WORST DISNEY DINING EXPERIENCE

[pmaurer74]

Thanks for a good review, your right about everyone has different experiences. Worst case scenario we can have them take any meals off our bill if the food is not edible! And just enjoy just the restaurants ambiance.
Oh we know all to well about WDW water, it even has a smell to it!! We joke when we come home from our trip that we can't wait to take a shower and rewash our clothes because of the smell from the water has penetrated our skin and our clothes. Funny thing is My son likes the smell!!!

On our 8th trip to WDW we ate at San Angel and it was the best meal of the trip! The Chicken Tingas were great!

 

[moviegeekgal]

Food: Cape May, had to leave in the middle of dinner because I felt so sick.
Atmosphere: Crystal Palace, way too loud and crowded and buffet very messy.

 

[blondietink]

Our worst dining experience was at Chef Mickey's. Food was bad (no taste), we got seated late (8:30 pm ADR and seated at 9:15 pm). never saw 2 characters because we were seated in a booth where they constantly skipped us. Server never brought any refills on drinks. Food on buffet was not being replaced, so if something was empty they never refilled it (due to late hour?). We asked several times to have the characters stop at our table and we were told that they had run out of time.

 

[Metz172]

It's entirely possible I just have a bad memory! I don't remember ever seeing handlers with the characters at any character meals.

They are sometimes standing at the edge of the section the character is working. We did two character meals this last trip, Garden Grill and Tusker House breakfast, and saw the handlers but none came directly to the table with the character.

 

[mom2rtk]

They are sometimes standing at the edge of the section the character is working. We did two character meals this last trip, Garden Grill and Tusker House breakfast, and saw the handlers but none came directly to the table with the character.

Oh, ok. That explains it. I thought they meant a handler had come around to tables with them. Yes, I've generally seen one handler in the dining room.

 

[SimonSez]

Haven't really had a terrible dining experience at Disney. Like others have said, some meals have been sub par, but we mostly do CS meals so lower expectations and all. Years ago however, my family and I went to Red Lobster for dinner and after several minutes waiting for a server, we noticed something strange...there were no servers anywhere in the restaurant. People were just sitting waiting at their tables and no one was eating. After some more time had passed, my brother got up and started to look for the missing wait staff. This was at a time when there was a separate room for smokers (now no smoking allowed). My brother finally found the wait staff--standing around with their cigarettes in the smoking room (there were no guests in there at the time). He asked them "are you gonna come out here and wait on people, or are you gonna stand in here all day and grab a** !! We still tell that story and have a good laugh, at the time however, we were pretty ticked off as I'm sure the other guests were too! Next thing we knew all the servers were tending to the customers, they had to be embarrassed to be called out like that. One other time at a different restaurant, we couldn't find our waiter, then noticed him sitting with the guests at another table...okaaaay. Again, funny to recall but irritating at the time

 

[SimonSez]

Has Chef Mickey's always been this bad? I've never eaten there, but I remember when it was at DTD back in the day. It seems like it was better received back then. What has happened to it? Just curious

 

[daisyduck123]

We've had OVER 100 table service meals in WDW.

I honestly do not recall ever leaving one dissatisfied.

 

[disneysteve]

Has Chef Mickey's always been this bad? I've never eaten there, but I remember when it was at DTD back in the day. It seems like it was better received back then. What has happened to it? Just curious

Chef Mickeys at DTD was an entirely different place. Honestly, I was always surprised that the kept the name and gave it to the new place since the two had nothing at all in common. The original was a table service restaurant. The one now is a character meal buffet. Worlds apart.

 

[ineedavacation33]

I found Olivia's at Old Key West to be bland and boring. The food quality was the lowest I have had on property so far, and hopefully forever. Felt like food you'd have at a crappy wedding reception.

 

[DisFam95]

We've had OVER 100 table service meals in WDW.

I honestly do not recall ever leaving one dissatisfied.

OK I was 3 pages in this thread and getting horribly depressed and ready to cancel everything and just eat chicken nuggets, popcorn, and Mickey bars for a week hmm still sounds good

But I had to recall just like in life you never know who's going to have an off day or whatever unusual problem a restaurant can have. And in all our trips I can't recall a horrible experience. Hoping that stays the same this time.

 

[k5thbeatle]

Not so much any one restaurant stands out as bad but I guess what I have noticed and what disturbs me in all my years of WDW trips and all the dinners we have eaten is how much more common it is to run into bad food and bad service these days. Years ago it was almost unheard of and I was truly shocked if we had less than good(great) food and good (great) service. These last few years when we go it's not so much if we will encounter bad service/food but which place or places it will occur at. Sad really but that has been my observation of dining at WDW.

 

[Canadian_Princess]

My worst? Le Cellier. It was a few years ago but I still remember because it was surprising (and disappointing that it was a fellow Canadian). We went there for a family dinner with 3 men and 3 women. The waitress basically only talked to the men and was disgustingly flirty with them. She even pressed up against my cousin, who was there with his wife. She kept touching him and my dad. It was really bizarre. That would have been mildly amusing, but service was painfully slow and she only got half of our orders remotely correct. The rest of us just seemed to get some random food. Well, random ice cold food.

 

[Hootenany]

Our worst experience was at Boardwalk Bakery. The food was great, however, the restaurant lacked signage of how the dining plan could be utilized there. The staff was clearly annoyed with all of the customers' (it was packed) dining plan questions and were very rude to the customers and each other. It was not a magical experience for us.

 

[disneysteve]

The staff was clearly annoyed with all of the customers' (it was packed) dining plan questions

I think the dining plan is the source of many bad experiences with Disney dining in recent years. And it has got to drive the cm's crazy, especially at CS locations where they are trying to move people through quickly and efficiently. The vast majority of guests seem to have no clue how the plan works so they spend a lot of time at the register asking questions and needing everything explained to them. The cm's have to get tired of doing that dozens of times each day. And I have to say it's frustrating to those of us who aren't on the dining plan but end up in line behind those who are. They really should have separate registers strictly for guests on the dining plan.

 

[Anri]

Our worst dining experience was Hollywood and Vine for lunch. We had to wait 30 minutes beyond our reservation time to finally be sat. The server responsible for our section completely ignored us and we ended up having to get other servers to flag her down for us most of the meal. The buffet was just ok, the restaurant was loud and dirty. Never again. That being said, I think that is the only negative experience I've ever had with Disney dining!

 

[Hootenany]

I think the dining plan is the source of many bad experiences with Disney dining in recent years. And it has got to drive the cm's crazy, especially at CS locations where they are trying to move people through quickly and efficiently. The vast majority of guests seem to have no clue how the plan works so they spend a lot of time at the register asking questions and needing everything explained to them. The cm's have to get tired of doing that dozens of times each day. And I have to say it's frustrating to those of us who aren't on the dining plan but end up in line behind those who are. They really should have separate registers strictly for guests on the dining plan.

I agree! I also think that signage at these places (what is/ isn't included on the dining plan) would make all the difference! if I remember correctly, each baked item had the purple WDDP sign on each item if you wished to use a snack credit, but there wasn't anything regarding what quick service meal options were available. Signage would make everyone's experience better- CM's and guests!

 

[awahllm]

By far the worst meal I have ever had at disney was on my past trip in June. My fiance and I ate at Chef Mickey's for dinner and will NOT be making that mistake again. I had read some less than lovely reviews about Chef Mickey's but we thought we would still give it a shot on our arrival day. WORST MISTAKE EVER!!! I did not go there for the food I went for the characters and the experience. However, in the hour and 15 minutes we were there Mickey was the only character we met. We had less then quality service. Our waitress only checked on us once and never refilled our drinks. EVERYTHING was cold!!! I understand that they are mass producing food. However, at least the food could be warm. After leaving I was very disappointed. To top it all off both my fiance and I felt ill after eating the food. I was looking forward to this experience but will not be returning.

 

[SimonSez]

Thanks disneysteve, I never realized they weren't one and the same. That explains it!

 

[SimonSez]

Our one and only visit to BOG, last Aug, we had to wait in the rain for probably 15 minutes past our ADR time and then crammed inside waiting for an additional 25 minutes. We were then rushed off to our seats and dumped...in the stupid music box room (like the back room at WCC). It was bright in there and only a few tables were in use. Our waiter took about 15 minutes to show up and by then we knew what we wanted so he just quickly took our order. Then we waited for our food, never got drink refills, waited some more to order dessert and then waited again to get our bill...long slow meal with minimal service from our waiter. Very disappointing but we will go back. The food was good and some of our fave places have given us a bad meal/service (Ohana, I am looking at you) so we want to try it again.

We've been thinking about BOG for our next trip, but it sounds like people have had less than stellar experiences. We will probably still try it, but maybe lower our expectations a little? Off topic, but love your avatar lovin'fl! Si and Am are my favorite characters and last year I bought a sketch of them from Art of Disney. The Siamese Cat song is even my ringtone right now...yeah I'm weird