Latest / Mom Street USA / 125. Meeting Mickey Mouse (at all 4 Disney World Parks)

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125. Meeting Mickey Mouse (at all 4 Disney World Parks) · Mom Street USA

• 0:03
  Welcome everyone to Mom St. USAI am your host Jackie.
• 0:07
  And on today's episode of Mom St.
• 0:09
  USA we are focusing on all things Mickey Mouse.
• 0:13
  So the the rodents that started it all, so to speak, is who we
• 0:17
  are focused on today. This is Part 3 of a little mini
• 0:20
  series that we've been doing about where to find different
• 0:22
  characters around the Disney parks at Walt Disney World.
• 0:25
  So today we are focused on where to find Mickey during your
• 0:29
  visit. So we are going to go through
• 0:31
  each park today to discuss where to find him in rides, character
• 0:35
  meets, shows, attractions, dining, all of those good
• 0:39
  things. And at the end of the episode
• 0:41
  today, I'm going to share some of my opinions and top choices
• 0:45
  for all of these different categories.
• 0:48
  Now, in the previous episodes, we did some kind of sample
• 0:50
  itineraries. This episode's going to be a
• 0:53
  little bit different and you'll kind of see why because Mickey
• 0:55
  is a little more spread out across the Walt Disney World
• 0:58
  property than some of the other characters we've talked about.
• 1:01
  So I'm going to kind of just give you some of my personal
• 1:04
  choices and opinions at the end when we get there.
• 1:07
  But to kick off our little chat here today, we're going to start
• 1:12
  at Animal Kingdom. So where can we find Mickey
• 1:16
  Mouse at Animal Kingdom? Well, we're going to focus on
• 1:19
  those 4 categories like I talked about rides, character meets,
• 1:22
  shows, and dining. So you will find across Disney
• 1:27
  property that there are very few.
• 1:30
  In fact, there's only one true ride that has Mickey Mouse
• 1:34
  featured in it. So at Animal Kingdom, we don't
• 1:37
  have any rides that feature Mickey, but we do have a
• 1:39
  character meet. So you can find Mickey and
• 1:43
  Minnie, they meet together at Animal Kingdom and they're
• 1:46
  adorable little safari outfits and you will find them at
• 1:50
  Adventurers Outposts on Discovery Island.
• 1:52
  So this area, the Discovery Island area is that like central
• 1:56
  hub of Animal Kingdom. And the Adventurers Outpost is
• 2:01
  kind of near the bridge before you crossover into Asia.
• 2:05
  So you're going to head kind of towards Expedition Everest to be
• 2:08
  able to find the building that they are located in.
• 2:11
  And that is a super fun meet and greet.
• 2:13
  It is a fairly popular meet and greet, so definitely keep that
• 2:17
  in mind if you are planning to stop and see Mickey and Minnie,
• 2:20
  but it's nice that you get both of them together at one location
• 2:23
  there. As far as shows go at Animal
• 2:26
  Kingdom, we don't have any shows that specifically feature Mickey
• 2:30
  Mouse, so nothing to note there. But dining, we do have a dining
• 2:37
  experience at Animal Kingdom that does feature Mickey Mouse
• 2:41
  and that is the Tusker House character meal.
• 2:44
  So this is in the Africa section kind of between the safari and
• 2:48
  the theater where you will find festival at The Lion King.
• 2:52
  And this is a true character meal with Mickey, Donald, Goofy
• 2:56
  and Daisy and they all are in kind of their little safari
• 3:00
  outfits there. It is a buffet style, which I
• 3:04
  love buffet character meet and greets, especially with kids.
• 3:07
  I feel like you definitely get more of your money's worth when
• 3:11
  you do buffets for breakfast. They have a lot of like African
• 3:14
  inspired flavors in their food, but they also still have Mickey
• 3:18
  waffles, pastries, omelets, those types of things as well.
• 3:21
  So definitely some really great options for anybody in your
• 3:26
  travel party and some exploratory options which is
• 3:29
  kind of nice for lunch and dinner.
• 3:32
  They also have kind of that African inspired menu with like
• 3:37
  a lot of their seasonings on the meats that they offer.
• 3:40
  They do have plant based offerings here as well.
• 3:43
  They have salads and then they also have breads and you know
• 3:45
  all your standard offerings that you would see typically for a
• 3:48
  buffet, but again with a little bit more of an African spice
• 3:52
  palate with that. As far as price goes for
• 3:55
  breakfast you are looking at 52 per adult and $35 for kids.
• 4:01
  And I should mention that the kid age range is ages 3 to 9.
• 4:05
  So remember under 3 is free. They eat off of your plate.
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  Once you hit 10 you are considered an adult quote UN
• 4:12
  quote by Disney standards. So 52 for adults, 35 for kids,
• 4:18
  for breakfast, for lunch and dinner.
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  It is 64 for adults and 42 for kids.
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  So you're paying for the food, you're paying for the
• 4:28
  atmosphere, you're paying for the characters.
• 4:30
  So you have to decide whether or not that's within your budget on
• 4:33
  your Animal Kingdom day. Now I will also mention Animal
• 4:36
  Kingdom has some other great food options too.
• 4:38
  So Tesco house is wonderful, but you will not be be without if
• 4:43
  you if you don't go to Tesco, they have tons of really great
• 4:46
  food at Animal Kingdom as well. So that's kind of it at Animal
• 4:50
  Kingdom, again, we've got that character meal and then we've
• 4:53
  got the character meet and greet.
• 4:55
  But let's hop over to Hollywood Studios where we have a little
• 4:58
  bit more to mention from our favorite mouse.
• 5:01
  Now at Hollywood Studios is where you will find Mickey's
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  only true ride across Walt Disney World property and that
• 5:10
  is Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.
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  This is one of my absolute favorite rides at Disney World.
• 5:17
  I love this attraction. It is located inside of the
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  Chinese Theater, which is kind of straight ahead once you enter
• 5:25
  into Hollywood Studios. It is a super fun ride.
• 5:28
  It kind of pairs together some newer technology with a lot of
• 5:32
  kind of screen based use. It's a trackless dark ride.
• 5:36
  Super, super fun, highly recommend.
• 5:39
  As far as character meets over at Hollywood Studios over here,
• 5:44
  you get Mickey, but you get Sorcerer Mickey, which is a
• 5:47
  super fun character meet and greet, especially if you're
• 5:50
  planning to go to Fantasmic, which we'll talk about that show
• 5:53
  here in just a moment. But you get Sorcerer Mickey in a
• 5:57
  very nicely themed room to the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
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  So super, super fun themed character meet there and the one
• 6:06
  of the things I love about Mickey and his character meets
• 6:09
  across properties. All of them are themed and you
• 6:12
  get a different version of Mickey no matter where you go.
• 6:16
  So that is super fun. Whether it's a character meal,
• 6:18
  whether it's a true meet and greet, it's all kind of a little
• 6:21
  bit different. So you'll kind of see that trend
• 6:24
  as we go through the rest of today's episode.
• 6:26
  So yes, sorcerer Mickey there. You can also see Minnie there
• 6:29
  too. She's in the room next door and
• 6:32
  she's in like her movie star pink dress.
• 6:36
  Very, very pretty. So I feel like you got to
• 6:38
  mention Minnie a little bit with this Mickey focus today.
• 6:42
  As far as like shows go, a couple different things that you
• 6:45
  have here at Hollywood Studios. You have the vacation fun
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  shorts, which is like a little theater that can be found kind
• 6:56
  of around the corner from where the Frozen sing along is and
• 6:59
  inside of there they show some of the newer re branded Mickey
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  Mouse cartoons. So it's a great place to go get
• 7:08
  out of the heat, sit down for a little while, relax, watch a
• 7:11
  couple Mickey cartoons and then go about your day.
• 7:15
  I'm so definitely obviously you can find Mickey there.
• 7:18
  I do also want to mention that there is at Hollywood studios.
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  This is Mickey a adjacent because there is what is the one
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  man's dream exhibit, I guess you would say there as well, which
• 7:32
  is kind of like the history of Walt Disney.
• 7:34
  And when you think about the history of Walt Disney, you
• 7:36
  think about Mickey Mouse as well.
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  So that is located directly behind the Chinese Theater in
• 7:41
  that building. It's been there for as long as I
• 7:45
  can remember. It's a really, really great
• 7:47
  walkthrough. If you are somebody that likes
• 7:50
  the history, wants to know more about Walt Disney and the
• 7:52
  origins of Mickey, you can find that there a couple true shows
• 7:57
  also that we can find at Hollywood Studios.
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  The 1st is the Wonderful World of Animation.
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  This is a show that shows projected images on the Chinese
• 8:08
  theater. So it happens in the evening
• 8:10
  time, typically right at park close, which is normally 9 or
• 8:14
  930 at Hollywood Studios. Again, check your park hours.
• 8:17
  Make sure you know what the show times are for that the The way
• 8:20
  that Disney describes this show is it says be part of the
• 8:24
  adventure as you step into an unprecedented collection of new,
• 8:27
  classic and rarely seen animated films.
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  Watch and wonder as the facade of the Chinese theater is
• 8:32
  magically transformed, displaying the stirring tribute
• 8:35
  to animation. So this show started with the
• 8:40
  50th anniversary of the Disney of Walt Disney World, and then
• 8:45
  has continued to be shown every night through the 100th year of
• 8:49
  animation and all of those celebrations that we've had
• 8:51
  recently at the Walt Disney World parks.
• 8:54
  So it is a super fun little show.
• 8:56
  They've got a few little fireworks that go off with it as
• 8:59
  well, but it's not like a full fireworks show.
• 9:02
  It's mostly just the projections and the music that go with it.
• 9:05
  And obviously you can't feature the wonderful world of animation
• 9:09
  without talking about Mickey Mouse when it comes to Disney.
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  So that is a super fun little show that you can catch at the
• 9:15
  end of the night. The other nighttime show is
• 9:18
  Fantasmic. Fantasmic is one of the absolute
• 9:22
  best shows on Disney World property.
• 9:26
  It takes place at a separate kind of lagoon theater.
• 9:30
  They typically do one or two shows per night depending on the
• 9:33
  time of year. If it's a slower time, crowds
• 9:36
  maybe aren't as high. They'll do one show a night
• 9:39
  which is typically about 1/2 hour before park close and then
• 9:43
  if it's super busy they will do 2 shows a night.
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  So they'll do like an 8 and a 930 or something along the lines
• 9:51
  of that. Occasionally they do something
• 9:53
  later, it's like a 10:00 PM, but that is normally just during
• 9:57
  like really, really peak season. So again, you always want to
• 10:00
  check your times. You always want to know what
• 10:02
  time to expect and Fantasmic, if there's only one showing, you
• 10:06
  definitely want to get there early because of that entire
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  Lagoon Amphitheatre, while it's got hundreds of seats, it will
• 10:14
  fill up. So you want to make sure that
• 10:15
  you plan accordingly for that. If there are two showtimes and
• 10:19
  you are able to with your party, stay up later and go to the
• 10:23
  second Showtime. Definitely recommend doing that,
• 10:26
  but the the whole premise of Fantasmic according to the
• 10:31
  Disney website is it says be there as the forces of good and
• 10:35
  evil battle it out in Mickey's dream during this extravagant
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  open air nighttime musical. So we talked about Fantasmic
• 10:42
  last episode with the princesses because there are also tons of
• 10:45
  princesses in this show. But this truly is a Mickey Mouse
• 10:48
  based show. He gets to fight all the bad
• 10:51
  guys and spoiler alert, comes out victorious in the end.
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  So super, super great show. Tons of, you know, water effects
• 11:02
  and pyro effects and fireworks and lots of really great stuff.
• 11:07
  So again, highly, highly, highly recommend seeing Fantasmic on
• 11:12
  your Hollywood Studios day. As far as dining goes at
• 11:15
  Hollywood Studios, we do have a character meet over here at
• 11:18
  Hollywood and Vine. So this is technically
• 11:22
  advertised as a Minnie Mouse character meet and greet, but it
• 11:27
  does feature Minnie, Mickey, Goofy and Pluto.
• 11:31
  They do also theme this one to be like seasonal.
• 11:36
  So like if you go during the holidays, you'll find it to be
• 11:39
  Christmas themed. If you go during the springtime,
• 11:42
  it's more springtime themed, those types of things.
• 11:45
  So super, super cute theming inside of there.
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  It is also a buffet style. Yay.
• 11:53
  So buffet style character meal for breakfast, they typically
• 11:57
  have standard breakfast items. They've got waffles, omelets,
• 11:59
  sausage, pastries. And then for lunch and dinner,
• 12:02
  they've got a wide variety. They've got chicken, ham,
• 12:05
  salmon, shrimp, ham. I said ham, potatoes, veggies,
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  kind of a really nice wide variety of offerings there on
• 12:13
  their buffet. For the breakfast buffet, it is
• 12:16
  $49.00 for adults and $33 for kids.
• 12:20
  For the lunch and dinner buffet it is $64 for adults and $44.00
• 12:26
  for kids. So it is pretty much right on
• 12:29
  par with what we saw for Tusker House.
• 12:33
  A few dollar difference, you know, back and forth, but
• 12:37
  definitely a super cute and very popular character meal.
• 12:41
  And again, all of these character meals you are
• 12:42
  definitely going to want to get on and get an advance dining
• 12:45
  reservation for 60 days out. Wake up early, jump online and
• 12:49
  get that ready to go because you don't want to miss out on those.
• 12:54
  So that is kind of a fast and furious look at what Hollywood
• 12:58
  Studios has to offer. Next we are going to hop on the
• 13:02
  Sky Liner and head over to Epcot.
• 13:04
  So over at Epcot, again, like I said, unfortunately Mickey only
• 13:08
  has one ride across Walt Disney World, so no rides over there
• 13:11
  that specifically feature him. There is a character meet and
• 13:15
  greet and I actually really love this character meet and greet.
• 13:18
  It is a newer character meet and greet that kind of came about
• 13:22
  with all of the new newly opened constructed areas of the kind of
• 13:28
  front center of Epcot directly behind Spaceship Earth.
• 13:31
  So there is a Mickey and Friends meet and greet over by
• 13:34
  Communicore Hall. And the thing that I love about
• 13:37
  this is it's a three in one. So you get 3 different
• 13:40
  characters all in one room and you just travel right between
• 13:44
  them. So definitely worth the wait.
• 13:46
  When we went, we saw Goofy, Minnie and Mickey, McDonald and
• 13:51
  Daisy are in there sometimes. Pluto's in there sometimes you
• 13:53
  never really know who you're going to get, so Mickey is
• 13:56
  always there. But it's Mickey and friends.
• 13:59
  So definitely a really, really fun meet and greet.
• 14:02
  A really, really great option to see a ton of characters in one
• 14:06
  swoop, especially if you've got a kiddo that is super into
• 14:09
  Mickey and friends. There shows nothing specific to
• 14:15
  talk about as far as featuring Mickey, but let's talk about
• 14:18
  dining because there is a really fun dining option over here at
• 14:21
  Epcot and that is the Garden Grill.
• 14:24
  So this is located inside of the Land Pavilion, which is where
• 14:27
  you also will find Sauron and living with the land kind of
• 14:31
  between Nemo and Figment. That side of the park is where
• 14:34
  we're talking. And it is a true character meal.
• 14:39
  And it features Chip and Dale, Mickey and Pluto.
• 14:43
  And this is like Farmer Mickey. So again, I talked about you
• 14:47
  never kind of know what theming you may get with them.
• 14:50
  Oh, I should mention the meet and greet over here is like true
• 14:55
  Mickey, like suit jacket, little tuxedo Mickey, if that makes
• 14:59
  sense, if you can like visualize that.
• 15:02
  But this character meet and greet is Farmer Mickey and he's
• 15:07
  in overalls and a hat and just so adorable.
• 15:11
  I love it so much. Again with Chip and Dale, which
• 15:14
  is a super fun addition that you don't get to see them at
• 15:18
  character meals very frequently. The greatest thing about this is
• 15:22
  the entire restaurant over at Garden Grill actually rotates.
• 15:28
  So it's not like a super fast, it's not going to make you feel
• 15:30
  sick or like you're on a boat or anything like that.
• 15:33
  But the entire restaurant is on a like rotating platform, which
• 15:39
  means that at some point during your meal, you will get a peek
• 15:43
  down into the farm scene at the beginning of Living with the
• 15:47
  land. So if you're familiar with the
• 15:48
  Living with the land boat ride, you start off kind of going
• 15:52
  through some different scenery and different locations and one
• 15:56
  of them is a farmhouse. And if you are on the boat ride,
• 16:01
  when you when you are looking at the farmhouse, if you look up to
• 16:03
  the left, that is where you will see Garden Grill.
• 16:07
  So it's super fun. You get a little peek down into
• 16:09
  that scene if you are sitting up on Garden Grill.
• 16:13
  But this is a family style dining experience.
• 16:16
  For breakfast, they have things like waffles, steak and eggs.
• 16:19
  Again, really standard offerings there for lunch and dinner, tons
• 16:24
  of options there. Mac and cheese, Turkey steak
• 16:26
  options, potatoes, all of that. The other great thing is any of
• 16:30
  the vegetables and things that are growing on Living with the
• 16:34
  Land are featured in Garden Grill.
• 16:36
  So you can always ask your cast member, waiter or waitress about
• 16:40
  what on the menu is actually grown in Living with the Land in
• 16:44
  their greenhouses. So that's a super fun little
• 16:47
  little thing, especially if your family is into like gardening or
• 16:50
  you grow crops or whatever. It's a fun little Disney twist
• 16:54
  on that. For price range, breakfast is 49
• 16:59
  for adults and a 33 for kids, and lunch and dinner is 62 for
• 17:06
  adults and 42 for kids. So again, right on par with what
• 17:09
  we talked about with Tusker House and with Hollywood and
• 17:13
  Vine at the other parks. That's just pretty much standard
• 17:16
  for your care character meals in the park.
• 17:19
  So again, a really, really great option.
• 17:22
  Super unique, unique characters, unique atmosphere, unique
• 17:26
  experience. So that is a really good option
• 17:28
  to see Mickey at Epcot. So that takes care of Epcot.
• 17:33
  Let's monorail over now to Magic Kingdom.
• 17:38
  Magic Kingdom normally with all of these characters, I feel like
• 17:42
  especially with the princesses we talked about, it had like the
• 17:44
  most offerings. It surprisingly doesn't have as
• 17:49
  much as you would anticipate maybe it having for Mickey
• 17:53
  Mouse. Now there is something in every
• 17:55
  category, so let's go ahead and jump in.
• 17:58
  As far as rides, again, Mickey doesn't have any rides other
• 18:02
  than Runaway Railway, but I do just want to mention Mickey
• 18:06
  adjacent Goofy does have a ride here, which is the Goofy's
• 18:09
  Barnstormer small kiddie coaster that is over in the Storybook
• 18:13
  Circus area near the Dumbo ride. Super fun.
• 18:16
  If you are a fan of Mickey, it's highly likely you're probably
• 18:20
  also a fan of Goofy. So that's a super fun little
• 18:23
  first roller coaster. It is very short, very small, so
• 18:29
  very accessible to a lot of different ages.
• 18:33
  Character meet and greet. So you can meet Mickey Mouse at
• 18:36
  Town Square Theatre, which is right at the front of the park.
• 18:39
  After you enter through the tap styles, you go under the train
• 18:42
  station and then the building that is immediately to your
• 18:44
  right hand side is the Town Square Theatre and that is where
• 18:48
  you will find the Mickey meet and greet.
• 18:50
  He's usually dressed. How do I describe the way he's
• 18:55
  dressed? He's kind of almost dressed like
• 18:58
  a magician in there. He's got kind of a fancier
• 19:01
  longer tailed jacket on usually. And so that is a super fun meet
• 19:07
  and greet. I will also mention that that is
• 19:09
  the same space that if you're going to any of the parties like
• 19:13
  the Halloween party or the Christmas party, that is where
• 19:16
  you will also find the like themed Mickey meet and greet as
• 19:19
  well. So they keep that all in the
• 19:20
  same location shows at the Magic Kingdom, you can find Mickey's
• 19:27
  fill her magic show, which is a 4D experience theatre back in
• 19:31
  fantasyland. If you are near the carousel,
• 19:35
  it's kind of right around the corner across from where we
• 19:38
  talked about Princess fairy tale hall last episode.
• 19:41
  It's the opposite side around from the carousel and that is a
• 19:46
  it features a it features Mickey.
• 19:48
  It features more of Donald but Mickey is in that one as well
• 19:52
  which was a super fun show. Highly recommend.
• 19:55
  Donald takes you on an adventure chasing Mickey sorcerer hat
• 19:59
  through a ton of different movie scenes on that one.
• 20:02
  There are a couple other shows. We talked last episode about
• 20:07
  Mickey's magical friendship. Fair that, obviously.
• 20:11
  Features Mickey Mouse Mickey and Minnie are prominent in that
• 20:14
  storyline because they are throwing a party and they want
• 20:17
  to invite all of their friends to come to the party.
• 20:20
  So lots and lots of Mickey and Minnie in that stage show, and
• 20:24
  they usually have like 4 to 5 showtimes throughout the day.
• 20:28
  Again, check your guides, make sure you know what times those
• 20:31
  are. And this is the one also last
• 20:33
  episode that I mentioned can get very, very hot during the middle
• 20:36
  of the day because it is exposed in the hub right in front of the
• 20:40
  castle. So just play it accordingly.
• 20:42
  If it's a super hot 95° day, maybe don't pick the 1:00 show.
• 20:47
  Just my suggestion for that. And then as far as the other
• 20:51
  things that you can find Mickey at show wise, let's talk about
• 20:53
  the parades. We talked about Festival Fantasy
• 20:56
  Parade and the Starlight Parade last episode.
• 20:59
  Those both do feature Mickey. So in the Festival Fantasy
• 21:02
  Parade, which is the afternoon parade, typically one time
• 21:06
  3:00-ish, sometimes twice noon and three occasionally it's at
• 21:10
  2:00 PM. So again, he always got a check,
• 21:13
  but Mickey is on the final float of that parade.
• 21:17
  And then the new Disney Starlight night time parade.
• 21:21
  Mickey is also on the last float of that, which is just, I love
• 21:26
  that parade so much. So definitely, definitely you
• 21:30
  can catch Mickey on both of those parades bringing up the
• 21:34
  rear and waving to the masses and all of his adoring fans for
• 21:39
  that. Now, dining options are actually
• 21:42
  no Mickey character meet and greets at for dining at Magic
• 21:48
  Kingdom. That's primarily because
• 21:51
  Mickey's a very busy mouse. He's in the stage show, he's got
• 21:54
  a meet and greet, he's in the parades.
• 21:57
  He's a very busy mouse. He doesn't have time to do a
• 22:00
  character meal here, but we are going to talk next about the
• 22:03
  resorts and there are several character meal options there as
• 22:07
  well. So that wraps up our Magic
• 22:09
  Kingdom offerings. So now we can hop over to the
• 22:12
  resorts. So let's talk about the Disney
• 22:15
  resorts that you are most likely to find Mickey in.
• 22:19
  Now, there are no rooms at the Disney resorts that are promoted
• 22:24
  as Mickey Mouse themed, quote UN quote.
• 22:28
  However, there are tons of resorts that have Mickey Mouse
• 22:33
  touches to them. So let's talk about a few that I
• 22:36
  know of. There are lots of Mickey themes
• 22:42
  and nods and Mickey Mouse heads and statues and pictures all
• 22:47
  across all of the resorts. So don't get me wrong, almost
• 22:50
  any Disney resort that you stay in, you're going to see Mickey
• 22:53
  somewhere in the resort. But a couple that I know for
• 22:58
  sure have a little bit more theming, The first one being All
• 23:01
  Star Movies. So All Star Movies actually has
• 23:05
  a Fantasia themed pool that's got Sorcerer Mickey in it.
• 23:09
  O if you have a kiddo that loves Sorcerer Mickey and is intending
• 23:14
  to go swimming this is a great option.
• 23:16
  They also do have some theming in the rooms as well there where
• 23:22
  they've got lots of pictures of Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald.
• 23:25
  So these are in the value category at Disney World.
• 23:27
  So the average price is anywhere from about 1:59 a night to 260 a
• 23:33
  night. But you can often find them as
• 23:36
  part of deals and you can get them cheaper.
• 23:38
  They run Disney Plus deals, they run annual pass deals, they run
• 23:41
  just like summer deals a lot. So you can typically find them a
• 23:45
  little bit cheaper than that as well.
• 23:47
  So that's All Star movies. I will also mention that the
• 23:50
  other All Stars also have a ton of really great theming and have
• 23:55
  Mickey Mouse featured in their rooms.
• 23:56
  So it's not a true Mickey Mouse room.
• 23:59
  Again, none of the resorts officially have Mickey Mouse
• 24:03
  themed rooms, but they've got pictures of Mickey all over the
• 24:06
  place in these rooms at All Star Music and All Star Sports as
• 24:09
  well. And those price ranges are right
• 24:12
  around that same about 1:59 to about the mid 2 hundreds for
• 24:17
  those depending on the time of year and and all of those things
• 24:20
  for that. Another value property that does
• 24:23
  also have Mickey Mouse featured in the rooms is Pop Century.
• 24:27
  And that's because really the rooms at the All Stars in the
• 24:30
  rooms at Pop Century, now that they've all been refurbed over
• 24:33
  the past six or seven years are all identical.
• 24:38
  So they all have pictures of Mickey and Minnie in the rooms.
• 24:41
  Those rooms are a little bit more expensive at 2:19 to about
• 24:44
  300 a night, depending again on when you're going time of year,
• 24:48
  blah, blah, blah, all those things that we always talk about
• 24:51
  with the with the resort. So if you want Mickey Mouse in
• 24:55
  your resort and you want to see him featured All Star movies is
• 24:59
  your best option. But then any of the other value
• 25:01
  properties between Pop Century and the other All Stars are also
• 25:04
  great. Now that being said, is there
• 25:08
  also Mickey Mouse across all the other resorts?
• 25:10
  Yes, we talked about that. So I don't know that I would
• 25:13
  necessarily choose my resort based on wanting a Mickey Mouse
• 25:19
  theme. I don't know that you're really
• 25:21
  going to get what you want out of that, if that makes sense.
• 25:26
  Keep all of that in mind when you're looking at resorts.
• 25:28
  I would mainly choose your resort based on budget,
• 25:33
  amenities and proximity to whatever parks or whatever the
• 25:36
  transportation situation is to the parks that you plan to
• 25:39
  visit. So that's what I would say about
• 25:42
  that. But there are several really
• 25:45
  great resort character dining options that feature Mickey
• 25:48
  Mouse. So we've got three options that
• 25:51
  are outside of the park. So all of these options you do
• 25:54
  not have to have a park ticket to visit.
• 25:55
  Obviously the ones that are in the parks, you do have to have a
• 25:57
  park ticket to visit those. The first is one of the most
• 26:01
  popular and I also think one of the most maybe controversial
• 26:07
  options for a Mickey character meal, and that is Chef Mickey's.
• 26:12
  So Chef Mickey's is over at the Contemporary Resort, which is
• 26:16
  connected by Monorail to Magic Kingdom.
• 26:18
  It is a character meal with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald
• 26:21
  and Goofy and they are all dressed like chefs, so white
• 26:25
  outfits. Think about that kind of picture
• 26:28
  is what you're going to get with that.
• 26:30
  They are buffet style, so this is a really great option just
• 26:35
  because it's buffet. The breakfast has a ton of
• 26:39
  choices, Biscuits and gravy, steak and eggs, waffles.
• 26:42
  For dinner they have a carving station, Mac and cheese scrimp,
• 26:46
  shrimp scampi that was hard for me to say today and a bunch of
• 26:48
  other kids favorites. Breakfast is 59 for adults and
• 26:52
  38 for kids. Dinner is 69 for adults and 44
• 26:58
  for kids. Now you may be wondering Jackie,
• 27:02
  why did you say this one is controversial?
• 27:04
  I know and personally have had not so great experiences at Chef
• 27:10
  Mickey's with the food. I think it can be very hit or
• 27:15
  miss, but I think it's it's a little more inconsistent in
• 27:20
  quality than some of the other breakfast and dinner, lunch,
• 27:25
  dinner buffets that you can come across.
• 27:28
  Now that being said, you may go and you may have a fantastic
• 27:32
  experience. The last time I went was my
• 27:37
  son's first trip. He was 2 almost 2 and everyone
• 27:45
  in our party got sick from the food.
• 27:48
  I had been before, had no issues.
• 27:51
  So now that also being said, you can have any of those
• 27:57
  experiences at any of the Walt Disney World restaurants.
• 28:01
  I just personally had a really bad experience at Chef Mickey's
• 28:05
  and will probably never go back just because of that.
• 28:08
  So, and again, I've heard of a lot of people having not so
• 28:11
  great experiences. Make that decision how you
• 28:14
  choose to. It is a character dining that
• 28:18
  has a ton of characters. So if you want the Fab 5, it is
• 28:23
  a really great option. I think unless I'm mistaken,
• 28:26
  it's the only place that you get all 5.
• 28:28
  Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, you normally get 4 of the
• 28:31
  five. So again, pros and cons.
• 28:35
  This one for me is a con personally, but again, I know a
• 28:39
  lot of people who love it and it is right in line price wise with
• 28:43
  the other ones that we are looking at.
• 28:45
  It is a little bit more expensive, maybe 5 to $10 more
• 28:50
  per person than some of the other ones, but still fairly
• 28:53
  close. Now, on the flip side, the next
• 28:58
  character meal that I'm going to talk about is my absolute
• 29:03
  favorite character meal. And that should surprise no one
• 29:07
  who's been around long enough to know.
• 29:10
  If you've been around long enough, you probably already
• 29:12
  know what restaurant I'm going to talk about that is Topolino's
• 29:15
  Terrace. So this is a restaurant that is
• 29:18
  on the top floor of the Riviera Resort.
• 29:21
  It is a character meal with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and
• 29:25
  Daisy, and it is breakfast only. And this one is a really hard
• 29:30
  reservation to get, but it is a prefix menu.
• 29:32
  They've got amazing food. Oh my gosh, I, my husband and I
• 29:39
  both, we've been to Toppolino's now three times and every time
• 29:46
  we go we just dream about the food for the rest of the week
• 29:50
  because it's so good. But they've got lots of really
• 29:53
  great breakfast options. Again, it's not buffet style, so
• 29:56
  that is a little bit different. You have to really make sure
• 29:58
  that your kids are going to eat what's on their menu.
• 30:01
  But they've got quiche, they've got waffles, French toast, steak
• 30:04
  and eggs. They have a really great kids
• 30:06
  menu with these adorable little waffle dippers that are served
• 30:09
  on a like a painter's palette. Because this is all themed to
• 30:13
  the arts. So Mickey, Minnie, Donald and
• 30:16
  Daisy are all dressed up like artists.
• 30:19
  Mickey is a painter, Donald is a sculptor, Daisy is a dancer, and
• 30:25
  Minnie is a writer. So they're all different forms
• 30:27
  of the arts and expression. So the the food on the kids menu
• 30:33
  is themed that way, which is really fun.
• 30:34
  Price wise, breakfast is $54.00 for adults and $35 for kids.
• 30:42
  And remember that this one is only breakfast.
• 30:44
  So they do also have a dinner at Topolino's that is also equally
• 30:48
  amazing food, but it's not a character meet and greet.
• 30:51
  So don't get that confused when you're going to make your
• 30:54
  reservations because you will find that the breakfast
• 30:57
  reservations immediately get booked up.
• 31:00
  But there are often dinner reservations here also.
• 31:03
  That being said, if you are a really small party, like it's
• 31:05
  just you or you and your one kiddo, you can try to do walk up
• 31:10
  reservations. They do sometimes have those
• 31:12
  available for Topolinos. They're they're not always going
• 31:16
  to be available, but again, this is one of my all time favorite
• 31:20
  dining experiences. My kids love it and they ask to
• 31:24
  go back every single trip that we go on after we're done
• 31:27
  eating, we always go out. They have a really nice like
• 31:30
  rooftop patio that you can go out and the views are
• 31:33
  spectacular of the sky liner and you get Caribbean beach and you
• 31:37
  know, it's just, I just love it so much.
• 31:39
  So highly, highly, highly recommend Topolinos Terrace if
• 31:42
  you can get a reservation and if it's within your budget.
• 31:45
  But again, it is not, it's cheaper than Chef Mickey's.
• 31:50
  So you got to decide what you want to do.
• 31:53
  Do you need the buffet of Chef Mickey's for a few extra
• 31:56
  dollars? Or do you want the kind of, I
• 31:59
  would say elevated experience of Topolino's Terrace for a little
• 32:02
  bit cheaper with a little less food options?
• 32:04
  You're going to have to make that decision for your party
• 32:07
  based on what you guys need. OK, one more character meal
• 32:11
  option. That is Ohana over at the
• 32:15
  Polynesian. So we're going back towards
• 32:17
  Magic Kingdom. This is at the Polynesian
• 32:19
  Resort. This is another really, really,
• 32:21
  really popular character breakfast.
• 32:24
  It is a character meal with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo, and Stitch.
• 32:29
  So this character combination is super popular and it makes it
• 32:33
  really tricky to get a reservation over here as well
• 32:37
  because it is breakfast only. Again, they do have a dinner
• 32:42
  option, great dinner option, but it's not a character meet.
• 32:45
  So you just have to keep that in mind when you're looking.
• 32:48
  It is family style, all you care to enjoy over here.
• 32:51
  So it's not a prefix menu, so to speak.
• 32:54
  It is that all you care to enjoy And their breakfast, they have
• 32:58
  like a breakfast bread option and then their breakfast skillet
• 33:03
  is what they call their meal that they serve.
• 33:06
  And it's egg, it's pork sausage, it's potatoes, it's waffles,
• 33:09
  it's fruit. It's all sorts of every
• 33:11
  breakfast food that you could ever possibly imagine at their
• 33:15
  breakfast. And again, you get McKee, Pluto,
• 33:17
  Lilo, and Stitch there in like more Polynesian Hawaiian vibe
• 33:23
  outfits over here. Breakfast is 53 for adults and
• 33:29
  33 for kids. So this one is right on par with
• 33:33
  Topolinos and a little bit less expensive again than what Chef
• 33:37
  Mickey's is and what some of the ones that we were seeing inside
• 33:40
  of the parks are. Again, really, really great
• 33:43
  option. So you've got 3 resort options
• 33:46
  for Mickey Mouse character meals.
• 33:48
  Chef Mickey's is an option that you can consider given the
• 33:54
  information I gave you. Topolino's and Ohana, top notch.
• 33:58
  Really, really great options. If you've got a resort day that
• 34:01
  you want to do a character meal at, that's what we typically do.
• 34:04
  So we don't typically do our character meals in parks because
• 34:08
  we like to do them on our resort days.
• 34:10
  So we do like a brunch or like a later breakfast time, like a 10
• 34:15
  AM if we can. And then we go back to the
• 34:17
  resort, we go swimming, we relax, we watch a movie, we hang
• 34:20
  out on our non park day. So that's what I suggest
• 34:25
  personally, if you, especially if you don't have like multiple
• 34:28
  days at each park, that'll just save you some time in parks.
• 34:32
  So that's my suggestion with that.
• 34:36
  So that is kind of all of the information that I have to
• 34:39
  present about where you can find Mickey in the parks.
• 34:44
  I am going to hop here to some of my choices, which I think you
• 34:47
  kind of already know some of my food choices after what we just
• 34:50
  talked about. But before we hop to there, I do
• 34:54
  just want to remind you that our good friend Kirk over at
• 34:56
  Walruskarp, who's actually going to be on our next episode.
• 34:58
  So you definitely don't want to miss that next week for him to
• 35:03
  come back. But I do just want to remind you
• 35:05
  about his new theme park app called Mode MOWD.
• 35:09
  When you are planning your trip, when you're putting in all of
• 35:12
  these things to go see Mickey on your trip, his app is a great
• 35:15
  way to keep that organized. So little mini promo and shout
• 35:18
  out, he didn't ask me to do that.
• 35:20
  I'm just going to do it because I think the app is fantastic.
• 35:22
  So when you are ready to plan your Mickey Mouse day, hop on
• 35:26
  mode, get that planning feature set up so that way you are ready
• 35:29
  to go and then you can just go down your nice little checklist
• 35:32
  and check off all of your Mickey Mouse themed adventures for the
• 35:35
  day. OK, promo over.
• 35:38
  Let's go to my kind of top choices here.
• 35:41
  For Mickey Mouse themed things, I'm going to stick back to those
• 35:46
  categories that we talked about characters, rides, shows and
• 35:49
  food. So for characters, really any of
• 35:53
  the four parks are fabulous options for meeting him as a
• 35:57
  character. Meet and greet.
• 35:58
  Again, like we said, they're all in different outfits.
• 36:00
  So do you want Safari Mickey at Animal Kingdom?
• 36:04
  Do you want Sorcerer Mickey at Hollywood Studios?
• 36:07
  Do you want what did what did I think?
• 36:10
  Cassie in my live chat here called him Dapper Magician
• 36:12
  Mickey at Magic Kingdom. Or do you want like classic
• 36:17
  Tuxedo Mickey at Epcot? Kind of your choice with that.
• 36:22
  Or, you know, make it a day and go to all four.
• 36:24
  Why not? If you've got the time and
• 36:26
  Mickey is a priority, that's a great option as well.
• 36:29
  As far as rides go, you've got to go to Hollywood Studios to
• 36:33
  ride Runaway Railway with that being the true Mickey Mouse ride
• 36:37
  that you can get across property.
• 36:39
  Again, Barnstormer is adjacent. You've got some other options as
• 36:43
  well, but Hollywood Studios for Mickey, Minnie's Runaway Railway
• 36:47
  is a great option. So if you want to do Runaway
• 36:50
  Railway, but you don't want to have to worry about Lightning
• 36:52
  Lanes, definitely head to Hollywood Studios first.
• 36:54
  You can rope drop or use your early entry for Runaway Railway
• 36:59
  and then hop over to the Sorcerer Mickey meet and greet
• 37:02
  and then go about your day doing whatever else it is that you
• 37:05
  have on your plan for that day. But definitely for rides, you
• 37:09
  want to hit Hollywood Studios for Runaway Railway.
• 37:11
  If you're someone that really wants to see Mickey in the shows
• 37:14
  and you want to see different experiences that feature Mickey
• 37:18
  Mouse, Magic Kingdom is going to be where you're going to want to
• 37:20
  go for that. They've got the friendship fair.
• 37:23
  Mickey's fill her magic. Like we talked about both of the
• 37:25
  parades, tons of opportunities to see Mickey there, as well as
• 37:29
  getting to do the Mickey meet and greet.
• 37:31
  You can do all of those things that feature Mickey.
• 37:34
  You can do them all basically within Main Street and like the
• 37:37
  first part of Fantasyland right behind the castle.
• 37:40
  So you don't even have to venture far.
• 37:42
  If you just are searching for Mickey.
• 37:44
  You can stay centrally located to kind of the Main Street hub,
• 37:48
  Fantasyland area of Magic Kingdom.
• 37:50
  But if you want to see him in shows, that's where I would
• 37:53
  suggest you go. And then as far as food,
• 37:55
  obviously I'm going to recommend Topolinos Terrace again, but
• 37:59
  really any of the other restaurants except for maybe
• 38:03
  Chef Mickey's are fabulous choices to go and see him as a
• 38:08
  character at your meal. I really always will suggest
• 38:13
  doing buffets with kids. I know Topolinos Terrace isn't a
• 38:16
  buffet, I just really love that experience.
• 38:18
  But a lot of the others that we have our buffets, I just think
• 38:21
  with kids it's a really good way to ensure that you get your
• 38:25
  money's worth from them being able to find food that they like
• 38:28
  and that they enjoy and that they want to eat.
• 38:30
  They get to go back for seconds, which is always a huge help, and
• 38:33
  they get to see some fun characters.
• 38:35
  So any of those other options I think are fabulous when it comes
• 38:40
  to seeing Mickey at a character meal on your trip.
• 38:44
  So I know that I didn't really give you like a full itinerary,
• 38:49
  but ultimately I do think you could probably do most of what
• 38:52
  we talked about, save obviously you can't go to, you know, 8
• 38:57
  Mickey Mouse character meals in one day.
• 38:59
  But most of the other things that we talked about are fairly
• 39:02
  feasible to do in one day. If you've got a park hopper and
• 39:05
  you're really determined to see as many Mickey Mouses as
• 39:08
  possible, you could easily do that in with the the items and
• 39:12
  the different event, different activities and things that I
• 39:15
  gave you on today's episode. So I didn't really truly give
• 39:18
  you an itinerary because the entire episode is kind of an
• 39:21
  itinerary. So ultimately, hopefully that
• 39:24
  helps you figure out where and when and how you are going to
• 39:29
  see the most magical rodent on earth.
• 39:34
  But I so I hope that this was helpful.
• 39:36
  Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode coming up
• 39:39
  next week on Mom Street. I teased it a little bit
• 39:42
  earlier, but we've got our good friend Kirk from Walrus Carp
• 39:45
  coming back to us to talk about the water parks in the Orlando
• 39:48
  area. So we're going to talk about the
• 39:50
  Disney water parks. We're going to talk about
• 39:51
  Universal, we're going to talk about SeaWorld, all of the
• 39:53
  options for what water parks you have.
• 39:55
  We are definitely getting into the heat of summer in Orlando.
• 39:59
  So I want to get you guys all that information if you're
• 40:01
  wondering where to head or. If you're looking at a trip
• 40:05
  maybe next summer that you started planning for since 2027
• 40:08
  dates got released, you can definitely stay tuned for next
• 40:13
  week's episode to find out all about the water parks.
• 40:15
  And I think Kurt's going to teach me a thing or two because
• 40:18
  I am not a water park person. So I'm excited to hear what he
• 40:22
  has to share. And then he's going to give us
• 40:23
  some updates on what is happening and what is coming up
• 40:26
  with Mode, his theme park planning app.
• 40:28
  So again, thank you all so much for being with me for this
• 40:31
  episode of Mom St. USA.
• 40:32
  If you've got more questions or want more help planning in
• 40:35
  itinerary, you can always reach out to me Mom St. usa@gmail.com.
• 40:39
  You can find me at Mom St. USA on Facebook, Instagram,
• 40:43
  YouTube, all those good places and on Patreon.
• 40:45
  Patreon is a really great place that you can send me a message
• 40:49
  or leave a comment on a post and reach out and we can chat about
• 40:52
  your most magical Mickey day. If you would like some
• 40:56
  additional advice on that or anything else for your upcoming
• 40:59
  trip, I would love to hear from you.
• 41:02
  But for today, that is going to do it for our episode.
• 41:04
  Again, thank you all for being here.
• 41:05
  Thank you for your support and I will see you next time on Mom
• 41:09
  St. USA.
• 41:10
  Bye everyone.