Chef Mickey breakfast or Garden Grill dinner?

[bellelab]

Ok, I have had Garden Grill booked for ages but I saw there was an opening for Chef Mickeys. Which one do you suggest? We are on QSDP this trip but want to go to one character meal. Chef Mickeys would be on our first morning there and I think that would get DS and DD so excited.....what a great start to our trip. I think they'd love the music and napkin twirling. I have also heard that you get a lot more character interaction at Garden Grill though. My kids are nuts about the characters! I haven't done either of these so what would you recommend? My kids are great breakfast eaters but not so much dinner but DH would probably enjoy the dinner more. garden Grill would be $20 cheaper. Advice pretty please?

Oh yes, if we went with Chef Mickeys, what would be the best way of getting there by 7:30am? We are at All Star Movies.

 

[krb2g]

We would pick Garden Grill dinner. You get great character interaction, the restaurant spins (which I find super cool even though I'm well into my 20s), and we are the type of family that prefers eating a small breakfast (we never book breakfast ADRs anymore). That said, for our upcoming trip, we thought we'd try something new, so we have a Chef Mickey's dinner reservation.

 

[bellelab]

Thank you! That does help. bumping......

 

[tina.tina]

We had dinner at Chef Mickey's and Garden Grill. It seemed like the characters came around a lot at Chef Mickey's & it was sort of a fun party atmosphere. It was our worst meal as far as food (dinner) & service. The parmesan mashed potatoes were really the only thing I would classify as good but most of the other food was edible. Our server basically disappeared- but not before he stood at another table and observed my husband knock over his drink that had just been brought to the table. We got refills after we were already past ready to go & had been waiting on the check forever. Other than the terrible service, the main thing I'll remember about Chef Mickey's is that Goofy pretended to take a drink of my son's rootbeer & he was worried about his drink at the other character meals we had!

Garden Grill had fantastic food. Our server was funny & very attentive. Pluto played with my DD10 with our misting fans. She had them on turned toward her & he turned them on himself. We got some adorable pictures. The characters came around a lot & spend more time at our table but maybe it seemed like there weren't as many characters there because Chip & Dale are so similar.

If your kids would eat breakfast better, that's where I would go. My DS5 won't eat first thing when he gets up and we have to wait a while before he gets an appetite.

If you can catch a bus to MK that early, you can walk from the bus stop to the Contemporary Resort.

 

[j&j620]

We had breakfast at Chef Mickey's in July and, to be quite honest, it was absolutely awful. I went into it knowing that it does not get good reviews, but I wanted to give it a chance and we were on the deluxe plan. I justified it by thinking, 'Well, the alternative is getting Mickey waffles from our resort and if all else fails (food-wise), I know they'll at least have Mickey waffles there.' Good thing they did because everything else was horrible. The characters were rushed, too.

In summation, I would never pay OOP for that experience.

 

[Coconuts]

I like GG for the following reasons:

• less hectic/loud because of no one getting up for a buffet, the meal is family style
• great character interaction
• food is different and a refreshing change from typical WDW character meals

I liked CM because of the experience. It is so much fun for the whole family with the napkin waving; it really feels like a banana:. Unfortunately, it's usually a very long wait to be seated and the food, as so many others have said, is not so good. Being that I've been there at least 5 times, it will be a while before we go back. Even the kids said they didn't want to go back after our last meal there (dinner).

Hope this helps.

 

[Wild4Walt]

I've done both the breakfast at Chef Mickey's and the dinner at GG.

By far, I prefer GG for dinner. The food was fresh, the service was excellent and the atmosphere was outstanding. Lots of character interaction too.

The family style meal was perfect for our group of 8. It had something for everyone.

 

[RobynBirdMom]

We have not done CM and doubt that we will, but we LOVE GG. The family style meal worked very well for us, service has been good, food is always yummy, and the characters are fun. We really had a lot of character interaction there, and Chip was hillarious. We really liked the fact that we could sit and relax instead of standing in yet another line for a buffet. If we didn't like one of the foods that were brought out, we could ask for more of something else. I always enjoy the tasty veggies grown right there in the garden, and we try to always ride LWTL just before we check in for our ressies.

I'll mention that the reason we don't bother with CM is: A) the consistantly awful reviews; and B) our kids are a bit older and aren't picky about which characters we dine with. We love to do character meals, but they really don't seem to care which characters we meet. I suppose if you have a little one that just really is crazy about Mickey & Minnie, maybe CM is the way to go. I'd also throw in the fact that it is a little tricky to get to those early breakfast ressies - GG is really convenient for us because we spend a lot of our time at Epcot anyway.

Whatever you choose, have a great time!