What could be better than having breakfast with Mickey Mouse on your first birthday?!?!Chef Mickey's Restaurant at Disney's Contemporary Resort (Approx $27 per adult, kids under 3 free)
Six months prior to our trip, I spent over an hour on the phone starting at 6:00 a.m. central time to get an ADR for Chef Mickey's breakfast since this very popular restaurant fills up quickly. (There is also an online reservation system but it was not working on this particular day due to the recent completion of upgrades to Disney's system.) My party of 6 was scheduled for 10:45 a.m. on the big day.
After checking in, we were escorted to the photo line. Here Photopass photographers take group shots behind a large figure of Mickey and in front of a giant plate. A photo package was brought to the table later. This one was $32 and included one 5x7, 4 4x6 and a very creative folder with coloring postcards and recipes. The images can be added to your Photopass card only if you buy the package at the restaurant. After photos, we waited a few minutes before our pager went off. We were more fortunate here in terms of seating and character rotation. Our table was part of a small section along a wall with booths on the wall side and chairs on the other side. This was much more spacious than our previous character meal experience. Our server took drink orders and we all got settled in. My husband brought back Mickey waffles, eggs, and fruit for Tink. They use the same waffle iron as 1900 Park Fare but these were a superior recipe. My brother brought me a plate with all sorts of breakfast goodies. We all agreed that we preferred the food selection here. They have all the usual suspects of a breakfast buffet: eggs, bacon and sausage, fruit bar, breakfast breads, cheesy potatoes (yum!), etc. Pancakes were made fresh on a large griddle on the buffet line.
As good as the food is, the real attraction is Mickey. The characters at this location are Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck. The boys were all in chef's jackets or aprons and chef hats. Minnie was wearing her classic red polka dot dress. We were most of the way through our meal before our first visitor, Donald, arrived. The characters did a good job of visiting with Tink and all signed her birthday card. We were accidentally skipped by Minnie and Pluto, but the character handlers corrected the problem quickly.
Chef Mickey's is a great place for a birthday and it seems like nearly every table is celebrating. During the song that plays regularly throughout the morning, Tink was presented with a cupcake and "I'm Celebrating" button. They must really go through the cupcakes here because this one was still warm when it arrived. (I could use one of those now.) It was tasty but not up to Grand standards.
Chef Mickey's earned an 8/10. The food quality was high, our server was average, location is great. Character meals are never cheap but there is no way we could have stood in line for all of those characters with a one year-old. I would go back and would recommend this restaurant. Maybe next time we'll check out the dinner buffet.
We went to Chef Mickey's for dinner on one trip. We loved the character interactons, but our server seemed well below Disney standards. With 6 adults and 4 kids ages 3 and under, she was rarely at our table and when she did finally come back with drink refills, she gave us all the wrong drinks and brought extras because she said she couldn't remember what we ordered (by the way, the extras weren't what we ordered either!). Though the food was good, it wasn't as good as the Crystal Palace dinner we had. Of course, it was all worth it see the kids with the characters, because like you, we never could have stood in line to see all those characters with my 3.5yo son, 2yo daughter, 1.5yo nephew and 10month old daughter. We would definitely go back, but are looking forward to trying the breakfast on our next trip!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, I felt the same way about the servers at both Chef Mickey's and 1900 Park Fare. They weren't bad but for such as expensive meal, they should be better.
ReplyDeleteLet me tell you about my FAVORITE character breakfast. It is Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club Resort near Hollywood Studios.... the breakfast is GREAT and you get to see Micky, Minnie, Goofy and Donald Duck. They are all dressed for a beach trip. The food selection and quality is excellent! So much so we ate there twice during our trip.
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