LTT, Crystal Palace, or Chef Mickeys

[sanapp]

Going with myself, DD5, MIL and FIL and this DD first time. We will be going during MNSSHP. I was considering doing the early entry at 4:00 and having an early ADR before the party begins at either LTT or Crystal Palace. Then on the other hand I hear Chef Mickeys is a great dining experience, so I can't decide. I have been quite a few times, but never with a child so I haven't done the character dining experiences. We are going to do 1900 Park Fare for dinner one night and a breakfast at Ohana's. I figure we could even do one of those on our down days (shopping days) if we want to rather than missing a rope drop or leaving a park for dinner. We are going for 2 weeks and have 7 day Disney tickets, so our options I think are pretty open.

Which would you choose?

 

[TangaroaTiki]

I have only been to Chef Mickeys & the Crystal Palace. I would say the buffets are of comparable quality. The characters, however are completely different.

Chef Mickey's - Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy & Donald

Crystal Palace - Pooh, Piglet, Tigger & Eeyore


Maybe someone can fill you in on the characters at LTT.

 

[bangzoom6877]

Okay, Mickey shows up at Ohana character breakfast, and you are going to 1900 Park Fare as well so the princesses will be there. I suggest scratching Chef Mickey's since Mickey will be at Ohana anyway, and then you can have DD see different characters at each meal.

We are doing all the restaurants you mentioned in your post, but our #1 choice was Crystal Palace b/c it is supposed to have a wonderful dinner buffet, and excellent character interaction. DS loves Winnie the Pooh and so it was a great choice for us. If your DD really loves Minnie, however, she shows up at LTT with Goofy, Chip & Dale. This is all based on what I read here on the boards, as well as what I was told when I made our ADRs.

LTT is a family style meal with Thanksgiving-type food. Crystal Palace is a buffet with a variety of foods and supposed to have a great dessert bar too. Both have good choices for kids from what I hear. Both are all you can eat too. More variety at Crystal Palace though.

Whatever you decide to go to, I am sure you will have a magical time on your trip!

Take care,
Bonnie

 

[loafskier]

I've been to Chef Mickeys and Crystal Palace. I thought Crystal Palace was a substantially better experience...better food, better atmosphere, and it feels less cramped because of the openness and high ceilings. We didn't really enjoy Chef Mickeys, it is definitely off the return list. It felt like a cafeteria. I haven't tried LTT yet, we will check that one out during our April trip.

 

[julm26]

We did all three places in September. My favorite is always crystal palace. This was my DD3 first trip to the World and she loved Crystal Palace and Chef Mickeys the best. More room to run around and they do dances and stuff.

The food was great at LTT also. We plan on doing all 3 again when we go back in september.

Have a great time.

 

[beattyfamily]

I've eaten at all 3 before the parties.

I do enjoy CM for dinner however, I prefer being in the park before the party.

I ate at LTT because it's festive because the characters wear eye masks or a festive bandana or apron and the CMs are made up to look like HM CMs. The food is NOT our favorite so after doing it a couple of times, when I gave my DDs a choice, they said they'd rather go to either CP or Tony's instead.

We have eaten at CP before several parties and we love it. Love the characters and the buffet choices and the pretty atmosphere.

Tony's is a great place if you don't want the characters. LOVED my steak.

So for us the order is this: CP, Tony's, LTT and then CM. The castle wouldn't even be on our list as it's just too expensive now and it's not really a character dinner; only Cinderella downstairs, with the Fairy Godmother and 2 mice that come out every hour or so for a celebration ceremony.

 

[pumba]

Our reservation at Crystal Palace on the night of the party was at 3:45. We knew that because of the party we were either going to take this reservation or not eat in a sit down .......we loved it and eating at that time was not bad at all......You can get your bracelet at the front of the park. We had no trouble getting it, after we ate ....
We are trying Chef Mickeys in May so could not tell yu about that experience yet.

 

[sanapp]

I think with all of the posts here and other places I have read I have decided against LTT. It sounds like it is a poor quality Thanksgiving dinner. Considering that I am going with some picky eaters it might be better to have a buffet where they have a choice. I guess the decision is now whether or not I want to do a character meal before MNSSHP or not. I we want to do one that night then it will be Crystal Palace, but if we decide to do CS that night then maybe we will try CM on another night.

 

[ransom]

For dinner, I'd definitely do LTT.

 

[tlriv5]

We ate at Ohana's, LTT and Crystal Palace our last trip. The characters were great at all three. I did not care for the food at LTT thought, it's just average. THe Crystal Palace was great though, it's a beautiful retaurant and the food was good. We loved Ohana's too. We are going to do Chef Mickey's on our next trip in October.

 

[SmallWorld71]

We went to the P&P party in August. We had a 4:00 reservation at CP and it worked really well for us. We slept in, had a good, late breakfast and small snack and were plenty hungry by dinner time. We then had an ice cream at the party while waiting for the parade. I really liked that we were able to take our time at CP and not worry about missing the party. After, we had time to ride a few rides and map out our evening.

 

[solferino]

After the recent trip, I'd say none of them- I posted those three as the ones I would be unlikely to return to in another thread. But if I *had* to I'd say Chef Mickey's. I was disappointed with the food and character interaction at Crystal Palace- Tigger and Piglet completely passed us by. At least at Chef Mickeys the characters were able to stop by a couple of times.

LTT- we did the trip prior to this one. Character interaction was good but I didn't find the food to be anything spectacular.

 

[puddleduck]

We love CP. The food is good and the restaurant is beautiful. We are thinking of eating at CP before MNSSHP also.

 

[iloveeeyore]

We've done CM and CP and I would say the food at CP was way better. The characters were completely different, but equally good interaction. We did CP before one of those parties and it was perfect to be in the park already.

I'd say if you're going to do CM, do it on one of your non-park days.

 

[Joanna71985]

Out of the 3, I would go with LTT. I love the food there, and the characters are so cute in their outfits. Then I would go with CP 2nd.