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Wednesday, January 14, 2004
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Reviewer: Parkatola
Salt Lake City, Utah
January 19, 2004
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In brief: Disappointed, suffers by comparison.
We had an extended family vacation at WDW from January 11-18, 2004. One of the highlights was to be a character meal at Chef Mickey's. We have taken almost this same family grouping to Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel, so we were familiar with character dining, buffet dinners, and how good an atmosphere Disney can present.
The 7 kids in our group (ranging in ages from 1-11) enjoyed meeting the characters as they came to our table, and we received all the autographs we wanted. The food selections for the kids were not great so they sampled some of the "grown-up" fare. Everyone enjoyed the desert bar and multiple bowls of ice cream made sure everyone was full.
I was surprised that our table was in what seemed to be the waiting area. There was one section that was clearly the "restaurant" section, where the characters gathered to sing and dance, and then there was the section by the check in desk where they had set up several more tables. As such, there was almost no waiting area (other than the rest of the floor of the hotel), and our tables were cut off from the dancing action.
The prices were high, but that's expected (unfortunately) for character dining.
If you've never been to Goofy's Kitchen at Disneyland, this is a good first place to have a character meal (although there are other, better places at WDW, the best IMHO being the Garden Grill at the Land pavillion at EPCOT). If you've been to Goofy's Kitchen, you've seen this setup done much better.
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3
out of
7
people found this review helpful
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Saturday, January 3, 2004
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Reviewer: Trav (travmatte@aol.com)
Orlando, FL
January 08, 2004
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I have always loved this buffet's dinner. Not only do you get some marvelously prepared food, but Mickey and the gang actually come over to your table!
However, in the last two years, the price for this very popular buffet has continued to increase. A third, two-dollar increase was imposed in November, bringing CM's price to $25.99.
To put it more dramatically, the price has increased by THIRTY PERCENT IN TWO YEARS.
Since the rate of inflation is nearly flat, Disney seems to be exploiting the devotees of this restaurant to subsidize its money-losing divisions, and artificially raise revenues.
Therefore, I encourage everyone to BOYCOTT THIS RESTAURANT, UNTIL DISNEY COMES TO ITS SENSES AND LOWERS THE PRICE!!! (Yes, I am angry).
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9
out of
16
people found this review helpful
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November 15 and 20, 2003
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Reviewer: mom22gls
Jenkintown, PA
November 23, 2003
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I made PS for our first night staying at the Contemporary, and we enjoyed the dinner so much I made another PS for later in the week. The food was surprisingly good, with lots of choices that pleased both the children and adults. The characters were well timed, and spent enough time at the table, for autographs and pictures. Highly recommended.
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3
out of
3
people found this review helpful
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August22/03
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Reviewer: Joytotheworld
Orillia, Ontario, Canada
October 11, 2003
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We were there for the character dinner.
Service was excellent.
Good value for what we received and experienced.
Wide array of tasty foods to choose from
Atmosphere was loud, energetic and a ton of fun.
Previously I had eaten at Chef Mickey's for breakfast and I can now say that I prefer their dinner meal for several reasons. Firstly there is a much wider selection of delicious items to choose from (their parmesan mashed potatoes are not to be missed). Secondly Donald Duck holds court in the entrance area at dinner only and, since he can be a difficult character to find in the parks, this is a definite perk. We specified this time that we did not want to have our photo taken before being seated so that saved us the hassle of a high-pressure photo salesperson coming around to the table during our meal. The character interaction was wonderful and the entire meal was a delight from start to finish.
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4
out of
4
people found this review helpful
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9/8/2003 - 9/15/2003
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Reviewer: drew489
New Hampshire (near Boston)
September 16, 2003
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This was excellent. Just what the doctor ordered after a long day in the parks. We had dinner reservations for a b-day dinner buffet for my 2 going on 3 year old daughter and it was perfect.
The food was very good and plentiful. Lots of variety for the kids and the adults. The dessert section had all types of ice creams and toppings with plenty of cakes/pies to please everyone.
The characters went around several times and spent key time with my daughter. Every 20 minutes or so they break into song and dance with all the characters running around swinging napkins...very exciting for everyone. The staff was very smart too, when it came time to sing happy birthday to my daughter they timed it perfectly with the characters singing/dancing routine so my daughter felt like it was just for her! It was simply amazing to see the look in her eyes when the whole restaurant was cheering clapping and swinging napkins to what she thought was her b-day celebration! Bravo Disney.
The camera man took our picture at the beginning and it ended up being very reasonaly price (I think $20 or so for a few pics and some key chains).
This is a "must do" especially for young children.
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10
out of
10
people found this review helpful
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September 1999 and current
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Reviewer: tappenfeat
New Jersey
August 11, 2003
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This is a fun experience that I did not expect at Chef Mickey's!!!
So much dancing, swirling napkins, and singing from everyone! We loved it!
The breakfast buffet was tasty and you had a lot to choose from, not to mention the "little" buffet the children could choose from just their height! What a great idea!
We usually close off our last day with a character breakfast and take our last monorail ride around the perimeter before we have to leave Disney.
This usually leaves me feeling emotional because I love Disney World so much!
Chef Mickey's was a perfect way to "temporarily" say good-bye for now and leave you feeling magical! I did cry while we were packing up after breakfast and Mickey himself came up to me and gave me the biggest hugs and a smooch on the cheek! It was the greatest moment to remember!
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11
out of
13
people found this review helpful
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19 December 2002
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Reviewer: chezp
United Kingdom
June 25, 2003
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19 December 2002, dinner
Service: Pretty bad
Price: Very reasonable
Food: An excellent selection
Atmosphere: Great fun
When we booked our vacation, we weren't planning on eating here at all, but DH told me he'd always wanted to, after having seen it from the monorail, so we went ahead and got priority seatings for the next night with no problem.
I hadn't read great reviews about this buffet and was fully expecting to find cold food, but that wasn't the case at all. We both loved this buffet, there was a great selection of food, even for veggies and everything we both had was hot. I was just disappointed that I ate so much for the main course, that I could barely manage that wonderful dessert section!
There were so many characters at this meal as well, which made it a lot of fun, even though we didn't have any children with us. Chip, Dale, Minnie and Mickey all toured the tables, while Goofy, in his Santa outfit, and Donald posed for photos at the entrance. We both thought Mickey looked great in his chefs outfit, better than in his normal uniform. The singing and napkin waving was really fun and lovely to catch on video even DH is on video, waving his napkin around, but of course I couldnt join in as I was videoing!
The theming of the restaurant was lovely - bright colours everywhere and we really enjoyed watching the monorails just glide past the restaurant, a very surreal experience.
About the only thing which let this meal down was our server, who wasnt very quick off the mark and at one point I was gasping for more to drink, but we just werent getting our refills. The bill, including quite a low tip, came to $57.
I would recommend this to anyone - it's a well priced buffet with a great selection of food and it's a lot of fun as well. It's so easy to get to from the Magic Kingdom and it's well worth checking out.
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3
out of
3
people found this review helpful
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June 14, 2003
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Reviewer: Poohfan28
Jacksonville, FL
June 17, 2003
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Hi, everyone. My husband and I ate at Chef Mickey's for the first time on Saturday. We both enjoyed the breakfast buffet. The food is your basic breakfast food. They had salmon for bagels which my husband likes. I had a mickey waffle which was very good. We enjoyed the characters as much as the children sitting next to us. The total bill was about $45.00 with tip. We are planning to go back in October this year for my birthday.
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1
out of
1
people found this review helpful
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Feb. 27/03
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Reviewer: Joytotheworld
Orillia, Ontario, Canada
April 04, 2003
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We had breakfast at Chef Mickey's and found it to be a fun experience. The character interaction was excellent and the whole napkin twirling thing was a hoot. The food was good but just standard breakfast fare - nothing out of the ordinary or terribly interesting. The service was excellent. My one main complaint with the meal was the whole having to get your picture taken before you were seated scenario. We were not given an option - just directed into a line-up for the photo session. Later on, during the course of the meal, someone came to the table with a photo package that we could purchase if interested. We declined but the woman was very persistent and very high-pressure. I found this a little surprising for Disney and it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Other than that, it was a great character dining experience. I would try it again but next time for dinner and I'd insist up front that we did not want our photo taken. You can take way better photos yourself with the actual characters instead of mere cardboard cutouts.
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6
out of
6
people found this review helpful
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December 9, 2002
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Reviewer: DisneyDec
Gaithersburg, MD
December 17, 2002
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We arrived at Chef Mickey's at 9:30 am on a rainy Monday without a Priority Seating. The wait was 45 minutes for breakfast, which wasn't too bad. In the meantime we shopped in the Concourse stores and took some pictures with Chef Goofy. We enjoyed a little bit of everything on the buffet. I really enjoyed the cheese and bacon potatoes, but I thought the scrambled eggs were a bit bland. During our meal all of the characters stopped by our table: Mikcey, Minnie, Chip and Dale. My 2-year-old daughter really enjoyed all of the characters as well as the napkin spin (although she's hasn't got the spinning down yet).
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3
out of
3
people found this review helpful
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