Disney Dining

One of our favorite things to do at Disneyland is character dining. It saves us the trouble of having to search the park and wait in line to see everybody that we want to see, plus the foods not too shabby either.

Our first morning at Disneyland we went to breakfast in the park with Minnie and friends. Its our third one in a row and has become on of our favorite things there. Minnie Mouse comes to your table and takes pictures with you while you eat your breakfast. Some other favorites stop by too, and they usually vary from year to year. This year we saw Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Fairy Godmother, Captain Hook and Chip and Dale.

Sometime during the meal all of the characters go to the middle of the room and dance and this year Alana joined them. She looked so cute dancing out there with Piglet, even though she inadvertently blocked an incoming conga line. Ava just stared at them all like they were aliens, then she taste tested Pooh's nose. She was unimpressed.

Our second day we had breakfast with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto. This was our third year in a row going to this breakfast too, so Alana's an old pro. When you first walk in you meet Ariel, then you go to your table and wait for the other princesses to arrive.

The food at this breakfast is really good. When you first get there you get a big tray of fruit, cheeses and pastries. My favorite part of that is the gouda cheese and the zucchine bread. Then you get a big platter of bacon, eggs, potatoes and sausage, and a big belgium waffle. Everything is family style and you get unlimited quantities, which is good if your husband likes breakfast meat as much as mine does. Plus the syrup is actual maple, not what we usually get (corn syrup with maple flavoring, the cheapest kind).

Then Cinderella, Aurora (sleeping beauty), Snow White and this year Princess Minnie all come to your table to greet you and take pictures. Alana really loves giving them all big hugs and talking with them. She had never been afraid of any of the characters and the first year she actually wanted to get out of her high chair to go give them all another hug.

Our third day we decided to try somewhere new so we went to Goofy's Kitchen, which was at our hotel. This one had characters we've never met, like Baloo and Jasmine, as well as old favorites like Goofy and Chip and Dale. We even got to see Aurora again.

Ava was pretty unimpressed with them all, but not a big fan of Baloo. I'm guessing most babies don't like giant blue bears. Alana hugged and kissed them all, especially Goofy because he put in a little extra effort to make her laugh by sitting in Ava's empty highchair. The characters all danced again and Alana was more than ready to join in, she even pushed her way to the front of the crowd of kids to dance right by Goofy. I was kicking myself for not recording it, but we were on the way to the bathroom so I didn't have the video camera.

I think this one was David's favorite because they had so much food. Besides all of the normal breakfast foods and Mickey waffles they have at the Minnie Mouse breakfast, they had a ton of "kid" friendly foods that weren't really breakfast foods. David's favorite was peanut butter and jelly pizza, he had three pieces. They also had cheese and pepperoni pizza, mac and cheese, ice cream cones and sundaes, enchiladas and beans, hot dogs, chicken strips, cookies, "dirt" cups with gummy worms and so much more. This breakfast helped me reach my chocolate chip cookie quota for the week, since I had three.

The rest of the time we pretty much ate quick service places, with the exception of ESPN Zone and Rainforest Cafe. 99% of the food we had was really really good, but the Rainforest Cafe didn't live up to the hype. The character breakfasts were definitely worth it though, they are a one of a kind experience.