Mickey Meal

[Nevada Jen]

My 14 year old DD has a wish trip coming up to WDW at the beginning of January. She has had 2 strokes and is non-verbal and in a wheelchair. I want to make this trip as amazing for her as possible. The last stroke really knocked out a bunch of her cognitive functioning but when she came out of her (long) coma, her love of Mickey Mouse seems to have stuck. Almost to the point of an obsession! The one thing I want to make sure I set up is time with Mickey. Are there any character meals that have Mickey Mouse at them and a decent amount of time with MIckey? She specifically likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse if that matters. WE can get her wheelchair down or up a couple of stairs but she does need to eat in the chair. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[jnoble82]

I just came back from my trip. I had a character meal for my birthday at Chef Mickeys and Mickey came by my table twice! He didn't stay long but maybe if you spoke to the staff, something could be set up? I only say this because we waited a while for Minnie to come by. After mentioning we hadn't seen her to our waitress, she said "Yeah, where did Minnie go?" and went off to find her. A little while later another CM came by and said that Minnie would be right over. He said something about a little boy with Down's Syndrome. I didn't quite hear what he said but we totally understood! (two adults, myself and my mother, we did the meal for my birthday) So they seem accommodating to requests. I'm sure there are other meals with Mickey too. Hope you find a great meal for your daughter and she gets to see her favorite mouse!

 

[AJKMOM]

http://allears.net/din/cbchar.html

Hope this goes thru, if not, go to allears.net and click on WaltDisneyWorld Dining. There is a secion for Character meals. Also you can research the menu for each one. Mickey is at a few places. Good luck.

 

[LisaBi]

We had some good experiences with Mickey when DS (has Down Syndrome) was younger. Like we were in line at the judges tent (I would assume the new Mickey greeting location on Main Street now). When we got to the front, they pulled us over and asked us to wait a minute. What we didn't know was that they were waiting for other guests to clear out then let us in by ourselves for an extended meet and greet. And given that you will be on a wish trip, I would think you would have excellent results getting a good amount of time at any of the "permanent" meet and greet locations - probably even more so than at a meal. Especially if you tell the handler that meeting Mickey is her big "must do".

The characters are more rushed at meals, so you may not be able to get very much time. One exception to that we have experienced was a late breakfast at O'Hanas several years ago. Since it was the end of the breakfast hours, the place was clearing out but the characters kept going around and around. It was to the point I just wanted them to leave us alone so we could eat!

 

[Nevada Jen]

THanks for the link. I am kind of a newbie to Disney planning. The Mickey places listed don't sound overly awesome. Garden Grill sounds cool but I suspect Epcot will be a pretty full day and it doesn't sound wheel chair friendly from the reviews. LisaBi might be right. Perhaps dining with Mickey should be taken off the list of must dos!

 

[Betty Rohrer]

are you staying at Give Kids The World for your Wish trip? if you are Mickey and Minnie make special visits to the Village and you can visit them there before you head to parks. angels at the Village will take pics for you with you camera and also the Village camera. you will be able to wheelchair right up on the stage where the meet takes place. you are given plenty of time for your visit. 2 of my grandsons had trips last year and i was able go on both. i can not say enough great things about the Village and how they work with you. plan and doing some of activities at the Village but you will not be able to do it all. plan on doing what is important to you. one i would plan on is having Mayor Clayton and Miss Merry tuck you kids in one night.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

THanks for the link. I am kind of a newbie to Disney planning. The Mickey places listed don't sound overly awesome. Garden Grill sounds cool but I suspect Epcot will be a pretty full day and it doesn't sound wheel chair friendly from the reviews. LisaBi might be right. Perhaps dining with Mickey should be taken off the list of must dos!

You can use the wheelchair up to the tables, then transfer her (it sounds like that won't be an issue for her). They will bring the wheelchair back after you are done and ready to go.

I found all the characters spent more time than usual there, plus they came around twice.

 

[Nevada Jen]

She needs to stay in her chair to eat. Sometimes we have to sit it at an odd angle or on a corner because it won't roll under the table without hitting a table leg. She can't sit in a regular chair or booth. It sounds like Garden Grill is tight seating from the reviews. I will have to see if I can find some recent photos of it.

I had discounted the character visits at GKTW because I have only seen things about really long lines in people's TRs. I probably need to explore that further though. I don't actually know if we are staying at GKTW. We didn't request anything specific. We have dates but they have not told us where we will be staying yet.

Thank you everyone for your help. The Mickey Mouse part is REALLY my daughters wish and I want to make sure I make that happen because I don't feel like I expressed it to our Wish granters because of the way they asked the questions.

 

[dopeynme]

If you want to stick with the meal, we found breakfast at Cape May cafe to be calmer.....Mickey and friends in early 1900's swimwear!

Good luck! I hope DD has a magical trip!

 

[lanejudy]

If you want to stick with the meal, we found breakfast at Cape May cafe to be calmer.....Mickey and friends in early 1900's swimwear!

Good luck! I hope DD has a magical trip!

I know the characters at meals can/do change, but Mickey wasn't at Cape May Cafe breakfast last winter. It was Minnie, Goofy and Donald.

I'm sure most any restaurant can find a location to fit the wheelchair if they are given advanced notice of the need and that it's for a Wish kid. Early January should be a fairly low-crowd season, too, so that's in your favor.

Enjoy your trip - may it be most magical for your DD!

 

[buffettgirl]

if spending special time with Mickey is an important part of her wish then do convey that message to the organization granting her wish. That is something that they possibly can add in.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

if at the GKTW village, go to the earlier time and line is shorter. but each time we did at village we were given plently of time with each character there. Mickey and Minnie were inside theater while others were outside. the longer lines were at the parks not at Village. at least the was true for both of our trips and one was the week before Christmas last year. if you let the village know ahead of arrivial, i am sure they will help you have a great visit when Mickey is there. you wait to see Mickey inside the movie theater and it is only the guests at the Village there. on our June trip we had an extra visit during the pool party by Mickey and Minnie. the Village took pics at visit and placed on disk for you after you stay. it is not a problem to take wheelchair on stage to visit. from my visits at Garden Grill you will have a problem with the wheelchair. you will be on upper level and it will be tight. they had problems with getting me to a table when i had to use my ECV. could not keep at table even when i was not sure i would be able to transfer back. if you decide to visit at parks MAW kids do not have to wait in line most times but you will not get a real long visit. take as many pics with the photo pass as possible as at least with our trips the photo pass disk was free to us. have a great trip and i hope you are at the village because if they can help make your trip great they will do it. at Christmas they could not help with ressies but anything else they were right there.

 

[MSSANDRA]

WE found the character interaction at Garden Grill to be the best of any character meal, and we have done most of them. The way the tables are set up, you have a little bit of privacy at your table with out other kids running up to your table and rushing the characters. They all came around multiple times and hung longer than anywhere else. We are not huge fans of the food, but others rave over it. Our table would not have been wheel chair friendly but I am sure that they have seating that will work for your child.

 

[zaksmom]

We also had a good experience with Characters at Garden Grill. Good food too. My son uses a manual quickie lite wheelchair and I can't remember a problem with the accessibility to the table. This experience was maybe 3-4 years ago. Maybe something has changed since then, but we still talk about the fun we had with the characters there.
Hope this helps
Have fun

 

[primrosea]

Meal-wise the best places to see Mickey and spend a good amount of time with him will be what the others posted: O'hana breakfast and garden Grill. At both of these places there is not a huge rush for the characters to move on so they really get some quality time with the children. O'hanas may have the advantage though as far as easy access. The aisles there are slightly larger than other dining places allowing more room for manuvering a wheelchair and more room for interaction. I would not hesitate to check out either one!

 

[Nevada Jen]

I will have to check out Ohana. I hadn't thought about that one. I am also leaning towards skipping the Character meals all together and just seeing them in the in park venues and at GKTW.

 

[auralia]

When we did ohana breakfast we were done earring and had to request the characters come before we left. They came for 20 seconds dd (2 at the time) was VERY disappointed as was I 120$ for breakfast and we did not get what we paid for. This was in October a few years ago and we were not on the dining plan.

If you have a disney visa the visa meet and greet at Epcot is a good choice. I have never been but I hear that they give you more time there.

 

[dsneprincess]

Disney Visa meet and greet is NOT always Mickey. Our last visit was Minnie & Goofy. Our character & photo pass experience was not optimal either. Huge family ahead of us, parents, kid, grandparents, set up a surprise pregnancy reveal for grandparents. Photo pass took tons of pics with characters; our family of 4 got 2 pictures & out the door! DS2 was hugely disappointed as he was into characters this time.....hated them at 18 months. We have 2 Visa cards, hence 2 pictures, only had 2 photos, one was awful......AND we waited 45 minutes for a 2 minute bum rush out the door. I wouldn't count on a good experience here for your daughter!

 

[wishin' on a star]

We were wish trippers two years ago, and ALL of our character greetings were incredible. We never had to wait in a line, and were almost always given extra time and a few extra hugs with the characters. When we saw the Fab 5 at Epcot, we were pulled to the front of the line, and really enjoyed time with each character. We got tons of great pictures and some pics included two or three of the characters at once. This is your once in a lifetime trip, and for us, Disney did so much to make it magical.
We did do some character dining. We went to Donald's Safari Breakfast at AK, and the kids danced in a parade with the characters, but honestly there wasn't much "extra" one on one than everyone else in the room. Tell your wish granters about her special wish to meet Mickey. They may be able to set up a little private meet and greet. We were offered one with Sleeping Beauty, but we didn't know about it until we got there, and had already booked ADR's and planned our day, so we didn't do it. However, there was no regret, because the character experiences we had were so amazing.