Worst Character Meals at Disney World
Character meals are an incredibly popular dining experience at Walt Disney World, but not all character breakfasts and dinners are created equally. In this post, we highlight the character meals that are consistently the worst at Walt Disney World. In some cases, we also provide better alternatives to a particular character meal.
Before we get going, we have to concede that your opinion of any character meal has a lot to do with how lucky you get with interactions and how long your food choices have been sitting under the heat lamp. There’s more than a little truth to the notion that all character meals are inconsistent, so even the ‘best’ can have bad moments, and the ‘worst’ can have standout moments.
Moreover, some people have polarized opinions on character dining. At one end of the spectrum, some people think all character meals are an overpriced waste of money with food that doesn’t measure up to the prices. That’s understandable, but not helpful to people who see value in the convenience of character meals or view them as a quintessential Walt Disney World experience. (I still remember character meals from when I was a kid–so they left an impression on me!)
At the other end of the spectrum, character dining is an incredibly emotive experience and food quality is immaterial for some people. Your kid hugging Mickey Mouse in the Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary can be such an emotionally powerful experience that you don’t even remember what the food tasted like. That’s also understandable, but not exactly helpful when it comes to narrowing the character dining field.
Let’s start with a couple of character meals that don’t exactly have the best reputations among fans: Mickey’s Backyard BBQ and Hollywood & Vine. Part of the poor reviews for Mickey’s Backyard BBQ seem predicated upon its high cost (undoubtedly caused by unlimited alcohol, a peculiar choice for a character meal) and unconventional style. We haven’t dined there, so we can’t really speak to the actual quality beyond that.
Hollywood & Vine is a bit more complicated. It is routinely blasted for being the worst character meal at Walt Disney World, but that has not been our experience in dining there twice. However, we think this disconnect comes down to our meals being during the seasonal meals, whereas most poor reviews relate to the Disney Junior Character Breakfast.
As I don’t even know who most of the characters at the Disney Junior Play ‘n Dine even are, it’s not one we plan on doing anytime soon. (By the time we have kids, I’m optimistic that Ludwig Von Drake will have made a huge comeback, and will be the star of this meal.)
I will say that our meal and overall experience at Minnie’s Holiday Dine was one of our best character meals ever at Walt Disney World. Perhaps this is a difference in quality between the two meals at Hollywood & Vine (that’s our suspicion), or maybe this just underscores the notion that character meals quality is very much hit or miss.
We still believe there are several character meals that consistently deliver subpar experiences and meals as compared to their counterparts…
Anything in Non-Disney Hotels – If you’re a Disney hotel or bust sort of person, you may not even realize that a few of the Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels (both Hiltons and Wyndham Lake Buena Vista), Swan & Dolphin, and Four Seasons Orlando all offer character dining. While we have yet to dine at all of these (and honestly, never will), we’ve also yet to have what we consider a good character dining experience at one of these hotels.
The characters are always limited, and the atmosphere muted. There is something to be said about convenience if you’re staying at one of these hotels, and it’s also possible that you’ll enjoy an uncrowded restaurant and receive more attention as a result. That’s a gamble, though, and one that we think is not worth it.
Akershus (Breakfast) – We will be the first to admit that we’re biased towards character dining that features fur characters instead of the princesses and other face characters. We just prefer Mickey and friends, and find that our interactions with them are more fun and comical–but that’s just us.
Setting that aside, Akershus breakfast was our worst face character dining experience. The food was underwhelming (and not exactly Norwegian), the interactions just fine, and the setting was a far cry from Cinderella’s Royal Table. That last point is probably the salient one: if you want a princess meal, go big with a meal in Cinderella Castle, instead of this “overflow” castle dining option.
Chef Mickey’s (Dinner) – Our disdain for dinner at Chef Mickey’s is well-documented, and something we’ve referenced in several posts. I’ll reiterate for those who have not read our scathing Chef Mickey’s Dinner Review: the food should have an asterisk attached as it’s barely edible, the restaurant is loud, and the price is outlandish.
One point that should be underscored is that breakfast at Chef Mickey’s is a very different experience. While it has been a while since we’ve done that meal, our memories of it are fond, and numerous commenters on the above review have reiterated that it’s the far superior meal. The takeaway here is that you can save money and have a better meal by doing Chef Mickey’s breakfast instead of dinner.
‘Ohana (Breakfast) – The quality of breakfast at ‘Ohana further underscores how one restaurant can differ so dramatically from one meal to another. When it comes to dinner, ‘Ohana has tasty cuisine and is an incredibly fun experience, albeit without characters. It’s one of the toughest ADRs to score for good reason.
Breakfast is a totally different story. The same attempts are made at a fun atmosphere, with a character parade and (obviously) the same views and other qualities inherent to the restaurant. Yet, ‘Ohana doesn’t seem–to us at least–to have the same energy at breakfast. Perhaps our opinion is soured by virtue of the food, which is quite literally family style portions of counter service staples like rubber bacon and fake eggs. You’re much better off just eating at Captain Cook’s and doing a character meal elsewhere.
When it comes to the ideal ‘arrangement’ of these two popular Magic Kingdom Resort Area restaurants, we’d strongly recommend breakfast at Chef Mickey’s and dinner at ‘Ohana. That’s truly the best of both worlds, and you’ll enjoy food that is significantly better than doing those meals in reverse.
Crystal Palace (Dinner) – We have a lot of nostalgia for Crystal Palace from our first few trips together ages ago that makes me a bit hesitant to include this. We still enjoy both breakfast and dinner at Crystal Palace, but that’s colored by our personal experiences there.
Taking a step back and thinking about my least favorite character meals both in terms of characters and food, I have to concede that Crystal Palace is right behind Chef Mickey’s at dinner. This is not to say there’s anything wrong with it, but it’s just “meh” all-around. We’ll enjoy our fond memories of our visits here, but we have no urgent need to go back anytime soon.
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Your Thoughts
Have you had any poor experiences at character meals? Do you agree or disagree with our choices on this list? Any questions we can help you answer about these character dining experiences? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We have three boys and we tend to look at the Character Dining as more for them. Ohana for breakfast was actually one of my favorites. The boys were between 2 and 5, and loved it. This last time we went, we discovered Garden Grill and they all loved it. They were older, between 5 and 8, and wanted good character interaction and food they liked.
As others have said, look at it also through the eyes of a child
I agree on Hollywood and Vine breakfast. We did it to get in park early and be one of first to sign up for Jedi Training. It worked, and that is our best memory to date!
We just came back with a dinner at Chef Mickey’s that was hard to beat. Food was fresh and hot and the place wasn’t very crowded. (We ate at 4:45 with my two year old.) On the other hand, our meal at Tusker House was horrible. The food was good for adults but my child didn’t like it at all. The characters didn’t interact much with us, the section we were seated in was dark and gloomy. It was definitely not a kid-friendly place for us and we won’t be back.
I’m a little glad to see Crystal Palace on your list here. I had been given the impression by some other Disney fans that my low opinion of the place was unfair. My appreciation of character interactions has increased since I ate there almost a decade ago and I was starting to think I maybe should give it a second chance. The food I had was completely bland and I still feel like the beautiful building is kind of wasted as a character buffet. I could easily picture the Crystal Palace as a fancier (and more British) version of the Plaza. If you need characters, it seems like a perfect spot for Mary Poppins and Burt. But I guess those niches are filled elsewhere on property.
I disagree about Ohana. That is a tradition as our last meal before we leave. One it’s the cheapest character breakfast with unlimited food served to you on property. Two my husband is gluten free and they were very conscious of that and the gluten free mickey waffles were good. Characters are interactive and we have always had good waitstaff.
May I recommend the breakfast at beach club for a character meal. We did that once and we’re pleased. As for a dinner hands down garden grill at epcot is the best for character, food and money. Chip and dale, mickey and Pluto what more do you need.
I’ve learned over the years when it comes to character dining you have to engage to get them to engage. They see thousands of people a day and I’m sure not all are nice.
We also always do Ohana as our farewell meal before leaving Disney! I love their breakfast, and my daughter LOVES stitch. It has always been one of our favorite meals (character or not).
My husband and I have been going to WDW for years – we took our children when they were young, we go as a couple all the time, and we have taken grandkids numerous times through the years. We’ve always had wonderful food and character experiences at Hollywood and Vine and Crystal Palace. The only bust was the Biergarten at Epcot – we even went twice hoping the second visit would be better, it wasn’t.
Cinderella’s Royal Table was another disappointment. The dinner was horrible. It was pricey and the grandkids wouldn’t touch the food. We have never gone back.
We stayed for 10 days last month at both DAKL and WDW Dolphin and I can say our greatest character experiences, BY FAR, were with Goofy & Pluto at Dolphin’s Garden Grill!! They were funny and engaging I think because of the small size of the restaurant, they spent a TON of time at each dining table!!! It was the last night of our visit and a perfect send off! I still think 1900 Park Fare (for breakfast OR dinner) are the best character meals on property, but don’t sleep on the “non-Disney” hotels!!!! 🙂
If I may offer a counter opinion about Akershus, I would say that it’s the better option for those who want to meet princesses. Just go at lunch or dinner when the food isn’t buffet style that’s been sitting out under a heat lamp. The food is actually very high quality at lunch, and it’s so much cheaper than Cinderella’s Royal Table. (I haven’t heard good things about the food there, either, though we’ve never been there, so I can’t offer an opinion on that.) Both times we’ve been to Akershus were amazing. The food was fantastic, the character interactions wonderful (with the exception of a very snooty Aurora last time). But, we prefer face characters to fur, and the first time we went, we had a 4 year old girl who was ALL about princesses, and a 2 year old boy who was hopelessly in love with Jasmine. For us, Akershus was the best of both worlds….We got a great meal, they got great character interactions, we got a photo with Belle, and it was cheaper than Cinderella’s.
If your kid is a Cinderella fan and can take or leave the other princesses, I would suggest the Happily Ever After dinner at 1900 Park Fare. The step sisters are hilarious, and you get Prince Charming along with Cinderella.
Our horrible character dining experience was at Tusker House for dinner. The food was not warm, there wasn’t much on offer and what there was was old and not very appetizing, they were very stingy at the carving station, and the character interactions were less than stellar. Goofy skipped right past us and we had to track down the handler to get him to come to our table. We had waited patiently, putting off getting food while he spent 10 minutes at the table next to us because it was a small child who was absolutely enthralled and it was fun to watch….but then I guess Goofy decided to make up the time he had spent with the little boy by skipping over our table. None of the characters really interacted at all with my kids…it was just a quick photo, signatures and off to the next table. We had their autograph books open and ready, as well as the camera so we wouldn’t waste time with that and could have a bit more time for interaction, but they ended up spending LESS time with us because of it. So betewen the awful food, the poor interactions, and not great service, it’s one we won’t do again.
Dinner at Goofy’s kitchen is really good. I have been with and without kids. The characters tend to not spend as much time.with just.adults. the kids will love the attention they get especially.if they are celebrating something like a birthday.
Breakfast at Tusker House is the one character meal that’s our tradition.
I have to disagree on one of the non-Disney resorts. My husband and I had a wonderful character breakfast at the Four Seasons resort. Granted, it was when the hotel had just opened and was not very busy. Also, we went very late in the morning and the characters did not have much to do. The food was also very good.
Oh, no! My adult daughter and I are going to WDW in November. We made ADR for breakfast at Ohana. Stitch is my favorite character. I hope it won’t be disappointing.
The review of the Ohana breakfast is a bit harsh. My family has done it every trip since we discovered it. The breakfast sausage is some of the best I’ve had anywhere.
Obama breakfast is one of my favorites. Did not care for Obama’s dinner. So my experience was just the opposite.
You’ll probably be ok. Our experience is the opposite of Tom’s: we love ‘Ohana breakfast (done it many times now), and think ‘Ohana dinner is just not that good and absolutely not worth the cost.
Breakfast at ‘Ohana is the one thing my daughters actually demand whenever we go to Disney. We love the food and the view of the MK.
Can’t wait to read your “someday in the future” review of an afternoon meal at Akershus! Because you will do one, right? For us it’s a can’t miss. Outstanding appetizer/Norwegian buffett, and once we realized it was all you can eat, we loaded up on dessert! Excellent character interactions mean we can skip the long lines in MK.
Relieved that none of our ADRs for December made this list!
Our first Disney trip was last year, and we did enjoy Crystal Palace because of the kid interactions, not the atmosphere or the food (desserts were the exception.)
I have always liked reading your posts, however, now that my kids are older and I’ve done Disney as a child, married with just my spouse and now as a mother. I have to say as someone who reaches a wide audience you very much limit planners with your opinion. Crystal palace with kids at dinner is amazing homestyle food. Askershus is a lot of different taste for little ones for lunch and dinner but breakfast is what they are used to and gets them all the princesses. I wilk Give you chef Mickey dinner it doesn’t do the justice of the price. However for character dining you’ve listed some of the heavy hitters that is very different when you see them through the eyes of a kid.
Definitely agree with Crystal Palace. We thought the food there was borderline terrible during our last trip. We love the Pooh characters but it took over an hour and a half for all of them to get to us. We literally sat there for a half hour after finishing dessert because my niece really wanted to meet Piglet and he was last to get to us.
I’m a little surprised to see Ohana on there. Dinner there is one of our favorite meals in all of WDW so we have not done breakfast there, but have heard many good things about it. It’s disappointing to hear it’s just the same boring breakfast foods you can find elsewhere.
Somewhat related, we are taking our 2 nieces to Disneyland in August and I’m trying to decide between dinner at Goofys Kitchen or Minnie’s Breakfast at Plaza Inn. Which one of the two do you think would be the better choice Tom? We have only been to DL once and don’t have a feel for the restaurants there like we do at WDW. PS… Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this question.
Ohana is a great first timer character meal for little kids. Family style at the table is a blessing when your kid can’t man the buffet line himself. And my son was very shy around characters to start so the subdued atmosphere was great! He didn’t do the parade through the restaurant but he loved all the characters as they came to him. Helps that Stitch and Pluto have always been two of his favorites!
Out of all the meals on this list I have only been to Ohana for breakfast. I agree that the benefit here is having food brought to you, instead of having to take turns going up to the buffet because someone needs to sit with the kid(s).
I’d agree with you on Crystal Palace, but disagree on Akershus. We like face characters (having a daughter vs. just adults probably helps – they focus on her), and I really enjoy the food at the Akershus breakfast. I know the eggs and bacon aren’t special, but I really enjoy them along with the potatoes. And I think I can get my money’s worth eating Gjetost on croissants.
These days we tend not to eat too many buffets (price and I overeat when I’m at them). I wish there were character meals that weren’t buffets.
We have a breakfast reservation at 1900 Park Fare for my son’s 11th birthday this fall. We debated between that and Chef Mickey’s.
In the past we’ve done Goofy’s Kitchen at the Disneyland hotel, Minnie and Friends at the Plaza Inn at Disneyland and the Disney Character Breakfast at Makahiki at Aulani, but we’ve never done a character meal at Disney World (Granted, we’ve only been there twice before).
This will also be our first non-Mickey and Friends character meal. My son is excited about meeting Mary Poppins because he was in a local youth theater production of Mary Poppins this spring (he was a banker and a chimney sweep).
This is a great breakfast with lots of tasty options (even some healthy ones and an omelet//carving station) and great character experiences here!
We just did 1900 Park Fare for breakfast and it was fantastic–look for that on our ‘best of’ list next week!
Couldn’t agree more Tom! It was one of our favorites as well!
Sounds like we made the right choice. Everybody seems to love it!
We LOVED 1900 Park Fare for breakfast. The Mad Hatter was by far our very favorite- This Mad Hatter was exceptional in his role and he did not dissapoint! I think you will enjoy it! I have no recollection of the food that day- justifies the train of thought that Disney could serve cold mush but if the character interactions are memorable- that’s all that counts, those memories last a lifetime!
Very helpful post. You should do one on the “Best Breakfasts at WDW.” I know breakfast is considered pretty weak at Disney World (we’ve never done one, as we just eat in our room before we head out), but I hear there’s still a few worthy options.
Breakfast at the Tusker House at AK is tough to beat. Typical characters are Donald and Goofy but the food is really a step above many other WDW breakfast options.
That’s something we’ve been planning for a while, but we still haven’t hit all of the highly regarded breakfast spots. Hopefully by the end of the year!
We just did the breakfast at the Wyndham with Pluto and Goofy and it was really great! Pluto and Goofy were very engaging and made multiple cycles – and it was very convenient. The food was very good too! We have done Chef Mickeys and the food was ok and it was packed.