Best Character Meals at Disney World
Character breakfasts are a great way to start a day at Walt Disney World, and dinners a good way to end it. We’ve done character dining experiences at restaurants in all of the parks and several hotels, with mixed results. Some we’ve loved, others have felt like a rip-off. In this post, we’ll share our favorite character meals. (Updated December 1, 2023.)
Our favorite character meals make the list for a variety of reasons. In a couple of cases, we’re swayed heavily by the unique outfits of Minnie & Mickey Mouse that you can’t find elsewhere. Other meals have especially unique settings or are known for particularly good character interactions.
Finally, some have far superior cuisine choices as compared to other restaurants. When it comes to character meals, the food is pretty important to us. Some character meals have notoriously bad food, which gives the distinct impression that you’re simply paying to meet characters. That’s fine for some people, but we have qualms with it. The good news is that things are getting better!
Since reopening, Walt Disney World has very slowly been restoring character dining experiences. When these meals first returned at all, many went from being buffets to prix fixe or family-style feasts. Some came back entirely without characters, others had fur characters that greeted guests from a distance while none had face characters.
Fast-forward a few years, and things are mostly back to normal. Princess meals are back, as are buffets. A few menus have changed and prices have gone up across the board, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, there are a few very high-profile character meals that still have not returned–including a couple that previously topped this list.
We had been waiting to refresh this until those returned, but at this point, who knows whether that’ll ever happen. Accordingly, we’re updating this for Late 2023 based on our most recent experiences with character meals at Walt Disney World.
For the flip side of this post, see our companion post: Worst Character Meals at Walt Disney World. Not everyone agrees with our choices there, so be sure to read the comments for different perspectives. Some of you agreed with our choices, many of you disagreed, and a few felt it was a personal affront that we would dare list your favorites among our least favorites.
As always, we welcome respectful and constructive disagreement with any post here. We’re hardly definitive authorities, and reasonable minds may vary on a lot. Our hope is to offer a helpful resource and one perspective about these character meals–but we can only offer reviews and feedback based on our personal experiences, and of course those can differ from what you have experienced.
There is also the caveat that the very nature of buffets (which is what most character meals are) at Walt Disney World is hit-or-miss. Buffet food quality is in large part dependent upon how long your food has been sitting under the heat lamp. Nevertheless, some restaurants have objectively better food choices on their buffets, so we think it’s still possible to rank them.
Now that we’ve explained a bit of our “methodology” for choosing our list of the best character meals at Walt Disney World, let’s discuss the choices…
Breakfast à la Art at Topolino’s Terrace – The newest character meal at Walt Disney World is also the best breakfast–and close to the best character dining experience, period. The full name of this is a mouthful: Breakfast à la Art with Mickey & Friends at Topolino’s Terrace — Flavors of the Riviera.
Located on the rooftop of Disney’s Riviera Resort, Topolino’s Terrace is a great venue for a character meal. Thanks to the spectacular views, airy atmosphere, elegant design, chic character costumes, and an ambitious menu, Breakfast à la Art with Mickey & Friends definitely feels like the most upscale character meal.
Story Book Dining at Artist Point – This character meal features Snow White, Evil Queen, Dopey, and Grumpy and is located in Wilderness Lodge. Story Book Dining at Artist Point is the best character dining experience at Walt Disney World if you’re judging primarily based upon food quality.
We’ve dined here several times since it debuted, and we’ve also had a consistently high-caliber experience. Unlike many meals, Artist Point isn’t trying to turn over tables as quickly as possible, so you generally get more time with the characters. That means better interactions, photos, and just a better overall experience.
The Artist Point menu is far more ambitious and inventive than anything other character dining experience, but that’s unsurprising given that this used to be a Signature Restaurant. The prix fixe menu is mostly very good, and a great option for those wanting quality over the quantity found on a buffet. When paying out of pocket, Artist Point is a solid choice for Snow White fans.
What’s interesting to us is how polarizing Story Book Dining is. If you read the comments here, you’ll see that a lot of Walt Disney World fans are not fans of this restaurant. We strongly disagree, but feel that it’s only fair to point out that not everyone shares our rosey opinion of this restaurant.
We also need to issue another ‘warning’ of sorts. On the 2024 Disney Dining Plan, Story Book Dining at Artist Point will become a 2-credit table service restaurant on the Disney Dining Plan (DDP). This makes it an objectively poor use of DDP credits. That was not the case before, when Artist Point was a 1-credit restaurant on the DDP and the #1 value as a result. That is no longer the case as of 2024–the opposite is now true due to the doubling of credits required.
Cinderella’s Royal Table – For princess lovers, Cinderella’s Royal Table is the character dining experience at Walt Disney World. Located inside Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom, Cinderella’s Royal Table is a rite-of-passage experience…and one that is priced accordingly! Because of that, it becomes almost impossible to assess this meal. It’s the type of thing your kids will talk about for months afterwards, and it leaves an indelible impression…with a price tag to match.
In that regard, it’s a lot like Chef Mickey’s–an iconic experience with bottomless demand that could get away with low quality at high prices. Unlike that, Cinderella’s Royal Table is surprisingly good, with cuisine that’s near fine dining caliber (probably the best food quality in Magic Kingdom, or close to it). The atmosphere is also excellent. Beyond the lavish and regal setting, it’s not as loud and chaotic as you might expect given the target audience. Whether it’s overpriced is subjective; for many young kids, eating inside a castle with royalty is a priceless experience.
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (Dinner Only) – Located in the Norway pavilion at EPCOT, this character dining experience is housed inside a fortress-slash-castle, but it doesn’t look like a castle in the same way that Cinderella Castle does. So this is very much a “consolation prize” from that perspective.
That doesn’t mean Akershus is bad, though. Far from it. At least, at dinner. While we’d strongly recommend that princess-lovers prioritize Cinderella’s Royal Table, if you want a second in-park princess meal, Akershus is no slouch. The lunch/dinner menu is head and shoulders above the (weak) breakfast menu, and is a fantastic overall experience. It’s almost as expensive as Cinderella’s Royal Table and not nearly as memorable, but it’s still top tier.
(As with Story Book Dining at Artist Point, Akershus also now requires 2-credits on the 2024 Disney Dining Plan for lunch and dinner. Accordingly, it is also now a poor use of credits. It’s still only 1-credit for breakfast and a better value as a result…but a worse experience. So pick you poison, we guess!)
Minnie’s Seasonal Dine at Hollywood & Vine – Our meal and overall experience at Minnie’s Holiday Dine was one of our best character meals ever at Walt Disney World. More recently, we did Minnie’s Halloween Dine, and also loved that. In fact, we enjoyed both so much that we view these as potential alternatives to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party if your priority is meeting characters at a fun seasonal event.
At both meals, the character interactions were head and shoulders above anything else we’ve been a part of at Walt Disney World. The costumes are also incredible–far better than what you’ll find at the hard ticket events, in fact. We also appreciated that the characters had fun moments together between tables for everyone to witness–this made it more of a communal experience, and more than just your typical ‘pose for a picture’ greeting.
Then there was the buffet itself, which had a wide selection of cuisine. It was definitely not in the realm of Boma or Tusker House in terms of ambitiousness, but the quality was on nearly the same level for several entree and dessert items. If you’re looking for good comfort foods, you really can’t go wrong with Minnie’s Seasonal Dines at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The only real downside is price, but that’s no worry if you’re on the Disney Dining Plan. (It’ll be one of the top values on the 2024 DDP since it’s still only 1-credit!)
Cape May Cafe – Minnie’s Beach Bash is the character breakfast at Cape May Cafe, and it’s perfectly fitting for Disney’s Beach Club Resort. It’s also one of two nostalgia choices on this list. Cape May Cafe was one of our first character meals as adults, and we also enjoyed this breakfast on our honeymoon. (As such, we might be just a little biased and sentimental about Cape May Cafe!)
We love Cape May Cafe because it is fairly low-key and laid back by Walt Disney World character breakfast standards. Minnie’s Beach Bash has great breakfast food variety, fun costumes for characters we like. Despite being better than Chef Mickey’s or ‘Ohana, it’s never as busy as either of those, and we’ve had great success with the character experiences here.
Garden Grill Restaurant — Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Harvest Feast dinner is one of our favorite character meals for a few different reasons. First, you’ve got some great character costumes with Farmer Mickey Mouse, Chip, Dale, and Pluto.
Second, the setting itself is iconic–an EPCOT Center gem for old school fans like us. Not only is it a rotating restaurant in The Land pavilion in Epcot’s Future World, but it also offers views into the Livin’ with the Land attraction. That’s huge and would give the restaurant a lot of appeal even without characters.
Then there’s the family style dinner, serving pot roast, turkey breast, carved pork, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and berry short cake. Some people might lament the lack of diversity among these dishes or having fewer choices than buffets, but we feel the quality and consistency are higher here, so it’s a mostly fair trade-off.
Tusker House – When it comes to the intersection of cuisine quality and quantity, Tusker House is the best character meal at Walt Disney World. This is like “Boma-Lite” on the cuisine front for lunch and dinner, which is about the highest possible praise for character dining since Boma is the best buffet at Walt Disney World–and one of the top meals, period.
Since this is character dining that appeals primarily to families, Walt Disney World wisely offers standard options in addition to the more adventurous African foods. It’s a pretty healthy split between safe choices and ambitious ones, meaning everyone leaves happy here. This is a huge distinction as compared character meals, which are overwhelmingly unadventurous.
If that’s not enough, Tusker House also has some of the best character outfits for Donald’s Safari meals, and the value for money offered here is much better than most character meals. For all of those reasons, this ranks as our top overall character meal at Walt Disney World. Tusker House really offers something for everyone.
1900 Park Fare (Temporarily Unavailable) – For a long time, this was one of the more under-the-radar character dining experiences at Walt Disney World. Even though 1900 Park Fare is located within walking distance from Magic Kingdom at the flagship Grand Floridian Resort, it never had the same popularity as Chef Mickey’s or even ‘Ohana.
However, 1900 Park Fare really shines. The characters are top-notch, with some highly amusing and fun interactions (we normally aren’t huge on face characters, but Alice and Mad Hatter were wonderful and didn’t just blow past us). The food is also exceptional, with a robust buffet that included several high-quality and unique options. The cuisine is actually so good that I think it would’ve been “worth it” even if there were no characters at this meal–a rarity for character dining, in our experience.
Bon Voyage Adventure at Trattoria al Forno (Temporarily Unavailable) – Another of the newer character breakfasts at Walt Disney World also remains unavailable over 3 years after reopening. Our expectation and hope is that it’ll be back in 2024, especially with the Disney Dining Plan driving more demand for character meals.
This is another instance of a character breakfast living up to the hype, and Bon Voyage exceeded our expectations. The prix fixe menu features a couple of ambitious entrees that are far superior to what you’d find on a buffet, and are incredibly filling. That plus the fun interactions and nice atmosphere makes Bon Voyage a real winner–arguably the best character breakfast at Walt Disney World! (On the lunch and dinner front, we’d put it behind a couple other restaurants on this list.)
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Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with our best-of list for Walt Disney World character dining? Any restaurants you’d add–or remove–from this list? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
On our recent trip with an adult daughter (who is a huge Stitch fan) and her two little girls, we did the character breakfast at O’Hana. What a major waste of big bucks!! Horrible food, a disappearing server, a “parade” of the characters and children from another section of the restaurant (never included ours)! Plus the glare from the windows made it hard to get any good photos. On the other hand, we very much enjoyed the breakfast at Chef Mickey’s. Wonderful server, a wide variety of delicious food, very nice gluten-free platters for our daughter and granddaughter, and a very efficient person who made sure we’d met all the characters. Expensive but a lot of fun!
My family are all adults now, but we still love the character meals. My son is big on tradition.
We always to to Magic Kingdom on our first day in the parks. We also have breakfast in the castle with the Princesses. On our last day we have the character breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. Love the food at both and the character interaction is the best. Tusker House is a favorite for lunch. We enjoy both the food and the characters. Love the safari outfits.
Our next trip is not until 2021 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary. I think we will try Garden Grill. The Land Pavilion is my favorite one in EPCOT. Artist Point sounds pretty good too. We may give that a try if we can fit it in. As always, I really enjoy your Blog.
Maybe we’ll give Hollywood and Vine another try. We went there 2 or 3 years ago for dinner and the food was terrible, the worst we’ve ever had at WDW. But the character experience was really good.
We just got back from Disney and ate at Hollywood and Vine. it was TERRIBLE!! I couldn’t believe how bad the food was. Wish I would have complained.
Definitely loved Snow White, Dopey, Grumpy and the evil queen at Artist Pointe, and the food was amazing!! Hollywood and Vine is always fun, and we even had a good experience at Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and his friends! O’hana is a lot of fun at breakfast!!
Agreed! Tusker House was one of our absolute favorites. An early breakfast reservation gave us plenty of time to return several times to the buffet sampling all the goodies before making a beeline for Pandora. The characters came to our table twice so we got extra pics. Great experience! Also have enjoyed Ohana!
For our families first trip to Disney last fall, we were only going to be there 2 days, so I knew we didn’t want to stand around in long lines trying to meet characters, so I quickly snapped up reservations for Minnie’s holiday dine and Cinderella’s Royal Table.
Your review on Minnie’s holiday dine is spot on. It was so much fun having the interactions that we had with the fab 5. Goofy was definitely the best, which is probably why he’s the PhotoPass character. Getting to teased by Daisy was certainly fun too! On top of that, the food was pretty amazing as well. We definitely did not leave hungry. I would even do another dinner at Hollywood & Vine. Great experience all around for our first time.
Thanks for the reviews of all the other character meals. I definitely want to do more if we’re ever able to return.
I have to agree with Hollywood & Vine. We have had some of our best character interactions there.
We managed to eat there the day before Hurricane Irma was due to hit.
The characters did an amazing job of making things light and fun and even with us 3 adults, they spent so much time with us.
There was interactions with the servers – Goofy jumping out from doors and ‘scaring’ them etc. The food may not be the best in the World, but its comfort, was fresh and that’s ok with me for great memories.
We looked at 1900 Park Fare when we went to see the Easter Eggs this year at GF, I think that’s going on the list for a little try too!
We’ve booked Minnie’s Seasonal Dine at Hollywood & Vine for the Fantasmic show in August and after reading your review I’m even more excited.
Having 2 young kids, we have done a lot of character meals our last couple of trips. 1900 is our favorite dinner. It is always a must. The best character interactions we have had. We also like CRT, but for the pictures more than anything else. Early morning castle picture without anyone else in it is always awesome.
I’ve never done Hollywood and Vine, but have read a lot of reviews and this is the first I’ve seen where it’s not panned as one of the worst (if not the worst) option in Disneyworld.
We had a great experience doing a pre park opening breakfast at Garden Grille. We hit Soarin with no wait and got to enjoy an empty Epcot. It was overpriced, but fun.
I’ve only done Garden Grill and Artist Point on your list. I loved Garden Grill and so far its my favorite character dining at WDW and one of my favorite restaurants overall at WDW. The food was delicious, I loved looking out at Living with the Land, service was superb, didnt feel rushed, and Mickey, Chip and Dale were so fun to interact with.
Artist Point was very good. The food was delicious. Although I prefer fur characters over face characters, I had fun interactions with Snow White and the Queen. In addition, Dopey and Grumpy were fun.
I have H&V and Tusker scheduled on an upcoming Fall trip.
i initially had artist pointe on my family’s list, but the menu really scared us off. not super kid-friendly in my opinion.
No mention of the Bon voyage breakfast… Seems surprising.
i may be confusing my blogs, but i feel like he hasn’t eaten there…? i want to say i read they just haven’t made it there but i could be very wrong. i do see it on a lot of other “best” lists and i’m excited to try it.
Does anyone know where the Winnie the Pooh character meals took place before they were in Crystal Palace? We went back in 1997 and it was in a nautically themed resort restaurant. Thanks!
I think it was on the paddle boat restaurant at Disney Village? Empress Lily maybe? To be fair, this is 100% based on what I remember reading in the Baby Sitters Club special edition from 39 years ago when they go to Disney World so the source material may not be accurate!
For our upcoming November trip, we are excited to try Storybook Dining and Garden Grill. Our kiddos are 2 and 13, so a mix of good character interaction and food quality is a must. Love reading your reviews! In past trips, we’ve done CRT, 1900, and Crystal Palace. We are foodies, so we often skip character meals, but we now have a character loving toddler so we are excited to give these two a try.
There was a Winnie the Pooh character breakfast at the Old Key West resort that was discontinued in maybe 2000? 2001? I remember eating there as a kid!
We didn’t have as good of an experience at Minnie’s Holiday Dine. It was the dining experience I was most looking forward to, but things went south almost immediately.
When you arrive and check in for your reservation, they print a ticket and add it to a pile. Ours fell under the pile. We sat there for well over an hour until they were able to fix the problem, find our ticket, and seat us. That was just when Santa Goofy went on break (we were next in line). No problem, we’d go visit him on our way out! We were trying to keep our spirits high.
The characters all went on break right before our table. As best I can figure, they have a rotation around the restaurant and a “break” point. It was a problem because, at a buffet, you want to be able to get up and get some food. We never felt like we could because we were always waiting for a character. Minnie stopped just before our table and left to the back room. How long should we wait for her to return? Will it be a minute? Five? Repeat with Donald…
Then, for us, the food was very sub par. Some of that is because I eat vegetarian. There was no food option for me there. I asked the servers if the soup was vegetarian. It took about 5 minutes, and they finally produced a large soup can for me to read. It was vegetarian, but the soup ended up being basically alphabet soup like you’d get canned at the grocery store. I got that soup, a salad, and some overly sweet desserts… all for the whopping price of $50.
On our way out, we stood in line to meet Santa Goofy. A cast member was stepping in to send him on break when we were next in line. At that point, I’d had it. We waited over an hour to be seated. The food was awful. We couldn’t leave our table because of characters leaving… and now, when we were finally going to meet Santa Goofy, he was going on break again? I swear, smoke must have started coming out of my ears because the cast member ended up waving us to go up and meet Goofy before taking him out on break.
Don’t get me wrong–I fully believe the character cast members need serious break time and respect for what they do. The system they had just really failed us that night, and I still feel bitter about it when I reflect on that experience. It was just so bad.
Our family LOVESICK Hollywood and Vine! We eat there every December!
I’m genuinely surprised. This is legit the first time I’ve ever seen Hollywood and Vine on a *best* list and I’ve seen several lists around.
The last time we were there, the food was horrid–bordering on inedible–and the service was even worse. The character interaction did not make up for its faults and we haven’t been back. It’s on our worst of the worst list…
Yet, Chef Mickey’s, Akershus, and Crystal Palace are some of our favorites. I guess lists like these are a little subjective.
Seconded. Hollywood & Vine is the worst.
We loved Tusker’s breakfast so much we went back to for dinner that night and it was so good. We still talk about about how good it was. Definitely will always be going back to Tuskers.
We have done all of these except cape May but that will be happening in a few months. We love any meal and have done the options at 1900 Park Fare and Tusker House. They are are favorites for sure although there is no clear winner. The food is amazing at Tusker House and who can resist safari outfits!! 1900 Park Fare has great food and the character interactions, especially for dinner, are fantastic!!! Hollywood and vine is ok but during the seasonal dining is really good with some great interactions!
Tusker House and Boma dinner were both something to be desired for if you like that type of food. Both weren’t very good as far as food. If it wasn’t for the corn dogs at Tusker house I would have starved.
Cape May Cafe–in addition to everything else . . . the desserts!! And they’re tiny, so you can try them all, and then have seconds of your favorites (even though you’ve just stuffed yourself on seafood). 😀
Whoops–the desserts are offered with dinner; ‘not sure about character breakfast.
Hey Tom how would I become a writer for Disney Fanatic Disney Tourist Blog, Disney Lists?