“Mickey NEVER Came.” A Word of Warning About Disney Character Meals

When we head to Disneyland, Disney World, or one of the other Disney parks, we expect to have the best time. Disney magic keeps things running smoothly and guest experiences above and beyond. But of course, it can’t be perfect every time, and even we have had some not-so-great things happen to us while at Disney.

Recently, an AllEars reader left a review on our website for Storyteller’s Café at Disneyland Resort in the Grand Californian Hotel. Unfortunately, they had a disappointing experience. Since we work hard to help you plan your next Disney vacation, we want to share with you what is a very real possibility when dining at any Disney character meals, regardless of which Disney character restaurant you’re at.

AllEars.net reader Gracie shared an inside look at her recent experience at Storyteller’s Café. This restaurant has a Californian folklore theme with a large buffet. The biggest draw to Storyteller’s Café is that it is a character meal location.

During the holiday season, you can enjoy Daisy’s Holiday Pajama Party for breakfast and brunch or Mickey’s Christmas Carol Feast for dinner. The pajama party brunch includes characters like Daisy, Donald, Chip, Dale, and Pluto, while for dinner, you can dine with Mickey, Scrooge McDuck, and others dressed up as A Christmas Carol icons.

Outside of the holidays, the theming is geared toward adventure, and you can meet similar characters.

Reader Gracie shared that she dined at Storyteller’s Café during the dinner meal over the holidays so she could meet Scrooge McDuck and the other characters from A Christmas Carol. Unfortunately, she did not have a great experience. Gracie shared that, in terms of the characters, they had to wait 2 hours for the characters to stop by their table, and in the end, Mickey NEVER showed up for them.

She shared, “People would come up to him from other parts of the restaurant, probably because he didn’t make it to their table either, and then he’d go back to the section he had already been to.”

On the other hand, she did mention that Goofy (dressed as the Ghost of Christmas Past) was great! She said that he kept coming back to their section, which helped them feel a bit better about their experience, but it was still disappointing that Mickey never came over to them.

So that’s what we want to warn you about: sometimes, at character meals, you might not get to see all the characters. Sometimes you may be skipped over. This can happen occasionally after a character takes a short break and forgets where they left off.

If you do notice this happening, we suggest finding a Character Attendant Cast Member and asking them if they could help you out. Oftentimes, they can find the character you missed and send them your way. Of course, this isn’t guaranteed, but it never hurts to ask. Character Attendants know the rotation that the character is supposed to follow and do their best to keep track of who has been seen and who hasn’t. They are going to be able to offer you the most help if you haven’t seen a character.

One time, my family was one of the last groups at a character meal, and we were getting skipped A LOT by several characters. When we talked to a Cast Member, they had us stick around a bit after we were done eating, and they gathered up the whole cast for a big group photo with us. (Fun fact: Captain Hook also hooked me and nearly didn’t let me go after the picture. I unironically exclaimed, “I’m hooked!”)

Again, these things aren’t guaranteed, and they can’t be expected, but if you notice you’re being skipped, which does happen, you can always kindly ask about it. We enjoy character meals and hope you will too if you choose to try one! As you’re gearing up for your next trip to Disney World, keep following AllEars for more tips and tricks.

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Have you been to a character meal restaurant before? Tell us about your experience below!

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