Did you know that you can have character dining meals at Disney World without a ticket? Yes! It’s true. One of the cool perks at Disney World!
This is especially useful for planning a character meal as a great way to surprise your family on arrival or departure day (typically when you don’t have tickets) and you can still use your Disney Dining plan these days!
Yes, you can eat at the favorite Chef Mickey’s without a Park Ticket! You don’t need to be staying at a Disney Resort either. Simple make reservations for your group on the MyDisneyExperience app, or call in for groups larger than eight.
This includes all of the other character dining offers that are outside of the parks, like ‘Ohana, Topolino’s and Cape May Cafe.
Can you eat at a Disney resort without staying there?
Yes! You can eat at any of the Resort quick serves without staying at the Disney Resort. This includes restaurants that you need a reservation for, like Character Dining and speciality options like Ice Cream shops or Bars and Lounges.
It’s kinda like a secret hack for Florida residents and for people who are planning a Disney World “OFF” day (where they don’t buy a ticket and do whatever else they want!).You can discover more things to do at Disney World without a park ticket (most of them are free!) Or you could call it, ‘untraditional Disney’, kinda like going to the parks and skipping all the rides for other entertainment!
Character Dining outside Disney World in 2023
There’s a lot to do outside of purchasing a Disney Ticket, that still full of magic! Character Dining is one of those things.
Whether you like it for an arrival day, an off day, or a just because day, Character Dining at the Resorts without a ticket is a great way to meet special characters and make fun memories.
Here’s all of the Disney off site Character Dining Orlando Options
🍽️ Topolinos Terrace
- Location: Disney’s Rivera Resort- a Deluxe DVC resort on the Skyliner Loop. Located in between Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
- Characters: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy
- Difficulty level for getting a reservation: Hard
- Parking options: Free to Park, but Security will not let you in without a reservation
The newest Character Meal to hit Disney World is one of my favorites! The Mickey Gang is all here in new outfits, a fun new song, and an absolutely stunning view from the rooftop! This is a new favorite for our family.
Open for Breakfast with Characters (Dinner is Fine Dining!), this location is accessible by the Disney Skyliner, walking from Disney’s Riveria and Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, and a must for anyone wanting an updated take on Character Dining.
🍽️ Chef Mickey’s
- Location: The Contemporary Resort. You can access this restaurant by car, rideshare, walking from Magic Kingdom or the Monorail.
- Characters: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald
- Difficulty level for getting a reservation: Easy/medium
- Parking: Free to Park, but Security will not let you in without a reservation
This is perhaps the most popular one among the under 10 crowd. It is located at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and does Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.
Hop over here from Magic Kingdom by taking the Resort Monorail or the walking path. You can access this location by walking or riding the Monorail from The Polynesian Resort and The Grand Floridian Resort.
Protip: This location generally has good availability for reservations, last minute reservations and walkups. Consider this a great backup option if you don’t get the character meal you wanted!
Plus you get to see the monorail go through the resort, or you can even take the monorail to your meal! This is a super fun way to add some Disney Magic to your day. Resort hopping on the monorail is also one of our top Free Things to Do at Disney World!
🍽️ Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White
- Location: On the first floor of The Wilderness Lodge. You’ll need to come by car, rideshare, boat or bus. This is a Dinner Only location
- Characters: Snow White, Grumpy, Sleepy, the Evil Queen
- Difficulty level for getting a reservation: Hard
- Parking: Free to Park, but Security will not let you in without a reservation
This is a character dinner set to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (this was previously a sit down table service restaurant without characters that got a remodel a few years ago!) Snow White, Dopey and Grumpy. With a special appearance by the Queen herself!
🍽️ ‘Ohana
- Location: Find this Character Meal on the Second Floor of Disney’s Polynesian Resort. Access this restaurant by car, rideshare, walking from Magic Kingdom or the Monorail.
- Characters: Mickey, Lilo and Stitch
- Difficulty level for getting a reservation: Medium
- Parking: Free to Park, but Security will not let you in without a reservation
‘Ohana is a fun family-style buffet complete with Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. This Fun Character meal is at the Polynesian Village Resort (located on the monorail loop). They do Breakfast only with Characters (though they have a show at night for dinner!)
We had so much fun at this breakfast meeting Hawaiian Mickey, Lilo and Stich!
🍽️ The Good Morning Breakfast with Goofy and His Pals
This Delightful Character Breakfast is a fun way to spice things up in the morning. This is located at the Ravello Restaurant and is only available certain mornings. This breakfast is located at the Four Seasons Resort in Disney.
Typically you’ll see Mickey, Goofy and Minnie… but you could also see Chip and Dale with Goofy.
To get reservations here, sign up at OpenTable, or call the Hotel to confirm that they are doing Character Breakfasts on the day you picked!
🍽️ Cape May Cafe “Minnie’s Beach Bash Breakfast”
- Location: On the first floor of the Beach Club Resort on the Boardwalk. You can easily walk here from Yacht Club, the Swan and Dolphin, or the International Gate at Epcot.
- Characters: Minnie, Mickey, Goofy and Donald
- Difficulty level for getting a reservation: Easy
- Parking: Free to Park, but Security will not let you in without a reservation
Want to Eat with Minnie Mouse for Breakfast? Hop over to the Disney’s Beach Club Resort for a yummy character breakfast. This isn’t one of my favorites- but the theming and the characters beach outfits are so cute!
We got to meet Minnie, Goofy, Daisy and Donald in their swimming outfits- and parade around the restaurant!
🍽️ Trattoria Al Forno- open but no characters
*Note this character meal is still character-less since reopening!
This is another Breakfast only character meal (though its open all day and makes a great date night!) It’s located at Disney BoardWalk and features the lovable couples, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider and Ariel and Prince Eric.
This is one of our favorites- but the reservations can be hard to get (especially since you dont need a ticket!)
They do have a cart with lots of cool souvenirs (like a pascal!) so be prepared to get some other cool goodies!
🍽️ 1900 Park Fare- still closed in 2023
Arguably the next most popular- Located at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa- this restaurant boasts the most character options!
This location is closed for a remodel, no word yet on reopening, or what it will look like when it does reopen!
You can have a Supercalifragilistic Breakfast Buffet with a round table of guests such as Mary Poppins, Alice In wonderland, Tigger and Winnie the Pooh! Or Maybe you’d like to enjoy a tea date with crafts and cupcakes?
You can also hang out with the members of Alice in Wonderland for an hour of “unbirthday” celebrations. Then for Dinner you can enjoy a Princess themed, Happily Ever After Dinner. These characters are also on a round table rotation, so no guarantees on who is present.
🍽️ Garden Grove- Open but no Characters
On most Nights and some mornings, Garden Grove comes alive with characters. Located at the Swan Hotel, you can dine in a tranquil garden setting. Most of the time you will see Goofy, Pluto and Chip n’ Dale.
How to Reserve Character Meals without a Ticket
Are you familiar with Disney’s Advanced Reservation System? If you are, then you can skip this section and reserve it like you normally would, but I wanted to explain for anyone that isn’t familiar.
Disney has several ways that you can reserve a meal at one of their restaurants. I HIGHLY recommend doing this, because it is very hard to get a same day reservation if you have more than 2-3 people in your party.
Tickets and Resort
So when you book a resort through Disney you get 180 days before your trip to start booking your advanced reservations or ADR. You want to do this at the 179 day mark because spots and times can fill up fast! This is why its so helpful to know what your plan of attack for Disney is months in advance. Many resorts will give you an additional 10 days- so 190 days to reserve your restaurants.
To make the reservation you can go online, go on the app, or call into the automated-then person phone line to select your choices. If you booked through a Free Disney Travel Agency, then you might want to reach out to them.
Tickets only
If you DIDN’T book through Disney, you can plan ADR’s 180 days in advance as long as your tickets are uploaded to their site or if you have an annual pass.
No tickets at all
If you have NO tickets of any kind you can still make a reservation! You will need an account online since you have to have a credit card to reserve the restaurant. You can learn about making reservations here.
Conclusion
As you can see Disney likes to prioritize the breakfast, most likely so that you can catch one more character event before you leave on your departure day (how thoughtful of them!).
Then Chef Mickey is a popular Dinner on your arrival day – not going to lie, we love to do Chef Mickey after we get settled in. It’s relaxed but still lots of fun. We normally try to plan something in the late afternoon so we don’t rush over to check in. Normally we get a 2-3pm lunch and get to see Mickey. Then head to the resort to relax and grab a quick snack at the resort around dinner time.
I really wish there was Character Dining at Disney Springs, but so far, there are only at the Resorts.
If you are at Disney Springs, head over to this planning guide of all the free things you can do at Disney Springs with your kids!
Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time on arrival and departure day!
Another great option to know about are the Freebies at Disney World!
So are you planning to enjoy one of these fun character meals without a ticket? Or will you stick to the options in the park to get your specific character fix? Let me know in the comments!
And if you interested in learning how I save Hundreds on Food at Disney, check out my Ultimate Guide Here!
Thank you. This was so helpful! Going to Orlando with family, but we aren’t going into any of the parks. We’re just hanging out for Christmas, but I do want to experience something Disney so this is perfect.
Headed there with family in early Feb. We are not doing resort or parks. Girls are 2 and 4 and just too much for them but they would love love love to see mickey and minnie and the gang at one of these resturants. I am Def going to be booking something somehow . Thx for all your info. So so helpful and will be a great surprise for them ❤️