The grinch breakfast buffet

[Spaceranger28]

I made reservations for my group to eat with the grinch this past weekend. I can not tell you how dissappointing it was. For 19.99 that had to be the most pitiful breakfast buffet I have ever seen. The buffet is stretched out on two tables in catering tins. Some of the selection includes star tater tots, green eggs and ham sandwiches, as well as a few breakfast staples. I also ate breakfast this past week at the Tusker House in Animal Kingdom where the selection is huge and really good food. For the price that you pay the food isn't worth it and they automatically add on 18 percent gratuity that I was unaware of. My group had to wait over 5 minutes to be waited on by our server for our drink order, and thats all she did was serve drinks poorly. The grinch is another story yes we knew the character of the grinch is mean, but when I think of the dr. seuss characters I think of more crazy and zany characters. The grinch was over the top mean, and insulting. The conversation needs to be kept in a christmas context. Needless to say my entire group of eight people had there fill of the grinch. If you really want to meet the grinch there was a line to meet him in whoville and the line was never to terribly long. I wouldn't do another character buffet in Universal again having experience better ones at Disney where the quality of the food is better and the character interaction is better.

 

[tfoster]

Thanks for sharing your experience, and I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the breakfast. We have reservations for next week, but I'm thinking that maybe if we have the opportunity to meet him in the park, we'll just do that and cancel the breakfast.

 

[ducky_love]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks The Grinch is just mean. I know that is his character but by mistake I walked into a picture one year and he just screamed at me! Since then I'm not much of a Grinch fan. Call me a wimp but I like the nicer characters.

 

[tfoster]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks The Grinch is just mean. I know that is his character but by mistake I walked into a picture one year and he just screamed at me! Since then I'm not much of a Grinch fan. Call me a wimp but I like the nicer characters.

huh. . . I guess I assumed he'd be a bit grumpy but otherwise nice like towards the end of the story. My littlest one (5) already is a little afraid of the Grinch while watching the first part of the movie. I'm going to have to be careful with this - don't want the little guy to end up traumatized!

 

[Metro West]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks The Grinch is just mean. I know that is his character but by mistake I walked into a picture one year and he just screamed at me! Since then I'm not much of a Grinch fan. Call me a wimp but I like the nicer characters.

That's discouraging to hear. I hope you let someone at Guest Services know about your experience.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Oh please tell me this is not going to turn into one of those "Disney is better than Universal because..." threads.

 

[Metro West]

Oh please tell me this is not going to turn into one of those "Disney is better than Universal because..." threads.

No..we'll stop it before it gets out of hand.

 

[Spaceranger28]

I did contact guest services I wrote an email and got a call back yesterday they told me they would send a report which is nothing and that they would give me 10.00 in universal dollars. I laughed I was like you are joking 10.00 won't even buy you a butterbeer. I had put my receipt in my pocket because everyone rushed out, and went on that dudleys log ride and got soaked the receipt got all wet and torn so I wasn't thinking and threw it away. The lady from guest service said since I didn't have a receipt that I couldn't get a refund because we paid cash. She couldn't look it up although I made a reservation there was record of it. That just frustrated me even more, that they acted like I was stupid because she told me well the Grinch is a mean character, and why did I wait to say anything. I flew home Sunday and sent the email yesterday. I told her it should be kept in a christmas holiday context and that you can't pick on people because you don't know how everyone will react to it. I was upset that the guest service supervisor I talked to acted like it was a joke. There is a line in comedy and the grinch definetly crossed it when he said my mother looked like she stuck her hand in a socket and got electricuted, and that she looked ridiculous. And I am not saying Disney is better than Universal I'm just trying to give a comparison to the buffet. It was a lousy selection, probably the worst breakfast buffet I have ever had especially for that price.

 

[ducky_love]

I didn't give feedback to guest services because I felt like it was me. The Grinch is supposed to be mean. I didn't like it but I am sure there are other guests that would have been disappointed if he had acted any nicer.

I certainly don't want to make any blanket statements that one park is better than another but I think it is fair to say that Disney does a better character breakfast. There are many things Universal does better, they just fall a little short on this one. I think it is fair to warn people that come expecting the "Disney" character breakfast.

 

[aandjmama]

oh, no. That's not good to hear! We're scheduled to go on the 20th. I figured he'd be grumpy/grouchy but not mean. I have a 12 year old and a 5 year old and I'm sure the younger one would NOT like that one bit. I think we'll just skip it. It's not worth risking having him scared from something I hoped would be fun!

 

[KellyWasHere]

We went this past Thursday and I agree. We have a 4 and 1 year old and the grinch to Ed it down for us but barely spent any time with us I think because he could be more ott with older guests. Most people loved his rudeness and I was totally expecting it, however I would' e felt horrible if someone had said something like that to my mother.

My main problem with the meal was the service, it was really horrible. Never got drink refills and had to hunt our check down. Plus there was a manager there who yelled at the cat in the hat because he came to our table a second time. Snarled at him "not there! Over here.". Awkward.

I do want to add that the Grinch was perfect to our group at the regular meet area. But he was really yelling at the adults. None of it seemed to be too mean spirited though. Yelled at 2 ladies who cut the line (yay!) and one lady he asked why she didn't get out of her pj's before coming in then he yelled at her when she didn't take a picture fast enough. They all seemed to love it though. For us he had my 4 year old give him 5 then asked what was all sticky on her hands and wiped it on my husband's jacket. Teased him for not wanting to get his leather jacket dirty. Then talked really quiet to my 22 month old, tried to get her to give him 5 then told her she was really cute. Maybe they do tone it down for little kids.

 

[kirbsam]

other than the interaction with spiderman, the actual breakfast part sucks.

 

[gibbersome]

So the grinch was oriented more toward adults? I think we might actually enjoy that!

 

[tarrbear]

So the grinch was oriented more toward adults? I think we might actually enjoy that!

Haha, I've heard about some Grinch experiences other than on here, and yeah, sounds like he is much more fun to interact with for adults rather than children.

 

[wjtbm8]

havent heard about this breakfast

 

[goofy4tink]

did it last Thursday as well...was somewhat underwhelmed. The character of the Grinch was barely okay. He looked the part, but didn't spend more than 1 min or so at our table. The food was passable but nothing I would pay to eat again.

 

[horseshowmom]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks The Grinch is just mean. I know that is his character but by mistake I walked into a picture one year and he just screamed at me! Since then I'm not much of a Grinch fan. Call me a wimp but I like the nicer characters.

We had reservations but wound up canceling them. DH is a diehard Grinch fan, but after watching a few YouTube videos, he decided that wasn't what he would enjoy. He likes the animated Grinch and didn't think he would care for the movie version (which is what this seems to be). Now that I hear that the food isn't too good either, I'm glad we canceled. For 4 of us we would have spent about $100.

 

[tfoster]

Thanks for sharing your experience, and I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the breakfast. We have reservations for next week, but I'm thinking that maybe if we have the opportunity to meet him in the park, we'll just do that and cancel the breakfast.

Well, we ended up keeping the breakfast reservation this past Thursday, and everyone really enjoyed it. The Grinch wasn't mean. DH and our two littlest ones were late, and I was calling to see where they were. The Grinch gave me a hard time (from a couple tables away) for talking on the phone while I was supposed to be at breakfast. When the Grinch came over to our table, DS(5) got nervous and covered his eyes. The Grinch knelt down next to him and said "I'm not going away just because you're not looking". That's as mean as he got - not mean at all from our perspective. Fortunately, we thought the Grinch we got was funny rather than mean.

Two Who's were there and the Cat in the Hat as well. DD(10) and one of the Who's were really cute together. The Who and DD talked about the Beatles and she asked DD if they could be BFFs. And DS(5) was over the moon about meeting the Cat in the Hat - thought it was one of the best days of his life.

Maybe I'm weird, but I thought the food was really good too. I'm probably forgetting a few things, but they had fruit, yogurt, a variety of pastries, Christmas tree rice crispies, tater tots, cylinder-shaped waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal, green egg and ham sandwiches, and super yummy cinnamon sugared french toast.

I thought it was worth the cost and I'd do it again.

 

[aburns84]

We went last month on the 10th I believe. It was pretty good. Ohana's breakfast quality is much better, but near the end of the trip having something more adult was a breath of fresh air. The food was good. It was not outstanding, but way better than Denny's, Perkins, or iHOP imo. The grinch was great. He kept us laughing. More importantly he visited our table at least 8 times in an hour unlike Ohana where it was 1 time only per character over an hour wait. The grinch looks and sounds just like Jim Carrey did. It was really neat. We will be eating there again the next time we go. The food can be improved a bit. It would be nice to have more of a fresh made family style food like ohana with a grinch flair.

 

[Magpie]

We did the Grinch Breakfast this past December and we really enjoyed it.

I think it's a matter of preference, really. Here's what I wrote in my trip report...

We were seated right next to the buffet table, which was loaded with plenty of food. My son was pleased to see that there were lots of low-carb, high-protein choices. Me, I was utterly charmed by the Green Eggs and Ham, and the little Rice Crispy Christmas trees. Those last were very pretty, but they didn’t taste as good as I remember Rice Crispy squares tasting... Still, it’s been decades. Maybe I just don’t have the palate for them anymore.

I definitely enjoyed all the rest of the food, though! And the character interaction was great. Besides the Grinch, we also had the Cat in the Hat, and many, many Whos.

There was a family with several small children sitting next to us. When the Grinch came by their table, the little girl asked him, “Where’s Max?”

With a most grinchy grin, the Grinch said, “He’s right there, on the buffet table!”

The little girl looked confused.

The Grinch leaned down and said, “He’s this year’s roast beast!” And then he straightened up and walked away rubbing his belly and making lip-smacking sounds.

The little girl turned to her mother and said, “Is Max really on the buffet table?”

“No, honey, he’s not!”

Too funny!

What is all good fun to one person, could be very distressing to another. I will say though, that we had a great time!