Chef Mickey's and Play and Dine-Feedback?

[newtodis]

Any tips on Chef Mickey character dining? We have reservations for our family (myself and husband, 3 yr old and 15 month old) Sunday at 7am. Looking to see what we're in store for so I can prepare the 3 year old as he tends to "freak out" if all of a sudden he's there and doesn't know what's going to happen. To help "prepare" for Mickey, we also have reservations for 1:30 on Saturday at Play and Dine with JoJo and Little Eisteins. If you've been to either of these, can you please tell me what to expect so I can give my little man an overview of what's going to happen? How likely will it be that the boys actually get to see the characters-do they come to each table??

Thank you so much!!!

 

[jhalle]

We did both last week. The characters come right to your table so have your camera and autograph books ready. We preferred Chef Mickeys over Play and Dine. There were more characters at Chef Mickeys and they really interacted with my 7 and 3 year old. They always seemed to be around. Donald even spanked my 3 year old, it was really funny. Play N Dine was less crowded than Chef Mickeys and being inside the theme park was definetely a bonus as you could continue your day right after the meal.

 

[pinkerbell]

we love both!! Chef Mickeys has a a time when the charachters all twirl their napkins as well as kids and sing... they also go to each table individually our kids have always enjoyed this rest. as well as hubby and I

We also really like play & dine.. again there is singing, dancing also, two little einsteins, we have seen leo and june and also jojo and goliath... these two shows are our kids fav's so it's a very big hit

there are some pix's in the first link below..

 

[byoung]

We where very disappointed there, will not return.

 

[newtodis]

We where very disappointed there, will not return.

Can you please elaborate? What wasn't good??

Thanks

 

[Lisa0503]

We just dinned at both a few weeks ago. I personnally liked the Chef Mickeys better. It was more crowded but I like the Mickey & friends characters better and the food at the buffet was AWESOME. We have done Play & Dine the past 2 trips because my kids are still really young and love the characters. It is cute but the food is just OK.

As others have said, the charaters will come to each table for a quick pic & Autograph signing. At Play & Dine, the kids did a conga line and got up and danced with the charaters which they loved.

 

[lucigo]

We were disappointed with Chef Mickeys. Thought it was way overpriced for mediocre food, and although our server was awesome the characters just didn't really seem excited about being there, just seemed to be going through the motions. We were seated in a corner and were passed over by Mickey completely. We did get great pictures with the other characters though.

 

[byoung]

Can you please elaborate? What wasn't good??

Thanks

Got there 6:30 for a 6:45 ADR party of 10, waited almost 8 pm to be seated, while seeing some come in and be seated right away. Most of us where not impressed with the food, sure wasn't as good as most say it is.

 

[Minniemouse07]

We've eaten at both.

Traditionally we had always done CM's for breakfast (which we loved) and we tried it for dinner during our December trip. We liked it just as much.

This is my FAVORITE character meal on property. Great balance of decent food and excellent character interaction...and my favorite characters. A close second is 1900 Park Fare...also great character interaction and yummy food.

We did lunch at H&V and it was good. Okay character interaction...but the kids loved it more than we did (which is what I would expect)... and the food was good as well.

Both CM's and H&V work like most other character meals... you are seated, drink orders taken, go to the buffet for food and eat until the characters come to make the rounds.

CM's has a napkin twirling song where the characters dance around and H&M has a dance were the kids get up and dance w/ the "hosts" that are there w/ microphones and play games/sing songs w/ the kids.

HTH

 

[stormer]

We have never done Chef Mickey's but love Dine and Play. Characters were awesome. Great interaction with the kids. A lot of singing and dancing. So much fun, not just for the kids.

 

[TinkerBrie]

We just did both in January. CM for dinner and H&V for breakfast! We love both, a definite highlight of our trip. The characters will play along depending on your child. If your lil' one is "into it", they will hug and play around a little. If your lil' one is not so "into it" they will just sign and say hello! I think the food is pretty good, I mean~ it is not gourmet ~but, for a buffet it is good. It sure beats waiting in line in the parks for pictures and signatures.

 

[tlcmommyx4]

Does anyone know if you still get free pics from Chef Mickeys? We will be back in June and are planning on going back just didn't see anything about the pic.
DM DH DD DD DS

 

[MousekaMaddi]

no free pix but u can buy the pkg if u like it, they come around during breakfast with the printed pix to see if u are interested. we buypass the whole picture taking scene because we take lots of pix when the characters come tableside and theyre on our own cameras so we just print what we love;
we have eaten at both places and love em both. jo jos IMHO is for the younger crowd (Einsteins -Goliath...) and Chef Mickeys is for all ages (JMHO)

DD5 lovd it all. Characters come by VERY rapidly, so be ready, cameras on and ready, videos too, Take pix from the second the chara interaction starts, dont wait for the perfect pix, its digital, just erase what u dont love! Shoot lots!

 

[blana]

We did CM's & P&D for breakfast in January. Enjoyed both. I'd say the atmosphere at CM is a bit more fun, but the character interaction was great at both. We had no real issues with the food at either, although the eggs at CM were a bit more runny than I prefer.

 

[AlyLynn]

We've done both with our 4 children--and while we liked both places, CM was our family favorite. I also felt CM's was cautious not to frighten our 1 year old, and he participate at his own comfort level, while the older ones had a great time too. And our oldest is a teenager!

 

[Reese]

We loved them both. We did Chef Mickey's for a later breakfast and the wait was a bit extreme. The one problem with this resturant is there are birds. The table next us had a bird treat on their plate which was very digusting. The characters interaction is good and it has all the main must meets for our family so it saves us from having to hunt them down in the parks.
H&V was for lunch and the food was good. I enjoyed the fact that they had a nice assortment of breads and sandwich fillings. The characters come right to your table and the kids get to get up and dance around.