[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: Today’s episode is one that so many of you asked for, and honestly, I’m glad you did because character dining is one of those very Disney World things that people either love or feel a little bit torn about. I thought it would be interesting to, instead of giving a generic list of like my best to worst.

[00:00:19] Dana Stanley: To actually rate and walk you through every single spot where you can eat a meal with characters at Disney World, how they really stack up in terms of food, atmosphere, price and characters to make it all feel worth it. Because like most things in Disney World, there isn’t a one size fits all answer. So my goal is to help you figure out which ones are actually worth it for your trip.

[00:00:41] Dana Stanley: Like I said, this is not a worst to best type of ranking. I feel like that would be impossible for me in particular because a lot of these are kind of tied for me. So when push comes to shove and they’re kind of like head to head, it comes down to like, but I like both and like, don’t make me choose.

[00:00:58] Dana Stanley: These are my personal ratings based on our own experiences over the years. What was amazing, what was just okay and what was worth it, but also I don’t need to do again. So I’m gonna break each of the 13 spots down by price, character, interactions, food and location. And hopefully by the end you’ll feel like you can make a more clear decision on whether that hard to get reservation is actually worth the hype.

[00:01:23] Dana Stanley: Hello and welcome to the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. I’m your host, Dana Stanley, creator of. Lay back magic. As a mom of three, I know how tough it can be to find time to plan a Disney World trip. That doesn’t leave you feeling stressed or overwhelmed. That’s why I’m here to help moms like you create Disney vacations that feel even better than they look on paper here.

[00:01:43] Dana Stanley: We’re not chasing perfection, but creating our next favorite memories. So whether you’re brand new to Disney or looking to go deeper into the details, this podcast is your go-to for simple tips, mindset shifts. Real life trip recaps and expert insights to make your trip magical and manageable. New episodes drop every Monday, so be sure to subscribe so you never miss a moment.

[00:02:04] Dana Stanley: Okay, let’s dive in. So here’s how we’re gonna do it. I’ll give you the name of the restaurant where it’s located, and then my score. Plus the pros and cons that kind of landed it there. And just so we’re clear, this is based on my personal experiences with my family over the years, but I am not here to yuck anyone’s yum.

[00:02:26] Dana Stanley: If you love one of these that I mentioned that I ranked lower, that’s totally fine. We all have different trip priorities, nostalgic factors, budgets, and taste buds. Now removing all of those variables, I’m scoring each restaurant using four mean things. First is price. So I’m actually scoring lower for the higher the price, because if I rank something at 10 out of 10, it has to be worth the cost.

[00:02:53] Dana Stanley: But if there’s a dining spot that’s maybe like a seven out of 10 but is very affordable, I feel like it should get bumped up a point. You know what I mean? Because these character meals, they can get really expensive. Colton, and I rarely get sticker shock anymore when it comes to the resort park tickets, souvenirs, you know, food.

[00:03:11] Dana Stanley: But this is the one thing that we’re constantly, like when we get the receipt, we’re like. Ooh, kinda have to take a deep breath when we see the bill. Second is the character interactions, and this is the most like untangible thing to rate out of all of the options because really I’m rating the characters based on, yes, the characters themselves, but mostly like the vibe of how rushed we feel with the characters.

[00:03:36] Dana Stanley: Are they in and out fast? Do they really make an effort to connect with our kids? And I also ranked based on like the uniqueness of the characters. Like for example, there’s only one dining spot to meet Stitch, whereas there’s a lot more to meet Mickey. So I feel like that gets a little bit of a bump in character interactions because he’s unique.

[00:03:56] Dana Stanley: Third is food, which is very simply how good it tasted and whether like if it’s a buffet, if it’s worth going back for seconds because sometimes the food. Especially Buffets don’t match the price tag or the experience. So while I took into account the food specifically that I like and my taste buds as an adult, I also thought about my kids and what they’ve liked and like the options that they have for more picky eaters too.

[00:04:22] Dana Stanley: And last, the location. How easy is it to get there? How the space and restaurant feels once you’re inside, how good the lighting is for pictures of your kids with the characters. Just the overall space itself. By the end of the episode, you’ll have my clear rating from one to 10, and I’m going to go through each restaurant in alphabetical order.

[00:04:45] Dana Stanley: So again, this is not a ranking. But I’m just going to rate each spot from A to Z and at the very end of the episode I have a few tips for you to get the most out of your character meal if and when you book one. Let’s start off with the princess heavy option that often gets compared to Cinderella’s Royal Table and that’s ous Royal Banquet Hall.

[00:05:08] Dana Stanley: I’m laughing because I did look up the pronunciation for this one, and it is indeed, it’s like ous. I think I’m going to say aous most of the time, but you know, like to each his own of how you pronounce it. I’m excited to chat about this one first because we recently ate at Cinderella’s Royal Table, which I will be getting more into, but you need to know about Aous if you haven’t heard about it yet.

[00:05:34] Dana Stanley: So this is in Epcot right next to where you meet Anna and Elsa and can ride Frozen ever after. Great for little frozen fans. Ironically, you do not meet Anna and Elsa here at this restaurant, but it is the next best thing to eating at Cinderella Castle because it is like Princess Heaven here. So the characters rotate here quite a bit, and Disney seems very careful about what promises they make on their website as to what princesses will be there.

[00:06:04] Dana Stanley: So it’s a little elusive. They say storybook princesses. That being said, I haven’t visited there without seeing Bell Snow White and Ariel, and then the other two kind of being all over the place. Like you could see Tiana or Jasmine, I think I have heard of Mulan being there, Cinderella, but just know you’re going to see five princesses no matter what.

[00:06:27] Dana Stanley: If you have like a die hard princess fan that wants to match, I would like kind of set the bar low, like don’t give any promises. Like, listen, she may not be there, but it’s okay because X, Y, Z. But between you and me, if I had to put my money on it, I would always count on Bell as being there after Ting everything up.

[00:06:46] Dana Stanley: Accrues came up with a rating of eight out of 10 for me. First thing it scored really high on was the price. It’s very affordable for the amount of princesses you get to see. And while it’s not at the castle, I mean the interior is very, very similar of a vibe. It feels old. And royal, which may not necessarily sound like a good thing, but that’s honestly how the castle feels.

[00:07:12] Dana Stanley: So they have that same vibe, but the cost difference is literally in half. The food really falls into two buckets in my mind, like the breakfast food and then the lunch and dinner food, because good news is that there’s characters for every meal, which is great. The breakfast food, I definitely prefer it’s family style and would be better I think for picky eaters because you have all the basics.

[00:07:33] Dana Stanley: You have like scrambled eggs. Sausage waffles. They’re not Mickey waffles. They’re like Norwegian waffles, which are essentially like a thinner style of a waffle that look like little hearts. They’re great. Lunch and dinner, have more adventurous sounding things like chicken with fennel and apples, seared salmon shrimp.

[00:07:52] Dana Stanley: And honestly, I like all of those kinds of foods, but I could see it not being like a fan favorite, especially. Because those are like the set options that are brought to your table. You’re not getting like dozens of different things like a buffet, but there is very randomly placed like mac and cheese on the platter.

[00:08:10] Dana Stanley: So that’s nice too. So if I had to choose, it would definitely be in replacement for Cinderella’s Royal table. I would definitely never book both in the same trip. And I would opt for like a mid-morning breakfast so we can meet Anna and else in the morning have like first return time, lightning lane for frozen ever after.

[00:08:29] Dana Stanley: Then eat a big breakfast after, like that’s a solid morning, especially for like a frozen fan. Next on the list we have Cape May Cafe, which is at Beach Club Resort, which by total coincidence also got an eight out of 10 rating. Cape May Cafe is definitely more of a hidden character breakfast over at Beach Club, but a big red circle around Cape May Cafe because there is only characters for breakfast, which is what we’re focusing on.

[00:08:57] Dana Stanley: This is also the cheapest or maybe one of the cheapest character meals around Disney World. And I would for sure put this at the top of my dining list if I were staying at Boardwalk Beach Club or Yacht Club, even Swan and Dolphin, and was looking for a character buffet. Because while I have a love-hate relationship with Buffets, because simply I do not want to get up and down 10 times to get plates for my three children, plus myself, like there’s a lot going on with buffets.

[00:09:26] Dana Stanley: And then when I am eating, I feel like I’m stopping every five minutes to grab an autograph book and take a photo. So like adding the up and down of a buffet. It’s just hard not having a buffet and having the food brought to me definitely makes it easier when you have little kids, in my opinion. But the plus side is everyone can find something.

[00:09:45] Dana Stanley: Even if some of the food is subpar, there’s usually one or two things you end up loving and yay, it’s a buffet. You can keep going back and get more at Cape May Cafe. You’re going to get the full like beach vibe with Mini Donald, Daisy and Goofy. And kind of like old school beach attire. Like you know, Kate May, New Jersey, and this is a chill character male, in my opinion.

[00:10:09] Dana Stanley: It’s not like super big or super loud. There’s some natural light and the character ratio to people I feel like is very high. The buffet and food itself, I would give like a solid good. You have your normal stuff like Mickey waffles, unlike a sise, but some unique things like poached eggs. Yum. Throw that on a biscuit.

[00:10:31] Dana Stanley: I’m all about it. One of the downsides that I took off of 0.4 was the characters, because even though they have wonderful interactions, it’s missing Mickey. It’s hard to put it on the same level as some other spots that have Mickey, which is like usually the main man who everyone wants to see. Which brings me to our next restaurant, perfectly Timed, which is Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary Resort.

[00:10:54] Dana Stanley: I am so scared to say my rating, but I’m gonna tell you. And this is just, it’s not my fault, okay? I just rated it and calculated it, and I ended up with a 4.7. Goodness gracious, that sounds so bad to me. Now that it just got off of two eights in a row, but hear me out on this one. Chef Mickey’s is popular for a lot of reasons.

[00:11:16] Dana Stanley: First off, it’s Mickey, like we said, and second, it’s Mickey for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So you don’t have to worry about him not being there for one of them. For some reason, this is the one that just gets booked, like it’s just almost a no-brainer to people that you go to. Chef Mickey’s. I’m not really sure why, maybe ’cause it was one of the first ones.

[00:11:38] Dana Stanley: And I wanna say I have a lot of friends that love Chef Mickey’s because it’s nostalgic. They love that you can see Mickey Minnie, Donald Goofy, and Pluto. I mean, that is a lot, but it loses the most points for me for the location. I personally, this is just a me thing. Don’t love the location at all. While it’s a little convenient being on the monorail, so getting to and from Magic Kingdom is pretty easy.

[00:12:05] Dana Stanley: If I’m not staying at the contemporary especially, I just don’t like the vibe there. I don’t know how else to say it. I feel like it’s very loud. The characters feel rushed. The price is not cheap, especially for lunch and dinner. It’s on like the middle to high end, and there are just so many other character meals that I would go to before Chef Mickey’s, especially ones that are like inside the park.

[00:12:31] Dana Stanley: Also have Mickey, have better interactions and food. Which of course we are going to get to and it’ll become more clear as I talk about the other spots. I’m glad we’re moving on to Cinderella’s Royal table now that we’ve chatted about Aous, and this is inside of Cinderella’s Castle in Magic Kingdom, and I’m surprised how high of a rating this got for me, which was 9.3, like that’s high, a 9.3.

[00:12:57] Dana Stanley: Okay. This is the one character meal on this whole list that on paper and. With my style and things I normally like, doesn’t really make sense, but I’m a sucker when it comes to this one. It’s very exciting eating at the castle. I don’t know how else to say it. This is the Disney world hype that I’m falling for.

[00:13:19] Dana Stanley: I think it’s very fun eating at the castle. This is the one character meal that you will also pay ahead of time for. So even though it stinks when you make the reservation two months before. It actually feels really nice the day of because it feels free. Classic like girl math. I gave the food an uptick a little bit with points because it’s good in the way that wedding food is good.

[00:13:44] Dana Stanley: You know, like it’s not the food you get excited for, you don’t really crave salmon or ribeye, but it’s tasty and big and here they bring it to you. So your kids are oohing and eyeing over the fact that you’re in the castle and like looking at all this stuff and then you’re getting like a mimosa flight during breakfast and my food is brought to me.

[00:14:06] Dana Stanley: We’ve been there twice in the last few years, and the first one a while back felt a little okay. It was like coming out of the closures. But this past month we went back and I was really having a great time. I liked it. I thought it was great. Everyone had fun. I wouldn’t schedule this on like my one and only Magic Kingdom Day necessarily.

[00:14:27] Dana Stanley: If this is like your first time to Disney, I don’t think it’s necessary. But if you want like one big thing, and this all sounds up your alley, I just wanna say something to prepare you. You’re probably going to walk out of it saying. That was fun, but I don’t need to do it again. It’s just like one of those things that you don’t have to do often, but you’re still like, glad that you did it.

[00:14:52] Dana Stanley: I don’t know how else to say it. Now we’re coming up on our first 10 out of 10, and again, I’m so glad I rated these and didn’t rank them because there ended up being another 10 on this list. But they’re in completely different categories when it comes to where it is and the types of characters. And that first 10 out of 10 is Crystal Palace and Magic Kingdom.

[00:15:14] Dana Stanley: One thing I have to do get outta the way is Winnie the Pooh. Is one of my favorite characters. He was like my first love as a child. My room was classic Winnie the Pooh themed. I read all of the books and I just love him and all of the other characters. That go with him. And I also grew up in a very, how do I explain it?

[00:15:39] Dana Stanley: Like cottagey style house. Like my mom loves antiques and dried floral arrangements and all those things. And Crystal Palace just kind of fits that vibe. I love the light in there so much because it’s like an atrium. So all of your photos look good no matter where you’re sitting. And I will say my favorite meal there is definitely breakfast.

[00:16:01] Dana Stanley: Like sweet poo bear and natural light and a mimosa. It just, it all makes me feel very happy. This got the highest of points for characters because obviously I love them, but they’re not your typical characters like getting to see Poo, Tigger, piglet and Eor feels very special. You don’t see them that much and their interactions because of the personalities are very sweet, like they’re cuddly.

[00:16:30] Dana Stanley: They’re not scary. They move very slowly. Just a great first time character meal. If you are bringing like a six month old to a 2-year-old for the first time, this is a fantastic character meal to start with. This is a buffet, which I know I told you isn’t my favorite, but it still gets on the high end when it comes to points for buffet food.

[00:16:54] Dana Stanley: A lot of people love the churro, Mickey Waffle, and yes, it is good. It’s not. Why I necessarily love it here though, but it’s nice that it has something special on top of their normal breakfast food. Like that’s a very unique offer. One of the hacks that people do here is to book a reservation between breakfast and lunch so you actually can get both the buffets, which is honestly not a bad idea.

[00:17:20] Dana Stanley: In our experience when we went for lunch, it was definitely a lot busier and we had less time with the characters than breakfast, which is hard because I kind of go back and forth between timing because really in the morning I want to take advantage of getting on rides with low weights. So while I love like a early morning breakfast here, again, I wouldn’t do that if I only had one day in Magic Kingdom.

[00:17:46] Dana Stanley: I would do something a little later or lunch, but if you had two days of Magic Kingdom or maybe you were just popping in and hopping somewhere else, I feel like this is a great breakfast spot. So let’s imagine we are hopping from Magic Kingdom to Epcot, because next we’re going to talk about Garden Grill, specifically in the land pavilion.

[00:18:07] Dana Stanley: So this is in the same building. You’d ride Sorin and living with the land. My rating for this was a 6.8, and I can imagine my husband listening to this and being like appalled at that because he likes it here and the reason he likes it here is the reason that I actually knocked it down for a lot of points.

[00:18:27] Dana Stanley: If you haven’t been to Garden Girl before, this will be hard to explain in a podcast without showing you, but it is a circular restaurant where the platform. Slowly rotates as you’re eating your meal, and not only does it rotate, but you’re on the outside of the platform facing outwards, so it’s not like just normal tables and chairs in the middle.

[00:18:54] Dana Stanley: It’s very obvious to you that you are slowly rotating and that is where the characters get to you from like the outside of the ring. Which is Mickey, chip and Dale. They kind of like pop in to greet you and I just think it’s very odd and strange. I don’t love that setup, although like I get it. It’s unique, I guess.

[00:19:18] Dana Stanley: I don’t know, it’s just odd to me. I don’t feel like it adds anything. Cool. My husband feels the exact opposite, where it lost some points for the location it made up for with the food. Because first off, it’s family style, AKA, a human being brings the food and puts it in front of you, which thank goodness, because if this place was a buffet and you were getting up and down, like while spinning, no, no, no.

[00:19:42] Dana Stanley: Like when I had to get up to go to the bathroom, which is like outside of it, I was so discombobulated as to like where my table would be when I got back. But anyway. The family style platters that come for lunch and dinner, have Turkey, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread, and yes, if it sounds like Thanksgiving food, yes, that’s exactly what it is.

[00:20:05] Dana Stanley: And yes, around Thanksgiving. Reservations do get harder to get. Breakfast is a lot less expensive, but the menu doesn’t really do anything for me for what it is, like it’s just regular breakfast food. I’d actually rather spend the extra money and go with the Thanksgiving style food, honestly. So I think the setup is weird.

[00:20:25] Dana Stanley: Nice. Seeing Chippendale food is just nice and easy and comforting, and it’s a convenient spot for where it is in Epcot. But yeah, just a. Little bit above the middle 6.8 rating for me, our next character meal is another one that’s inside the parks and not at a resort, and that’s Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood Studios.

[00:20:46] Dana Stanley: This got a 6.0, solid six for me, and here’s why. Now, I did not regret eating here at all because it was summer and I was a genius for booking an early lunch reservation because when I tell you, we had just about melted into the ground at that point. And there just is not enough good dining spots in Hollywood studios.

[00:21:09] Dana Stanley: It’s just really hard to book anywhere that I’m excited about. So I was like, okay, we’ll try it. And that’s how Hollywood and Vine feels to me. Just like not exciting. It’s your classic characters. So Mickey, Minnie, goofy, and Donald, and the location itself is one of those places that it’s meant to feel retro, like it’s meant to feel like an old school diner.

[00:21:34] Dana Stanley: But because it’s been around a while, it just actually feels like old and not in a good way. Does that make sense? Everything just needs to kind of be updated. I think like the upholstery, the bathrooms, everything kind of had like that diner tinge to it, and it’s like, what are you supposed to do about that when that’s what it’s literally meant to be like.

[00:21:54] Dana Stanley: That being said, our waitress was great and the characters were great when my daughter spilled an entire root beer. Our waitress was really nice about it. And then Pluto actually played with the baby, like straight up, took a toy, attached it to his nose, and was like dancing around for probably like a full five minutes, just entertaining him.

[00:22:14] Dana Stanley: So I gave the characters the highest points I could hear and what can really make this place feel very special is for breakfast, they have Disney Junior characters. Which is really unique. So like Vina, doc McStuffins, like that’s a big deal, being able to meet all of them for one meal. So I’d probably bump it up to like a 6.3 or 6.5 if you’re going for those and had like a die hard Disney Junior fan up.

[00:22:42] Dana Stanley: Next is a place that I want to love so badly, especially for my daughter. She’s nine years old, who by the way, said this is her favorite character meal. And that’s Ohana at the Polynesian, specifically for breakfast. And I ended up giving it a 7.3. And what saved this from being like a four rating is that this is the only place where you’re guaranteed to meet Stitch.

[00:23:08] Dana Stanley: And like, give him a hug, take a picture. And he is a popular guy, so it makes sense that this is popular on top of the fact that he’s only there at breakfast. I repeat Stitch is only there at breakfast, so you’re gonna have some classic breakfast family style brought to your table. They also have POG juice, which is like their thing.

[00:23:29] Dana Stanley: My kids really do like that. I just feel like the Polynesian itself and Ohana doesn’t do it for me like it used to. I feel like it just, again, all has to be updated. The last two or three times we were there, we did not get lucky with our table position, and I wish I had asked to sit by a window, which pro tip you can ask to be seated anywhere you want and for character meals.

[00:23:55] Dana Stanley: Getting asked to sit near a window is like a guarantee that your photos will look better. So for me, I could definitely skip it. I don’t think it’s anything special, but it has Stitch and it’s not just Stitch, it’s Lilo. And Mickey and Pluto, and I actually don’t see them listed on Disney’s website of Mickey and Pluto, so maybe they don’t wanna promise that, but they’ve been there when we’ve been there.

[00:24:18] Dana Stanley: So, I mean, you’re getting those big characters that your kids wanna meet, especially if you have a Stitch fan. I mean, it is really worth it just for that alone. Now, even though I don’t like the vibes, I didn’t take points off for the location because it is on the Mono Monroe line, which means it’s in a great spot if you’re staying at the Polynesian.

[00:24:37] Dana Stanley: Or one of the other monorail resorts, or maybe you wanna pop in or out of Magic Kingdom. The best way I do this is actually to book a late breakfast if you’re going into the parks, like a brunch, because one of the good things is that breakfast runs from seven 30 to 1215, so you could get a bunch of rides done in Magic Kingdom, hit the monorail, grab brunch before taking a break or going back into the park if you wanted to, if you’re staying at Polynesian or next door at the Island Tower.

[00:25:07] Dana Stanley: I would definitely wanna do this on like checkout day again if I had a Stitch fan. Now we are moving on to a really unique spot because a lot of places are only at breakfast. This one is the opposite and it’s only for dinner. And that storybook dining at the wilderness lodge. This got a high rating for me of 9.3 because here you get to see snow white, dopey, grumpy, and then after you eat, you have the option of meeting the evil queen, which is really awesome because I think a lot of kids are scared of her, which makes sense.

[00:25:40] Dana Stanley: So she’s not like coming around to your table. Terrifying everyone. So you have like the option. To meet her afterwards and like where our table was. We couldn’t even see her until after we were done eating. So my kids didn’t even notice her. And I think maybe I just got a picture. I, I don’t know, I think my daughter did get a picture with her.

[00:26:00] Dana Stanley: She is a really fun character to meet. I like her. Out of all the character meals. And when you think of a theme like this, like this place has a theme. It’s really immersive from the second you walk in the whole dining room. Feels very magical and it matches so well being inside Wilderness Lodge, like it’s dark and cozy and there’s twinkle lights in the trees on the ceiling, and it’s the only character meal that has like that type of theme, like a magical forest.

[00:26:31] Dana Stanley: I really just like the whole dining room itself. The food is similar to Cinderella’s table where it’s price fixed, so you pick the entree you want. The food is on the upper hand side of good. Like on the fence between good and great. I would say I loved my prime rib mostly because I had horse radish mashed potatoes.

[00:26:51] Dana Stanley: So I do think it’s just kind of like a coincidence that the menu here is suited to what I like, which helps. But everything was themed, like literally every cocktail name was themed and interactive. The kid’s appetizer, they’re like shaking a little jar to turn their own butter. It really felt like you were eating.

[00:27:13] Dana Stanley: At Snow White’s table. So when it comes to characters fun fact, snow White is like my favorite princess to meet. She’s so much like in the movie, like it’s so distinct how she talks and moves that when you get a good snow white, it is just great. And we did, we had the most perfect snow white when we had dinner.

[00:27:32] Dana Stanley: I really loved it here. And if you’re looking for a special dinner. I wouldn’t choose this necessarily as like your one and only character meal, just because it’s not Mickey, like I don’t think most toddlers and young kids. Go nuts over Snow, white and dopey. Maybe yours do, but like I remember my daughter didn’t wanna get a picture with Grumpy ’cause he’s grumpy, like he’s not nice and she was a little scared of him.

[00:27:56] Dana Stanley: But a birthday or anniversary or a little girl who happens to be obsessed with Snow White, it’s great, especially if you’re staying at Wilderness Lodge. Actually talking about it, I think I wanna go back again. Next time we’re in Disney, I just like talked myself into it. Here comes the second 10 out of 10 rating.

[00:28:14] Dana Stanley: And my favorite breakfast on property to specifically meet Mickey, and it’s the one I would choose if you had no desire to meet Winnie the Pooh, which was my other 10 rating, and that is Topos Terrace at the Riviera Resort. Now, we just got back from staying at Riviera and being at Topos, so having this all fresh in my mind, everything from the restaurant to the food.

[00:28:38] Dana Stanley: To the characters and their outfits, to having skyliner access if you’re not scared of it before you go into Epcot. It’s kind of like laid back Magic 1 0 1, this is the only character breakfast with Mickey that is not a buffet, which is a huge plus in my opinion, and why we love Toppino so much. I just wanna give you some of the options of the menu real quick, of things you get to choose from.

[00:29:04] Dana Stanley: You have quiche, career, eggs benedict, which is like one of my favorites. Sour cream, waffle steak, and eggs, which comes with polenta, French toast. And then for the kids, since everything is themed like artists, they’re Mickey waffles come with little dips, like it looks like an artist palette, and they can stick their little waffles in two.

[00:29:24] Dana Stanley: Which keeps them entertained. Then plus the characters are coming around and I really love their outfits here. They’re just less stimulating, you know, like everything I don’t love about Chef Mickey’s Topos Terrace is the opposite. It just feels very relaxed to me. The food is good. Again, I don’t have to get up and down, so this is my top recommendation for meeting Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy, and really just having a good breakfast with good coffee and good service.

[00:29:55] Dana Stanley: 10 outta 10. Moving back into the parks, we’re going to Animal Kingdom at Tusker House. This ended up getting a rating for me of 7.7 and my favorite part of Tusker House. Is, it feels very unique and adventurous from the dining room itself to the buffet and the types of food that they have. And you can find some random things like I feel like my favorite is the green curry shrimp.

[00:30:22] Dana Stanley: I had it with rice. I think I went back like three times for that. But before you write this off as like, oh, my kids won’t eat that. Don’t worry. Okay. There’s still chicken fingers and mac and cheese. This is a great. Safe space to try new things. I think because it has those like bold flavors like animal kingdom usually has, which is what I like about it, but it also has like your safe, normal things.

[00:30:48] Dana Stanley: I didn’t feel like the characters were out of this world here, but I have many friends that have had the best character interactions ever here. So we for lunch, felt pretty rushed on this particular day, and that could have been a lot of factors. But for the price and when it was all said and done and all the good food and animal kingdom, that’s mainly what lost points for me here.

[00:31:13] Dana Stanley: So unless I had no other opportunity for a character meal, I just don’t think that’s where I want to be eating an animal kingdom. I’d rather be at Nomad Lounge or Tuli Canteen or Tiffins. I just love the food and Animal Kingdom so much, and that’s again why I liked the buffet. But yeah, it just didn’t do a lot for me to give it a higher rating than that, but not a bad rating either.

[00:31:38] Dana Stanley: So you heard my lowest rating went to Chef Mickey’s, and this is the one just above that. And I’m probably going to get some messages and they’re going to be nice because I warned you guys ahead of time that I know one experience. It can’t be like the rating of a character meal for everyone, but here we are.

[00:32:01] Dana Stanley: This is what we’re doing, and that’s 1900 Park Fair at the Grand Floridian, and this got a 5.3 for me. I didn’t feel like the characters were out of this world here. So we were able to see Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy when we were there, but I have many friends that have had like the best character interactions here.

[00:32:22] Dana Stanley: The nice thing about 1900 Park Fair is that there are characters for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So you don’t have to worry about choosing a meal. And the characters are genuinely unique. You can meet Tiana wearing pants, which is very exciting. Aladdin is there most nights. I’ve heard that he’s not there always, but he was there when we were there.

[00:32:41] Dana Stanley: So we met Cinderella, Aladdin, Tiana, and Bel. And while they all make sense on paper, because the theme of this restaurant is Making a Wish, just wishes, not the movie wishes. But wishing and they have you make your own wishes, like you write them down and Jiminy Cricket comes on the speakers and does this little prompt about wishes for kids.

[00:33:07] Dana Stanley: It was very cute. It felt disjointed to me. Still like wishing is not a theme to me. They did a lot with the murals and the menu and the little cards that they give you. But because it’s a buffet, I feel like there’s less theming with the food, if that makes sense. Like I think if it was family style or like a price fix, they could add the wish theme a little bit more.

[00:33:33] Dana Stanley: Similar to storybook dining where everything was themed. And one of the biggest issues, which is totally a me thing and I understand is there is not a single window in this place. And I remembered it as soon as I walked in from like a decade ago of like, oh, this is the place with no windows. It’s just windowless.

[00:33:53] Dana Stanley: And I don’t know. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to eat without seeing outside. Is that weird? And while the food was good, like my salmon was really, really good. And the famous cold strawberry soup was good. It was just nothing to give enough points. Like even if I gave it the highest food ranking, I can’t get it high enough to set off the characters, the location and the price because it is one of the pricier character meals, especially because we felt so rushed.

[00:34:23] Dana Stanley: I think we were in and out in like under an hour, and then you get the bill and you’re like, Ugh. Now all that being said, I would go back possibly for two reasons. Definitely if I was staying at the Grand Floridian, like that would make perfect sense for our particular meal. We kind of like trekked from the Riviera to eat there, and it just didn’t seem worth it for that.

[00:34:45] Dana Stanley: I feel like if I was staying there. It would’ve felt a lot easier and like less of a big deal. And the second thing is that it feels more like a breakfast vibe place to me. So if I went back and I was staying at the Grand Floridian, I would definitely book breakfast. It had a similar feeling to me like Crystal Palace.

[00:35:01] Dana Stanley: Like I think I’d be happier there with a mimosa than prime rib, you know what I mean? And it’s less expensive. For breakfast, I would probably feel less rushed with the characters. And I think that added to my low rating that it was dinner and we weren’t staying there. If you’ve made it to the end of this episode, great job.

[00:35:23] Dana Stanley: High fives all around. Usually my outlines for podcast episodes are like four to five pages in a Google Doc, and this one was 11, so I knew this was going to be a longer episode right off the bat. But as promised, I wanted to give you some tips and reminders for character meals. First is that kids under three eat free at these character meals.

[00:35:43] Dana Stanley: So if it’s a buffet, they just expect that they’re eating off your plate, which is great ’cause you can find a lot of little toddler friendly things for them to eat, like fruit and fries and mac and cheese, all those things. And the same thing goes for a price fix unless you order something. That’s not included.

[00:36:01] Dana Stanley: Like if you order them their own meal, obviously you’d be charged for that. Tip number two is to ask your server when you get there, if it’s a good time to go to the buffet. If it’s a buffet, they know the flow and the timing of characters. So like sometimes they’ll say, Hey, let me get your drinks, because Mickey’s on his way, like, stay put, I’ll be right back.

[00:36:21] Dana Stanley: Or they’ll say, now’s a perfect time to hit the buffet. Like, hurry back before the characters come. Three is to be ready with your autograph books or sketchbooks or hats or whatever people are getting signed these days. If that’s a priority for you and as a former photographer, please don’t feel bad asking to be near a window.

[00:36:41] Dana Stanley: I’ve gotten very lucky and unlucky sometimes with our table. Like I mentioned at Ohana, and I think to myself, man, my photos look like trash because we have no natural light and we can’t see anyone. And that’s another reason why I love Topos, by the way that I didn’t mention, is it has the best light in the whole place.

[00:37:01] Dana Stanley: It doesn’t even matter what table you sit at. Four is to triple check when the characters will be there. I know I kind of went over all of that, but you don’t wanna get to dinner. And realize that the characters were only at breakfast, so always check that ahead of time. Tip number five is to not feel like you have to do this.

[00:37:19] Dana Stanley: You can meet characters other ways, and you know, sometimes these character meals, I know I said some of them feel rushed, but typically they’re like an hour and a half, two hours long, so it does take a chunk of your part day. Don’t feel like you have to cram in a character meal just because you feel like you have to.

[00:37:38] Dana Stanley: Now, you may be wondering, after I did this whole list, why I didn’t talk about Be Our Guest and Magic Kingdom, if you’ve heard of that. It is a Beauty and the Beast themed restaurant. But I don’t consider that a character meal, and actually neither does Disney on their website because there’s no character actually walking around to greet you.

[00:37:58] Dana Stanley: I just wanted to throw that out there in case you thought I missed it on the list. Hopefully this helps you feel more confident about where to spend your time and money. Because I know I get asked about this all the time when it comes to character meals in Disney World. If you loved this episode and it was helpful for you, I’d love for you to share it with a friend who’s planning their trip too.

[00:38:16] Dana Stanley: And if you need even more guidance, especially around sketching out your days so that the meals kind of flow with your plans, and then how to make these reservations in the first place. Check out my members only planning guide. It’s called Laid Back Magic, and it’s linked in the show notes. Thanks for listening and I will catch you next week.

[00:38:35] Dana Stanley: Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode and it was helpful for you, it would mean the world to me. If you’d write a quick review, your reviews, help more moms like you find the show, and I read every single one of them seriously.

[00:38:51] Dana Stanley: Thank you in advance. You can find me on Instagram at somewhere worthwhile, and I’d love to hear from. There DM me if you have any questions about this episode or what you’d like to see in future ones. Until then, keep planning for your next favorite memory and I’ll see you next time.