When to do Chef Mickey's

[teachallday]

I am staying at the Contemporary with a little one functioning at a Preschooler level. I was wondering when I should book a meal at Chef Mickey's. Do we want it at the beginning, middle, or end of the trip?

I guess the second question is do we want to do it more than once?

 

[Letsbgoofy]

We always started out vacations with a Chef Mickeys dinner when my DS was young. We are going with my brothers family (kids 6 and 4) this trip and we will eat our first meal at Chef Mickeys (hopefully - we'll find out in May!) Many years we also made Chef Mickeys our last meal too.

We like to start with Chef Mickeys because then the kids get a chance to see many of their favorite characters and there isn't as much pressure to hunt them down in the parks!

 

[shera]

I am also thinking of doing this in the beginning of our trip.Just seems like a great way to get the kids super excited and get seeing the main characters out of the way early.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I agree with going there early in your vacation.

 

[steelebug]

I too am a big fan of doing Chef Mickey's first. We do and then we do CP last. The kids love Mickey, Minnie, etc as well as Pooh and friends. Have a great trip.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Last month we did CM breakfast on our departure day...that was perfect! We are planning on doing that again in June.

 

[91Coupe]

Do it at the beginning to help get the MAGIC flowing. When we went last year we did Donald's Safari B-Fast first thing. DD and DS were still sleepy but once the Characters showed up Look Out. This was a great way to kick off the day.

We didn't do Chef Mickey's last year but are planning on going this Oct. and will probably be a toss up between Donald's and Chef Mickey's for that First Day.

 

[martd82]

Last month we did CM breakfast on our departure day...that was perfect! We are planning on doing that again in June.

We did the same thing with our 4 year old son. That way he was able to say goodbye to Mickey, Minnie and all the rest.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Our family tradition is to always go for a late breakfast on our departure day. It gives us one last thing to look forward to, a chance to say good-bye to the character and it also gets us moving on that last day when we want to drag our heels. On our first trip we did it on our first day, and that was fun too, but after that we changed it and it became tradition.

As for going more than once, if you have the time and want to you could do a breakfast and a dinner, that is what we do. We go for Thanksgiving dinner (middle of our trip). If I could only go once though it would be the breakfast.

No matter what, call early and HAVE FUN!!! CM is our absolute favorite. It is the only TS we have gone to on every single one of our trips and always will!

 

[J3nn78]

Chef Mickey's is always our first meal of the trip.
Though now the free dining that came out during our trip dates, I may just have to take what I can get.

 

[joeytdog]

We always do Chef Mickeys our first night of vacation followed by a relaxing evening in the room getting ready for a RD the next morning

To me, that is perfect!

 

[mef78]

I would do it at the end of the trip, and for breakfast. That way you can get a little extra sleep when you're exhausted from all of the early mornings, because you just have to take the elevator downstairs!

 

[tinka-belle]

There are never guarantees of what Disney will do, but for at least the last three years during part of the Aug-Sept. free dining dates CM had a lunch too. Wasn't for the entire period, just the heavily booked FD weeks.

It was usually announced fairly late, maybe after Disney realized that neary all ADR slots were taken. With this economy and lighter bookings they may not do it this year, but ya never know.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We did it on departure day Saturday. It was a great breakfast!

I want to do it on arrival day next trip for dinner.

 

[loralie]

Call us crazy but for our trip in May, we are doing CM TWICE!

We will be doing CM dinner on the day we arrive and we will be doing CM breakfast the day we leave. I was thinking of doing a different character breakfast for the last day but my DH and the kids really wanted CM breakfast.

We have only been to WDW twice before this trip and both times we did CM breakfast. This will be the first time we are doing CM dinner.

Have a great time!

Loralie

 

[abc999]

Next time, I am booking for the first night. Everytime I book for the end of the trip, we end up cancelling.

 

[teachallday]

Thank You everyone. I think I might try to do it twice. Once at the beginning and once at the end. Double the magic.

Now I just have to decide if the first one is the day we arrive or the next morning. Both have negative elements. We are coming from the west coast and have to get the little pincess up at 4am (our time) to get to the plane and will land in Orlando at 4pm (Orlando Time).

So either I challenge the little one (special needs) with a Character Meal after a long day of travel, or I challenge her with a Breakfast while trying to adjust to a 3 hour time difference (so an 8am breakfast would be 5am our time).

 

[martd82]

Thank You everyone. I think I might try to do it twice. Once at the beginning and once at the end. Double the magic.

Now I just have to decide if the first one is the day we arrive or the next morning. Both have negative elements. We are coming from the west coast and have to get the little pincess up at 4am (our time) to get to the plane and will land in Orlando at 4pm (Orlando Time).

So either I challenge the little one (special needs) with a Character Meal after a long day of travel, or I challenge her with a Breakfast while trying to adjust to a 3 hour time difference (so an 8am breakfast would be 5am our time).

I would go with the breakfast. Because of the time switch (and the fact that you have to get up at 4 am) you could get away with getting your daughter to bed on Orlando time and then wake her up on Orlando time and she shouldn't have any jet lag. But then you have to worry about getting her sleep schedule back in order when you get back home.