Okay, I absolutely love Disney character dining experiences, and I try to book at least one character breakfast during EVERY SINGLE TRIP.
Plaza Inn in Disneyland
It doesn’t matter if I’m in Disney World or Disneyland, I’m probably eating breakfast with characters at some point during the trip. Now, I usually book a breakfast for my last day, and when I’m in Disneyland, I usually just book the breakfast at Storytellers Cafe at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort. However, during a recent trip, I decided to buck the trend and chose to do a breakfast INSIDE Disneyland at Plaza Inn — and y’all, that was the best Disney character dining experience I’ve ever had.
So this breakfast is Minnie & Friends themed, so you’re guaranteed to meet Minnie, but the other characters are pretty much a surprise. As I understand it, you never quite know what characters are going to show up. So before you are seated, you get to meet Minnie Mouse first. Minnie took time to interact with everyone in our group of five before we took a photo. I’ll admit that I got a little teary-eyed (also, I was Disneybounding Minnie that day!). Already, this is a good start to our day.
Minnie at Plaza Inn
If you’ve never been to Disneyland, let me tell you that the characters just go a little extra harder in Disneyland than anywhere else (I have a theory that it’s because most of them are probably pursuing acting careers with Disneyland being so close to L.A.). They really spend time with you and they do everything to make interactions memorable, no matter your age.
So after we met Minnie, we stepped inside this GORGEOUS Victorian-themed restaurant, and saw a buffet of food laid out for us and characters EVERYWHERE mingling with guests. Now, I’ve been to some character dining experiences where you might see one or two characters at a time, but we saw four or five of them at any given time walking around.
Plaza Inn Buffet
We barely had a chance to sit down before some characters came up to our table and we got our first of many interactions. Like I said, these characters can be random, so we were surprised to see some rare characters like Perla and Suzy, two of the mice from Cinderella. We also saw Pooh, Tigger, Chip, Dale, Pluto, and Daisy Duck. And they came to our table multiple times.
Perla
But let’s talk about those interactions. Again, I’ve been to some character experiences where you might see each character once and the interactions are sometimes short and sweet (and that’s fine). But we saw many of these characters multiple times and they spent a lot of time with us, although we were a table of adults. They were also working the room when given the chance: at one point, the entire room was chanting “Tigger! Tigger!” while Tigger bounced around the buffet.
Tigger was QUITE the character
The food was pretty standard for a Disney breakfast buffet. You’ve got your usual options like eggs, bacon, sausage, pastries, French toast, and some of the best breakfast potatoes I’ve ever had in my life (I went back for seconds). However, instead of Mickey waffles, you get Minnie waffles, and that was such a cute touch.
FOOD
So how much did this experience cost? Well, if you’ve been to a character dining experience in Disney World or Disneyland, they’re generally not cheap. This is one of the CHEAPEST, though, and is just $50 per adult and $30 per child. Considering how many characters you see and the quality of the interactions, I’d say it’s worth every penny.
Dale
What was even more fun is we were with someone who had never done a character breakfast before, and I have to say that Plaza Inn set the bar pretty high for her. Overall, this is the best character dining experience I’ve ever had, and I can’t wait to book it again.
Stay tuned to DFB for more.
5 Unspoken Rules for Character Dining in Disney World
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What’s your favorite character dining experience? Share with me in the comments!
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I was just there in May with my son. It was our first time in Disneyland We went to this breakfast experience. I’m not sure when we went that the Plaza Inn was having a really off day or they improved it that much since I went to the management and complained but the breakfast itself was the absolute worst breakfast I’ve ever ate in any Disney Resort. The potatoes were way overcooked and hard as rocks, the Minnie waffles were undercooked (a slight amount of raw batter inside the waffle) and the eggs tasted like cardboard. I never complain about food especially in Disney but this was really that bad. I told the Plaza Inn manager that I have had better breakfast at the Waffle House than what they served me on that day. One of the cast members even told me in secret that they never eat breakfast there, only lunch and dinner. Just thought I would share my experience from the other side of the scale. Thanks
It sounds amazing! I have never heard of a character M&G with Perla and Suzy! We will have to add a character meal here to our Disneyland trip (whenever that happens 😊)