Chef Mickey's now closing for rehab from late November through December

[Shoshana]

I just googled "chef mickey convention center" and clicked on the 8th link -- it was the only one with a recent update, rather than July or August. You're right. It's not pretty but it is exactly what you'd expect a dining room in a convention center to look like. Terrible lighting, uninviting, and uninspiring. The Pirates & Pals dessert party before the boat ride is also held in a convention center room and it's equally bleak.

Still hoping for a December 25 opening, or we'll be on Plan B for dining that day.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

http://www.chipandco.com/chef-mickeys-temporarily-relocated-convention-center-refurbishment-290465/

 

[Pumbaa_]

Yeah that is not magical in any way.

 

[Beth613]

So disappointed with the temporary location. By the time I got the notification email there were no character breakfasts to switch to so I didn't cancel. I was holding out hope that Disney would make the convention center location a little more magical than what it appears to be. It seems almost entirely devoid of character (no pun intended) and almost sad. At least if they had cut the price a bit it might have been an easier pill to swallow (again, no pun intended). As of right now we're keeping the reservation because I'm sure the young ones in our group of 7 (5 yo and two 3 yo) will not care as long as Mickey and Minnie come visit, but it certainly won't be all that it could have been.

 

[skunis1]

So disappointed with the temporary location. By the time I got the notification email there were no character breakfasts to switch to so I didn't cancel. I was holding out hope that Disney would make the convention center location a little more magical than what it appears to be. It seems almost entirely devoid of character (no pun intended) and almost sad. At least if they had cut the price a bit it might have been an easier pill to swallow (again, no pun intended). As of right now we're keeping the reservation because I'm sure the young ones in our group of 7 (5 yo and two 3 yo) will not care as long as Mickey and Minnie come visit, but it certainly won't be all that it could have been.

I agree that I think they could have done more but I guess with all the other huge projects $$$$$$ they have to make decisions.

My only hope is that this information is correct and the normal location opens the 12th or 13th because we have reservations on the 14th.

 

[disneybride96]

Canceling our reservation for breakfast this coming Sunday. Bummer....

 

[Pumbaa_]

I don't blame you. It is a very pricey meal to eat at a conference table

 

[Tea4Alice]

I don't blame you. It is a very pricey meal to eat at a conference table

We just canceled our reservation,my granddaughter had requested Chef Mickey for her birthday dinner celebration, but we were worried it would be a disappointment, so now we are eating at Akershus partly because of the character/ atmosphere. So glad we were able to have her birthday cake sent there too. So wish we had stuck with our original plan for a castle dinner.

 

[mrg013]

In case it's helpful to anyone, we just ate at Chef Mickey's in the temporary convention center location on Sunday for breakfast, and it was actually much better than we expected. I had been somewhat dreading the meal ever since we received the relocation email, but others in our group wanted to stick with it, so we did.

The main pro I see of this temporary location is that there is a lot of space. We liked that our table wasn't too close to others, and it just felt like everyone had plenty of space to spread out and get character pictures without tripping all over one another. Since the waiting area is basically the whole convention center lobby, there was a ton of space for everyone to spread out and for kids to run around while waiting for tables. It's a little bit of a zoo, but that's no different than the normal Chef Mickey's. There was a Photo Pass photographer there to take group pictures in front of the convention center Christmas tree.

The buffet had two identical sides along one wall of the room and never got too crowded, with the carving station in the center, as well as a separate bread/pastry buffet in the middle of the room. The food was the same as usual, and the service was just ok (although I don't necessarily think that's related to the temporary space). It also took quite a while for the characters to make their way around the room, and I think we just got unlucky in arriving right after they had made their way past our section.

The main con of the temporary location is the decor (of course). You definitely don't have the monorail going by, and it still feels like a conference room, mainly because they left the basic conference chairs at the tables. If they had brought down the regular restaurant chairs, I think that would have been very helpful. There's some Christmas decor at the door when walking in, as well as by the center pastry buffet area, and there are some snowflakes projected on one wall of the room. I think they could have done more with decor in the room, such as interesting uplighting, maybe something on the walls, anything really. However, after the initial shock of the new room, we quickly settled into the normal routine of any character meal, and left perfectly content as we would have if we were dining upstairs.

Sure, there is something missing by not being in the normal space, but I was pleasantly surprised by our experience, and didn't leave thinking that the relocation was nearly as bad as expected.

 

[Jason Ballard]

I have not gone to the converted, but from all the photos I have seen it looks great. Can't want to go in Feb.

 

[joanie9766]

I've asked several cast members and haven't got the same answer or even an answer at all from most of them. I hope it's back in the normal location by December 14th but who knows at this point. I'm waiting to hopefully see some photos of the area so I can make an educated decision on whether to keep our breakfast ADR. I'm trying to get a back up but no luck yet.

I have reservations for dinner on the 14th--fingers crossed.....

 

[Kathy D]

I was there for dinner on Sunday night and it was a terrible experience compared to the regular location. Food was the same but just not the same “feel.”

 

[aristocatz]

We went tonight, and it was pretty terrible, disappointing, and a waste of money. I wish I had not made this reservation, and had known in advance of the restaurant change.

My kids liked meeting the characters, but the character interaction was kind of mechanical and impersonal. They seemed rushed. I do agree with a previous poster that the spread out space was a definite plus to make it easier to take character photos, I was also kind of turned off by the Christmas tree photo op upon arrival, as opposed to the Chef Mickey backdrop photo op. I am guessing that many guests do not celebrate Christmas, so it did not seem like a great option.

Theming was......very sterile and conference-like, as opposed to Disney-like. Layout was weird. Food choices seemed extremely lacking, as compared to typical Chef Mickey's food choices. No ice cream machine. Barely any salad options. Ribs were kind of burnt with way too much sauce. Salmon and carved meats were overcooked. Pasta was very good, and the goat cheese spread with the bread was a nice touch. All of the hot food was displayed in closed lid platters, which made it very awkward and difficult to serve yourself, with little to no room on the table to set down your plate to open the platter and spoon out your serving. Our server was very sweet and attentive.

To top it off, the monorail broke down after dinner, with a 30-45 minute wait till the next one, so it was kind of chaotic with families trying to get out of the monorail platform to walk to MK afterwards.

I'm not sure we will be back to Chef Mickey's, even when it returns to its regular location. Our last experience was not so hot either. Food was terrific, but character interaction was lacking & the music was SO loud in there. I really miss the Liberty Tree Tavern character meal

 

[Herding_Cats]

Ummm. WHAT?! I booked this 180 days out for Christmas eve brunch for a party ofr 24 and I have gotten NOTHING from Disney about it NOT being the the normal location. I'm going to be really disappointed if they haven't re-opened. We won't cancel our reservation because for 3/4 of our group this is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime trip but just seeing this now is frustrating and irritating for me.

 

[crazy4wdw]

Ummm. WHAT?! I booked this 180 days out for Christmas eve brunch for a party ofr 24 and I have gotten NOTHING from Disney about it NOT being the the normal location. I'm going to be really disappointed if they haven't re-opened. We won't cancel our reservation because for 3/4 of our group this is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime trip but just seeing this now is frustrating and irritating for me.

Chef Mickey's should be up and running at its original location in the Grand Canyon Concourse by the dates of your reservation.

 

[Dakota731]

Where is Grand Canyon concourse?

 

[crazy4wdw]

Where is Grand Canyon concourse?

4th floor in the Contemporary Resort Tower.

 

[Dakota731]

PLease keep us posted as to the date when they will be out of the conference center. I know remodeling often takes longer than planned!

 

[Beth613]

We had brunch at Chef Mickey’s on Wednesday I was sorely disappointed with both the venue and the food. We arrived about 15 minutes early for our priority seating time, checked in, were given a pager and pointed in the direction of the Christmas tree and photographer. About 15 minutes after our seating time we were led into the conference room and taken to our large round table for eight.

I knew in advance that I probably would not like the venue but the conference room location was definitely lacking of any real themed decor aside from a few random and very spread out holiday decorations. Leaving the conference room chairs in place instead of bringing the chairs from the original location was a very bad idea in my opinion. These chairs were not meant for this kind of use, they are meeting room chairs and aren’t holding up well in a restaurant setting. At our table almost all of the cloth covered chairs were stained, dirty and kind of gross to sit on. Toward the end of our meal I noticed that as the smaller rectangular tables were being cleared the white linen tablecloths were being removed and replaced with paper from a roll. Surely they knew how many reservations they had and shouldn't have run out of tablecloths. $42 per person to eat on a paper covered table?

Sadly I didn’t think the food was very good either. Last year it was not bad, typical buffet food but nothing to really complain about. But this year none of the food I tried was warm enough and, as a previous poster mentioned, the serving trays have attached lids that lift up and back and are extremely awkward for self-service. I was also disappointed in the food choices. There seemed to be so many more choices last year as opposed to this time. Desserts were very limited and worst of all, no cheesy potato casserole. Even though the grandkids enjoyed the character interaction it seemed to take forever for them to make their way around the huge room and when they did the famous napkin twirling party half the room had no idea it was even happening. Bottom line, for me it was definitely not worth the $$. I really felt they could have done more to make it a magical experience or at least cut the price a little to make it easier to tolerate. This experience really turned us off and we’ll stick to character meet and greets in the parks going forward or try a character meal elsewhere but it was probably our last visit to Chef Mickey’s.


*edited to add a sentence

 

[crazy4wdw]

According to this post, Chef Mickey's reopened on the 4th floor of the tower building this morning for breakfast.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/chef-mickeys-opening-in-normal-location.3652760/

Hopefully we'll have additional reports today.