Crystal palace or Chef Mickey's?

[Isabelle12345]

Which one would you choose and why?
We will be doing one day at MK, with extra evening hours. We were planning on an early character dinner as a break from the heat in between attractions.
We will be on the dining plan so the price difference is not something that would play in the decision.
We will be travelling with my kids, ages 7 and 9 at the time, DH and I, and my MIL.
We have been to Crystal Palace before (in 2020) and loved it but it's been a while! Never been to Chef Mickey's.
Any thoughts?

 

[MartyParty]

Both are nice. We prefer the food and experience at Crystal Palace. Quieter, more relaxed, lovely views, etc. The con is it does take away from park riding time while you are already in the park, but we're ok with that.

But as opinion, try something new as you've not been to Chef Mickey's. Its a neat experience walking through the Contemporary for breakfast/dinner. Lots of buzz, energy, etc. Food has been so-so for us but the classic Disney characters are great. The service has also always been of good quality the times we've went.

Enjoy

 

[rdaky]

Both are nice. We prefer the food and experience at Crystal Palace. Quieter, more relaxed, lovely views, etc.

Maybe this depends on when you go, but we went there a few months ago for a family birthday lunch and it was so incredibly loud and the tables are so close together. Only one character stopped at our table. We could have waited for the others, I guess, but at that point we were finished with our meal and it just seemed like a waste of time to sit there waiting when we had already been there for an hour. Plus, while we were there, we overheard two cast members complaining about another table that had been taking up a table for 2 hours. Maybe they were hogging the table. Maybe they were just waiting on characters because it seriously took so long. I found it pretty unprofessional and the noise level and chaos of the buffet wasn't great. It was our first time there in several years and I wouldn't go back unless someone in our family really wanted it badly.

I feel even worse about Chef Mickey's.... LOL.

I'd rather just go to Liberty Tree Tavern or just about anywhere other than those two character buffets.

 

[holden]

With only one day in MK, I'd stay in MK for your meal.

I'd recommend Liberty Tree Tavern, but if you want a character meal Crystal Palace is really your only option.

 

[pens4821]

We were at Crystal palace for dinner a couple years ago and didn’t care for it. We just felt nothing was that good on the buffet. The major positive is it’s in the park. Since you’ll only be there one day not taking extra time to go to your meal you may appreciate.

Chef mickeys we love. The atmosphere is great, even now that little kids aren’t in our group. The food gets kind of bad reviews, but we’ve always been pleased. It’s not gourmet, but we find it to be good. We have done dinner three times and brunch once, and we did like the brunch food a bit better and it’s a little cheaper. While you have to leave the park to get there, it’s really easy to get to so it’s not like you’ll be wasting a lot of time. Plus we live the contemporary so it’s always nice to visit it.

Even though I’m not big on Crystal palace and wouldn’t go back, I’d maybe see which characters the kids want to see and go from there. However, I would chose chef mickeys.

 

[Disneychick75]

Breakfast is good at both. Didn't care for lunch or dinner at either. Crystal Palace has, at least in our experience, had better character interaction.
I was going to say if you want Chef Mickey's walk to the Contemporary because it's faster but if the weather is going to be hot, forget that. You'd melt before you got to the resort - no joke, it's miserable.

 

[jtopp]

Everyone should experience Chef Mickeys once in their lifetime. Food and experience is similar, only different characters at each location. Since you have already been to CP, try CM. You will enjoy it.

 

[RanDIZ]

Since you’ve never been before, I’d pick Chef Mickeys. It will also give you a nice reset from the long park day. Short walk or monorail over and back from CR. Not bad at all.

 

[ttintagel]

Chef Mickey's is LOUD. I would only go there if you have an extremely high tolerance for noise.

 

[MainMom]

We've done both for breakfast and greatly prefer Crystal Palace. I wouldn't do Chef Mickey's again unless I was taking first timers who really, really wanted to go. One and done for me.

 

[DJFan88]

Which characters are your kids more interested in?

 

[Isabelle12345]

Thank you for your replies
I think my kids would prefer Mickey and friends but I was concerned about adding the extra walk / time to the CR...
I guess I will talk to them and see what they would prefer!

 

[MartyParty]

Thank you for your replies
I think my kids would prefer Mickey and friends but I was concerned about adding the extra walk / time to the CR...
I guess I will talk to them and see what they would prefer!

For extra walk time concern, if coming from inside MK you can take the monorail to the Contemporary and then back. Gives it a really nice experience that you’re going somewhere for dinner. And if you keep it as a surprise for the kids (guessing they are younger), there will a bit of mystery and wonder when you pull in to the Contemporary stop and exit.

 

[Newsies]

Here to echo sentiments of staying in the park if you only have one day at MK, especially for evening hours. Heading to a monorail resort in the middle of a long MK day has always been a mistake for my family-- we end up not wanting to go back to the park.

Like others, I also prefer Crystal Palace to Chef Mickey's in terms of food quality. You can meet the fab five in Magic Kingdom (Pluto at flagpole/Minnie, Donald, Goofy at the big top tent/Mickey at Town Square Theatre) with a fairly reasonable wait time for each, so if meeting them is important to your family, it can be done, though I recommend waiting until the end of your day to meet Mickey as he will always have the longest wait time during the day, but you can usually just walk up to him after 9 PM.

Crystal Palace features Piglet and Eeyore, who are a bit harder to meet in the Parks and can usually only be found for holiday party M&Gs, so if your family is into character autograph/photo collecting, you can check off two hard-to-spot characters here.

Have so much fun!

 

[erinch]

Do you have time earlier in the trip to walk by chef mickeys and hear the noise? It is one of the most freaking loud places I have ever seen. We have had very good experiences at CP around 4 or so. Another option would be to do Hollywood and Vine on your DHS day, and eat at LTT or Skipper Canteen

 

[Jacq7414]

My daughter would tell you Chef Mickeys. It was her favorite meal. My husband, not so much lol. He said he’d never go there again for the price.

I do prefer crystal palace. The breakfast is pretty good

 

[morganms22]

As far as food goes…neither. I will say we had the absolute worst dinner of our last trip at Crystal Palace. Extremely loud, crowded with too many tables (we were sitting right on top of two families and could barely get out to get food), and the characters took hours with so many people to come around. It took way longer than any of our other sitdown meals. We were there right during the dinner rush. Never again for us. I’ve heard breakfast is better.

My daughter prefers Chef Mickey’s. It’s a nice break from the park and still very close by to easily get back to Magic Kingdom.