Chef Mickey timing?

[ajj221]

I will be visiting at the beginning of November for our family's first visit. This will include me, DH, DS 4, and DD 2 staying at Wilderness Lodge.

I am planning a meal at Chef Mickey and I have a few options and some questions. I prefer breakfast, but dinner could work too,

Option 1 - Dinner first night about 6pm. Visiting MK, park closes at 7 for Halloween Party

Option 2 - Breakfast at 7:45 on first full day. Visiting MK. Could we still make rope drop? This is probably my only opportunity to do rope drop at MK.

Option 3 - Breakfast mid week. Visiting Epcot.

Option 4 - later breakfast on last day. Visiting MK, but need time to get everything packed that morning and check out I assume.

Also, if we do breakfast at Chef Mickey is there any reason to do breakfast at Tusker house later in the week on AK day?

Thanks for your help.

 

[smiths02]

I think that breakfast at TH is great (Dinner at CM was not so great).

BUT if you must do CM (any meal), I would personally skip Tusker House (unless you must see Daisy, which I am guessing by the ages of your kids does not matter). My son was turning 3 on our last trip and he was kind of over seeing the same characters. With children that age, I might try Play & Vine breakfast at Hollywood Studios (breakfast there was fine when we went, not as good as Tusker House but character interaction was great). Or even do Crystal Palace breakfast or 1900 Park Fare

Personally, I would do CM breakfast before Epcot (option 3). With small kids, rope drop at MK would be a must for me...not so much Epcot, a lot of stuff isn't available early on anyhow.

 

[eelkmj01]

We enjoy CM for both breakfast and dinner. I think making RD after a 7:45 bfast reservation may be a little ambitious. The character interaction is unbelievable. We are having dinner at CM in October. It's a must do for us every trip!!! Have a great time!

 

[sharonabe]

I'd say Option 1 or 3 as well.

I like Option 1 because you have to leave MK early anyway (party people start arriving at 4:00), and it would be a great ending to an MK day. UNLESS, your kiddos will be tired out from a whole day at MK and then you may be looking at a meltdown.

Option 3 is good because as PP said, rope drop for your age kids at Epcot is not quite as important, but I wouldn't make it too late either.

 

[whitney37354]

I'd go with option 1. You have to leave MK at 7 p.m. anyway, so leave a little earlier via monorail and see the Fab Five while you eat. At Tusker House, you have a picture taken with Donald before entering the restaurant, but he doesn't sign autographs. Daisy Duck is at Tusker House, but not CM. Otherwise, the characters are the same, just wearing different outfits. The breakfast at TH was good; better than the dinner at CM.

CM will always be special for me because it was our first meal at WDW on the afternoon we arrived. We stayed at CR, between 2 & 3 p.m. We stayed CL, went to the lounge for snacks, rested in the room from the drive, then went to CM for dinner. Nothing like seeing Mickey straight away!

 

[ajj221]

Thank you for your advice. I think I will try for breakfast on Epcot morning and if I can't get a good time I will try for dinner on the first night.

Also, thinking I will cancel Tusker house since we would have to leave so much earlier to make breafast and that might be tough by the 5th day.

People seem to have very mixed reviews of H&V, but my kids definately like the Disney Jr. shows so I think I will schedule that one for our HS day.

 

[Cherinva]

I'd go with option 1 also. We had dinner there last year, and it was a lot of fun.

 

[OhThePain]

I would go with option 3 or 4. If you want to make RD on your first full day which may be your only chance to do so, and since you have other options, you don't need to risk missing it. I really dislike most of the dinner buffets on property (my exceptions being Biergarten and Boma). I would deffinately stick with a CM breakfast. We personally like to do CM in the morning of the day we return home. It's our way of saying "See ya soon" to the fab-5 in one sitting.

If you want to do both TH and CM for breakfast in the same trip, I don't see anything wrong with that. My girlfriend and I have done both in the same trip a couple of times (I like TH better, she likes CM better). The buffets are a little different, the characters (and their outfits) are a little different, the atmospheres are a little different... They are different experiences, IMO (if you decide to do TH breakfast, try to get in before the park opens, you can get some great pictures without anyone in the way).

 

[Eeyorerocks!]

We've never had dinner at CM; we have had breakfast there many times. But I would go with option 1 - I know lots of people do this and it is a nice kick-off to the WDW vacation