Although Walt Disney World started increasing the number of costumed characters in its parks and resorts last fall, the meals with Minnie Mouse at MGM-Studios were recently eliminated.
The "character meals," where actors playing the roles of famous figures from Disney movies visit and play with children, are so popular that there currently are 20 of them in Disney World's parks.
In fact, since last fall, says spokeswoman Rena Callahan, "we have increased the character presence across our property by more than 25 percent."
It's unclear whether the MGM-Studios character breakfast and lunch, held daily at the medium-priced Hollywood and Vine buffet, weren't matching the success of other character venues at Disney World. But the elimination of those character appearances leaves MGM-Studios as the only one of Disney's four theme parks without a character meal.
"We have been making adjustments to our character dining experiences and added a new character dining venue at the Norwegian Pavilion at Epcot last year," said Callahan. "We recently made a change to the character dinner experience at the Grand Floridian to feature Cinderella, which has been extremely popular."
Some Disney experts say the MGM-Studios breakfast simply had too many good competing eateries nearby. "You look around that park and the restaurants are wonderfully themed, even without characters. That put a lot of pressure on Hollywood and Vine's character meals to be special," says Arlen Miller, a Disney memorabilia dealer and historian who frequents Disney World.
Indeed, the character buffet lunch was up against four popular restaurants at MGM-Studios, including the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant, which almost always has a line of customers waiting. It features burgers, steaks and seafood served on tables in faux convertible cars in an old-fashioned drive-in movie setting. On a huge screen, the previews play from 1950s era black-and-white science-fiction films. Some servers are on roller skates.
MGM-Studios may well offer more eating opportunities per square foot than any other Disney World theme park. Even the park bookstore, The Writer's Shop, has snacks and gourmet coffee in a comfortable library setting.
Orlando Sentinel
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I was suprised at the number of characters meal there were at WDW when we went in Jan. I don't think thay need to have so many. If you go to a few character meals you see tons of characters and many repeats.
WDW's character meals are generally less expensive then those here at DLR. But other venues are also great, I was sad to see DCA's Soap Opera Bistro close & I don't watch Soap Operas!
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I have been to WDW 6 times before, and am returning summer 2006. Since i was little one of the favourite part of my disney holidays where the character meals. If you go to the liberty tree tavern at magic kingdom, chip and dale are always up to no good, once whilst dining there they stole our bag of peanut brittle , and made the meal, funny entertaining and enjoyable. The bonus of character dining is that the characters offer some light relief, children love it, and so do adults and big kids like myself. i will miss hollywood and vine at mgm, i think it would be beneficial for them to alter some other menus at mgm in order to cater for children and ''picky'' eaters.
i thought that pizza planet was a character dining facility at mgm, i was always under the impression that toy story characters were there
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I have been to WDW 6 times before, and am returning summer 2006. Since i was little one of the favourite part of my disney holidays where the character meals. If you go to the liberty tree tavern at magic kingdom, chip and dale are always up to no good, once whilst dining there they stole our bag of peanut brittle , and made the meal, funny entertaining and enjoyable. The bonus of character dining is that the characters offer some light relief, children love it, and so do adults and big kids like myself. i will miss hollywood and vine at mgm, i think it would be beneficial for them to alter some other menus at mgm in order to cater for children and ''picky'' eaters.
i thought that pizza planet was a character dining facility at mgm, i was always under the impression that toy story characters were there
I'm pretty sure it's not a character meal, they serve pizza and italian foods and have a large arcade for kids. It's a ton of fun for kids, but at the same time the characters are only nearby not in the actual restaurant, plus it's only counter service.
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The fact that I didn't even realize they had any character meals at MGM leads me to believe I won't miss them much... Although I was very impressed with a lunch I had at the Brown Derby last year, for the most part I've found the table-service restaurants at MGM rather disappointing (particularly the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, which I thought was grossly overrated), so we don't eat there all that much. For us, it's Epcot all the way when we want a stellar meal in the parks.
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I thought the Hollywood and Vine was great! I couldn't believe it when they took out Minnie, Goofy, and the rest of the gang! That was my favorite character dining. It was lots of fun to watch Minnie and Goofy dance, and there was always lots of character interaction. It's not as special without the characters. Now, there aren't any good restaurants. Sci-Fi is way too loud, and made me sick with the speaker right next to my ear (it was on New Year's Eve, so we stuck our party hats over the speaker to muffle the noise ). They should bring back the character dining!
We've had both good and bad experiences with character dining over the past few years. But Jedi81677 summed my feelings up perfectly...I also had NO idea there was any character dining at MGM. In a way, I feel kind of foolish because of all of the previous times I've researched character dining. We've just always stuck with the places we like there (the counter service places and 50s prime time, etc.) It's nice to know they've increased the presence of the characters...those lines can be crazy sometimes both at the character dining restaurants and just in the meet -n- greets in the parks.
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I cannot imagine them eliminating very many more of the character meals. They are so much fun and often very difficult to get reservations for. I hope they continue to add more character meals. It really makes it worth the cost for the kids.
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I did a lot of planning for one of these character meals to be included in our plans but when the meals came around (2 of them) only my sons was a hit. We had his at the Garden Grill (GREAT place to eat btw) and MIckey spent a whole 5 minutes with him. It seemed like it was longer but it was probably more like just 5 minutes. For our second character meal we went to the Liberty Tree Tavern for our dinner just before MNSSHP for a dinner with Minnie. Minnie was nowhere to be found. However, my boy Goofy was. Our daughter was kinda dissapointed but she understood that sort of thing happens. We dont intend on making plans around them for our next trip. If they happen to be there then great and if not then oh well. They are usually out in force in the parks.
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WDW's character meals are generally less expensive then those here at DLR. But other venues are also great, I was sad to see DCA's Soap Opera Bistro close & I don't watch Soap Operas! 
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, and made the meal, funny entertaining and enjoyable. The bonus of character dining is that the characters offer some light relief, children love it, and so do adults and big kids like myself. i will miss hollywood and vine at mgm, i think it would be beneficial for them to alter some other 
with the speaker right next to my ear (it was on New Year's Eve, so we stuck our party hats over the speaker to muffle the noise
). They should bring back the character dining! 
Our daughter was kinda dissapointed but she understood that sort of thing happens. We dont intend on making plans around them for our next trip. If they happen to be there then great and if not then oh well. They are usually out in force in the parks.
