Robert P
GLOBEX - taking over your world one country at a t
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2002
Comments on Splash Bar & Cabana - not the grill area - (Swan):
After the Fulton’s Crab House lunch, we headed back to the resort for some pool time. Upon finding the Dolphin Grotto pool absolutely jam packed, and filled with several groups who were almost certainly not guests of the hotel, we headed over to the lap pool at the Swan. For some reason, the usual single swimming lane was not hooked up, so nobody was swimming laps. There were probably 15-20 people in the pool, which isn’t bad for a pool that size. We grabbed a chair, and after 30 minutes of pool time and sun baking, I decided to grab a drink at the bar.
I’m not sure what I was thinking here, but let me say for certain that if you are looking for a full bar selection, you have to go over to the Cabana Bar at the Dolphin. I became suspicious when I saw no bottles on display anywhere in the bar area when I walked up. That feeling was re-enforced once I saw the menu. The Splash Bar drink menu consisted of three, yes three, specialty drinks, at $13 each. The previous menu with the Reposado and Cucumber was gone, and this menu was limited, at best. There were maybe 6 frozen selections for $10.50 each. And you could also get non-alcoholic versions of the frozen selections for $4.50. So, not seeing anything worth $13 (or $10.50 for that matter, but I didn’t want to come back empty handed), I ordered a frozen margarita for myself, and a virgin pina colada for the girls.
I knew I was in trouble when the drink involves mixers from a giant juice box looking container full of pre-made syrup. The process for the margarita was:
Step 1 - Carefully measured 1.5 ounces of tequila
Step 2 - Several glug glugs of pre-made mixer gruel
Step 3 - Tons-o-ice
Similar method for the virgin pina colada, except skip Step 1.
Readers, I am in no way slamming the bartender on this. As a former bartender myself, I know that you make do with what you have available. But still, they have the Cabana Bar at the Dolphin rocking with a great liquor selection, fresh fruit, all the bells and whistles...... and there you are at the Swan bar rubbing two sticks together to make fire. Big discrepancy between these ‘sister’ resorts.
The drinks were adequate, but not worth the menu prices. Had I ordered one of the $13 specialty drinks, and it was made with mixers from a giant juice box, I would have been visibly upset (picture John Belushi in Animal House when the mover drops that case of Jack Daniels on the sidewalk and it all breaks).
On to dinner at Garden Grove:
Q - Hey Robert P, where are the food pix?
A - I do not incude food pix of buffets, because after the food has been sloshed around and picked through by 16 other diners, the picture would not be pretty. So, to date, I have yet to include a buffet food picture, though I may change that in the future if the right opportunity presents itself.
We arrived at 6:25 for our 6:30 ADR. We were immediately seated. Our server Natalia came around, we ordered sodas, and she told us to help ourselves to the buffet. It is here that I should point out something. Every menu I have seen for Garden Grove lists Saturday night as Southern Barbecue night. We were looking forward to Prime Rib, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Barbecued Beef Brisket, and Shrimp Etouffee, just to name a few. When we sat down, I looked around and did not see anyone carving prime rib. Hmmmmm. Well maybe the place is just so big that they set it up in another area. But what’s that guy doing with all that pasta?? Upon closer inspection I discovered that this was Mediterranean Night, which explained why the buffet consisted of baked ziti, lamb tagine, antipasto, spinach gnocchi, ratatouille, daily catch in romesco sauce, couscous, and a brocollini and Italian sausage dish. Terribly confused, I walk back out to the lobby to check the menu, and lo and behold:
Now for something completely different.....
They had flipped the Saturday and Sunday schedule!!
I walked back inside, explained to my very confused family what had happened, we had a quick family discussion, and decided to just stay and eat. And we were so glad that we did. The food was all around very good, some hits and some misses, but some excellent items as well. There was an excellent herb baked chicken, a very good baked ziti, and the daily catch turned out to be a delicious salmon baked with a mildly spicy tomato based romesco sauce. One of the best dishes was a truffle mashed potatoes, made with real potato. They even had someone cooking at the ‘pasta your way’ station, where you could get spaghetti, ravioli, and one other pasta, with various items (chicken, shrimp, etc…), served in your choice of either tomato or alfredo sauce. The dessert bar was rather extensive, and it had small individual servings (Note: no chow line large containers of desserts, accessible by use of a giant spoon) of: tiramisu, apricot flan, shot glass panna cota dessert, lemon cheesecake, several chocolate cake and ganache looking things, and at least 4 or 5 more. My only complaint, if it is one, is that most of the desserts seem to be sitting on a shortbread cookie type base. It wasn’t very tasty, but if that’s the trade off for getting individual desserts, then so be it. The dedicated childrens choices consisted of chicken nuggets, mini corn dogs, mac and cheese, garden peas, cookies, cupcakes, and fudge iced brownies.
Characters for our dinner buffet were Goofy and Pluto. Considering the restaurant never got more than 25% full, we had decent character interaction, though this meal differed from our breakfast last fall, in that we never saw both characters at the same time. It was always one or the other, but never both. Possibly it’s a Clark Kent and Superman thing, but I won’t try to figure out which character is the secret identity.
SUMMARY:
Overall, this was a surprisingly good meal. I would say the food was better than Crystal Palace dinner, though less of a selection. The character interaction and crowd level were superb, giving us lots of photo ops with the characters. They do offer a 20% DVC discount at dinner. Value wise, this was a good value with the DVC discount, though not as good of value as the w/e character breakfast.
Below, is a picture of the advertisement about Garden Grove from the Swan & Dolphin in house television channel. I apologize for the picture quality, but this is the best I could get with my camera.
Garden Grove sundry info:
-reservations not accepted for w/e character breakfast, either through WDW dining or hotel directly
-w/e character breakfast has Pluto & Goofy on Saturdays, and Pluto, Goofy, Chip & Dale on Sundays.
-reservations are accepted for dinner, even through WDW dining
-dinner characters are Rafiki & Timon on Monday and Friday, then Pluto and Goofy all other nights
-20% DVC discount was still honored as recently as Sept 2009
Next up:
Comments on Dolphin Lobby Bar (breakfast) and the Cabana Bar (pool area)
After the Fulton’s Crab House lunch, we headed back to the resort for some pool time. Upon finding the Dolphin Grotto pool absolutely jam packed, and filled with several groups who were almost certainly not guests of the hotel, we headed over to the lap pool at the Swan. For some reason, the usual single swimming lane was not hooked up, so nobody was swimming laps. There were probably 15-20 people in the pool, which isn’t bad for a pool that size. We grabbed a chair, and after 30 minutes of pool time and sun baking, I decided to grab a drink at the bar.
I’m not sure what I was thinking here, but let me say for certain that if you are looking for a full bar selection, you have to go over to the Cabana Bar at the Dolphin. I became suspicious when I saw no bottles on display anywhere in the bar area when I walked up. That feeling was re-enforced once I saw the menu. The Splash Bar drink menu consisted of three, yes three, specialty drinks, at $13 each. The previous menu with the Reposado and Cucumber was gone, and this menu was limited, at best. There were maybe 6 frozen selections for $10.50 each. And you could also get non-alcoholic versions of the frozen selections for $4.50. So, not seeing anything worth $13 (or $10.50 for that matter, but I didn’t want to come back empty handed), I ordered a frozen margarita for myself, and a virgin pina colada for the girls.
I knew I was in trouble when the drink involves mixers from a giant juice box looking container full of pre-made syrup. The process for the margarita was:
Step 1 - Carefully measured 1.5 ounces of tequila
Step 2 - Several glug glugs of pre-made mixer gruel
Step 3 - Tons-o-ice
Similar method for the virgin pina colada, except skip Step 1.
Readers, I am in no way slamming the bartender on this. As a former bartender myself, I know that you make do with what you have available. But still, they have the Cabana Bar at the Dolphin rocking with a great liquor selection, fresh fruit, all the bells and whistles...... and there you are at the Swan bar rubbing two sticks together to make fire. Big discrepancy between these ‘sister’ resorts.
The drinks were adequate, but not worth the menu prices. Had I ordered one of the $13 specialty drinks, and it was made with mixers from a giant juice box, I would have been visibly upset (picture John Belushi in Animal House when the mover drops that case of Jack Daniels on the sidewalk and it all breaks).
On to dinner at Garden Grove:
Q - Hey Robert P, where are the food pix?
A - I do not incude food pix of buffets, because after the food has been sloshed around and picked through by 16 other diners, the picture would not be pretty. So, to date, I have yet to include a buffet food picture, though I may change that in the future if the right opportunity presents itself.
We arrived at 6:25 for our 6:30 ADR. We were immediately seated. Our server Natalia came around, we ordered sodas, and she told us to help ourselves to the buffet. It is here that I should point out something. Every menu I have seen for Garden Grove lists Saturday night as Southern Barbecue night. We were looking forward to Prime Rib, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Barbecued Beef Brisket, and Shrimp Etouffee, just to name a few. When we sat down, I looked around and did not see anyone carving prime rib. Hmmmmm. Well maybe the place is just so big that they set it up in another area. But what’s that guy doing with all that pasta?? Upon closer inspection I discovered that this was Mediterranean Night, which explained why the buffet consisted of baked ziti, lamb tagine, antipasto, spinach gnocchi, ratatouille, daily catch in romesco sauce, couscous, and a brocollini and Italian sausage dish. Terribly confused, I walk back out to the lobby to check the menu, and lo and behold:
Now for something completely different.....
They had flipped the Saturday and Sunday schedule!!
I walked back inside, explained to my very confused family what had happened, we had a quick family discussion, and decided to just stay and eat. And we were so glad that we did. The food was all around very good, some hits and some misses, but some excellent items as well. There was an excellent herb baked chicken, a very good baked ziti, and the daily catch turned out to be a delicious salmon baked with a mildly spicy tomato based romesco sauce. One of the best dishes was a truffle mashed potatoes, made with real potato. They even had someone cooking at the ‘pasta your way’ station, where you could get spaghetti, ravioli, and one other pasta, with various items (chicken, shrimp, etc…), served in your choice of either tomato or alfredo sauce. The dessert bar was rather extensive, and it had small individual servings (Note: no chow line large containers of desserts, accessible by use of a giant spoon) of: tiramisu, apricot flan, shot glass panna cota dessert, lemon cheesecake, several chocolate cake and ganache looking things, and at least 4 or 5 more. My only complaint, if it is one, is that most of the desserts seem to be sitting on a shortbread cookie type base. It wasn’t very tasty, but if that’s the trade off for getting individual desserts, then so be it. The dedicated childrens choices consisted of chicken nuggets, mini corn dogs, mac and cheese, garden peas, cookies, cupcakes, and fudge iced brownies.Characters for our dinner buffet were Goofy and Pluto. Considering the restaurant never got more than 25% full, we had decent character interaction, though this meal differed from our breakfast last fall, in that we never saw both characters at the same time. It was always one or the other, but never both. Possibly it’s a Clark Kent and Superman thing, but I won’t try to figure out which character is the secret identity.
SUMMARY:
Overall, this was a surprisingly good meal. I would say the food was better than Crystal Palace dinner, though less of a selection. The character interaction and crowd level were superb, giving us lots of photo ops with the characters. They do offer a 20% DVC discount at dinner. Value wise, this was a good value with the DVC discount, though not as good of value as the w/e character breakfast.
Below, is a picture of the advertisement about Garden Grove from the Swan & Dolphin in house television channel. I apologize for the picture quality, but this is the best I could get with my camera.
Garden Grove sundry info:
-reservations not accepted for w/e character breakfast, either through WDW dining or hotel directly
-w/e character breakfast has Pluto & Goofy on Saturdays, and Pluto, Goofy, Chip & Dale on Sundays.
-reservations are accepted for dinner, even through WDW dining
-dinner characters are Rafiki & Timon on Monday and Friday, then Pluto and Goofy all other nights
-20% DVC discount was still honored as recently as Sept 2009
Next up:
Comments on Dolphin Lobby Bar (breakfast) and the Cabana Bar (pool area)
I don't really believe it, but that's ok. Looking forward to your reviews 
I look forward to reading reviews of the off the beaten path restaurants.
Don't drink and Dis children.
