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If you are hoping to meet some of your favorite characters during your Disneyland vacation, one of my top tips is to book a character dining experience. These dining experiences allow you to meet characters over the course of your meal, have more personal interactions, and get great pictures.
One of my top character dining experiences to recommend to guests at Disneyland is the Plaza Inn Breakfast with Minnie and Friends. Keep reading to find out everything to know about this experience, including price, food options, and what characters you may meet.
Complete Guide To Disneyland’s Plaza Inn Character Breakfast
The Plaza Inn is located in Disneyland Park, towards the end of Main Street. At the time of this update, it is the only character dining experience located within one of the parks at Disneyland Resort.
I have been doing this character dining experience for years, and have seen it change and grow, but it still remains one of my favorites. Here is everything you will want to know about this character dining experience.
What Is Character Dining at Plaza Inn?
Most people know the Plaza Inn for its fried chicken served for lunch and dinner. But in the mornings, Plaza Inn hosts a breakfast where characters come around and meet with guests during their dining experience.
Plaza Inn is just one of four character dining experiences currently offered at Disneyland Resort. It is also the only one offered within one of the parks. That means that you will need a Disneyland Park Ticket, as well as a park reservation at this time.
Other Character Dining Options at Disneyland Resort:
If you are hoping to do a character meal on a non-park day, the following character meal options may be a good fit for your Disney Vacation.
- Goofy’s Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel
- Mickey’s Tales of Adventure at Storyteller’s Cafe in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel
- Disney Princess Breakfast Adventure at Napa Rose in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel
What To Expect at Breakfast at Plaza Inn with Minnie and Friends
Each character dining experience is fairly similar. You will get a chance to meet the characters. Only the character in the name of the dining experience is guaranteed, but other characters will join them.
At Plaza Inn’s Breakfast, Minnie is the title character. After you check in by the entrance, you will be able to get a photograph with Minnie, taken by a Disney Photopass Photographer. This photo’s digital download is included with your meal.
You will also receive a souvenir button for the breakfast. You can see the button in the picture below.
Afterward, you will get to enjoy a breakfast buffet, during which other characters will walk around to meet guests. You are able to take pictures with your own device, have conversations, and enjoy unique interactions with the characters.
Don’t worry, as we continue, I will share more about the food, other characters you may meet and more.
How Much is Plaza Inn at Disneyland’s Character Breakfast?
The price for the Breakfast with Minnie and Friends character dining experience at Disneyland’s Plaza Inn is not listed specifically online. It tends to give a price range. This is so that if the price changes after booking, they are able to charge you the new amount at check-in. At least that is what I think the reasoning is.
That said, I try to check the pricing on every visit. The current pricing (as of the most recent update of this article) is as follows:
- Adults (ages 10 and up) – $41
- Children (ages 3-9) – $24
- 2 and under – FREE
Plaza Inn does have the best prices for any of the character dining options. That said, you need to remember that is partially because you need theme park tickets to access this dining option. Considering Disneyland tickets start at $100 for a one-day ticket, this should be taken into account when talking about affordability.
Do I Need A Dining Reservation For Plaza Inn Character Dining?
While you do not need a dining reservation for lunch and dinner at the Plaza Inn in Disneyland, you will need a dining reservation for the Minnie and Friends Character Breakfast. Reservations can be made via the Disneyland App or Disneyland Website 60 days in advance.
At times, Plaza Inn may be able to accommodate walk-ups or have a virtual standby. Stop by the check-in for the Plaza Inn character breakfast to see if they are accepting walkups.
If you are having trouble securing dining reservations, I suggest creating a free account with MouseDining. They will monitor the reservations for you and let you know when one opens up.
As I mentioned they have a free option, but there is also an upgraded option that will get allow you to sign up for more alerts and receive text messages.
What Time of Day Should I Make My Dining Reservation For?
If you are wondering what time you should book the breakfast, there are pros and cons to each time slot. Plaza Inn’s Breakfast with Minnie and Friends is only offered from park opening until 11 am each day, so you really do not have a wide range of time frames to choose from.
Booking An Early Morning Time
Booking an early morning reservation for Plaza Inn Breakfast is nice because you will have less people there, and may have a better chance of getting your preferred seating. That said, you will also be missing out on those precious early Disneyland rope drop hours where you can get a lot done.
I personally do not book this for the first hour of the day as I want to get in a few rides. I usually try to book my meal 90 minutes after the park opening (which most days would be around 9:30 am)
Booking a Late Breakfast Time
If you book a time after 10:00, you will start to see food replenished less as the breakfast ends at 11 am. Characters will also begin to thin out around 10:30 am.
Additionally, if it is a busy morning, you will most likely have to sit wherever a table is available, whether that be outside seating in the cold or heat, or indoor seating.
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What Food Is Served at the Disneyland Character Dining at Plaza Inn
You are probably wanting to know what food you can expect to find before you make your breakfast reservation for Plaza Inn.
Plaza Inn serves similar foods to Goofy’s Kitchen and Storytellers Cafe’s character breakfasts. While the other two have a few added options, the general, buffet-style breakfast menu is basically the same.
Food Offerings for Breakfast In The Park with Minnie and Friends at Plaza Inn
While character experiences are a big draw for this and other character meals, you also want to make sure you will enjoy the food served. While the menu may vary slightly, these are the staples we usually see at Plaza Inn for the Minnie and Friends Breakfast.
Hot Foods
Hot food items are served buffet style, with one exception (made-to-order omelets).
Here are the food offerings you will usually find at the buffet:
- Scrambled eggs
- Bacon
- Sausage
- Biscuits and Gravy
- Minnie waffles and Mickey waffles
- Breakfast Potatoes
The made-to-order omelet station is at the end of the buffet area.
Other Foods Offered
You will also be able to choose from the following food items:
- Assorted cold cereals
- Variety of pastries (muffins, croissants, etc)
- Fruit
Beverages
Beverages offered include:
- Self-serve soda machine (coke products)
- Chocolate milk
- Milk
- Fruit Punch
- Coffee
- Hot Tea
- Orange Juice
What Characters Will I See At Plaza Inn’s Character Breakfast
Pre-pandemic, one of my favorite things about Plaza Inn’s breakfast was the amount of characters, including more rare characters, that you would get to meet. While the number of characters typically seen at this meal has changed, I still find this to have a more unique lineup than other Disneyland character meals. (Save the Disney Princesses at the Napa Rose option.)
While Storytellers and Goofy’s Kitchen tend to mostly feature the main Mickey and friends characters, Plaza Inn offers some of your other favorite Disney Characters.
Characters I have seen at the Plaza Inn Breakfast include:
- Minnie Mouse (the only guaranteed character)
- Daisy Duck
- Captain Hook
- Fairy Godmother
- Tigger
- Winnie the Pooh
- Eeyore
- Chip
- Dale
- Pluto
- Max*
- Longfellow*
- Rafiki*
- Mice from Cinderella
- White Rabbit
* = I have not seen these characters post closure
Tips For Enjoying The Plaza Inn Breakfast
I really think the Plaza Inn is a great character dining choice for your Disneyland vacation. Especially with little kids.
Not only does this location have some of their favorite characters, it offers a lot of kid-friendly foods. That said, here are some more tips for enjoying the Plaza Inn Breakfast with Minnie and Friends in the Park.
Character Interactions
Wondering how to make sure you get the most of your time with the characters? Here are some of my best tips.
- Bring your autograph book. The characters will be more than happy to sign them. This can help break the ice for kids who are a bit shy.
- Interact with the characters. Challenge Tigger to a bouncing contest, or ask Pooh if he has any honey. Tell Daisy how much you admire her outfit. If your kids do not want to talk, parents, feel free to lead the conversation.
- TEENS? Character meals are a great way to make teens who think they are “too cool” feel okay hanging with the characters. Since they can spend the majority of their time eating, and have a more relaxed atmosphere to interact, you may see them really get into it.
- Take photos and videos with the characters. Outdoor seating and the indoor tables near the windows will be best to get good lighting. That said, most phones now days can handle the lower light dining room areas just fine.
The best part of a character breakfast is the different characters and getting to interact without waiting in long lines. I often find after a character meal, we have actually saved time compared to waiting in all those characters’ meet and greet lines.
Food Tips
If you are planning to dine at the Plaza Inn, I strongly suggest that time frame around an hour to ninety minutes after the park opening.
Give your kids a small breakfast in the morning before heading to rope drop. This will hopefully hold them over until your reservation.
Take your time and really fill up on food at breakfast. If you eat a good breakfast, a very light snack or food option will probably be good for your lunch at the parks.
That will make it so you can hold off on another large meal until dinner at Disneyland. Even at that point, a quick service option will probably be perfect to fill you up that evening.
Is Disneyland’s Plaza Inn Character Breakfast Worth It?
While I don’t do character dining EVERY trip like I used to, I still love adding the Plaza Inn Breakfast with Minnie and Friends to my plans at least one or two times per year. Not only does it save me a lot of time meeting characters elsewhere, I enjoy meeting the characters and my family gets a hearty meal.
This really is one of the best character meal options at Disneyland Resort.
This breakfast looks like so much fun. I am adding it to our list of must dos on our next trip to Disneyland.
You really have me wanting to head back to the West Coast for a Disneyland adventure!! This is going on the list of must-dos if and when we go again.
Great post as always Becca! We haven’t had breakfast here yet, but I think I’ll add it to my list of meals for when we are able to take our next trip to Disneyland!
I have to say, I enjoy Disneyland’s Plaza Inn Breakfast more than the Crystal Palace version. Perhaps it is because you can gaze at Sleeping Beauty Castle while soaking up that California sun! The food is always delicious, the characters beyond the norm (my son LOVES Max), and it never seems quick as manic as its Orlando cousin. I’m with you Becca- this one’s premium in my book!
We had so much fun eating here! I love that Minnie has such a random assortment of friends 😉 A lot of the ones you saw were different than who was there when I went so that’s very cool too!
Loved the one Plaza Inn breakfast we did. Actually liked it even more than Crystal Palace! great post.
xoxo,
monorails & mickey tales
http://www.monorailsandmickeytales.com
Great info! We’ve never done a Disneyland Character Breakfast before, but those characters!
We have four autistic grandchildren and feel that taking them to a character meal or two might be the perfect setting for them to interact with some of their favorite Disney characters.
Your explanation of why you think they are worth the money was particularly interesting and revealing.
You provided a great deal of information to peek our curiousity about this particular character breakfast, but we do have two questions. What are the hours? Are there separate seatings?
I have a lot of info on the hours and such in my complete guide to character dining at Disneyland
Hi! I just found your blog and am so thankful for all the great info! I’m curious to learn more about this part when you said, “You can however book during a magic morning and go in through the special entrance and not use your magic morning. This means you can get most of the meal out of the way before official park opening.” Can you explain how to do that? We have one magic morning included during our trip And I would love to know how to use it to my advantage. Thanks!
So don’t book a breakfast during your magic morning but on another day that has Magic Morning, before the general park opening. So if Magic Mornings all week start at 7 am and you use your MM entry on Tuesday, on THursday, try and get a 7 or 7:30 breakfast at Plaza Inn. You can get in, and still be mostly done with your meal (and still make MaxPass choices during your meal) by the time the park opens.
Hi, I realize this post is older but how long would you give yourself for the entrance line up? I have the earliest Minnie and Friends reservation but haven’t a clue as to how long I should arrive beforehand. Thanks!
I suggest being at the gates at least 30-45 minutes before park opening or your time. If you are going in during Magic Morning, or even the first 10-15 minutes of park opening, there is usually a special gate for character meals clear to the left hand side of the entrance gates.