Sorry for being AWOL for a bit...it was a horrific week. I now have had a chance to breathe today and I am ready to wrap up day 7....
If you were to ask me in the past what our "Must Do" Character Dinner is, I would not hesitate. This was a no brainer. Where do you get to see the big cheese himself and his megastar friends? Why at Chef Mickeys of course. If you want star power you can't really top Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto can you? Well, I suppose I could see princess aficionados who opt for the castle but other than that come on...Chef Mickeys is the place to be to see the elite characters. Not only did you get a great character experience but the food was good. OK, not great food mind you, but it was still decent.
Now, I have read several people bemoan the decline in food at Disney over the years and as I have read these critiques I have thought "come on you are over exaggerating a bit, it is not that bad". Well my friends, I am saddened to say this but I must admit that I think Chef Mickeys has been in that downward spiral with the food quality over the past few years. The premium you pay for this place is now almost soley to see the Fab 5 and that is about it for us. On our last visit it was one of my least favorite dinners of the trip. On that same trip though we met up with much better food at a different character dinner and a fantastic character experience. It is here that we are dining tonight and this has now become our new favorite character dinner. This honor is now bestowed upon 1900 Park Fare. Sure it does not have the same star power with the characters but the character interaction is a heck of a lot more fun. The highlight of the character encounter is with the step sisters. Drizella and Anastasia have been a blast now both times we have eaten here. They add a lot more life to party than the standard characters who you come across. In addition Lady Tremaine is fun in a more subdued way with her stern attitude (but not mean). Oh you still get some royalty too with Prince Charming and Cindy but they are more like your standard character greetings with a few nice words perhaps an autograph and picture and then off to the next table.
I have some pictures of the characters but most of these are not the best quality. Most of these are tight crops of a much larger group picture and thus blown up significantly. Anyway, here were our dining companions for the evening.
Great expressions from Drizella...
I must say this guy was Charming
Forget about Prince William and Catherine Middleton....here is the Royal couple I prefer to see
I think the flailing going on was supposed to be dancing...Whatever you call it, it was entertaining.
I had missed Anastasia earlier when I was at the buffet with the chef. She was nice to come back later for a few poses with the family.
There was someone else though this evening that was the star of the meal for me. I have mentioned previously that I have dietary restrictions so I need to see a Chef before I can attack the buffet. The usual way this works is the chef leads me though the buffet, tells me what I can eat and that is about it. Well, this evening I was fortunate to run across an extraordinary chef who called himself Chef TJ though his name tag was a jumble of letters. As we went through the buffet he did the usual pointing to foods that I could and could not eat but instead of moving past those that I could not he went further and kept asking if I like that food and if so he will make me some. I said a few times that it was no bother and that there was plenty enough at the buffet that I could eat but he truly seemed to want to please. So after the walk though I grabbed some of the food that I could eat and settled down. First of all I will say that I think the food here was good compared to other character buffets. I have lamented the change a couple of years ago from Prime Rib at these buffets to what seems to be a strip roast of beef at the Disney buffets. The carved beef at 1900 this evening though was excellent and it tasted like prime rib. So, after I chowed down a little, chef TJ comes back to our table with an amazing dish of food for me. It looked delicious though I was not sure how in the world I was going to eat it all. It had salmon, chicken breast, potatoes, corn, some type of noodle thread and some other vegetables and it all tasted as good as it looked. Unfortunately, I thought too late after I started to dig in that I should have taken a picture of this culinary creation so I apologize but all I have is picture with a dent already put into the dish.
I somehow managed to finish most of this and I was stuffed. That was not the end though. chef TJ came back later and asked if I was ready for dessert. I hardly ever eat dessert since I don't eat dairy and I try to keep sugar intake to a minimum. I just couldn't say no to him though. So a little bit later, Chef TJ came back with this
I stared at this for a while and thought to myself I just can't eat this but then thought shoot he went though all this trouble I have to try. I couldn't let chef TJ down, So I bravely forged ahead and ate a about half of what he prepared. By then I was ready to be rolled out of the restaurant but I was a happy glutton. By far this was the best chef experience that I have had yet at Disney. Thank you Chef TJ!!
Note that when I got back I made sure to write to guest services and praise chef TJ
So after a great dinner experience I was ready for some other fireworks and that was wishes. My family again was ready to head back to the resort though. This time I had some time to spare so I drove them back to the resort and then drove back into the MK area. Instead of going back to the Grand Floridian though (been there last trip and I wanted a different vantage point), I decided to see if I could have better success with the TTC. If you recall I attempted this earlier on in this trip and it was a wash out.
This time the weather was cooperating better though I did have some of the castle getting slightly obscured by smoke as the show went on. When I got to the TTC area there was no one at the front of the fence. Score...there is limited space there and I did not need to worry about being chased away from one of the gates from the ferry dock. Here are the pictures I came away with this time.
At this point I decided to zoom out a bit to catch the reflections in the water as well.
This is one of my favorites....
I also love this one with the sea of red...
I zoomed back in for the finale..
This has now become my favorite out of park location to photograph wishes. Now, you may be thinking, didn't he say that about the Poly beach already. Well, no, not really. I said the Poly beach is my favorite
resort to watch and photograph wishes. If you want to relax at a resort and enjoy the show then the Poly beach is the place to go. If you want the best perspective IMHO the TTC is the best. Be forewarned though there is limited space. No matter where you are though in the complex though if you can see Wishes it is a great night.
OK, that's a wrap for day 7...I'll start up day 8 next....ta ta for now...
I'm going to have to remember that for my July trip, because we've got some chickens along for the ride.
, but I am willing to fight through it in order to experience the amazing attraction. My husband also loves the Hulk coaster, Dr. Doom (not sure of the name - the big drop ride) and Dueling Dragons (which I think is now in WWOPH). I've spent some quality time people watching while he experiences those rides.
Hopefully one day it will become a familiar concept!
We did eat there later in our trip but we tried breakfast this time. More to come later in the TR. I figured it is tougher to go wrong with breakfast food.
