We are a family of 7 going in late August/early Sept 2017.
We would be 4 adults, 2 kids at the buffet.
We love the Pooh characters and have listened to the audiobooks of all the classic AA Milne stories dozens of times. And these are about the only characters our 12 yr old cares to meet!
I understand you can meet Pooh & Tigger outside by the Pooh ride but this is the only place to meet Piglet & Eeyore.
Taking break inside AC sounds nice, and so does the Pooh puffed toast & Mickey waffles.
BUT THE PRICE. Somewhere around $160 for us with tip, and that’s after deducting the AP discount I expect I’ll have.
Also the 10:20am reservation I got (and 9am opening) seems like we’ll only get about 3 rides in before taking a break from touring.
The park is not expected to be very busy. Should we save the money and time and just meet the two characters outside?
We went for the first time last year. It was actually DS 21st and his choice for dinner in the MK on Christmas Eve. We loved it, the character interaction was great, we saw all of them at least twice, some a 3rd time. If the kids, especially the 12 year old, love Pooh then I would bite the bullet.
Next time I would do breakfast. As usual with buffets we mainly stick to the carving station options, and it was fine. I found the side options limited for my tastes, and wasn’t keen on the deserts.
Are there openings for lunch? That would break your day better.
I’m in the same boat. I have a 10:30 ADR and we will probably decide the day before if we want to do it. I really love the characters and their breakfast foods are really quite good. The cheddar-bacon scones were fabulous! If you do it, I doubt you’ll be disappointed. On the other hand, I also love doing lots of MK attractions in the morning hours and eating a quick fruit & Nutella waffle or a Dole Whip for breakfast before going back to doing rides! Both are good plans.
Crystal Palace was my son’s favorite restaurant for about 6 years. It was a tradition in our family to go there as our last meal in the world. The characters were always great (especially Pooh).
We love Crystal Palace, and being there that late in the morning is an excellent time to get lots of interaction with all the characters. I go for Eeyore because he’s my favorite. That’s late enough that people will start thinning out because they have a period of time when they have no new people coming in. That’s the magical time. I think we saw most characters three times that way. Our youngest turned 3 there, and she definitely wanted to go back when we were there in April.
You can always continue to try for an earlier or different reservation time . One that would be more to your liking. Otherwise let me say that we loved Crystal Palace ! The food was nice and the character interaction was great!!! Tigger, Eeyore and of course Winnie the Pooh were all wonderful and spent plenty of time at each table.
It will be money well spent and I don’t think you will regret your decision to go here.
I LOVED Crystal Palace, food was good and great character interactions. the 10:30 time is a bit tough, but if they love the characters I would say it is worth it.
I do agree that you might want to keep looking for different times - we did a lunch and it was perfect. I only have breakfasts booked for my next trip if they are pre-opening.
You might try the reservation finder on TP - I have heard a lot of people have amazing succes with it
It seems like your kids really want to meet the characters, so I’d probably keep the reservations. However, I totally understand about the price. If it isn’t in your budget, are there other things you could switch out? Like eating QS a few times instead of other TS or sharing meals at other places? I am all about having tons of fun at disney, but it always sucks to come home having spent way more than you planned.
Knowing that I was going because my kids really wanted to go, and not because of the food (I generally speaking am not a fan of buffets…I can never eat enough to justify the cost) I’d probably switch the reservation (if possible) to a different time – for an early dinner or late lunch to break up the day better. Or try for an early morning reservation before RD for breakfast foods.
Since cost is a factor, I’d stick with breakfast (it’s cheaper). I agree with @SirGreggLadyV about the timing. We enjoyed the late breakfast at CP - got to do a few things beforehand and since breakfast was winding down, I think it was easier to visit with characters. My DD9 picked CP breakfast for her birthday meal when we go back this year.
I’ll dissent and say i didn’t care for CP. I found it loud and chaotic, food mediocre for the price, and characters just popped up next to the table with little warning to get cameras ready. I found it really stressful, like i couldn’t just eat, i had to be manning the camera phone, because by the time i got it unlocked the characters were already wandering off. I wouldn’t do it again. I enjoy Tusker House and Garden Grill more for a character meal where the food seems good and the interactions seem better.
i feel like all the character meals are like that. I’m scared to get food or go to the bathroom bc I might miss a character. I had to go running after my son like a lunatic at TH bc he went to get a donut and goofy came by
My opinion: Disney isn’t just about the rides, it’s about the experiences like these. If Winnie the Pooh is a family favorite, these will be the memories you will carry. All of the rides in MK will be waiting for you when you are done your breakfast. I’d go back in a second for our August trip but my daughter is scared of larger than life characters and that’s not worth the stress for her. Enjoy!
From a pure economic perspective, character meals make no sense.
That being said, very little at Disney makes sense from an economic perspective. So it goes to what your family wants to do, and from that perspective, I think Crystal Palace is probably worth it…but if you are worried about impacting your rides, I’d look strongly into lunch. That way, you are getting more rides in, and taking a break when lines are longer.
Crystal Palace is pretty wide open, so you’ll see the characters coming. You’ll know when to get refills or hit the bathroom.
