends and Minnie and Friends at The Plaza Inn. I think he liked them all about equally well. I agree that Goofy's Kitchen is probably the best. What I like is that you get a good mixture of characters - some costume, some face, the interaction is fun and the food is good. I wish they still had Woody at the BBQ. He's in a big Toy Story kick right now.

[Goofy Daddy]

It depends on what characters you want to see. Princesses? Then Ariel's Grotto hands down.

For a wider variety, I would go with the Plaza Inn or Goofy's Kitchen.

[AhpalovestheDuck]

We have taken the four Grand Kids from 1 year to 10 to all of the character breakfasts. Goofy's kitchen has been the best experience hands down. The Characters really interact well at each table and Goofy dressed as a chef leads the kids on pot banging and dancing.

The variety of foods is unending with lox and bagels, Mickey Waffles, biscuits and gravy, all kinds of eggs, potatoes, omelets, muffins, pastries, and fruit of all kind. Almost forgot, worms and dirt for desert.

[saramommy]

GOOFY'S KITCHEN!!! We've been to them all...we have a boy and girl and they both looove Goofy's Kitchen. Yes Ariel's Grotto is fun with the princesses, but the food is okay and the princesses always seem in a rush. At Goofy's you get a lot of variety and the food is GREAT. We've seen over the 3 times we've been: Pluto, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Cinderella, Belle, Dale, Baloo, Geppetto, Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, The White Rabbit. (I'm probably leaving some characters out too).

My 2nd choice would be Breakfast with Minnie at Plaza Inn. We got lots of interaction with many different characters. My son loves Captain Hook and was able to play with for a good amount of time too.

[Kevin Noty]

wow does no one like chip and dales critter breakfast buffet?

[Barbaraann]

The character meals are pretty pricey, so of late I tend to maybe only plan one for each of my trips. I have always been fond of Storytellers restaurant because you can order off the menu. The last character meal I went to was The Plaza Inn, and I was alone, and I had a great time. The food was delicious, and I saw a lot of characters. Am I correct in assuming that the photos that they take at these meals are now included in the Photopass plus? I might just have to check that out.

[swampymarsh]

wow does no one like chip and dales critter breakfast buffet?

Probably because like me, they like the other 4 better.

Order of Importance:
1. Character Interaction
2. Ambiance & Atmosphere
3. Food Quality
4. Price

1. For little kids if they are not shy. Surfside with Mickey and Friends or Goofy's Kitchen. Because you can get up and dance with the characters. For shy kids, Ariel's Grotto because you can see the characters faces, while masks scare some kids. For Character variety the Plaza Inn with Minnie and friends which usually hase 20-100% more characters.

2. Storytellers and the Plaza Inn for ambiance. Atmosphere is noted above with the getting up from your table to dance with characters.

3. Goofy's Kitchen since it has a huge buffet and serves all three meals. Storytellers, because it has a menu option if you don't like the buffer(but the characters will skip you if nobody is doing the buffet), so you have an option for picky people who are usually the adults. Ariel's Grotto is nice, I like the family style brunch instead of another buffet, and the dinners are just ok with a rather limited menu. Plaza Inn, and Storytellers aren't last on purpose they only have breakfast and it meets my expectations for breakfast, nothing fancy is needed by me as long as the bacon isn't burnt.

4. Goofy's kitchen breakfast is a little to the expensive side, the dinner and lunch prices are alright. The other location all seema alright. Mainly you save over the other locations eating breakfast since it's cheaper than dinner. So you can save money not going to the premium breakfast meals at Goofy's and Ariel's. The value seems fine at all except GK as noted.


You didn't mention the age of the kidm so read my response about #1 carefully taking age and the child characteristics into account.

PS as a child my best meal ever and one of my earlist Disney memories was eating by the water in Blue Bayou.

[ShelbyH]

To answer an above question, yes, character meals pictures are included in the Photopass plus package.

[bayouguy]

The top two would be (opinion ahead): Goofy's Kitchen
Ariel's Grotto

[Dec2009Mama]

We went to Goofy's Kitchen for dinner in August and I wasn't really WOWed like I thought I would be.
Buffet was okay, your typical food choice ~ it was $85 for two adults, our little one is under 3 so he was free.

Our character selection that day seemed to be lacking....i think there were only 5 characters (other than Goofy who doesn't visit the tables) ~ minine, pluto, chip, aladdin, the mad hatter ~ that’s all I can remember!

Personally, I wouldn’t go again esp for the money we spent!

For our Nov trip we are going to have breakfast at the Plaza Inn with Minnie and Friends ~ I hope there is a bit more of a character selection for our little one as he LOVES the character! I have peaked in while walking by some mornings and I have seen tigger and capt hook so that would be wonderful if they were there!

[Poisonedapples]

Goofy's kitchen, everything else seems to be geared toward girls.. LOL

[lndsymtylr]

Whenever we go with little kids, we have Breakfast with Minnie at the Plaza Inn. It's fantastic, with a mix of some face characters but mostly costumed characters with a wide variety. I probably go twice a year for the last three years. We've seen Minnie, Tigger and Pooh, Chip and Dale are always there, Captain Hook, the fairy Godmother, Rafiki, Briar fox and Briar bear, the mice from Cinderella, and several others. I like it because the characters make it a point to come around to each table. They've never rushed us. The food is pretty decent and I think the cost is about $30 per adult, kids slightly cheaper. The trick is getting the kids to eat between character visits!