Character Manager change at Chef Mickey's?

[spacy9]

The last two times we have gone to Chef Mickey's (once in March this year and once in September of 2003) we have made late reservations and they have worked out great. The restaurant clears out and the characters would stick around and entertain the remaining guests - and more importantly someone would come around and ask if all of the characters have been by.

This time, Monday Nov 8th, we had our usual reservation for 8:40PM. We had seen all of the characters except Mickey Mouse and my 5 year old and wife went up for desert. Mickey came around and I explained to him that my other daughter was up getting desert and could he please come back in a few minutes so we could get his picture and autograph. He gave the thumbs up and went on to the next table.

We watched him go around the rest of the dining room, then the celebration song came on. Mickey and Goofy danced around and then after the song was over disappeared. We waited for a few minutes (5 max) and noticed that we didn't see ANY of the characters any more. I went and explained to one of the hosts that Mickey was supposed to come back to the table and to see if he could find him for us. The host came back and said that Mickey had left for the night! All of the characters were gone with no warning. My 5 year old was crushed - 80 some dollars to see the characters and she didn't get to see the main one.

I asked to speak to the manager. She came out and I explained the situation. She said that she had no control over the characters, but she would tell the 'Character Manager' about this and maybe they would go back to the old ways of asking if all the characters had been around. She really didn't help at all but did apologize.

Why wouldn't they ask? I can imagine that some people might take advantage of this and get to see the characters again, but it just makes sense to me to make sure your guests are happy. I wasn't happy with this and my daughter really wasn't happy. It just seems like poor customer service. I don't blame Mickey, he has a lot of things going on, but I do blame the 'Character Manager' for not checking to see if everyone had been taken care of. I can't imagine that we were the only ones to have problems like this, you can't stay in your seat the entire time or you'll never eat.

Sorry for the long rant. The next day we went to MGM and saw Sorcerer Mickey (which I think is better anyway) and all was well. Still disappointed in the money spent for the letdown at Chef Mickey's. I don't think we'll be doing that one anymore.

Thanks for listening.

 

[MickeyMagic]

Sorry you missed Mickey. It is a challenge to try and eat and meet all the characters. You really do need to keep an eye out to see if any are on the way towards your table before going up to the buffet line.

It would be very difficult for the characters to honor numerous requests to come back to tables. I guess with an earlier reservation, you could catch them next time around.

 

[Sleeping Beauty fan]

I'm sorry for the mishap, but don't let that ruin your thoughts of Chef Mickeys. It's really a great place to eat and spend some time. My only suggestion is maybe you could go earlier in the evening and not before closing. Just a thought. I agree with you that Sorcerer Mickey is as good as it gets!

 

[Lives4Disney]

Uh OH....We have 9pm reservations coming up. It was all I could get and it worked out fine with our arrival time. Chef Mickey's was/is my kids favorite character place. We have eaten there SO MANY times over the past 12 years I cannot even count(early and later in the eve) I agree they have in the past been wonderful about making sure all the characters have come around. They always spend plenty of time at the table and goof around with the kids.

The place shouldn't take late PSs if the characters aren't going to stick around. It is advertised as a Character Dinner..... Sorry about your problem. I hope we get to see the characters. My kids will be pretty disappointed if not.

 

[spacy9]

Lives4Disney, I don't know the exact time that the characters left, but I want to say it was around 9:30. It was strange because they were all dancing around, and poof they were gone...

I'm sure you won't have a problem though - always positive thoughts

One of the things that added to the problem was our seating. We were in the section behind the desserts in the 2nd booth on the right against the dessert wall. With this seat we had no advanced warning of when any of the characters were coming around so we couldn't really time our trips up to the buffet. If we had a different seat, more in the middle of the restaurant we probably wouldn't have had this problem.

Have fun on your trip - maybe we'll do breakfast there next time

 

[Lives4Disney]

Spacy9, thanks for the positive thoughts! I really like that place. Sorry your visit wasn't so great.

Breakfast would be fun!

Thanks!