Chef Mickey's
Chef Mickey's offers what is known as a "character meal", which means
that in addition to eating you get visited at your table by certain
Disney characters. The night we were there, the characters were
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, and Chip and Dale.
The restaurant is located in the main building of the Contemporary
Resort, which is a luxury hotel very close to the Magic Kingdom. If
you've seen pictures of the monorail going through an A-frame
building, that's the one. The restaurant is on the concourse level,
one level below the monorail station, and there are windows to allow
diners to watch the trains going by one floor above.
(Dad: "Why couldn't we stay in this hotel?" Me: "Because then we would
only be able to afford to stay for two nights.")
Our verdict was that the food was so-so, though the desserts were
good. But the visits from the characters were a lot of fun. It gave
Kenneth a chance to see and be photographed with the characters
without feeling the awkwardness of pre-teen-hood, and gave Robert a
chance to get used to these HUGE characters before meeting them in the
parks. The characters, particularly Chip and Dale, really hammed it
up.
Dad was also happy to say hello to an old friend.
The only real problem we experienced dealt with transportation. One
reason we wanted to stay at a Disney hotel was the bus service. You
can park your car and depend on Disney busses, boats, and monorails to
get you anywhere on Disney property, for free. This worked great
getting to Chef Mickey's. We took a bus from our hotel to the
Magic Kingdom, and then transferred to the monorail for a short, fun
ride to the Contemporary. On the way back it wasn't so easy. The
host at Chef Mickey's told us to take the monorail to the
Transportation and Ticket Center, then take a bus to our hotel from
there. Unfortunately, when we got to the TTC, we discovered that the
host's information was out of date: busses to the hotels no longer
left from there. An attendant there suggested taking the monorail to
Epcot, then taking a bus to our hotel from there. Fortunately that
worked, but it meant a lot of extra walking for Dad, and Robert was
almost falling asleep by the time the bus got back. If I had to do it
again, I would have suggested spending the money for a cab back to our
rooms. (We all liked the monorail rides, though. I gotta say that.)
Let me emphasize, though, that for getting to and from the theme
parks, we found Disney transportation to be top notch.
The saga contines with Day One, in which we visit Epcot.
BACK to the Front Page ***** ONWARD to Day One: Epcot
flodnak.com
Created 28 March 2005 * Last Updated 14 July 2005