Café Mickey is a restaurant located in Disney Village, located just outside the gates of Disneyland Paris. For years the dining location hosted character meals, and was a must-have reservation, as it was the only location to meet characters outside of the parks. A unique aspect of Café Mickey was that guests would never know what characters would be appearing each night.
Unfortunately the characters were removed in April 2017, just days before the resort celebrated its 25th anniversary, likely because Disney wanted to keep the characters exclusive to the parks. The menu was also changed from a mixed cuisine to an Italian menu with much less choice but retaining the same price. After the loss of characters it was very easy to walk up and get a table for dinner with no wait. A complete interior redesign was also rumored for the restaurant. However, this never happened, and the restaurant quickly lost popularity which resulted in a lifeless atmosphere.
We are happy to report that Disney characters will return to Café Mickey on February 18th. The menu should remain Italian, but the price will increase to €70/$86 per person for a 3 course meal, according to rumors.
The building, located beside Lake Disney, was previously occupied by The Los Angeles Bar & Grill. It was transformed into Café Mickey in 2002 during the complete overhaul of the shopping district from Festival Disney to Disney Village. Characters have been a feature at the eatery ever since.
Café Mickey will be closed from January 29th through February 17th to prepare for the return of the characters.
A few errors in this.
There is and has been for years character dining also at the Disneyland Hotel. This is outside of the parks.
And for the last few years the dinner characters were set as Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Tigger and Eeyore.
But it was mind-boggling that they ever took the characters out in the first place. The restaurant was never going to sustain itself without them.
Character dining in Inventions in the Disneyland Hotel was at a higher price than Cafe Mickey so likely Disney saw it as being worth the price. This is probably why the price will increase when characters return.