Restaurants... Far too many lol

[cookie334]

I'm trying to decide where to eat when we go in January. We have half board (standard) but have a feeling these will all be used at face value. There are soooo many places that we want to eat either because a) we haven't eaten there before or b) we have and loved it, plus the younger 2 kids remember little or nothing about our last trip. My first thought is to get around as many characters at mealtimes as possible to maximise time for everything else

We're there for 5 days/4 nights and going by previous visits we'll arrive about lunchtime on the first day and leave around mealtime on the fifth night.

Firstly, we would like to eat at Café Mickey for the and were thinking we could pay extra and do this for breakfast. I'd like some opinions on this... is it worth it? Is the character interaction as good? Are there as many as at other times during the day? Also I was wondering what is the latest time (roughly) you can have breakfast here? Is it possible to go for EMH and come back for a late brekkie? Lastly, is there more selection than that in the Cheyenne?

Next, we really want to do the Auberge as we haven't met any of the princesses before. I noticed on the restaurants thread that you can have lunch or dinner here, is the menu/price the same for both? Are there certain days/times you can see certain princesses? Or is it just random (DD would looooooove to see Rapunzel, it's all she's gone on about since we told her we were going back)? Bearing in mind it'll be cold in January, we don't fancy queuing forever, but is it worth it or would we be better just saving the money for elsewhere and queuing for the princesses?

Lastly, we had a lovely meal at the Steakhouse in the village on our last visit, and as we're there for a Sunday this time, thought about doing the Character Brunch but was wondering if the food was as good? We're only doing it for the characters, so was wondering what sort of characters others had met? Is it similar to Café Mickey? And if so, would you suggest an evening meal here instead? ie if the food's not great and characters all same, we'd rather have a decent meal, however if the food's not that great but it's likely there will be different characters we'd rather do the brunch.

I have lots of other queries about where to eat as we have a list of 11 and only 5 days to get through them all lol, but that will do for now. Thanks in advance for any opinions you can give to help narrow down our choices.

 

[DLPdaft]

I wouldn't do Cafe Mickey for breakfast - I think its poor value for money (ie very expensive for what you get) compared to lunch or dinner, when you can use your vouchers and its still a character meal.

Auberge will more than likely only be open for lunch when you are there in January.

The Steakhouse Sunday brunch has gone downhill a lot in the last few years (I used to love it but apparently they have changed the buffet so its not as good, and theres no glass of champers or alcohol included now in the price, and you still only see 4 characters there for the brunch). There are no characters at the Steakhouse except for at the Sunday brunch.

Cafe Mickey for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or Inventions for lunch or dinner, plus Auberge, are now your lot for character interaction meals at DLP.

There are other ways of meeting the characters though - ie usually there are a load of characters from the Stars n Cars parade in the Studios who come out for meet n greets all together for an hour or so (its usually on the park programme) and if you are there on a Thursday through to Sunday, there are another half dozen or so characters you can go meet in the foyer of the Disneyland Hotel (everyone is welcome, you don't have to be a guest of the hotel).

 

[Lisa_C]

I'm trying to decide where to eat when we go in January. We have half board (standard) but have a feeling these will all be used at face value. There are soooo many places that we want to eat either because a) we haven't eaten there before or b) we have and loved it, plus the younger 2 kids remember little or nothing about our last trip. My first thought is to get around as many characters at mealtimes as possible to maximise time for everything else

We're there for 5 days/4 nights and going by previous visits we'll arrive about lunchtime on the first day and leave around mealtime on the fifth night.

Firstly, we would like to eat at Café Mickey for the and were thinking we could pay extra and do this for breakfast. I'd like some opinions on this... is it worth it? Is the character interaction as good? Are there as many as at other times during the day? Also I was wondering what is the latest time (roughly) you can have breakfast here? Is it possible to go for EMH and come back for a late brekkie? Lastly, is there more selection than that in the Cheyenne?

*****Totally different experience from the Cheyenne and way more food selection including bacon, eggs, sausages, potatoes, smoked salmon. There are only two sitting though, 7.30 and 9.30am. It is just as busy as usual meal times, but I personally love the 9.30 one as you get more characters and better interaction (we had a very grumpy Mickey on a 7.30 one once and I swore never to eat at that time again).******


Next, we really want to do the Auberge as we haven't met any of the princesses before. I noticed on the restaurants thread that you can have lunch or dinner here, is the menu/price the same for both? Are there certain days/times you can see certain princesses? Or is it just random (DD would looooooove to see Rapunzel, it's all she's gone on about since we told her we were going back)? Bearing in mind it'll be cold in January, we don't fancy queuing forever, but is it worth it or would we be better just saving the money for elsewhere and queuing for the princesses?

***** Random Princesses appear (but Cinderella is guaranteed) though off peak you will need to check if its open for dinner as the park has early closing and Novell restaurants stay open. You can prebook your meal though (reserve your table and even pay upfront so you just produce your vouchers) and you won't have to queue for very long at all.


Lastly, we had a lovely meal at the Steakhouse in the village on our last visit, and as we're there for a Sunday this time, thought about doing the Character Brunch but was wondering if the food was as good? We're only doing it for the characters, so was wondering what sort of characters others had met? Is it similar to Café Mickey? And if so, would you suggest an evening meal here instead? ie if the food's not great and characters all same, we'd rather have a decent meal, however if the food's not that great but it's likely there will be different characters we'd rather do the brunch.

*****Can't help with this one, but there are brunch fans on here though*****


I have lots of other queries about where to eat as we have a list of 11 and only 5 days to get through them all lol, but that will do for now. Thanks in advance for any opinions you can give to help narrow down our choices.

I put some answers with this ***** either side as I don't have an italic tool on my Dis app :-/

 

[Lisa_C]

I wouldn't do Cafe Mickey for breakfast - I think its poor value for money (ie very expensive for what you get) compared to lunch or dinner, when you can use your vouchers and its still a character meal.

You don't use your vouchers, you just simply upgrade your free hotel breakfast to Cafe Mickey instead (about £13 per head)

 

[DLPdaft]

You don't use your vouchers, you just simply upgrade your free hotel breakfast to Cafe Mickey instead (about £13 per head)

yes but £13 per person, adult or child, is expensive I think, especially when you have breakfast included at your hotel for free anyway .
You could have pizza and sides for 2 adults 2 kids for lunch or dinner at Cafe Micky, use 2 or 3 of your half board vouchers at face value, and it hasn't cost you anything at all .

 

[Lisa_C]

Ah I see......though if you have a Pirate who eats his weight in bacon and sausages, a nine year old who eats enough smoked salmon to deplete the world's stock, a 17 year old who just eats and a big kid (*sings*) who loves characters, paying this once in a while every few trips, its worth while for us Especially as we only stay onsite once in a blue moon, its a treat to have breakfast everyday and upgrade for one of those Though we did a DLH breakfast in August and used our AP discount

 

[cap'njack.]

if you have a Pirate who eats his weight in bacon and sausages,

I feel like I should complain about this...but it's true

 

[cookie334]

Thanks for the help... tbh with getting the half board free and with it being the first trip in so long I'm not too fussed about the money, just want kids to gave the best time ever so think we might do the Cafe Mickey brekkie. Plus OH will eat enough bacon, sausage and egg for the 5 of us haha.

I'm finding it so difficult... I thought we'd eat at different places every time we went but then you get favourites and it's so difficult to try and cut places out lol.

Thinking of using the half board vouchers to eat at buffets at lunch... quite a few that we want to do are buffets - Agrabah, Rendez vous and Chuck o Wagon, plus Annettes then have late dinners and pay for them :S what do you think? Also, is Cafe Mickey the only place you can "share" a meal ie a big pizza? Or are there other places you can get away with that?

The other places we want to go are Waltz, Steakhouse, Rainforest Cafe and AubergeXxx

 

[DLPdaft]

Thanks for the help... tbh with getting the half board free and with it being the first trip in so long I'm not too fussed about the money, just want kids to gave the best time ever so think we might do the Cafe Mickey brekkie. Plus OH will eat enough bacon, sausage and egg for the 5 of us haha.

I'm finding it so difficult... I thought we'd eat at different places every time we went but then you get favourites and it's so difficult to try and cut places out lol.

Thinking of using the half board vouchers to eat at buffets at lunch... quite a few that we want to do are buffets - Agrabah, Rendez vous and Chuck o Wagon, plus Annettes then have late dinners and pay for them :S what do you think? Also, is Cafe Mickey the only place you can "share" a meal ie a big pizza? Or are there other places you can get away with that?

The other places we want to go are Waltz, Steakhouse, Rainforest Cafe and AubergeXxx

None of the hotel buffets are open for lunch (apart from Inventions in the Disneyland Hotel). The hotel buffets are dinner only(they open at 6pm).

I can't think of anywhere else that has main table service meals large enough to share among the table - the reason you can do it with pizza at Cafe Mickey is because they are huge pizzas .

 

[cookie334]

None of the hotel buffets are open for lunch (apart from Inventions in the Disneyland Hotel). The hotel buffets are dinner only(they open at 6pm).

I can't think of anywhere else that has main table service meals large enough to share among the table - the reason you can do it with pizza at Cafe Mickey is because they are huge pizzas .

Aw well that changes things slightly. I read somewhere though that Rainforest is better at lunch than dinner so might swap that with Chuck o Wagon.

Hmmm that's what I thought re the sharing...was just trying to think about if we weren't too hungry but still wanted to eat lol. Oh they don't make it easy for us do they? Lol