Jan - OHHHH, Wow, Well I guess I might have had a problem with that too....... ewww!!!
Our experience's however have been wonderful, we always go for lunch and it is really good, freshly prepared food. The character interaction is great, they've always spent a lot of time with ds, and every other child/table. My ONLY complaint is that once we went and a couple of tables past us had about 6 kids and 8 or 10 adults, who WOULD NOT wait there turn for the characters, every time one came towards our table they would run up and "intrude" on our sons time. The characters go to each table and spend a lot of time for photo's, autographs, etc.... these people just really irritated me, and they just wouldn't "get it"!!! No matter how many times the cm told them. I realize that the kids were excited, but they weren't little, I'd say between 8 and 11, not 4 like my ds. My major problem was that some of the adults were doing it as well........ one of them, the kid, even climbed up on the chair at our table to grab onto pooh, while he was talking to my ds!!!! I'm just glad that the cm's handled it, cause I was getting "HOT"!!!
Anyway.............. vent over......... lol, I'd say YES, Crystal Palace is a must do......... as is Chef Mickey's, we LOVE Chef Mickey's!!!!!!