As much as I had freaked out about turning 25 and being halfway to 50, there is really no better way to celebrate a birthday then in Disney World. Unfortunatly, my breakfast at Chef Mickey's gets the award (if you want to call it an award,) for worst meal of the trip.
Though it was by no means horrible, and out of all previous worst meals from prior trips, it was probably one of the better ones, and definatly better then my breakfast at Cape May Cafe in September.
My day had started off well. I had made it to the Magic Kingdom from rope drop, and had gotten my birthday gift of $75 to spend, since I already had a MYW ticket. I had gotten a lot done that morning before heading over to the Contemporary for breakfast.
I had eaten at Chef Mickey's once before in 2007 for dinner when I had been in Disney with my mom. We had both enjoyed the dinner, and had thought the service was good and the character interaction had been wonderful.
I was seated ten minutes before my ADR time, so the meal started well, and though I wouldn't say it went completely downhill from there, a lot of things were lacking.
First of all, I was seated by the kitchen door, and while that didn't bother me, the fact that piles of dirty dishes were in my face as I ate did. Not to mention the broom and dustpan left on the floor in the dining room, that is cleary visiable in all my pictures.
The characters that day were Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. One of them, I think it was Minnie, saw my birthday button and shirt, and got all excited about it. But that was all the recognition I got for it being my birthday. Not that I minded not getting another free dessert, I just find it ironic that I had been getting free desserts and other little extras for a few days, and then on my actual bithday, when I was not only wearing the button, but a shirt that said "it's my birthday," my birthday was ignored.
The service was lacking. My server, Linda, seemed nice enough, but was somewhat unattentive, and it took me awhile to get my drink, and for plates to be cleared.
The food was good, though not as good as Tusker House and Crystal Palace's breakfast buffets, which are still the best two breakfast buffets on property IMO. (Though I haven't tried Boma for breakfast yet, I'm sure that one would be high on my list.)
I had French toast, a pancake, eggs, bacon, vegetable lasagna, roasted potatoes, and cheesy potatoes. The French toast, pancake, bacon, eggs, and roasted potatoes were fine, nothing to complain about, nothing to really say about either. The cheesy potatoes I did not like, they had a very fake cheese taste to them. The vegetable lasagna was the only thing I really liked on the plate. It was layers of tortilla, eggs, cheese, and summery garden vegetables.
On my second plate I had some more vegetable lasagna, breakfast pizza, a cheese blintz with blueberry sauce, and a brownie. A brownie at breakfast? Yeah well, I'm on vacation, it's my brithday and I'm old! I need chocolate. The pizza was decent, I like CP's and even Pop's better though. The blintz was good, though like most of the food, nothing remarkable.
Blueberry yogurt with assorted toppings. And I do realize I have a tiny amount of yogurt with a lot of toppings, but I really liked the toppings by themselves.
The peaches and strawberries were standard buffet-fare, open up a can, and dump them into a bowl, especially the peaches. The strawberries were pretty good though. The apples were in some kind of cinnamon cream, with a streusel topping and were really good. I could've eaten a whole plate full just of them.
I don't think I'd do Chef Mickey's for breakfast again. There's just so many better options out there, and I like dinner there better anyway.