Too many character meals?

Hi Everyone,

Now that we are only a few days out, I am second guessing some of our ADR’s. I know it is personal choice, but I am wondering if a few of you could chime in with your input. We have the following character meals booked:
Jedi Mickey
CRT for breakfast (just my daughter and me)
Tusker House for breakfast
Crystal Palace for breakfast
BOG for dinner (not really a character meal, but the Beast is there at dinner, so I’ve heard

We are not on the dining plan. I did the figures many ways and it never worked out to be a deal for our family - we have a 12 year old who barely eats, and the kids can share meals for lunch, I think. Anyway, does this seem like overkill? I liked the idea of the early breakfasts at Tusker House and Cyrstal Palace (both are 8:05 reservations with opening at 9:00), but are we doing too much? We will be seeing Mickey and friends twice - once at HS for Jedi Mickey and again at Tusker House. Is the Crystal Palace worth it? Any insight would be great! We have no other dining reservations except for T-Rex on a non-park day.
Ellen

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How old are your children? If you are using these meals to save you time standing in line for characters, great- but they are expensive and your 12 year old will be charged as an adult.

How many days will you be there? Is your family early to rise, as a rule, or do you have to drag them out of bed? Two character meals at 8:00 means getting up very early.

We are early risers! We will be at the parks for 5 days and 1 day off. We plan to be at the parks very early each day anyway, so that is not the issue. I am just contemplating the cost and if we really need to do the meals - Tusker House in particular, since we will see pretty much the same characters on Monday at Jedi Mickey.

I would see if you could find a Tusker “brunch”. A seating around 10:30 will give everyone the chance to get a plate of breakfast before they switch to lunch. Fill up and you can get by with a smaller (cheaper) dinner that day. I’ve only done Crystal Palace for lunch so can’t speak for breakfast- I personally love eating there because you get the whole crew. Just be aware that even an 8:05 breakfast won’t guarantee you will be done before rope drop.

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That would be too much for us. We need at least a day or two of no sit downs to let the day go how it will. Plus, even on the dining plan I always feel like we’re getting ripped off at the character meals, they seem to speed by and I don’t feel like the interaction is as good as a regular meet so if I was paying out of pocket I would be even more perturbed by it. BUT it does save us from standing in countless lines that often don’t off FPP so it’s a trade I’m willing to make while they’re little.

If you think your kids will appreciate the characters at all of these meals and it will save you time waiting in line (which it likely will) then it is worth it IMO. But this is coming from a family who has 5 character meals for our trip in June (Chef Mickey’s, Tusker House, Akershus, 1900 Park Fare, and BOG if you count that). I have a 7 year old who loves getting autographs so this should cut back a little bit on our lines (especially for the princesses because many of them have outdoor meets now).

My personal opinion here, we’re not that big on character meets. I did not like Crystal Palace at all - took forever, food was meh, character interaction was brief and poor, the whole place was so loud and chaotic.

We did very limited character interactions during our trip, and DS5 had a great time. The one that I recommend to every age group is talking Mickey at MK, it was so intimate and amazing, and a good duration of time. Otherwise, having Tigger wave at you and pose for a pic just wasn’t worth the hassle of CP.

For us, we cut way back on our ADRs during our trip, they just took so long and seemed like a waste of park time. We didn’t like having to be so scheduled while on vacation. Even we adults had minimal patience for the time commitment and expense of lots of TS meals.

These types of questions are difficult to answer because every family is different. We like character meals because it saves us from waiting in some lines, and gives us a nice break to sit down and eat. If you don’t like a lot of sit down meals and your kids aren’t enthusiastic about meeting characters, you might find them to be a waste of time/money. If I had your ADRs I’d be a happy camper but you know your family best.

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I’m probably the wrong person to ask. We love character meals! TH is one of our favorites. Also like CP.

Did you end up doing all of these or did you take some out? — I have ADR’s at Chef Mickey, Tusker House, and Ohana, and I’m wondering if it’s too many. I only did Tusker House for the ROL seating, but I’m wondering if I should cancel Chef Mickey.

I’ve gotta ask…what is Jedi Mickey??

It was a dining experience at Hollywood and Vine with classic characters in SW costumes. Not been around for a while now

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Three character meals doesn’t seem like too many in a week (if you are staying that long). We like CM for breakfast. We are doing TH lunch and late GG breakfast and DD and I are also doing CRT dinner without the boys. My younger kids (age 6 and 7 on this trip) one request was Chip and Dale as I would never wait to meet them in the parks last trip–always saw the line with bad timing. TH is a bonus character meal as I like the food, it’s in the park so a good a/c lunch break, and characters are there.

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With 5 & 7 year old girls over a week we did H&V Disney Junior characters, Akershus with the princesses, 1900 PF with Cinderella, Prince Charming and the ugly sisters, and BOG dinner where we met the beast. It wasn’t too many but PF was a bit of a disappointment.