Hi Katy,
Welcome to the Disney Parks Moms Panel! I am always delighted to greet a fellow North Carolinian!
My family still loves
character meals even though our girls are older. We always plan to visit a few of our favorite restaurants including Cinderella's Royal Table, The Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, 1900 Park Fare, Tusker House Restaurant and Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. To determine what type of meal experience it will be, check the restaurant's home page - on the right-hand side, you should see a note that says Buffet/Family style if the restaurant is either one of those experiences. 1900 Park Fare, Chef Mickey's, Tusker House, The Crystal Palace are all buffet style meals while Akershus Royal Banquet Hall is a little of both. For breakfast, we get our fruits, yogurt and breads from the buffet while the eggs, potato casserole and bacon are served family style at the table.
Prior to each trip, I call to speak to a cast member in Disney Dining at 407-939-1947 to check the character meal prices during the dates of our trip. When I initially started planning trips with our girls, I also found YouTube to be a valuable source of videos. I searched for resort hotel rooms, rides and dining experiences to get a more specific idea of what each would entail. We prefer doing character meals to meet the characters, especially
Disney Princesses at Walt Disney World Resort.
Katy, our girls enjoy meeting the characters at any time of day, so we have done breakfast, lunch and dinner with characters. Be sure to make advanced dining reservations because character meals are incredibly popular. Also, since it sounds as if you will have princesses with you, make sure they have their own royal attire!
Magic, memories and Minnie Mouse hugs,
Donyell