Princess Lunch at Ariel's Grotto? Anyone go yet?

[kc10family]

Has anyone been to the Princess lunch at Ariel’s Grotto?

We are going next week and plan to have lunch with them.

What do you think? Did you like it? Worth it? Any and all info Please.



Have a Great Disney Day!

 

[mathmagic]

I'd like to know about this too. Also, anyone eat at the Plaza Inn since the character change?

 

[Hollyster2]

I wanna know too!

 

[Brooklyn]

We went to the dinner last week. The dinner and lunch are the same. The price is slightly cheaper and your meal does not include dessert.

The price is good, $16.99 for adults and $11.99 for kids. The kids price is a little high but they do get a pail and shovel to take home. You also get cotton candy when you are finished with your meal. This price includes an appitizer and an entree.

As for the princess part... I was pretty disappointed. The Princess Breakfast at the Plaza Inn was a much better experience. You will be guaranteed to meet 4-5 princesses. Lunch is a better time to go then the last dinner seating (after 6:20) because Cinderella and Snow White leave to be in the electrical parade. We lost both of them and got Mulan as a substitute. I was not thrilled about that. Lunch they should have no excuses.

Even though you are guaranteed to meet 4-5 princesses try not to blink, you might miss them. They have it set up as an assembly line. Your server will be able to tell you where you stand in the rotation. The prinesses come out once during your seating and they are back to back to back. So if your food is served right before they start coming it will probably be cold by the time you get to it. In our case our desserts were melted. They send these "Paiges" around to warn you to get your camera and autograph book ready. Some of the princesses are better then others with the interactions.

The breakfast was SOOOOO much better and was worth paying more money for. The food at Ariel's Grotto is so so. Nothing too special. Ariel's Grotto was a lot better when it was MIckey and Friends and all of the kids got up to do the limbo, chicken dance, etc with the characters. Now it is quite boring. It is especially hard when your 4 year old is waiting to meet princesses and they do not show up until after your dessert is served. We did not see anyone until that point in our meal.

We saw about 3 birthdays celebrated the night we were there. All of which were done when the princesses were NOT making there rounds. A bunch of servers sang happy birthday. I am sure that is not what the people were expecting.

I am sorry if I sound so bitter towards the place. I truly miss the breakfast!!! It was WONDERFUL!!! I also miss the way Ariel's Grotto was with the singing and the dancing. I would have to say that Goofy's Kitchen is a better bet. There is almost always a princess there along with so many other cool characters!

The one need thing is meeting Ariel with legs. You can see the picture down below in my signature when my daughter met her. She was so excited that she had legs.

I can't really say if it is worth it or not. I think you get more intereactions meeting the princesses outside the Disneyland Castle though. Maybe we were there on an off night, who know???

 

[Amy&Dan]

Brooklyn, I have a picture of my daughter with the same Aladdin that's in your pic! We saw him at Goofy's in June of 04. We are having this lunch next week for my daughter's birthday, I am glad to know a little bit more about it. I shudder to think this might be more poorly run than the breakfast over at the Plaza Inn. Our experience with that was pretty bad (so so food, and the characters never made it outside where we were seated after waiting over 30 minutes to get our breakfast). Most people did not like that set up and I think that is maybe why they changed it over to Ariel's. I know my daughter will at least be in heaven. We have always enjoyed Ariel's through all of its changes and hopefully will this time.

 

[Brooklyn]

Yes, that is the exact reason why they changed the breakfast. Someone incharge at Ariel's said that too many people did not get to see the princesses. They said that the Plaza Inn was too large and that they had a hard time making it around the whole place. Unfortanatly they went from one extreme to the other.. Characters freely roaming to such a regimented route. My 4 year old still loved it. The Aladdin in that picture is truly our favorite. He is wonderful!!! I miss seeing him at the breakfast. I am sorry that you had a bad experience at breakfast. We are there atleast 10 times and never really ran into a problem. We really liked it. Have fun next week. We are leaving on Thursday and will be there for 4 nights. We are looking forward to it.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Yes, that is the exact reason why they changed the breakfast. Someone incharge at Ariel's said that too many people did not get to see the princesses. They said that the Plaza Inn was too large and that they had a hard time making it around the whole place. Unfortanatly they went from one extreme to the other.. Characters freely roaming to such a regimented route. My 4 year old still loved it. The Aladdin in that picture is truly our favorite. He is wonderful!!! I miss seeing him at the breakfast. I am sorry that you had a bad experience at breakfast. We are there atleast 10 times and never really ran into a problem. We really liked it. Have fun next week. We are leaving on Thursday and will be there for 4 nights. We are looking forward to it.

He's my favorite Aladdin too! That breakfast was still fun, especially since we were with my parents who got such a kick out of seeing the grandkids with all the princesses. I just thought the setup was tough because you couldn't move in the buffet area. Also, they had so many tables set up outside that even though half of them were empty, the characters couldn't manuever around to come out there and see us so we had to hunt them down. I ended up splitting up with my sister in law so she could take some of the kids to see some and I could do the others. I still love Goofy's the most, it has always been our favorite character meal at either Disneyland or WDW, they seem to have that one down to a science. Have fun on your upcoming trip! We are leaving one week from tomorrow.

 

[2cute4u]

And I was charged different prices. It cost be $20.99 for lunch, and $13.99 per child. I commented I thought the prices were not quite as much, but the girl in charge didn't give me any other options. The meal included and appetizer and dessert. My cold really kicked in that day, and luckily for me the chicken pot pie was very soothing to my throat, but I didn't eat the sour dough biscuit. I figured I paid for the service of seeing the princesses not the value of what my 3 and 4 year old ate for lunch. The following princesses came out in this order: Ariel (she was quick, and had forgetton to sign our book..that I had to request one of squires to go afterwards and have our book signed). Cinderella, was very personal, and got really down to their level. Snow White came next, and then my pen stopping working, she said, "the witched witch doesn't like me signing these books, and puts curses on these pens", she went off and borrowed another pen from another family. Then we had Aurora, she was quick, again...the pen wasn't working, she borrowed from another family. Then Belle, and I explained how our pen (I had such a sore throat..so talking was difficult!) that my pen had a curse on it, and she said, "that doesn't mean you can't have an autograph, and she went and borrowed another pen. They all came before we got our main course, and even after we had finished up our food, they were starting to make their rounds again, we could of waited it out for a 2nd visit, but I felt ackward waiting around with when we already had our turn. Now, that time has passed wWould they do anything if I actually paid more?