Cannot_Wait_4Disney
The Colombo of Cippolini.
- Joined
- May 18, 2005
I will add pictures later once I get them uploaded. We arrived around 6:15 for a 6:20 reservation. We ran a bit late. I like to get there about 15 minutes early. This was up first on this trip. Given the reviews here, I always worry about this place and I had a newbie with us. There was a fairly long line at the desk and there are strollers parked along the rail everywhere out in the bar and the concourse. It was a Friday. It took us about 5 minutes to get the pager. We went and got our picture taken and went to see Donald. He's in the lobby and usually does not go around to the tables because his tail is too big to fit. There are 3 main areas to this place. There is the small section in the open concourse over by where the steakhouse is. There is a small room in the back with a view of the big tent if you get by the window. Otherwise, no view at all. And there is the medium sized room over near the big windows. We got the little room with the view of the tent looking thing outside which is ok by me because it's closest to the food and the characters have room to play a bit. Plus the lighting doesn't play with you as badly here. We were seated about 5 minutes after we had our pictures made and saw Donald. This was a MNSSHP night and from what I heard it was sold out. So some of the kids were in costume.
Tonight's Characters were Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip, and Dale. Pluto was absent this time. Character interaction here was the best of the places we went this time. The CM explained the exact rotation and where they would be coming from so we could time the kids and me the photographer's trips to the buffet. This is a huge plus. That way, you won't miss one. I asked Minnie when Mickey was going to give her a ring. She stomped her feet, pointed to her hand and went over and taunted Mickey, who was about 3 tables behind. When Mickey came over he pointed at Minnie as if to say what's her problem? When told him I asked her about a ring, he put his hands on his hips and hit his head like Oh no. He rubbed his hands together like he nneded to borrow money for a ring. Then he sort of slinked out of the area like he was hiding. Minnie just put her hands on her hips and shook her head. The characters spent a good amount of time with people, but they don't have all day. A Picture, a hug, a book signing, and maybe a gag, but then they move on. But I didn't feel rushed at all. There was a family that couldn't wait its turn, but the CM's were right on top of it.
Food: I'm convinced Friday is the night night to go. We had nearly the same things we had last time, when I was shocked at how good it was. It was even better this time. The Seafood Penne was delicious. It had a nice blend of spices in the cream sauce. The Chicken was skipped, by me again. It had a Terryaki/Orange sauce this time. Last time it was Mojo. But I'm not going to eat a whole piece of chicken when I could be loading up on scallops and shrimp!!! The Kiddo said that particular chicken was really good. So did the in-law. The Mashed potatos were good as usual and the Vegatables were great. The broccoli this time had feta and spices on it. Wife hates feta but she picked it off and liked it. As for me, it was really good. It's been awhile so I forget what the other veggie was. I think it was carrotts. Anyway, the other veggie was good, but compared to the broccoli, well it paled. The Salmon was really good. The Seafood salad was a bit harsh in the dressing as compared to last time. It needed to be a tad bit more delecate. That's not to say it was bad. It surely wasn't. It was really good. The rest of the salad bar was your nothing out of the ordinary type salad bar. The peel and eat shrimp were delicious too. Hard to muff those up though. The Raviolis were with basic tomato sauce without much, if any spice in them. and the Mac N cheese was basic too. But both were good kid's stuff.
Everything was to proper temperature. No problems there. They replaced things in a timely manner. I did notice they fell a bit behind on the seafood Penne. Everyone was hitting it hard. I think they had to replace 4 or 5 empty pans while we were there as compared to 1 or 2 of the other things.
The Prime Rib was delicious. They had M-r, M, and Well pieces. Note that we didn't run into this problem at CM's but if you see they're down to the end of a roast or just starting to cut off one, you might want to come back in about 5 minutes. Disney doesn't trim its ends all that well at the buffets on average
The deserts were really good but one complaint. The Bread Pudding was hidden on the backside over near the Ice cream machine. And by the time I found it, I had other things on the plate. But I did take a taste. Yummmmmmmy. I was mad I missed it and by that time was way too full to get anything other than a taste. The Vanilla sauce they had with it was great. I must confess to being a bread pudding fanatic. I like it as much as some people like creme brulee. A good bread pudding will get raves. A bad one (BOMA!!!) will get special bad mention in another restaurant's review.
Service: Service was excellent. Once we got through pictures and Donald, we waited only about 5 minutes for a table. They did an excellent job of explaining where the characters come from from the off. Drinks were replenished timely. You can change off if you want. No problem. Our plates were picked up in a timely manner, Our server was very friendly as well.
Atmoshere. Organized chaos. It's fairly loud in there and the stimulatory effect between the characters and the napkin twirl can set the kiddies off. This isn't a bad thing by the way. It's really fun. Just make sure you keep the kids feet on the ground though With all the stimulation, they can get out of hand quickly. Parents seemed to realize this though and did a good job of letting the kids have fun, but not let them go wild. On average, the kids were well behaved. It is pretty in the concourse. But I like the character interaction better in the room without much view..
Value for the credit or bucks as the case may be.
We thought this was definitely worth a credit. It didn't approach the per credit cost of some of the places on our trip, but it does break $32 for an adult when all is said and done and is over the kids meal plan price for the kids. So you get your credit's worth there. We had a blast. It was better overall than it was even last time when I gave it a high suggestion. This time it gets another high suggestion.
If I were paying cash, it's definitely worth it. Where I might hesitate a little is if I had Teens that were no longer into the characters and were very light eaters and going out of their way to be contrarian. You know how some teens can get. They hate it precisely because you suggested it. Well that's going to apply doubly to Disney. The adult price might give me pause in that case. But that's a case of not being matched with what CM's provides rather than a statement of value itself. But I can certainly see my wife and I coming back here after the kids are grown once in awhile. And there will always be the grandkids!!!! Also, it's sometimes nice to get the autographs out of the way here so when you meet Mickey in the parks, you can get a group pic with the photopass guy.
We would eat here again and it is on our every year list as long as the kids are cool with it. I had told the first timer with us about CM's whipping boy status here and he simply could not understand it. It wasn't in his input vector. He came away impressed. And as we ate through the week, a surprising result took shape. Only the true heavyweights on our list knocked CM's off that number one perch. And that's not because where we ate was bad. It's because CM's was so good this time.
Overall I must say that the idea that Disney dining is going downhill, I must say I didn't see it overall. We certainly didn't see that here. And we certainly weren't made to feel we were second class citizens because we were on the dining plan.
Tonight's Characters were Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip, and Dale. Pluto was absent this time. Character interaction here was the best of the places we went this time. The CM explained the exact rotation and where they would be coming from so we could time the kids and me the photographer's trips to the buffet. This is a huge plus. That way, you won't miss one. I asked Minnie when Mickey was going to give her a ring. She stomped her feet, pointed to her hand and went over and taunted Mickey, who was about 3 tables behind. When Mickey came over he pointed at Minnie as if to say what's her problem? When told him I asked her about a ring, he put his hands on his hips and hit his head like Oh no. He rubbed his hands together like he nneded to borrow money for a ring. Then he sort of slinked out of the area like he was hiding. Minnie just put her hands on her hips and shook her head. The characters spent a good amount of time with people, but they don't have all day. A Picture, a hug, a book signing, and maybe a gag, but then they move on. But I didn't feel rushed at all. There was a family that couldn't wait its turn, but the CM's were right on top of it.
Food: I'm convinced Friday is the night night to go. We had nearly the same things we had last time, when I was shocked at how good it was. It was even better this time. The Seafood Penne was delicious. It had a nice blend of spices in the cream sauce. The Chicken was skipped, by me again. It had a Terryaki/Orange sauce this time. Last time it was Mojo. But I'm not going to eat a whole piece of chicken when I could be loading up on scallops and shrimp!!! The Kiddo said that particular chicken was really good. So did the in-law. The Mashed potatos were good as usual and the Vegatables were great. The broccoli this time had feta and spices on it. Wife hates feta but she picked it off and liked it. As for me, it was really good. It's been awhile so I forget what the other veggie was. I think it was carrotts. Anyway, the other veggie was good, but compared to the broccoli, well it paled. The Salmon was really good. The Seafood salad was a bit harsh in the dressing as compared to last time. It needed to be a tad bit more delecate. That's not to say it was bad. It surely wasn't. It was really good. The rest of the salad bar was your nothing out of the ordinary type salad bar. The peel and eat shrimp were delicious too. Hard to muff those up though. The Raviolis were with basic tomato sauce without much, if any spice in them. and the Mac N cheese was basic too. But both were good kid's stuff.
Everything was to proper temperature. No problems there. They replaced things in a timely manner. I did notice they fell a bit behind on the seafood Penne. Everyone was hitting it hard. I think they had to replace 4 or 5 empty pans while we were there as compared to 1 or 2 of the other things.
The Prime Rib was delicious. They had M-r, M, and Well pieces. Note that we didn't run into this problem at CM's but if you see they're down to the end of a roast or just starting to cut off one, you might want to come back in about 5 minutes. Disney doesn't trim its ends all that well at the buffets on average
The deserts were really good but one complaint. The Bread Pudding was hidden on the backside over near the Ice cream machine. And by the time I found it, I had other things on the plate. But I did take a taste. Yummmmmmmy. I was mad I missed it and by that time was way too full to get anything other than a taste. The Vanilla sauce they had with it was great. I must confess to being a bread pudding fanatic. I like it as much as some people like creme brulee. A good bread pudding will get raves. A bad one (BOMA!!!) will get special bad mention in another restaurant's review.
Service: Service was excellent. Once we got through pictures and Donald, we waited only about 5 minutes for a table. They did an excellent job of explaining where the characters come from from the off. Drinks were replenished timely. You can change off if you want. No problem. Our plates were picked up in a timely manner, Our server was very friendly as well.
Atmoshere. Organized chaos. It's fairly loud in there and the stimulatory effect between the characters and the napkin twirl can set the kiddies off. This isn't a bad thing by the way. It's really fun. Just make sure you keep the kids feet on the ground though With all the stimulation, they can get out of hand quickly. Parents seemed to realize this though and did a good job of letting the kids have fun, but not let them go wild. On average, the kids were well behaved. It is pretty in the concourse. But I like the character interaction better in the room without much view..
Value for the credit or bucks as the case may be.
We thought this was definitely worth a credit. It didn't approach the per credit cost of some of the places on our trip, but it does break $32 for an adult when all is said and done and is over the kids meal plan price for the kids. So you get your credit's worth there. We had a blast. It was better overall than it was even last time when I gave it a high suggestion. This time it gets another high suggestion.
If I were paying cash, it's definitely worth it. Where I might hesitate a little is if I had Teens that were no longer into the characters and were very light eaters and going out of their way to be contrarian. You know how some teens can get. They hate it precisely because you suggested it. Well that's going to apply doubly to Disney. The adult price might give me pause in that case. But that's a case of not being matched with what CM's provides rather than a statement of value itself. But I can certainly see my wife and I coming back here after the kids are grown once in awhile. And there will always be the grandkids!!!! Also, it's sometimes nice to get the autographs out of the way here so when you meet Mickey in the parks, you can get a group pic with the photopass guy.
We would eat here again and it is on our every year list as long as the kids are cool with it. I had told the first timer with us about CM's whipping boy status here and he simply could not understand it. It wasn't in his input vector. He came away impressed. And as we ate through the week, a surprising result took shape. Only the true heavyweights on our list knocked CM's off that number one perch. And that's not because where we ate was bad. It's because CM's was so good this time.
Overall I must say that the idea that Disney dining is going downhill, I must say I didn't see it overall. We certainly didn't see that here. And we certainly weren't made to feel we were second class citizens because we were on the dining plan.
