Input on Dining Choices...Please!!

[KyMattDisney]

Hi there...just plotting out my dining choices (those that require PS) for DL vacation...any feedback is appreciated...my kids love the character meals and buffet so those were my starting points..

Goofys Kitchen-Dinner
Ariels Grotto-Dinner
Storytellers Cafe-breakfast
Lilo & Stictch-breakfast

We are staying June 27-July 3rd so will space it out........also planning on Fantasmic buffet

 

[CalGal]

IMO, Goofy's is the best for overall quality and character interaction.. All of your choices are buffets except for Ariels. I wasn't thrilled with the food at Ariels, but other like it. There is also a Princess breakfast buffet at the Plaza Inn at DL, but I haven't been there lately. It's probably a must if you have Princess fans. Kids often like the Rainforest Cafe at DTD, but its essentially the same as Rainforest Cafes elsewhere. Many posters, including myself, think a meal at the Blue Bayou is worthwhile for the ambience/fun of dining inside Pirates. There's only one Blue Bayou.

 

[lulubelle]

I would switch Storytellers and Goofys around. I think the dinner is better at Storytellers and breakfast is better at Goofys - but they are both excellent choices. We really enjoyed Ariels. But I think the water view adds to the whole dining experience and the food was quite good. Have fun whatever you decide

 

[CalGal]

Storyteller's probably does have better food than GK for dinner, but last I heard, only does a character breakfast. By the way, I think lunches are cheaper than dinners at Ariels and Blue Bayou if you're looking to save a few pennies.

 

[got2travel]

Love, Love, Love Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast. Haven't done lunch or dinner there, but others have posted that its just fine.

I did Ariel's Grotto for lunch and was very disappointed. The food was not very good, especially for the price. And the service was terrible. Now I have not been there since its been Chef Mickey's, hopefully they've made some changes.

Haven't done your other choices, but I have done the Princess breakfast at the Plaza Inn. It is a buffet, but that's the only good thing I can say about it. We will not be back. It took 15 minutes to get an omlette made, took forever to get items replenished. The characters did not come to all tables. We were shown to our table only to find that it was still being cleaned. We were told to get some food and bythe time we came back it would be clean. There were plenty of other open, clean tables, but they didn't offer to seat us any where else.

Ok rant over....

Definitely a not to be missed dinning experience is Blue Bayou. We always go for lunch, its cheaper and you can only get the Monte Cristo at lunch time. Either get the earliest seating (11:30) and make it a late breakfast, or the latest 2:30 or 3) and make it an early dinner.

 

[CalGal]

got2travel -- Your experience at Plaza Inn was no unlike my experience at a character dinner at the Crystal Plaza at Magic Kingdom. We were seated for over 45 minutes and finished with our meal before a single character came by our table. That was after being seating a good 45 minutes past our PS time. The problem may be that these restaurants are too large, so the characters are often not able to make the rounds during a meal. Some diners will go to other parts of the restaurant to meet the characters, causing an increase in the time for the characters to make the rounds. Other diners will wait for the characters to come to their table long after they have finished their meal, backing up the wait for tables. (That may make the servers feel like they have to rush you). Then, when the next group is seated at the vacated table, they find that many of the characters had just passed by... Being too large may make it harder to keep the food replenished as well.

While I've had nice character meals in the past at the Plaza Inn, it is pretty large. Restaurant size shouldn't be a problem with the other character meals, with the possible exception of Storytellers(?).

 

[got2travel]

Wow, we had a very different experience at Crystal Palace. Just check out my sig pic. We had the last breakfast seating. The place we getting pretty empty, but the kitchen still kept the food stocked. And the characters were just wandering around, spending a lot of time with everyone because there was nothing else for them to do. I finally rounded them all up for the group pic.