When my family and I traveled to Disneyland this past April, I agonized over which character breakfast to choose for my son. At the time, he was 3 years old, and up until that point, we had avoided the character breakfasts at Disneyland. Mostly because there was a time when he was afraid of the characters. However, it all seemed to change when we signed up for the character breakfast at the Aulani. He loved it, and I felt he would be ready for a character breakfast at Disneyland. So I started doing my research, and ultimately ended up making a reservation for Surf’s Up Breakfast with Mickey & Friends.
Surf’s Up Breakfast with Mickey & Friends is located at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel. It has a very casual vibe, and a beach feel to it 🙂 There are two main reasons I chose Surf’s Up:
- It’s the only character breakfast at Disneyland that has Mickey, and
- Because it’s located inside the hotel, it wouldn’t interfere with time in the parks.
Besides Surf’s Up Breakfast with Mickey & Friends, there are four other places in the Disneyland Resort to participate in a character breakfast: Goofy’s Kitchen (located in the Disneyland Hotel), Storyteller’s Cafe (located in the Grand Californian Hotel), Ariel’s Grotto (at Disney California Adventure), and Breakfast with Minnie & Friends (located at the Plaza Inn in Disneyland Park). We hope to experience all the other character breakfasts at some point, but Surf’s Up is a great character breakfast to start off with, especially if you aren’t sure if your child will enjoy the experience, and/or if you have a younger child. Below are the reasons why we loved it.
Reasons We Loved Surf’s Up Breakfast with Mickey & Friends
Mickey Mouse
Surf’s Up! is the only character breakfast where Mickey Mouse makes an appearance. My son loves the Disney characters, but Mickey is definitely his favorite. The breakfast didn’t disappoint -Mickey is the first character you get to meet. You and your family can have photos taken with Mickey as you first enter the restaurant. I’m glad that the meet and greet with Mickey was first thing - because if it hadn’t been, my son would have focused on that the whole time.
Mickey was the number one reason we chose Surf’s Up Breakfast with Mickey & Friends as our first character breakfast at Disneyland.
Other Classic (and Not So Classic!) Characters
Specific characters aren’t guaranteed. However, for our character breakfast, Pluto, Daisy, Minnie, and Stitch made appearances. It’s nice because they rotate and end up stopping off at the tables. My son was so excited, he couldn’t even focus on the delicious food!
Daisy made an appearance!
The Dance Party
At certain intervals, there would be a little dance party with beach music. My son LOVED this, as you can see from the picture below. If I were to guess my son’s highlight of the character breakfast, dancing with Mickey would be it!
No Interference with Time in the Parks
When we are in the parks, we are focused on maximizing our time in the parks. The character breakfasts can take a bit of time, especially if you want the full experience (which you definitely do!!). It can also take my son time to warm up to certain things, like characters. As a result, we opted to go to the character breakfast the morning of our return back home. I don’t know if we would have had the same experience if we went to the character breakfast the first day on vacation. Not only was it a great way to end our vacation, but by then, my son was comfortable with the characters after seeing them in the parks.
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Surf’s up! Breakfast with Mickey & Friends: A Character Breakfast at Disneyland
A lot of fun. Good times for all.