Chef Mickey's To go or not to go

[Havana]

My husband and I (no kids)have been to the world 9 times, and have not ever done a character dinner. We are taking my 22 year old sister with us on our next trip in Dec. It will be her first trip. I am leaning on taking her to Chef Mickey's dinner our first day to start the trip off with a bang.
We will be paying OOP most likely for this meal. Is the food that bad? Are the character interactions fun and exciting? Would you/have you been with three adults? I just don't want to get everyone excited for a character dinner and then have them think it was a waste of time.

 

[Jen12573]

January 2010 will be our 2nd trip to Disney together (me and DH). I booked Chef Mickey's last year as our "park kick off dinner". DH teased me for booking a character meal - it turned out to be such a fun time, we had a blast, it really got us in the mood for our vacation, and the food was really good. We loved the roasted pork, beef, and the salmon was excellent (though we like our salmon a little drier anyway, some people have said it's dry). The veggies were good, very crisp and fresh. Overall we agreed it was one of the best meals we had. We're going this time with friends, they have 3 kids, Mom & Dad, and Grandma. We can't wait already!

Have a great time - I would say a big YES to Chef Mickey's.

 

[rangermom]

I love Chef Mickey's. There is a good variety of food and great character interaction. A perfect way to kick of a trip.

I vote yes also.

 

[eventamy]

I say yes as well. Its not all that it's hyped up to be, but we still had fun and the food was pretty good to ok. Nothing awful, but nothing really good either. My piece of advice? Ask for the check early. Our server took 45 minutes to get us our check last time we were there! You can pay and still have time to be there without feeling rushed, but it was ridiculous how long we had to wait!

 

[dburg30]

We went to CM, CRT and CP for our first trip in Dec 07.. We are both around 40 and it was our first trip. We LOVED all of the character ones. Dont go expecting to be wowed by the food. I had no problem with the pre-plated food at CRT or the buffet at CM (both breakfast) I didnt like much at CP for dinner, IMO was way too 'herby'... But the interaction was a lot of fun.. You will get visited just like everyone else, and be able to have your pictures. Now, you dont get as much 'attention' usually as kids do, but you will have enough time to visit and have pics. The princesses actually were very fun (my wife was laughing about the attention they were showing me). I think they just like to make all the 'princes' blush

 

[Will316]

I'll give you the opposite point of view. I would never go without the kids. The food there is pretty bad, particularly for the price. You'll get 30 seconds with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto. So is it worth $70 or whatever (for the two of you) to eat mediocre (at best) food and have 2-3 minutes total with the characters? Maybe you're way more into the characters than I am, but with kids it's fun, without kids I don't see the draw at all.

 

[ddoc185blt]

I'll give you the opposite point of view. I would never go without the kids. The food there is pretty bad, particularly for the price. You'll get 30 seconds with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto. So is it worth $70 or whatever (for the two of you) to eat mediocre (at best) food and have 2-3 minutes total with the characters? Maybe you're way more into the characters than I am, but with kids it's fun, without kids I don't see the draw at all.[/QUOTE

I agree! we have been to chef Mickey's on are last three trips and will not be doing it again.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

last Dec. was our first time going to CM and from the reviews i was really indecisive about whether to go or not.. we dont have kids (yet) and we are really going for the food and to get some pics with the characters. I was sold on the desserts!! The regular food was good. Dont get the bloody pork.. i said something to the waitress and the chef came out to tell me now its ok for pork to have pink juices and the old saying make sure the juices run clear, is just an old saying. SURE.... i'll pass on that! I had the very end of the pork roast too, i would hate to see what the inside of the roast looked like. ewwww. so that grossed me out a bit. the character interaction was great! We got a 5pm ADR so it wasnt busy yet in our section and we saw all the characters really quickly and then again later. There were plenty of desserts and i made us a sundae in the middle of a dinner plate and lined up the little desserts around the sundae cup and it was soooo delicious and pretty looking, me and my DH shared it and that pic is one of my favorites from the whole trip. It would be great to get a window seat! We were by the entrance to the right. I have another CM ADR for this coming Dec. cant wait to get those desserts again and see the characters. I say go for it! We're on the dining plan always so the crazy prices just validate the plan for us! One dinner w/ the holdiay pricing is the whole cost of an adult dining plan day!

 

[3prettyprincesses]

We have loved Chef Mickey's but I have 3 little girls so that probably makes a difference! The characters are really fun here but they do move rather quickly from table to table. Goofy stopped at our table and kept picking up my 3 daughter's braids! He was acting like they were dog ears like his and boy was he cute as a button! We've only had breakfast here, not dinner so I can't comment on the dinner food but breakfast was yummy.

If you're looking for a good character meal that would be fun for adults too I highly recommend 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian. The food is buffet style and we really enjoyed it. The characters are unbelievably funny here. They are really into their roles as Cinderella, Prince Charming, Stepmom and sisters. Soooo much fun! Even as an adult I greatly enjoyed their antics.

 

[Tam1067]

I'll give you the opposite point of view. I would never go without the kids. The food there is pretty bad, particularly for the price. You'll get 30 seconds with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto. So is it worth $70 or whatever (for the two of you) to eat mediocre (at best) food and have 2-3 minutes total with the characters? Maybe you're way more into the characters than I am, but with kids it's fun, without kids I don't see the draw at all.

I agree with this statement. We've had dinner there four times, and we are not returning because the last two times (2007 and 2008) the food was really bad. We tried breakfast this August, and it was mediocre.

Even my kids have not asked to go back. I can't imagine going there if I didn't have kids--and when the kids are not begging for it, I certainly would not waste my time and effort on it.

 

[WDWTeri]

We took our kids one time to CM's, it was ok, but food was not great. It was really busy, wait staff was slow(probably just not enough of them) and the characters didn't have a lot of time. It was our first character meal and we were a little disappointed. Our favorite character meal is Liberty Tree. You get the Mickey crowd, food and service have always been good. Characters stayed with us long enough to get autographs and photos by mom and grandma, and played a little with the kids.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

My family and I have been to Chef Mickey's a few times for dinner and thought the food was good, plus the character interaction was great.

 

[WDWTeri]

My family and I have been to Chef Mickey's a few times for dinner and thought the food was good, plus the character interaction was great.

So it seems like it depends on the day! Or maybe the time of the year. We were there in the summer, everything was busy. That was our one and only trip during a peak time, every trip after was during fall or pre Xmas. That might account for the differences in experiences.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

So it seems like it depends on the day! Or maybe the time of the year. We were there in the summer, everything was busy. That was our one and only trip during a peak time, every trip after was during fall or pre Xmas. That might account for the differences in experiences.

I would agree with that.

 

[loperella]

We LOVED Chef Mickey's for dinner and have decided it will be a "must do" for our family when we go back. Great characters and not rushed. Plenty of food that was decent and pretty good selection. (I thought the BBQ ribs were some of the best I've EVER had anywhere.)

 

[mommy2princesses0309]

We go to DW every January and usually do lunch or dinner at the Crystal Palace, this year we wanted a change so I let my 6 y/o daughter decide and she chose Chef Mickey's. We'll be doing a 9:30 breakfast on 1/12. I'm looking forward to trying something new so we'll see how it goes, mostly I think we do the character meals for the kids so I don't expect too much in the food dept

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Well I am gonna be the lone dont go vote. We went during free dining and while our waiter was good the characters were just okay, the food was below average (we did almost all character meals) We loved Donald's Safari breakfast (mickey, minnie,goofy and pluto) character and food were better) and also will go back to Crystal Palace (THE BEST character interaction and really good food!),

 

[bluesky225]

Well I am gonna be the lone dont go vote. We went during free dining and while our waiter was good the characters were just okay, the food was below average (we did almost all character meals) We loved Donald's Safari breakfast (mickey, minnie,goofy and pluto) character and food were better) and also will go back to Crystal Palace (THE BEST character interaction and really good food!),

I agree with you totally about CM--it was one of our least favorites as far as food goes! We also thought Crystal Palace was the better food and character interaction. We didn't get to do the Donald meal, but I wish we had!