If you are trying to decide on which Disney World Character Dining with kids to choose for your Advance Dining Reservations for the Disney Dining Plan, here are the restaurants I recommend for families of young children:
- 1900 Park Fare (dinner) – (Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine and the step sisters)
- Chef Mickey’s (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy)
- ‘Ohanas Breakfast (Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch)
- Donald’s Safari Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (Donald, Mickey, Goofy and Daisy)
- Cinderella’s Royal Table (Princesses)
- Hollywood and Vine Breakfast and Lunch (Disney Junior Characters )
- Hollywood and Vine Dinner (Minnie’s Seasoning Dining)
- Crystal Palace (Pooh and Friends)
- Akershus (Princesses)
- Garden Grill (Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale)
- Garden Grove (Pluto and others; no Mickey)
- 1900 Park Fare’s Supercalifragilistic Breakfast (Alice, Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins)
- Cape May Cafe (Minnie, Goofy and Donald in beach attire)
- Trattoria Al Forno Breakfast (Prince Eric, Ariel, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider)
Other themed restaurants the kids will enjoy and you won’t have to worry about them disrupting other guests…
- Rainforest Cafe (sit down restaurant that doesn’t require ADRs)
- 50′s Prime Time Cafe
- Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater
- Beaches and Cream (On the Boardwalk by Epcot)
- ‘Ohanas for Dinner (The Polynessian)
- Whispering Canyon (Wilderness Lodge)
- T-Rex Cafe
- Spirit of Aloha Show
Which restaurants do your kids love?
Learn more about Walt Disney World Dining and get suggestions for where to eat, how to use the Disney Dining Plan and more.
Amy says
This year we ate at 1900 Fare, Chef Mickey’s and Whispering Canyon. The children thoroughly enjoyed Whispering Canyon. That was by far their favorite. It was a great time! However, the food was just so-so. Below par, in my opinion. Chef Mickey’s was the best buffet food. I wasn’t impressed with 1900 Fare’s fare at all. We all really liked Akershus Royal Banquet in Norway at Epcot which is a Princess character meal. The food was phenominal! We’ll be going back there for sure.
Amy says
I’d also like to add that I have 3 sons and we’ll still go back to Akershus for the food!
Ani G W says
We really liked characters at Hollywood and Vine (if you have a preschooler that watched Disney Jr, it’d be great) although the food was lacking. I did love the desserts there though.
We LOVE, love, love Crystal Palace for the characters as well. My favorite pictures from our last trip were from Crystal Palace. They are great!!
We are trying so many new restaurants this trip that we’ve never been to before on your list: Chef Mickey’s, O’Hana’s, 1900 Park Fare for Breakfast, TREX, and Cape May Cafe! I’m so excited!
Jaime says
We loved Cape May Clam bake when we went over a year ago with my then 4 yr old. He has over 20 food allergies (he can have seafood), and the chef was wonderful. He called several times before our trip, and prepaped a special rice milk flan for him. The tables had paper table clothes on it with some crayons to color. There was a tv and Disney cartoons on while we waited (short wait with our adr) for our table.
Jess O says
We had dinner at 1900 Park Fare last night and my 3 year old loved interacting with the characters, especially the step-sisters. My girls also love Teppan Edo at Epcot where they cook to food right there at the table.
Renee Brown says
We went this summer with our five and one year old. We got the dining plan, and we used it to book one character meal per day. This was by FAR the best thing I did for this trip.
If you have kids in the preschool age range, I cannot recommend the Disney Junior Play and Dine at Hollywood and Vine highly enough. IMHO, it’s the most under rated character dining at Disney. My kids LOVED it and it was very low key. They did group dances with the characters every 10-15 minutes or so and my daughter loved it.
Tonia T says
Renee,
I couldn’t agree more about Hollywood and Vine! We ate breakfast there and I remember the place being fairly empty. It was one of the best experiences we had! The characters spent a lot of time with each kid!
Bridget I says
We also ate two years in a row at Hollywood & Vine with our then 1.5 &3.5, and a year before with a 9 mo old and 2.5 yr old. It is very low key compared the other character meals. We were there in Dec, so that may explain the lower crowds. I wouldn’t say the food is the best in Disney, but there is a good variety and it’s decent. The dessert bar is also good. My kids also like the little show they do every 15 mins or so. They are a little shy to participate, but enjoy watching it nevertheless. It isn’t nearly so rushed as some of the other character meals we’ve done. I like it better than Chef Mickey’s….