Character Meals and prices? (California) Is it Worth the price??

[rkold]

There's 5 character meal spots, two in the parks (Breakfast in the Park with Minnie and Friends [Plaza Inn at DL], Ariel's Grotto [Ariel's Grotto in DCA]), and one at each resort location (Story Tellers at Grand Californian, Goofy's Kitchen at DL Hotel, and Surf's Up! Breakfast with Mickey and Friends at Paradise Pier). Here's a *quick* breakdown of each: (adult price, kid price)

Minnie at Plaza: Breakfast only for characters. Buffet. $30, $14. Characters vary, but most often you will see Minnie, Chip-N-Dale, Tigger, Captain Hook, Fairy Godmother, and Rafiki.

Ariel: Breakfast: $37, 20. Lunch: $40, $23. Individual meals (no buffet). Always Ariel, but other princesses will vary. They will not promise any certain princesses beyond Ariel here. No characters at dinner.

Story Tellers: Breakfast: $30, $14 for buffet. Chip-N-Dale, Pluto, and often Koda (??) from Brother Bear. Other characters vary.

Goofy: Brunch: $33, 17. Buffet. Dinner: $39, $17. Always: Goofy, Chip-N-Dale, Minnie, and Pluto. Rotation is standardized.

Surf's Up: Breakfast: $33, $17. Buffet. Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and likely Chip-N-Dale, though they may rotate.

Unless they've dropped prices I could have sworn Goofy's was more expensive than that. I think we paid more like $50 for me and I could have sworn they said their dinners were $50 for adults when we were there. We've eaten at Goofy's 2x both a few years ago and neither time Minnie was there.

I want to be clear now, my DD is really into the meeting characters and loves the princesses. She is also a bird like eater under the best of circumstances, so I am glad I have to pay the child rate for her and not the adult! If she was old enough for the adult rate and still wanted to meet the characters I would be more inclined to wait in line since it is just easier with a 9 or 10 year old than a pre-reading child. (We do bring markers and a tablet for lines, and so have made a lot of friends because we share.)

In WDW they just promise princesses at Cindy's and Aksherus, but the rotation of princesses is almost always the same. I've seen a little variation, but not a lot, and we've probably eaten at both of those 8 or 9x between 2011-2015. I'd be really surprised if Anna+Elsa or Rapunzel made the rotation at Ariel's. They're just too popular still. I wouldn't complain if we got surprise Mulan, Tiana, Jasmine, or Merida, since DD just likes meeting princesses.

We're vegetarians and they do make the food fresh there because they were able to change one of the main courses for me to make it vegetarian.

We're hoping to go to DL in July/August. I actually have to look into booking Ariels' >>; Unlike WDW it is so much easier to get a character meal and depending on time of year you can actually get one day of, vs WDW where it can be so hard!

And just a note, if your child is under 3, they're free. At buffet places it means you can take buffet items for them. At non buffet places, it depends on your child's age. When we ate at Cindy's when DD was 2, they gave us for free the regular kid's breakfast choices. Maybe they won't remember it but going with a 2-3 year old child who is free is hard to resist.

[Tenasparkl]

Unless they've dropped prices I could have sworn Goofy's was more expensive than that. I think we paid more like $50 for me and I could have sworn they said their dinners were $50 for adults when we were there.

We almost had a last minute dinner there a few months ago and I think the adult price for dinner was $59. (maybe it was $50, but it was higher than $40 for sure)

A friend that's done all the character meals told me that the breakfast at Storytellers isn't worth it. We've only done Ariel's Grotto and I was happy with the food and the princesses for the cost. I just looked at our pics and we saw Ariel (in the lobby, not at the table), Cinderella, Belle, Tiana and Sleeping Beauty.

[lalasmama]

I'll follow up on the prices. Grabbed them from wdwinfo, which is usually right-on with it!

[ckso]

We've only done Ariel's Grotto and I was happy with the food and the princesses for the cost. I just looked at our pics and we saw Ariel (in the lobby, not at the table), Cinderella, Belle, Tiana and Sleeping Beauty.

PP commented they were happy with Ariel because you get to see 5 princesses so it makes it worth it. My girls are into princesses but over at DL, the wait to see 3 princesses at Royal Hall is pretty short (15-20 min, sometimes less) and a lot of times we'll see a princess greet either right outside of that or at the front entrance of Disneyland. That's why I'm wondering is people saying it's worth it because of the princess and not having to wait in another line or the whole experience enhanced much more in a dining environment as opposed to a Meet and Greet Line. So far the only princess we've never seen outside of the show is Tiana

[rkold]

PP commented they were happy with Ariel because you get to see 5 princesses so it makes it worth it. My girls are into princesses but over at DL, the wait to see 3 princesses at Royal Hall is pretty short (15-20 min, sometimes less) and a lot of times we'll see a princess greet either right outside of that or at the front entrance of Disneyland. That's why I'm wondering is people saying it's worth it because of the princess and not having to wait in another line or the whole experience enhanced much more in a dining environment as opposed to a Meet and Greet Line. So far the only princess we've never seen outside of the show is Tiana

I'm saying it because when we were there in early December 2013, one day we got lucky and just met Belle outside and only had a 15 minute wait for the princesses inside (Aurora, Ariel and maybe there was Cindy?) but one of the other days we were there the wait was 45+ minutes. I think it depends on how early you show up there. One thing I don't like about DL is when we waited in line we were lucky and there were 2 or 3 princesses, but none of them were named ahead of time. Someone who had waited in line earlier waited 15 minutes and only got 1 princess. We waited 1 hour to Meet Anna and Elsa, but Elsa wasn't there because she was "running late." I was pretty annoyed. WDW rarely does stuff like that.

[azzeps]

We did Ariel's Grotto last year, and I'm so glad we did it - DD has since outgrown her LOVE of all things princess, and I kind of knew at the time that it was "now or never" for her to really be wowed by the experience. Even DS got into it. The food was good - so we got to knock out eating and seeing princesses and DD got a great start on her autograph book. I felt that since we had knocked out seeing so many princesses at the lunch, we could skip waiting in line at the Princess Faire, or whatever it was called. We briefly saw Cinderella at the entrance of DL, but she was whisked away before we got to the front of the line. Anyway, we enjoyed the lunch and for us it was worth it.

We also did Goofy's Kitchen for brunch before heading out to the airport. It was great, too. Lots of different characters, and they have everything you could possibly want to eat. It was our last (not even whole) day, so it was fun to have one last thing to do before saying goodbye to Disneyland. We didn't go into the parks that day at all because we were flying home.

[Still-in-Shock]

WHen it comes to whether something is "worth it", that's always a very individual decision. Ariel's Grotto would be a waste for us, because we have a little boy who only knows about Sofia, but would be marvelous for our neighbor's little girl. And while the food at the Plaza Inn is not supposed to be great, their breakfast with Minnie will have several characters that our LO will love - at least we think so.

I found this website to be helpful in planning what venues we should visit: http://www.charactercentral.net/CategoryList.aspx

[rkold]

OK we just went to Ariel's for lunch and I want to say the bill with tip was $80, for 1 adult+ 1 kid 3-9. We did pay ~$10 because my DD insisted she needed the glowing Ariel you could get there. It was one of the few souvenirs she got, so I don't feel too bad about it. I am a little annoyed that for that much money it didn't include the darn picture. We accidentally got talked into buying that for another $30 and I really could have done without it. We have so many of the free ones we got in FL just sitting in a cabinet! If you're AP or DVC you do get a 10% discount. I will say having gone to WDW a lot, the food at Ariel's is so much *BETTER* than at Cinderella's or Aksherus (Norway.) I also appreciated meeting 5 princesses (Ariel, Belle, Snow White, Cindy, +Tiana --Aurora wasn't there and she wasn't in MK the next day either!) without having to do the 1+ hour wait for Fairy Tale Hall. The princesses were all really pretty, but I didn't think gave as much time as they could have.

I'm not sure I would want to pay that again, maybe I will see if Costco has a special next time.

If you eat at the Plaza just make sure you are seated inside, because the characters don't like to go outside and I've seen many people echo our experience that if you're sat outside you have to repeatedly chase down characters. (And the food is Denny's level at best.)