Mickey's Magical Christmas Dinner...anyone been?

[hildasmuriel]

We are going to this next Saturday night. I have been searching to see if I can find a review of last week's one, but no luck.

Anyone been, or know someone who has?
I'm keen to hear about it.

 

[aussietravellers]

We went to this last night and it was FANTASTIC. We loved it. The room was just magical and the tables were decorated just beautifully. There are lots of meet and greets with characters. I can't say that I actually tried the food, I have a severe peanut allergy so had to have one of their allergy meals which was just revolting, but everyone else seemed to be enjoying their meal.

I would definately go again if we came next year and it was on. The only downside was waiting outside in the FREEZING cold rain and sleet. But it was a magical night.

Have just added the extra below, as I typed it somewhere else so have added it here.

The Mickey's Magical Christmas Dinner was just beautiful. There were so many meet and greets, the characters have their places around the outside of the room. There was Mickey and Minnie (in their beautiful christmas outfits), Peter Pan, Jack Sparrow, Buzz, Donald and there were Princesses also, up on the stage, but I am not sure who they were (only have a son and there was no way he was going to go near the princesses! ) There was also chip and dale too and Father Christmas came out towards the end (there may have been more characters, but I have forgotten)

It is a huge buffet dinner, there is a massive buffet in the middle of the room and then a few smaller ones around the outside. I can not tell you about the food as I did not even go up to the buffet, I had special allergy food, which was disgusting, luke warm and just grosse, however I did drule at everyone else eating, particularly the desserts as I LOVE desserts. But everyone else seemed to enjoy their meals. There was red and white wine as well as juice and there was sparkling and still bottles of water on the tables.

The tables were just decorated so well. There were red and white napkins in the wine glasses, a gorgeous table centre peice and then christmas crackers (bonbons) at each place setting.

There were roving magicians, balloon people and face painters (althought the face painter didn't make it to our table) that come to the tables. The balloon ladies are very clever and were creating some amazing balloons for the children.

There is a disco for the children too (my DS would not dance as he was too shy).

It really was just a magical night. The only downside was waiting outside in the cold/rain/sleet. But it was well worth it once you go inside. There is buggy parking undercover in the room before the main dining room.

 

[mummyal]

We went to this last night and it was FANTASTIC. We loved it. The room was just magical and the tables were decorated just beautifully. There are lots of meet and greets with characters. I can't say that I actually tried the food, I have a severe peanut allergy so had to have one of their allergy meals which was just revolting, but everyone else seemed to be enjoying their meal.

I would definately go again if we came next year and it was on. The only downside was waiting outside in the FREEZING cold rain and sleet. But it was a magical night.

Aww I am sooo looking forward to this even more now

 

[mrsmagnetic]

We went to the Magical dinner on the Sat 6th.
I would have posted earlier, but have been dying for the past week with the worst flu I've ever had.

Quite frankly We thought this was really badly organised, and it came close to ruining the whole trip, which up to this was fantastic.
We're seriously thinking of putting in an official complaint about this night, my wife actually started crying about how bad it was on the night. I'd expect this type of poorly organised night from a 2-bit outfit, this was not expected from Disneyland Paris

The tickets stated Starting at 7:30, so we decided to go earlier, to ensure we got good seats.
We got to the park and were unable to locate the area we were to go to, we asked several of the people working in the shops, and most didn't have a clue what we were looking for, however in the shop beside the buzz ride were told to go past space mountain, to the left.
The place was packed and we were still not sure where it was.
My wife asked at one of the queues and the people there thought they were waiting for the Magical Dinner, but were not sure, we were about to move when the queues disappeared forward.
We followed and found a notice tucked away at Star Tours for the Magical dinner, so in we went.
At this stage it was about 15 minuted before 7 or 45 minutes before the start of the show.
We arrived into a hall crammed with buggees and a Goofy Santa set up for photos.
We queued for this and got some photo's taken.

We moved from this room to the main room and were directed to a table near the edge of the whole setup. I was thankful we decided to come early or we would have been sitting on the floor.
The table was cramped with 8 people sitting there, and my 4 yr old son the only child
The table did look good, and there were loads of napkins and Christmas crackers.
Hot and cold Buffets were set up around the corners of the room and a main buffet at the center.
Orange and coke were available and either white or red wine, Bottled water was on the tables.

So we went to get some food and discovered little or no child friendly food available.
Loads of fancy food, but for children, all I saw were hard breadrolls and rice - pathetic
At the least we expected something like Chicken nuggets, so my son ate half a breadroll, and wouldn't eat any more, said they were not nice.
(After the show was over we went to McDonalds and got my son a happy meal, we had not expected to have to go to McDonalds at DLP)

So the show started and then characters showed up at the backdrops at the sides of the hall, ready for official DLP photos
So the queueing began.
Luckilly for us we had most of the signatures and photo's from being at the park and meet and greets the previous few days.
We queued for Mickey and eventually got one of the chipmunks (who was been bombarded from all sides, and had the obligitary queue jumpers to content with aswell) and of course got Buzz Lightyear (as he's a hard one to get usually).
In between this we tried some of the food, the starter was nice, but was cleared away while we were getting photos.
The main course was horrible, I tried quite a few different dishes, and was not impressed with any, the last straw was the lamb which oozed blood when I cut into it, all the food was only just warm at best, most was cold.
The temperature in the venue must have been in the 30's or over and the sweat was pouring off us.
My wife tried queuing for the baloon maker, but after queueing for absolutely ages (and not seeing any baloon been completed in this time) finally gave up, just as well, as the baloon maker stopped in any case at this time.

The christmas crackers, my son won all of his and was delighted, I've an excellent picture of my wife looking at the cheap and nasty prizes in the crackers (and the puzzled look on her face) and my son looking in one of his for the prize, he didn't realise the cheap plastic paperclip was the prize. Honestly they must have gotten the cheapest crackers they could find.

While we were queueing for photo's or stuff I noticed quite an amount of irate or angry parents stalking around the place, I think most of the children didn't notice this behavior and I thought it poor form to show this infront of the other children present. If I was given a chance to go to this dinner again, for free, I'd run a mile.

The only saving grace to this was that my son did enjoy himself, luckily he's too young to realise how we were screwed over at this venue.
We had to spend more to stay the extra two days, specifically for this Magical dinner, which was a huge disappointment.

My advise to anyone thinking of going, eat before you go, and ensure your children are fed too and then you can use this as an opportunity to get some signatures and photo's of the Disney caracters. It would probably be more confortable to do a meet and greet in Inventions or cafe mickey. and the food would be 100% better.

hope this warns some of you away from this travesty
mr magnetic

 

[aussietravellers]

OH NO, your's sounds like a nightmare of a night. Was that the first night they had the dinner on? Maybe they had fine tuned a few things after your night.

There were queues for characters, some worse than others but not as bad as in the parks and we had most signatures already too so the queues didn't bother us. The temperature in the room was perfect for us, it was absolutely freezing outside but didn't seem too hot in the pavillion the night we went, it was a perfect temperature actually (for us). On our tickets (and the brochure they give with the tickets) it said the event was from 7pm to 9pm and it has arrival between 6.30pm and 7.30pm and the brochure also for the event that had a map of where to go (it was not totally clear but it it did give the general area of where it was and once we saw the line of people we knew thats where it was. We got there at 6.15pm and the queue was long but once they opened the queue moved pretty quickly, we were seated in the front half of the room. It certainly was a busy event, lots of people but we were not too cramped there. They also must have changed the balloon people as we didn't have to queue for that, there were balloon people walking around to all of the tables, when the balloon lady was at our table making the balloons for the children at our table, there was another lady near by doing that row of tables so maybe they changed this after the first night too.

I don't know, I just know that we enjoyed it and the other family on our table certainly enjoyed their night too. We just loved the atmosphere it was just a magical setting and being at Disneyland. I did notice that there were staff walking around towards the end handing out big questionaires so maybe they have been doing this each time they have had it and changing a few little things to make the evening more of a success. It is the first time they have had this I think, so sometimes thing's don't run so smoothly and as time goes on they can iron out little problems.

So sorry your night was not so good . But ours was great.

 

[hildasmuriel]

Oooooh I'm torn now. Do I look forward to an experience like Aussietravellers had (I was really excited yesterday after reading your review), or do I not bother to go in case I get an experience like mrsmagnetic had?

 

[Rachie B]

aww maybe it was just the first night,and all problems have been ironed over now?

I am glad we didnt book it in the end,as saturday we were all feeling like poo and went back to the hotel around 6.30pm!

and it wasnt cheap was it,so hope you have a good experience

will be looking forward to your report

x

 

[mummyal]

Oooooh I'm torn now. Do I look forward to an experience like Aussietravellers had (I was really excited yesterday after reading your review), or do I not bother to go in case I get an experience like mrsmagnetic had?

I'd still go if I were you. After all, it has already been paid for. We might be lucky and it'd be good. If you don't go and if I come back and say that it was fab, you'd be kicking yourself If it's bad, then we can moan & cry together on here

 

[mrsmagnetic]

Yes, This was the first night that this magical dinner was on.
It sounds like they may have ironed out some of the issues I mentioned above.
Like the baloon maker, I only ever saw one (at the side of the room), looks like they now go to the tables.

Our biggest problem was probably the temperature, high and uncomfortable temperatures don't help make a good night.

We aren't the type to usually complain, but I felt the other night that a review outlining how the night actually went was necessary. I most definately didn't mean to frighten people away from this as it could be a great night.

If things have improved with this Magical diner as the other posters seem to be confirming, then the night could be really good.
I'd suggest go early and get there by 6:15 (like aussietravellers) and don't go too hungry.

Hope you have greats nights there and that it's all sorted.


Rgds,
mr magnetic

 

[mummyal]

Just trying to figure out where the Pavillion is. For some reason, I thought it was in Fantasyland - just as well I read this thread again lol.

So, if I just head towards Star Tours, I should be on the right track (have never been in that 'corner' of Discoveryland before). I've also just read that we'll most probably be sharing a table with other people (I really must learn to read properly lol). I thought we'd each have our own table (like in other restaurants). Oh well, I hope we'll have a nice family sitting with us (and hope they'll think that we're nice too )