I am now sufficiently terrified to leave my Chef Mickey ADR's in place
I have breakfast & dinner booked
It seems as though breakfast is the safer option. To anyone who can answer this,
1. Is it the number of options?
2. Type of foods ( not what the posted menus state)?
3. Quality( is it even edible?)
4. Temperature?
5. Not refilled?
6. Service?
There seem to be so many other good options, I hate to waste a meal, going in to it knowing it will be bad
FWIW, here's our opinions:
1. There are fewer options this year than in years past, however, if the quality of what was offered was high enough that would still be acceptable.
2. Pretty much what we expected from posted menus - not the offerings, but the quality thereof was the larger issue.
3. Hmmm...edible, yes; enjoyable, no. The flavors of some offerings (specifically the ravioli and the salmon) were bland to the point of being nonexistent. The beef was cold, the warm pastas were room temperature and pasty, the cold pasta and other cold salads (potato and seafood) had such an abundance of onion that we couldn't taste the other flavors at all.
4. Yes, see above, the temperature was an issue on several items.
5. The only thing that we had problems with being refilled were the items on the salad bar - the Caesar salad was empty both times I tried to get some (on both sides of the buffet line). Now, in all fairness, I don't know if it was just so delicious that it went that fast, but considering how large the bowls are I have a hard time believing that.
6. Service - hmmmm. CM service was on the lower end of acceptable, but still acceptable nonetheless. We did have to flag down our server to request drink refills a couple of times (yep, we were thirsty - it was hot
), but otherwise, he was prompt about clearing the table and had a pleasant manner.
Now, a huge problem, character interaction - or rather lack thereof. First, we did roll our eyes at the lack of Chip & Dale (they've always been there in the past). But, Minnie never did make it to our table and after 1 hour 25 minutes, we had to leave...minnie-less. Mickey was in somewhat of a hurry, but was sweet with our daughter. Goofy ruffed her hair and waved and started to saunter off, but we called him back and asked him to sign her book. He took the book and signed it and literally plopped it back on the table and started to walk off when my husband stood up and called to him that we wanted a picture, too. He walked back, stood by my daughters chair and waited for us to click and then walked off without a look or action. Then Donald came by and we did have some fun interaction with him, but then I guess he figured it was our quota and scribbled in the autograph book so fast that it's barely legible.
Worst character interaction we have EVER had at a WDW character meal. My husband started asking the manager (who was in the lobby area) if there was a problem with Minnie coming by and why the others were in such a hurry and he basically brushed us off with, "well, if you saw most of the characters, that's pretty good." At which point DH got totally ticked off and in deference to our kids, merely told him it wasn't good enough by a long shot.
Now, on a positive note, we knew we'd be going to MK and would see Minnie back by the Judge's Tent and just told our daughter that she must have had to go get her house ready for us to see the next day.
But, that was our experience. I sincerely hope that no one else's was that bad or worse. We were there for 2 weeks and had many opportunities to see each character (and many other interactions were simply wonderful), but if you aren't staying that long, that may have been the only chance, KWIM?
I'll be interested to see what everyone else's experience has been like lately.
)
We have always had great character interaction (got the photos to prove it) and the food was ok. We have never been there for dinner. I think people expect too much for character meals. If you want the great food you need to go to some of the higher end non character meals like Yachtsman or Le Cellier. At the character meals you are not paying for the food IMHO. 
While there was a good selection of things, most of it was below average and I'm not a picky eater. All four people in my party thought the quality of the food needed to be improved. Please be warned about the biscuits and gravy....it was so bleh! I do have to say the Micky waffles were great!
