Character Breakfast Dining at Disney World

: Minnie Mouse joins Mrs. LanceAround, # 1 Daughter and Office Manager Anne for breakfast

Something relatively new and gaining immensely in popularity is the character dining at Disney World.

It’s a relatively simple idea. Take an ordinary Disney restaurant, parade some “tier one” Disney characters around during mealtime and BAM–you can charge guests a lot more for their meal!

Perhaps that viewpoint is a bit too cynical. In reality, watching young children interact with the characters during a meal can’t help but bring a smile to your face. Even Office Manager Anne and Mrs. LanceAround were giggling while watching Minnie Mouse scamper with a lot of energy through the restaurant.

Goofy sign points the way for # 1 Daughter

We discovered a wonderful place to have a character breakfast in Disney World. It is at the Regal Sun Resort located on Hotel Plaza right next to Downtown Disney.

Since the Regal Sun is a little set apart from other Disney venues, it is easier to enter and exit. It is often less crowded, which means you get a lot of attention from the characters. Usually Goofy and Pluto are on hand. However, when I treated Mrs. LanceAround, # 1 Daughter and Office Manager Anne to breakfast on Tuesday, Minnie and Goofy were the ones to great us.

Omelet made to order

Although various restaurants throughout Disney World offer character dining, and you can find characters at different restaurants for every meal of the day, the most popular one is breakfast. And while there are table service character meals, most of them, like the one at Regal Sun, is a buffet. Regal Sun has a character breakfast every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 7:30am to 10:30am at the Lakeview Restaurant on the mezzanine floor of the hotel.

The venue itself is very nice. There are large windows overlooking the resort pool and lake area. The decor is warm and inviting. The staff is very friendly. They often take photos of the entire family enjoying breakfast with a character stopping by for a visit.

Helpful staff

The food is scrumptious and there is plenty of it. In addition to a hot buffet with eggs, hash browns, pancakes, sausage, bacon and other fare, there is an extensive array of fresh fruit and a cereal bar. Best of all is the fresh omelet station where a chef is ready to make your omelet to order. Delicious.

Orange juice, coffee, tea and other libations are continually refilled by the wait team as you continually refill your plate at the buffet.

Throughout the course of the meal, at least one and sometimes two characters make the rounds. They spend time at every table interacting with the guests, signing autographs and posing for photos. At the table next to ours, a little girl squealed with delight as she exclaimed, “Mommy, he kissed me!” when Goofy bent over and nuzzled his muzzle to her head.

Lots of good food!

Normally, the character breakfast at the Regal Sun is $22 for adults 12 and over and $11 for children ages 3 to 11. My office established a contract with them to sell the breakfast for $19.95 for adults and $9.95 for children. You can make reservations by calling us at 407.396.2233.

In addition to the character breakfast at the Regal Sun, character dining is abundant throughout Disney World; from having a meal at Cinderella’s Royal Table at the castle in Magic Kingdom to a Backyard BBQ with Mickey Mouse in Fort Wilderness Campground. There’s character dining at the Grand Floridian, Beach Club, Contemporary, Swan and Polynesian hotels as well as in all four theme parks. Each one has a different theme and provides different characters. Each has a different cost, with breakfast being the least expensive. Some are buffets and some are sit down meals. Choose the one that meets your budget and provides a chance for your child (and you!) to interact with their favorite character.

It’s best to make a reservation for character dining. Some venues, like the Cinderella’s Royal Table in the castle at Magic Kingdom, require advance reservations with a credit card. Other venues, like the Lakeview Restaurant at the Regal Sun, can provide walk-in service.

Goofy acting, well, goofy with # 1 Daughter

Whichever character meal you select, plan to give yourself (and your children) plenty of time to enjoy the meal and characters. By contract, Disney characters can only appear for a half hour out of every hour and they spend a lot of time at every table each meal. You want to make sure you have allotted enough time for your family to get the most out of your character dining.

Don’t schedule your character meal at a time when you will want to rush out to go to a theme park!

Bon Appetite!

This entry was posted on October 17, 2009 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Disney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Lance Around Orlando