They have opened up Chef Mickey's for lunch reservations from 8/24 thru 9/27 if anyone's having a hard time making ADR's during the Free Dining dates.

We tried Chef Mickey's 2 years ago during the Free Dining for lunch, and the only difference was no carved meats, other dishes were the same. Since we're not big dessert eaters at the buffets, I can't say if there were any differences there. Not sure if there will be other changes this year.

Hope this helps!

There aren't any characters at lunch though are there?

We never made it there last year, but two years ago the characters were the same as at dinner. Of course, with Disney, anything can change from year to year.