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!
Akershus? Really? We had dinner there and the interactions were the best we had on the trip (including all of the choices on your best of list) and the service was superb. The food was also very good. I’m really sorry you had a bad experience but I’ll defend it until I have a bad experience there myself. Given the state of my last visit, I think that’s going to be a long way away.
We actually really enjoyed Mickey’s Backyard BBQ. It was convenient for one because we were staying at Fort Wilderness and I actually liked the cookout/campfire food and atmosphere. It was pretty packed but my daughter got to see and dance with all of the characters. I find this one to be a little more interactive because there is live music and an area where people can dance with the characters. My only criticism would be that it was outdoors so of course it was very hot and it started to rain and I don’t mean a light trickle I mean a real Florida thunderstorm so we were completely soaked by the time we got back to our room.
Crystal palace is our favorite because the food is wonderful and my daughter’s favorite characters are Winnie the Pooh and friends so that one is perfect for us.
Our last 2 trips to Hollywood & Vine breakfast have been great. Think the trick here is to have an early ADR. Gets very busy quick. Garden Grill and Crystal Palace lunches are 2 we aren’t rushing back to. Garden was very bland and way better places to dine at Epcot. Crystal Palace had very little food selection and kids running around like a madhouse, worse than Chef Mickey’s.
As Luke Skywalker said, “amazingly, everything you just said was wrong“
Let me remind everyone that character dining meals are not about the food, it’s about meeting the characters. So you’re not sitting in the hot 100° Florida sun in a 45 minute line waiting for them. ‘Ohana’s is a good way to start off your morning, Akurshus princess buffet allows you to meet six princesses for one dining credit, Chef Mickey’s is an iconic spot, Tusker House is probably the most authentic character dining spot of them all. Hollywood & Vine probably has 2nd best tasting food, and crystal palace has 4 iconic characters in 1 meal… remember your target audience… parents with small kids who want to meet characters not Shula steakhouse ..
Thanks
While the main demographic is parents who want to keep kids happy, that doesn’t mean adults should have to sacrifice quality of food (relative to the experience paid for).
I don’t expect Signature Dining level quality, but I do expect halfway decent food. I don’t even expect 1 credit table service quality food. But as a childless adult, I loved the experience & food at Tusker House & Trattoria Al Forno’s Bon Voyage Breakfast. I accept for Cinderella’s Royal Table, you’re paying signature prices to eat in the castle and meet a few princesses. That being said, the food still isn’t bad when taking it & the character meetings into account. Character meals should be about the entire experience, including the food.
Totally agree. We love ‘Ohana and hated food at Akurshus but it was worth not waiting in line to see all the princesses separately!
I found the Tusker House dinner to be really subpar. Food was fine, nothing great, and only 2 characters stopped at our table (Donald and daisy)! Atmosphere was blah. I asked if Mickey or Minnie would be coming by and we were told they can’t predict and that we also can’t hold the table and wait for it. Total waste. Chef mickeys breakfast was fine, we had a super early one so it was quiet, and the character interaction was fabulous.
I agree with all of these! We have a 5 year old that’s obsessed with characters and so we do several each trip. As far as Hollywood and vine Disney Junior breakfast goes, i think it comes down to a few things. One is that it’s usually super crowded. Like can’t navigate to the buffet without tripping over tiny humans crowded. The food is just average. And the character interactions in our experience (2 seperate trips) are just meh. We loved the holiday dinners as you did, but the characters were never on their a game at the breakfast. Lots of posing and that’s it. Also it seems especially loud in there with all the preschoolers in such a small space which isn’t very relaxing. And often that gets the little ones stressed and overwhelmed too! The crystal palace has similar preschool friendly vibes with much better service, noise control, and character interactions.
We actually loved ‘Ohana breakfast. Cost was appropriate. I thought the juice and pineapple bread was delicious. My kids are picky eaters and it was basically the only meal they actually really enjoyed when we visited a few years back. The characters were interactive and my kids really enjoyed the little dance to “Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride.” We will be doing it again this fall. Just my two cents!
We had heard so much about Chef Mickey’s before our first trip and were highly disappointed. The food sucked, ambience was terrible, and wait times stink. The only upside was being in the Contemporary with the Xmas decorations.
We like Ohana breakfast but have come to prefer Tusker House for a late breakfast/brunch. Other than Be Our Guest dinner and CRT the Tusker House has been our favorite.
We hated Hollywood and Vine and will never repeat especially with so many other good choices in DHS.
I’m up for a bit of a challenge for our trip this year. I’m booking for 10 people on three separate reservations. I’m hoping I can get us into AH in Epcot for our first night. After reading your review I’m a little skeptical, but we will have three young girls and they will only care about the princesses.
The best character interactions and meal I have had so far (and I’ve been to almost all of them at WDW) hands down was the Goofy breakfast at Ravello at The Four Seasons. It was Minnie, Mickey and Goofy although they only advertise Goofy. The characters came by about 4 times each and were fantastic. Minnie especially was hilarious. The food was very high quality. If you ever have the chance, try it. You won’t regret it!
Longtime reader, first time poster. I saw Tom put Mickey’s Backyard BBQ on the list even though he hasn’t been there, just based on other reviews (fair enough) but none of the comments either affirm its placement there or defend it. I understand it may be expensive, but does it at least deliver on what makes it seem unique, a semi-interactive character show? It seems like a great place to take a toddler, which we are thinking about doing next year? Just curious to see if people think it is good with that in mind, or if it is a let down all over?
Just to clarify, Mickey’s Backyard BBQ is not on the list. It’s only listed at the top as the character meal with the worst reputation, which I note might very well be a result of its unconventional style and high price.
To be entirely honest/transparent, I put that remark that hoping to elicit some feedback, as that’s a long-term reputation and I’ve only heard one recent review–from a friend with kids who loved it. (He’s also the ‘money is no object’ type, though.)
It’s something we’ve considered doing for a while, so I’m just as interested in hearing reviews as you. 🙂
We just did the backyard bbq a week and a half ago and we loved it! The never ending adult beverages probably helped! We payed out of pocket and even payed extra for being tier 1. As a general cheapo, that extra money was worth it to me! The characters were amazing. The food was good. The show was entertaining. We had a blast!
We had a different experience at Minnie’s Holiday Dine. When we first arrived, they added our reservation to the back of the stack to call when a table is ready, but then they lost it. We waited an hour. When we finally got it straightened out, Santa Goofy went on break. They told us we could try meeting him after the meal. Characters went around to the tables, but ours must have been a set point where the characters go on break. They would leave when our table was next, and then 10 minutes later the character would reappear. At the end of the meal, we stood in line to meet Goofy. A cast member came up to bring Goofy on break. Thankfully, we got to be the last ones to meet with him before he left.
It sounds like just the character experience was bad, but, really, the food was worse. I’m a vegetarian, and almost nothing was vegetarian friendly. I could eat alphabet soup that tasted just like Campbell’s out of the can, only it wasn’t hot. I ate that, pre-mixed salad, and rolls. It felt like a big waste of money. The desserts, I felt, were way too sweet (although, to be fair, that’s how I feel about many of the desserts in the all-you-can eat places).
In all, the only redeeming thing about our time at Minnie’s Holiday Dine was that we got cute pictures of the kids with the characters. When the characters finally made it to our table, the interactions were good. The HOURS of time it took to have bad food made us just miserable and certainly not worth $50 a pop.
I did breakfast at Ohana with my family on our trip in February. Stitch is my favorite and really the only reason we went. I was so excited to meet Stitch and actually was holding back tears the whole time so I didn’t eat a lot of the food. My family was unimpressed, however. It is definitely worth doing if you have a Lilo and Stitch fanatic but don’t go for the food.
I love Akershus breakfast. It’s all you can eat v CRT which is plated so it fills everyone up for hours and we can do a late lunch at a non peak time. It has princesses for my girls who love them the most. It is close to the frozen ride and m&g so a pre park breakfast puts you in the vicinity so you have a shorter wait there. My kids are relatively picky eaters so breakfast is accessible. It’s fewer credits on the dining plan than CRT for a similar experience if you are on the dining plan. I could go on…
Now Crystal Palace dinner was probably one of the worst character meals ever, though I do like their breakfast. I don’t like Chef Mickey’s anytime because the ambience stinks there. We liked Cape May, Park Fare for both breakfast and dinner, Garden Grill, Tusker House (getting there around brunch is my fav so there is something for picky eaters along with lunch for the more adventurous), and Hollywood and vine for Disney Jr for the characters.
Breakfast just isn’t a meal that people should be sitting down for. The quality just isn’t ther to justify the insane costs.
My wife and I stayed at the Swan in March. You say you would never try there, well I think you’d miss out. If you like a good steak Shula’s did not dissapoint at all.
Also, with the character dining(breakfast), when we were there, Pluto and Goofy came around to every table and took multiple pictures with everyone. And the all you can eat buffet is great.
It was my first time in Disney in over 20 years, and i was not dissapointed in food or stay.
Thank you for this comment! We’re staying at the Dolphin resort in a few weeks, and have been debating whether or not to go to the Garden Grove character breakfast, but I think we’re going to give it a try!
We agree that Chef Mickey is way better for breakfast. The food was pretty good, but moreso the characters were great. Also in regards to Hollywood and Vine I think its very tough to enjoy characters that you don’t recognize which dampens the overall experience…..but wait till you are with little ones you’ll likely feel different.
Our character breakfast of choice is 1900 Park AVE. At Grand Floridian. The characters are Mary Poppins, Tiger, Whinnie the Pooh, Mad Hatter and Alice in wonderland. The food is great, from the strawberry soup to the custom made omlets.
We went to Disney Junior character breakfast last trip and as long as you have kids under 10 then I think they willlike it older kids not so much. My girls experience of Disney at home was Sofia, Doc McStuffins, and handy Manny. They also had a sing along where the kids got up and got to dance with the characters. Food was good but not memorable.
I agree with Crystal Palace. I would go so far as to say not only was it the worst character meal, it was the worst food we had on our trip period!
Years ago Liberty Tavern had character dinner. We eat there during Very Merry Christmas Party. Sadly they stopped. Very low key, character visits to your table and we enjoyed it. No screaming and yelling.
We did the Ohana breakfast and we loved it. Only place you can have breakfast with stitch and lilo and the parade with the instruments was great for my little one. Our waitress was very good as well so that helps. Totally agree with chef mickeys though. It was definately the worst character experience we did although still an experience but I wouldn’t repeat. Our favourite was breakfast at the beach club with Minnie so relaxed and quirky.