any advice about Chef Mickey's vs CP????

[MaggieMollyMom]

on one of our MK days, should we go to CM or CP? i am worried about the time travelled from the park to cm....? or is it no big deal?
(and can we go back into mk if we don't have hopper passes if we do go to cm?)
thanks so much!!

 

[MrsLS]

I'm not sure which meal you want to do but we've done breakfast at CP and really enjoyed it. Never did CM but if you want to do breakfast there I think it would be fine. If you want dinner and then go back to the park, I think its not worth it/waste of time. With that said, its not that far, I just don't think its worth leaving the park for a buffet that gets iffy reviews on here. You can either walk there or take the monorail. I would say its at least 20 mins there and then 20 mins back and thats if you get the monorail right away. Its about a 10 min walk from the entrance to CR and then walk to the restaurant, but then at least another 5 from CP to the entrance (& that depends how fast you walk too, if you choose to walk).

& yes you can enter in and out of the same park all day without the park hopper. Park hopper is for going to a different park on the same day, not the same one on the same day.

 

[tluvstink]

Personally I like both but if I were going to be in MK I would pick CP just for the convenience.

Terri

 

[Josh'sDad1974]

I've done the breakfast at Chef Mickey's and the dinner at Crystal Palace. I'd take the breakfast at Chef Mickey's over the dinner at CP anyday. My family will not be doing dinner at CP again. Nothing happened but the food was not that great nor were the choices for my family. Character interaction was much better at Chef Mickey's than at CP.

 

[jimandami]

We actually like the park break CM gives you. We usually book an early dinner and head over on the monorail (or walk, which is very quick) around 4 or so. We then head back to the park after dinner for fireworks, etc...Obviously, this depends on what time the park closes and such. The character interaction is great and the kids love it. However, I thought the food was very mediocre, especially for what you pay. We have only done CP breakfast, which we did enjoy and it's nice to do in the AM to get into the park early.

 

[KatMark]

We have done breakfast at Crystal Palace numerous times (as a matter of fact it is a MUST DO for us each trip); we've done breakfast and dinner at Chef Mickey's a number of times as well. I would pick CP every single time. But if I had to go to Chef Mickey's it would be breakfast only. We have found ALL of Disney's lunch/dinner buffets to be awful.

 

[goofyintoronto]

i'd stick with CP. its much more convenient to stay inside the park. Plus I thought the food at CM was terrible!! I wouldnt go back.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We've had very good breakfast experiences at both. While I love the pre-park opening breakfast slots at Crystal Palace b/c I love being in MK before it opens...Chef Mickey's starts breakfast service at 7am and you can walk to MK from the Contemporary (some people say 10min, but I clocked it closer to 5 min)- i.e. you might even be able to make MK rope drop if you do the super early slots at Chef Mickey's.

As for leaving and returning to a park- if you are doing single park tickets (which we have done for our last few trips) you can definitely return to that one park. We usually go to breakfast, try and make it to whatever park around opening, go until 2 or 3 pm, return to our hotel for nap/break time, and then come back to that same park around 6 or 7pm. We also try and schedule our parks around evening EMH to get as much park time out of those single park tickets as possible.

 

[My sister's princess]

During our last trip (May of 2011) Chef Mickey fell off the "MUST DO" list

However... it was replaced by... Crystal Palace!!!!

I say go with Crystal Palace. Food is much better, characters are better, and if you get the right time slot, you are in Magic Kingdom while it is empty!!!

 

[karen l]

During our last trip (May of 2011) Chef Mickey fell off the "MUST DO" list

However... it was replaced by... Crystal Palace!!!!

I say go with Crystal Palace. Food is much better, characters are better, and if you get the right time slot, you are in Magic Kingdom while it is empty!!!

Agree!

 

[MaggieMollyMom]

It's decided...Crystal Palace! I think with the little ones, it would be easier to stay inside the park. thanks so much for the responses!!

 

[my4mickeys]

Good choice, cp was one of our favorite character meals last visit, and definitely going again!

 

[StarLight StarBright]

I think it is super easy to go over to CM's if you are MK. Although, it is much easier to get to CP! I prefer the food at CP, they have really yummy salads(couscous salad) and Pooh and friends are really cute. That being said, this sounds crazy, but we actually changed the dates on our trip so we could get into Chef Mickey's. The kids LOVE IT! They say it's not Disney if we can't go there, they don't talk about the food, it's the characters they love( and the desserts)

 

[DisneyFamily123]

Crystal Palace is our favorite over Chef Mickeys for several reasons... I'd still go to Chef Mickeys but if only picking one... Crystal Palace is definitely better.

The characters are different at CM and CP.... but for us... character meals are just a way to make dining fun. We have much more fun and get much better pictures meeting characters in the parks.

The lunch and dinner food at CP is a million times better. I'd go even if Pooh and his friends were not there. The CP buffet includes delicious carved meats, very good salmon, and a large variety of unique cold salads... and many other selections. The CM dinner buffet was kind of basic stuff. It was good but really just a very average and ordinary buffet.

CP is very convenient being centrally located in MK. Been there every trip, sometimes twice in the same trip -- always seated on time and always great service. We do like to ride the monorail as part of our trip so CM could be an excuse to do that. We usually end up taking the monorail to visit the Grand Floridian or a meal or taking it to/from Epcot.

I don't see anything interesting about visiting the Contemporary Resort but visiting the other resorts on the monorail (Polynesian and Grand Floridian) are interesting.

 

[DDM101]

We have done CP many times (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and CM a couple of times for dinner. As long as you begin your day in MK, park hopping shouldn't be an issue, if you decide to return to MK after CM. You may leave a park and return to that same park at a later time without purchasing a park-hopper ticket. On a personal note, I prefer CP to CM due primarily for my love of the Pooh characters, the location of CP and the excellent buffet. I have also experienced two nice dinners at CM with great character interaction, so I think you should go with whatever your family would enjoy the most.

 

[The 4 "Quay"balleros]

We liked CP much more than CM. Being able to walk into MK for an early ADR is an amazing thing. The food and atmosphere is better at CP. Characters are a toss up- Fab 5 Vs. Pooh. One of my biggest disappointments was the Contemporary itself. Since I was a kid I've always wanted to see it. It was the future as Disney presented it- at least to me. When we went the whole building was a block of concrete and felt very old and blah. The only cool thing was the monorail running through it.