Evan's World: Part 1- Character Meals

Phew, can hardly believe its over and we are finally back in Sydney. There is just so much to say/post, that I am going to split it into categories. So here is Part 1 - Character Dining. This is probably the easiest but most expensive way to meet the Disney characters.

Basically you can pay to do a character meal, usually breakfast where there are certain characters that appear and come to your table. The protocol is that you wait at your table for them to come around and see you. This can be challenging with a 2yo as they can see the character in the room, but not at their table. Of course they want to meet them "NOW". Also the characters do short tours of the room, so depending on when you arrive and where you are seated, it can impact who you see and how many characters you see during your meal.

We did all of the available character meals at Disneyland. So here are the highlights of each and some pics.

Goofy's Kitchen at Disneyland Hotel
This was our first character meal. It was very busy and the characters seemed to be favouring a part of the room we weren't in. I had to complain to the character host who then arranged for some to come and see us. By then Evan was over the whole thing and just wanted to leave. Also as this was only the day after we arrived, he was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. We did get to meet Goofy, Chip, Pluto, Donald Duck and lots of Princesses who I couldn't tell apart.

The food was interesting. It was a buffet geared at kids, featuring things like peanut butter pizza, worms & dirt (jelly with crushed oreos and jelly snakes), mickey shaped waffles and chicken nuggets. At least there was lots of fruit to chose from plus great eggs benedict. DH and I did this meal 3 years ago and loved it, this time we were not as enthused.

Minnie & Friends at the Plaza Inn - Disneyland
This meal is actually in the park itself at one of the restaurants called the Plaza Inn. I had read

on all the Disneyland message boards that this was the best one for food and character interaction. Maybe my expectations were a little high, but it was a nightmare. See my previous post about this one. We did get to meet Minnie Mouse, Tigger and Eyeore briefly. However overall it was definitely our worst dining experience of the whole trip.

Storytellers at the Grand Californian Hotel
This was my favourite charcter meal, both in terms of food and interaction. In fact we did this one twice. The characters are mainly Disney critters keeping in line with the theme of this hotel, which has an outdoorsy rustic feel to it. The hotel itself is amazing and we stayed here for 3 days when we decided to extend our trip, but more on that later.

The food was awesome, your could do the buffet or order off the menu. We did the buffet as it was the easier and quicker option for Evan. He alway ate free as Disney doesn't charge for kids under 3. The selection of foods was amazing, fresh cooked to order omelettes, fruit, pastries, eggs benedict, bacon, sausages, hash browns (not the froze squares like Maccas but real pan made hash browns..mmmm) plus lots more. Even the filter cofffee was drinkable, which is unusual for the US, where I normally find the filter coffee tastes like dishwater.

We met lots of characters from Brother Bear, Lion King and other Disney films with critters. The interaction was amazing, with each character coming and spending quite a bit of time with Evan. He really loosed up and its was the first time we got pics of him with out us needing to be in the photo holding him.

Lilo & Stitch at Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel
This was a last minute decision and was actually pretty good. The character interaction was the best as it wasn't busy and they seemed to have alot of time to spend with Evan. Apart from Minnie Mouse, the others weren't really familiar. Evan now knows Stitch, although I still have no idea. Will need to watch the Disney channel to see more. Food was ok, your typical buffet fare, not nasty but not great like Story Tellers either.