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Tag Archives: Chef Mickey’s
Hardest Restaurants to Get Advanced Dining Reservations at Walt Disney World
Most of the table-service restaurants at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida accept advanced dining reservations. Advanced dining reservations become available 180 days in advance. There are numerous restaurants that are so popular that you do need to plan six months in advance to make sure you can eat there!
The absolute most difficult restaurant to make an advanced dining reservation at is the new Be Our Guest Restaurant. Be Our Guest is the French restaurant found in New Fantasyland inside the Beast’s castle which was inspired by the classic film Beauty and the Beast. Be Our Guest is only a table-service location for dinner, making reservations extremely limited. However, the attention and popularity of this restaurant is well-deserved! It is gorgeous and the food is fabulous!
Which Disney Character Meal Is Right For Me?
Disney Character Meals allow you to combine the best of two worlds – character interaction, and FOOD! They are great for those of all ages, and are a perfect way to meet multiple characters at one time!
Character meals are a staple of Disney World vacationing, and I highly recommend you try at least one during your trip. There are usually a variety of characters (between 3 and 5) and they move from table to table and give autographs and hugs and pose for pictures with you. It’s great fun, and will definitely make the adults feel like kids again!
There are a lot of character meal options to choose from at Walt Disney World, so trying to figure out which one(s) to make reservations for can be quite the task. But fear not, as I am about to break it down for you.
Questions to ask yourself when picking your character meals:
Where Will I Be? You’ll want to try and pick your character meals based on which Park you will be visiting on that particular day. For example, if you are planning a day at the Magic Kingdom, you would probably want to pick a character meal in the Park (like Crystal Palace or Cinderella’s Royal Table), or a meal at a closeby Resort on the monorail line, like 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian Resort, or Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary Resort, or the Lilo and Stitch Best Friends Breakfast at ‘Ohana at Disney’s Polynesian Resort. Knowing which meals are available at the Park you’ll be spending the day in, or at the surrounding Resort Hotels can be a huge timesaver! Otherwise, you will be spending most of your day traveling to get to your character meal, which can definitely take some of the magic out of the experience
Top 5 Reasons to Visit Chef Mickey’s
Chef Mickey’s is a character buffet located in the Contemporary Resort, right next door to the Magic Kingdom. This buffet offers a fun, contemporary setting, along with Mickey and the gang dressed in chef apparel!
Since this restaurant does showcase the main mouse himself, Chef Mickey’s is one of the most popular restaurants in all of WDW; and today, I’m giving you my top 5 reasons why I think you should try if for yourself!
5. Location-A huge part of the Contemporary’s appeal is its location! The Contemporary Resort sits right next to the Magic Kingdom. In fact, some of the resort’s rooms actually overlook the park! Talk about a room with a view! Anyway, Chef Mickey’s is located on one of the main floors of the resort with a cavernous ceiling overhead; and while there isn’t much of a theme, the dining area still feels warm and full of fun!
4. Appeals to Whole Family-Typically the term “character buffet” sends up red flags for adult diners; but even though Chef Mickey’s is definitely family-friendly, the contemporary atmosphere and great food makes this dining spot rank higher than others with adults. Also, because this is a character meal, and the Contemporary is pretty impressive with the Monorail zipping through the lobby, kids are always impressed and have a ball!
No Kids? No Problem! A Character Guide For Adults
Disney World is a great place to vacation for those of all ages, and I personally very much enjoy traveling there in an all adult party. Characters are one of those things that a lot of people think are just for kids, but I know plenty of adults who love getting a hug from Minnie or having their picture taken with Goofy (myself included!). So don’t be shy, get out there and hug some characters! And follow these tips while you’re at it:
Character Meeting Tips For All Adult Parties:
Plan Ahead – Most people do at least some pre planning when heading to Walt Disney World, whether it be making Advance Dining Reservations at their favorite restaurants, or picking which day they will travel to each Theme Park; and character sighting can be an important part of planning too! The official Walt Disney World website lists which characters typically make appearances at each Park, and then once you arrive at the Park, you can check the times guide for exactly where and when you can meet up with your favorite characters
Put your Smartphone to work – There are plenty of Disney apps available for the various types of smartphones, and many of them can be a great help in planning your trip. Many of the apps include updated attraction wait times, parade information, maps and park hours, and some even include character information and inform you where and when you can meet up with your fave Disney characters. Disney’s Mobile Magic App is Disney’s official smart phone app, I have it have used it at the Parks, it includes character information and best of all, it’s a free download! I highly recommend you try out Mobile Magic as well as other Disney apps – they can really be a time saver
Dealing with Grief – The Christmas We Escaped to Disney World
After finishing several articles featuring Disney Holiday Planning, I got to thinking about our own Christmas Trip in 2010. We stayed the week before Christmas and left the day after. This was my families first time to Disney during the holidays, in fact the first time we had travelled somewhere during Christmas Day. But for us it was an escape from the real world. We just couldn’t face a “normal” Christmas after the year we had. The trip was bittersweet but I would like to share it with all our readers in the hopes that someone else can gain from our experience.
In 2009, My son Andrew had turned 2 and just returned from his first trip to Disney. We were glowing in the post-Disney euphoria of a perfect trip. Then we receive the news that my Father-in-Law had been diagnosed with lung cancer. A year followed with ups and downs, forgotten holidays, illness and fear of the unknown. To give us a break, we decided to take another trip to Disney for our sons 3rd birthday. My father-in-law was doing better and although prognosis wasn’t great, we felt he was in better spirits after a tough year. Within a couple of months of that trip we said good-bye to the person I affectionately called FIL.
