Opinion on character meal

[jamer]

Just wanted a wwyd for a character meal. We are going in May with our will be almost 3 year old and almost 5 year old. This will be their first time on a plane. We are flying in on a Sunday and will do the next 3 days at Disney and California adventure. To maximize park time I was thinking of doing the character meal the night we fly in. Is this dumb? Will I and kids be too exhausted? Haven't booked flight but we want a 10 am flight and it's only 2 1/2 hours. My youngest currently naps everyday and only in her crib so I don't see sleeping on the plane happening for us.

Opinions if I should book it or throw out this idea? Our hotel has a free hot breakfast daily and has good reviews so prefer to just do that daily for that meal...

[alleinesein]

An early dinner at Goofy's Kitchen would be a great meal to do on your arrival date. The majority of the character dining in California is breakfast so options are a bit limited. Goofy's Kitchen has the most food options of all the character dining.

If you find a flight that arrives in the early afternoon you can get a nap in before dinner.

[lala]

I think an early dinner at a resort hotel is a great idea. Unless your kids usually sleep late, I'd get a flight earlier than 10am.

[blondemomma007]

I would see if there's a slightly earlier flight and grab that. We went to WDW a couple weeks ago and did a character meal the day we arrived. It was great. It got the girls all excited for the park the next day and was a really good introduction to it all.

[jamer]

Thanks everyone! Only earlier flight is 8:15 and we live an hour away from airport and first time through security and getting kids in and out and to the gate I'm afraid that would mean leaving suuuper early. We can always cancel dinner reservations right? If they seem like they can't handle it?

[blondemomma007]

If you cancel an ADR with 24 hours of the reservation there's a fee. It's like $10pp i think.

[jamer]

Dec 27, 2016 11:43:08 GMT -5 blondemomma007 said:

If you cancel an ADR with 24 hours of the reservation there's a fee. It's like $10pp i think.

Eek ok thanks I had no idea. Need to think it through a little more

[beantrees]

Dec 27, 2016 14:18:53 GMT -5 jamer said:

Dec 27, 2016 11:43:08 GMT -5 blondemomma007 said:

If you cancel an ADR with 24 hours of the reservation there's a fee. It's like $10pp i think.

Eek ok thanks I had no idea. Need to think it through a little more

I haven't tried this, but I heard a tip on a podcast that you can reschedule an ADR for a few days in the future and then cancel within the 24 hour limit.

[lala]

You'd have to leave at 5am, I think that's just up to you. I don't think getting through security & all that is a big deal, especially for an early flight, but we've flown w/ kids a bunch.

If you did the 10am flight, you land at 12:30 and need to get to the hotel & check in. It's unlikely your room will be ready until 3ish. LAX or SNA?

If you didn't do dinner until 5pm, it doesn't leave much time to relax about but not un-doable either.

[jamer]

Dec 27, 2016 21:08:10 GMT -5 lala said:

You'd have to leave at 5am, I think that's just up to you. I don't think getting through security & all that is a big deal, especially for an early flight, but we've flown w/ kids a bunch.

If you did the 10am flight, you land at 12:30 and need to get to the hotel & check in. It's unlikely your room will be ready until 3ish. LAX or SNA?

If you didn't do dinner until 5pm, it doesn't leave much time to relax about but not un-doable either.

Flying in to SNA. I guess my husband is on board for 8 am flight. Just scares me to wake up the kids if I can imagine a guaranteed nap happening 😬

[Michelle]

Dec 28, 2016 0:23:16 GMT -5 jamer said:

Dec 27, 2016 21:08:10 GMT -5 lala said:

You'd have to leave at 5am, I think that's just up to you. I don't think getting through security & all that is a big deal, especially for an early flight, but we've flown w/ kids a bunch.

If you did the 10am flight, you land at 12:30 and need to get to the hotel & check in. It's unlikely your room will be ready until 3ish. LAX or SNA?

If you didn't do dinner until 5pm, it doesn't leave much time to relax about but not un-doable either.

Flying in to SNA. I guess my husband is on board for 8 am flight. Just scares me to wake up the kids if I can imagine a guaranteed nap happening 😬

Put the kids to bed in outfits they can wear on the plane. That way if they don't want to wake up until you are actually at the airport, they don't have to. Bring an umbrella stroller so you don't have to carry them both Disney PJs? pack their change outfits into a carry-on.

Take your luggage to the hotel and if the room isn't ready, be packed in an organized way so you can just check your luggage and come back later to get into your room. 

Use the hotel bathroom to freshen up from the plane ride and change the kids. Head to the character dining experience.

I recommend character dining wherever you can fit it in because standing line for photos at the parks sucks, especially the princesses, and doubly especially for new release characters. but the character dining gets you up close and personal with a lot of characters at one time in a relaxed atmosphere where they are occupied with eating while they are waiting. Win-win.

Note on princess dining - if you were going to try to do a character dining in the castle, make sure you know whether there are high volume special events that day. We had reservations at Cinderella's table (or whatever that is called) and the monorail was down. Justin Bieber and Selina Gomez were the stars in the ABC family parade the same day. We BARELY made it to our 1:10 reservation time because of the crowds and the monorail being down. So the others' suggestions for character dining at a resort might be the way to go for a tight timeline where you will already be tired. 

And yes, you will be tired, but if your kids sleep in strollers, on planes, etc., they will sleep while you trudge on. As long as you can make it, they can too! (unless i have a particularly easy kid which may in fact be the case). My daughter was a month away from turning 5 and every day ended like this: