We visited Plaza Gardens for a character breakfast in March 2020. This was the first time we’d done this character experience and I’m excited to share our experience with you and let you know what we thought of it.
About Plaza Gardens
Plaza Gardens is a Victorian-themed restaurant at the end of Main Street, near Central Plaza. If you’ve been to the Disneyland Resort in California, it’s much like the Plaza Inn. The interior of the restaurant is really beautiful, I got completely sucked into the excitement and forgot to take pictures of the interiors – but the official Disneyland Paris website has lots of beautiful photos.
You can also eat at Plaza Gardens at lunch and dinner time but there are no characters at these meals. Plaza Gardens is included in all of the Disneyland Paris meal plans from Standard right up to Premium.
The Food
At Plaza Gardens there are two buffet stations and they both have the selection of food. There is a huge range of hot and cold items so there will be something to everyone’s taste.
As with all the buffet restaurants at Disneyland Paris, you can go up and down to the buffet as many times as you’d like.
I must say my favourite things that I ate were the waffles (although I wish they were Mickey-shaped!) and the sausages. It’s worth pointing out that the sausages are veal sausages in most of the breakfast locations on resort. I really like veal but I know not everyone does, so it might be worth keeping that in mind!
We got mostly hot food and bread/pastries but they had a big selection of cereal available too. They also have an unlimited supply of water, juice, tea and coffee. We thought the coffee was the best we’d had on resort outside of Starbucks!
The Characters
At Plaza Gardens you meet 6 characters. Generally you meet 3 characters from the 100 Acre Wood and 3 members of the classic Mickey and Friends gang. One of the main reasons that we wanted to do this particular breakfast is that some rarer characters like Scrooge McDuck and Piglet visit Plaza Gardens and that’s often the only place you’ll get to meet them in Disneyland Paris.
The room is split in two. The 100 Acre Wood characters go to one side, the Mickey and Friends characters go to the other and then they switch so everyone gets to meet all 6 characters.
When we went, we met the 100 Acre Wood characters first. We had Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet (a new one for us!).
Our Mickey and Friends characters were the main Mouse himself, Daisy Duck and Scrooge McDuck. We were very excited to meet Daisy as we’d never met her in her “classic” outfit before. She was so sassy, and she gave Amy lessons in how to pose for the camera. Gotta learn from the expert!
Mickey was the highlight of the whole experience for me. Our interaction with Mickey is generally 10/10 but he was super enthusiastic that day and he made such a fuss of my ears! I did not want him to leave our table!
The experience is a bit more rushed than the likes of Cafe Mickey and Inventions but you still have plenty of time to get photos and autographs.
The Price
When we visited, the price was €41.99 per adult and I think it was around €35.99 per child (I forgot to take a photo of the poster – oops!) We got an additional 10% off with our Magic Plus annual pass discount.
Related Post: The Benefits of Having a Magic Plus Annual Pass at Disneyland Paris
Plaza Gardens is the cheapest character dining option available at Disneyland Paris – so it’s perfect if your budget is a bit tighter but you still want to do a character meal. Character meals are also a great way to meet characters without standing in long queues in the park. You do pay for the experience but it saves you time elsewhere in your day.
How to Book
I would highly recommend pre-booking this character breakfast. It’s insanely popular and we’ve missed out on slots a few times. We were very lucky to get one when we did, despite the fact that it wasn’t even peak time! I wouldn’t risk just turning up on the day as you’ll likely be disappointed.
If you’ve booked a package Disneyland Paris holiday through a travel agent, you can ask your agent to add the character breakfast to your booking.
If you’re an annual passholder or you’ve booked room only etc – the earliest you can book is 3 days in advance. You can do this by calling the restaurant reservation phone line or by visiting reception at your hotel (if you’re staying on-site), City Hall or at Plaza Gardens itself. You do not have to pay until you arrive on the day of your breakfast.
There are two sittings – one at 8:15 (you will be given access to Main Street from 8am if you show proof of your booking) and 9:45am. Each sitting lasts 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Our Top Tips
From our experience, we’ve come up with some handy tips for you when you’re booking your Plaza Gardens character breakfast!
- Arrive early for your sitting. The characters don’t arrive until 10 minutes after the sitting begins. Arriving early will allow you to find your table and pile your plate high before the characters arrive.
- Similar to above, get your food as soon as you arrive, so you don’t miss a character while you’re up at the buffet
- We recommend the 9:45am sitting because it allows you to enjoy Extra Magic Time for an hour before breakfast. If you go to the early sitting, you will miss Extra Magic Time for that day.
- Have your phone/camera ready from the minute you sit down. There’s nothing worse than missing out on interaction time because you’re trying to set up your phone. Your time with the characters is already limited so you gotta make the most of it!
Any improvements?
Photopass Photographers – I say the same thing in all of my character dining reviews, and it will probably never happen but it would be great to have Photopass Photographer at character meals. It would really enhance the experience and it would eliminate the faff of making sure that your phone/camera is constantly ready!
Booking Process – It would be so handy to be able to book the character breakfast online, and be able to book more than 3 days in advance! If you’re only at the parks for a few days – the 3 day window doesn’t allow you much wriggle-room if the restaurant is fully booked by guests on package deals.
Overall
We really enjoyed the Plaza Gardens character breakfast and we would definitely do it again. I think it’s well worth the price considering you have access to an all-you-can-eat buffet for over an hour and you get to meet 6 characters without queuing.
Have you ever been to Plaza Gardens? Who did you meet and what did you think of the overall experience? I’d love to hear from you!
If you’d like to read my reviews of some of the other character dining experiences at Disneyland Paris, please check out the links below:
Related Post: Dining at Disneyland Paris – Cafe Mickey
Related Post: Dining at Disneyland Paris – Inventions
Thank you this is super helpful!
Thank you! I will be writing an updated 2022 version in the next few weeks as I was there over the weekend with the new setup!