A Magnificent Marvel Character Dining Experience at Universal

Amy Baranek1.25.2020Does meeting Captain America, being harassed by Wolverine, and watching Spider Man try to climb walls and photo bomb pictures sounds like a fun time to you? Then you will want to make Marvel Character dinner at Café 4 a priority on your next Universal vacation!The DetailsMarvel Character dinner at Café 4, in Islands of Adventure, is an all-you-care-to- enjoy dining experience, available most nights Thursday-Sunday from about 5pm-7pm. Times and days can vary, especially during more crowded times. You need reservations for this meal, and you may pre-purchase this meal, making for a quick check-in process at the restaurant. Current prices as of September 2019 are $53.24 age 10 and up and $26.62 ages 3-9, under 3 are free and these prices include tax. The price also includes one digital download from your evening. Since Café 4 is inside Islands of Adventure theme park, theme park admission is required.Our ReservationOn our first day at the park, we stopped at will call for our park tickets. At this time they were also able to print our tickets for our character meal. You will want to be sure to do this prior to your meal for an easier check-in process.There was someone outside to check us in and then directed us inside. Once inside, they gave us a Universal photo card. This card is what you would use for your free digital download. Once they saw we had a Universal photo package, she let us know to use that card for all photos. The photo package that includes all pictures in the park, as well as rides, also entitles you to all pictures taken at your character meal. We were then seated, our drink orders were taken and instructed to help ourselves to the buffet.The FoodFood is served buffet style and there are salads, pasta, pizza, and chicken, as well as some other traditional offerings and an assortment of desserts. You also receive a non-alcoholic beverage with your meal. My honest opinion is that the food was under whelming. I felt like I was at a quick-service dining experience and they were allowing me to pick from all their food offerings instead of having me choose. I say this not to discourage you from going, but to have realistic expectations of the food so you aren’t disappointed when you go. We all agreed our food was ok, not terrible; but if it weren’t for the characters, I would not return.The CharactersThe characters make this dinner! This was by far some of the best character interaction I have experienced at a meal anywhere!   Current characters available to meet are: Captain America, Rogue, Spider Man, Storm, and Wolverine. All of the characters came up and had conversations with us; it wasn’t just a quick “hello” and take a picture. Captain America was asking my boys what kind of helpful things they had done for me today. Storm and Rogue had us pose in an appropriate X-men style and discussed the weather, and how important it is to be true to yourself. They were good enough to be sure to grab a photographer for pictures with them. Later in the evening, they were picking on Spider Man, calling him a “crazy teenager” as he was hiding around the corners, sneaking into their pictures to photo bomb, and trying to climb the walls. My absolute favorite was Wolverine. My husband was sitting across from me and I saw him start laughing and grab his phone. It was then that I heard and felt heavy breathing by my ear and Wolverine started talking. He then worked his way to my 12 year old son and started picking on his hair. He was running his claws through his hair and asking him what was in his hair and why he would make it greasy. At this point, I was crying, I was laughing so hard, because I have been harassing my son about his oily hair. (He hadn’t been using shampoo when he showered because it made his hair too ‘fluffy,’ and product in his hair made it ‘feel weird.’) After we informed Wolverine of this, he would not leave my tween alone. He kept coming over and messing my son’s hair up. My son would try to put his hair back in place, and Wolverine would be right back to mess it up again. This alone made the night for me and as a side note- guess who is using shampoo more since this interaction?SummaryI absolutely loved this meal and would do it again in a heartbeat! I would love to see them add some more healthy options, or at least less heavy/greasy food. I loved the fact that they had photographers there that kept an eye on character interactions and when people got up to take a picture, they would head over to take pictures of the interaction. If the photographers happened to be busy, the characters had no problem waiting until they were able to come over.Our reservation time was 6:45pm and I believe this was one of the last reservation times. This was a great time for the extra character interactions and antics! They did close down one side of the buffet shortly after we went up. The other side was still open and had most of the original food options, but it did limit the options a bit more then what was initially available to us. If some amazing character interaction is what you’re after, I’d definitely recommend a similar time for your reservation!Are you thinking of a Universal vacation? I would love to help you plan your perfect vacation! Please email me at amyb@wishesfamilytravel.com and we can start discussing what will make your perfect vacation. I would love for you to follow my Facebook page for reviews, travel information, and staying up to date on new information and promotions! If you’ve enjoyed this blog, please click here to read more that I’ve written!