Disney Food for Families columnist Erin Foster has some great character meal tips for your fam!

I spent a recent weekend reminiscing over old photos, many of which featured family trips to the Disney Parks. While flipping through the albums, one of my girls commented that the photos were, to put it mildly, character meal intensive. So we started counting, going back to my oldest daughter’s first trip to Walt Disney World in May of 1998.

I have photographic evidence of having been to character meals with my family at least 93 times since then. These meals took place at Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and most predominantly at Walt Disney World, including each of the character meals currently available there, plus the now defunct meals at the Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Tree Tavern, Animal Kingdom’s Restaurantosaurus and what is now Fulton’s Crab House at Downtown Disney.

Our single highest visit count is at the Magic Kingdom’s Crystal Palace, with 17 separate visits.

After all that eating, and eating, and eating, aaaand eating, we’ve picked up a few tips and tricks along the way that may make your character meal experience even better than it otherwise might be:

1. Decide Why You’re There and Plan Accordingly
While the obvious answer to, “Why are you going to a character meal?” may be, “to eat.” In reality there are a number of reasons why you might find yourself communing with Mickey and a heaping plate of breakfast lasagna. These may include: [Read more…]