Chef Mickey's or Crystal Palace

[newstu]

We are coming on our first trip with a 4 year old and 18 month old. I"m able to get an ADR for both of these places but they are the same night for dinner so i'm trying to choose between the two. Any thoughts?

 

[twokids0204]

As Paula Abdul would say 1,000% Chef Mickey's.

I personally am not a fan of CP at all!

 

[summermac]

When my kids were around that age, there was never any question that we were eating at Crystal Palace. But that's b/c my son was and actually still is kind of obsessed with Tigger. We went for breakfast though so I can't speak for their dinner food. Breakfast was awesome!

 

[OhThePain]

Both are downright awful when it comes to food. You can eat and not leave hungry at both places, but neither has anything I would consider to be good food for dinner. So, IMO, it would come down to which characters your kids like better, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy or Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet?

On a side note, I would consider taking the kids to meet some characters before any character meals. We just got back from WDW this morning and we noticed that there are a good amount of younger kids that get scared meeting the characters. You wouldn't want your whole meal to be ruined because one of your kids got scared and cried the whole meal.

 

[3boys4me]

As Paula Abdul would say 1,000% Chef Mickey's.

I personally am not a fan of CP at all!

lol... I would say hands down, Crystal Palace

 

[goofyintoronto]

Both are downright awful when it comes to food. You can eat and not leave hungry at both places, but neither has anything I would consider to be good food for dinner. So, IMO, it would come down to which characters your kids like better, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy or Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet?

On a side note, I would consider taking the kids to meet some characters before any character meals. We just got back from WDW this morning and we noticed that there are a good amount of younger kids that get scared meeting the characters. You wouldn't want your whole meal to be ruined because one of your kids got scared and cried the whole meal.

I agree with part of this. Chef Mickeys food isnt good at all IMHO. The characters are the best part. And I actually dont mind the food at Crystal Palace. Characters are good, and i find the atmosphere better than Chef Mickeys. So my vote would go to Crystal Palace.

I would pick based on which characters the kids want to see most. HOWEVER, I do agree that if they havent seen characters yet, i wouldnt start it off with a character meal anywhere to be honest....because if it happens that one of your kids is terrified of characters (which ive seen many times), that could completely ruin your meal.

 

[333disneymom]

With children those ages, if they like characters, you really can't go wrong at either place. Food at both places are decent, but not great. I'd give a slight edge to Crystal Palace. Characters are good at both places, but we've always had better interaction at Chef Mickey's. Crystal Palace always seems so loud and chaotic, especially at dinner, in our experience. Service goes to Chef Mickey's. We have eaten at CP twice and both times our service was lacking. It was pretty close to non-existent the first time and just OK the second time. I think we just had bad luck, but the restaurant always seem extremely busy. We have taken little ones to both locations and they loved both places. Good luck with your decision.

 

[allaboutaprincess]

We have been to both places. Crystal Palace has better food, service and character interaction.

 

[PoohsFan1]

lol... I would say hands down, Crystal Palace

I second that

We are not fans of CM, we have eaten there once for breakfast and once for dinner, both times that we ate there the food was so-so at best, the service was extremely slow, and the characters were too rushed. The place itself is crazy and loud too. We prefer Crystal Palace more, especially for breakfast. However, if you are not a fan of CP, and haven't done CM before, then it wouldn't be bad to make the CM ADR and judge it for yourself.

 

[meggiebeth]

I would say Chef Mickey's. For me, it's atmosphere is really lively and nice. I found it more fun than Crystal Palace. However, we found the food better at CP.

 

[whitney37354]

The food was forgetable at both. Character interaction good at both, but it seemed to take longer at CP.

CM at Chef M was nice about adding our tip to the KTTW since this was our first TS meal of the trip & we didn't yet understand all about it. CM at CP was from Australia, & got down to table level & sang Happy Birthday to DD.

Chef Mickey's will always be special to me because it was our first character meal & we were staying at CR.

I'd say either would be fine for you. Go with the favorite characters of your kids.

 

[mdelano4]

For Dinner I would say CP, definitely. You might want to consider breakfast at CM. We do that every trip so our kids can still get their Mickey time.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

If you plan on being in the MK that evening or don't mind using a day on your park ticket, I vote Crystal Palace

 

[KatieCollette]

CP Can't get better than a restaurant in MK, especially if you can get an ADR before park opening.

 

[zawisza]

I agree with Katie if you can a reservation before the park opening for Crystal Palace it is sooooooo worth it to get to walk in the park and take pictures before the rush of people get inside. Might be enough to break a tie if you are really torn between the two.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

We are coming on our first trip with a 4 year old and 18 month old. I"m able to get an ADR for both of these places but they are the same night for dinner so i'm trying to choose between the two. Any thoughts?

BOTH!!! Chef Mickey's is fine for meeting 5 characters (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy) all at one meal. And Crystal Palace gives you 4 (Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore).

Crystal Palace is very convenient in Magic Kingdom so you don't have to leave the park to eat. With young children, Magic Kingdom is the favorite park... and the other table service options there are going to be very boring to a 4 year old taking them away from all the exciting rides and attractions. Crystal Palace solves that problem and has great food too -- much higher quality buffet than the others.