Hi Summer!
Welcome to the Disney Parks Moms Panel! Oh, your trip to Walt Disney World Resort is almost hEAR!! I know you must be getting oh-so excited. Be sure to take a quick scan of the
Disney Parks Blog so you won't miss a minute of all of the new and exciting experiences and offerings happening during your time at Mickey's house.
I love
dining around the 'World (well, the Walt Disney World). There are so many options that I like to say that Disney is practically now an
Eat Park, too! And definitely in the
top 5 of must-do Disney Dining Locations is having a meal with the head cheese and his best pals at Chef Mickey's, which is located in the heart of the iconic (
earconic?)
Disney's Contemporary Resort A-frame building. I'm very happy to report that yes, your dinner will still be hot
and fresh even this late in the evening; the chefs will continue to whip up more batches of all the offerings as long as there is still a table of guests enjoying their meal time. I'm also happy to share that the characters will even stay and make their rounds for at least 45 minutes after the last reservation has been sat. In fact, my favorite
Character Dining strategy is to claim the latest reservation in any character meal time period because these famous friends will usually make multiple stops to our table instead of just once like in a more peak dining time.
When leaving
Magic Kingdom Park to head to
Chef Mickey's, you do have two options.
The Monorail's "Resort Loop" will pick you up at the park and drop you off at the Contemporary. Do note that the fireworks show '
Happily Ever After' is scheduled for 8:00 P.M. that night and the "post-pyro rush" will happen at the same time you'd also need to head to this futuristic space train. Luckily the second option is a walking path between Magic Kingdom Park and the Contemporary. The path is well-lit, takes about 10-15 minutes, and requires zero wait! I'd say if you were exiting the main entrance turnstiles exactly at 9:00 P.M., you'd make it to the restaurant right on time, so aim to leave between 8:45 and 9:00 and you should be perfectly fine. To find this path, you'll turn left out of Magic Kingdom Park and head towards the resort hotel buses; once near the buses the path is all the way to the left by the shrubs. When you get to the hotel, Chef Mickey's is on the 4th floor and to the right after you exit the bank of elevators.
I hope that this helped plan your upcoming Disney Days, Summer, and We'll See You Real Soon!
~Kristen