thoughts on Skipper's?

[TeresaWen]

Precisely, that's why we almost always dine at one of the Magic Kingdom resorts (Grand Floridian, Polynesian Village, Contemporary Resort or Wilderness Lodge) on our Magic Kingdom days!

Same here. We did dine at BOG on this past trip. Excellent experience and very much enjoyed a few selections from their private label wine list.

 

[hookedonears]

Precisely, that's why we almost always dine at one of the Magic Kingdom resorts (Grand Floridian, Polynesian Village, Contemporary Resort or Wilderness Lodge) on our Magic Kingdom days!

Typically we're half day people at all of the parks. We either eat lunch at our morning park, or go to our afternoon park and eat lunch there, before beginning our tour. It's a big time waster for us to leave a park and head to a resort to eat lunch and then head back to parks for the rest of our day. However, we typically eat the majority of our dinners at the resorts.

 

[jeeptruck]

I really liked the Arepas and thought that it was plenty of food for 1 person for lunch even thought it was an appetizer.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I got hot tea, which seems to be something they are going to specialize in. They bring a single pot of hot water and cup and then bring a tea bag case and you can pick your options.

"specialize" and "tea bag" aren't really terms I think of together. Bagged tea is the low end of tea quality, because it's not whole leaf!

 

[AngiTN]

"specialize" and "tea bag" aren't really terms I think of together. Bagged tea is the low end of tea quality, because it's not whole leaf!

Sorry, I didn't really mean they were trying to be a tea house or anything. Just that they are going to serve hot tea in a way that I've not seen in other restaurants nor had I seen it mentioned.
Would "feature hot tea" be better?
Fact still remains, they have a box of about a dozen flavors and variety of teas for you to pick from. They give you a pot of hot water, a cup and a timer to use when you steep the bag. I do not know how many timers they have so I do hesitate to say that everyone ordering tea would get a timer but they do have at least 1

 

[Retro Magic]

So disappointing. I had such high hopes for this, theming wise. Maybe it's better in person, but this does not look like what it should have been. I was expecting a Rainforest-ish type of thing. Not full on, but similarities being a Jungle Cruise theme. This looks like a plain old restaurant :\

 

[AngiTN]

So disappointing. I had such high hopes for this, theming wise. Maybe it's better in person, but this does not look like what it should have been. I was expecting a Rainforest-ish type of thing. Not full on, but similarities being a Jungle Cruise theme. This looks like a plain old restaurant :\

That was never it's intent. It's intent was always as a place where Cruise skippers worked on their time off from giving tours. Or as a place for them to hang out. But never as an experience similar to being on the Jungle Cruise. I think for what they had in mind, it hits the mark. Even if the staff could be more Skipper like. Maybe that will gel up as time goes on

 

[epcotcenter1982]

WOW!!! Criticizing the " quality" of food you haven't even eaten yet is unbelievable. Your intense negativity is amazing

The pictures of the crap I've seen I'd send it back and not eat it...So...I'm judging as I would if I was there

 

[lberk]

We are there on Monday night. We were a party of seven. It was packed at the Magic Kingdom and most of the restaurants were busy. We only had to wait 30 minutes so we were pleasantly surprised. The waitress and host had a few corny lines each similar to the ride. That was nothing special but she was so excited about the restaurant. She could tell that I was interested in the small details and gave me a tour of all of the rooms which was nice to see because the main dining room is nothing special to look at. Our party gave the food a mixed review. We all ordered the steak or steak salad. The salad according to those who are it was spicy. The food came out in a timely manner. No long wait. I really enjoyed the dish and thought it was similar to any other one point restaurant steak. Others thought it was only ok. The desserts were small but tasty. We only tried the chocolate one as no one was that adventurist in our party. The kid's dessert was a volcano and it looked very cute and was tasty. Even though it was a good experience, I don't think we will be back as it wasn't anything truly memorable. I think it was worth the try though. The prices seem to be in line with all the other restaurants. The drinks I forgot to mention were fun and different. You could order the melon soda from Epcot. That was awesome.

 

[MAPOrocks]

We ate at the restaurant on December 21, 2015, and enjoyed our time there. We requested to sit in a room other than the main dining area and were put in the Fall Family Room, which is the room with the parrot stained glass chandeliers. The details everywhere were excellent. Animal print fabrics, animals incorporated into the architectural details in the room, elephants and snakes and monkeys in the carpet. We loved that room and the cast members were fine with us walking around to take pictures of the other room. I was sad that the souvenir glasses were not available - our skipper told us they were "lost at sea." I got the S.E.A. Shu Mai for my lunch. I thought the meatballs were tasty, but the Gyoza sking wrapping was a little too large. It was too gummy, so I just removed half of it on each of my meatballs. My daughter got the Char Sui Pork, which she enjoyed. It wasn't very spicy at all or she would never have eaten it, so very mild. My sister got the Arepas, which I thought were delicious. Meat had a wonderfully complex seasoning on it and it was a great sized appetizer. My son got the Sizzling Savanna Grilled Flank Steak off the kid's menu, which was thin and tough as leather. Not great at all. But his kid's meal came with a chocolate volcano dessert that was cute and delicious! Very rich and delicious chocolate for a kid's menu item. I got the the Coconut Bar with Pineapple-Basil Compote and Vanilla Cream, which was fantastic. I was so surprised by the flavor of this little jewel! I could have eaten 2! The coconut flavor was not overwhelming and the pineapple-basil combination was unexpectedly delicious. The cake was very buttery and the presentation was beautiful. Our skipper was quite nice and perky and kept the corny jokes to a minimum. I am a fan of the Jungle Cruise comedy, so I would have welcomed a little more skipper jokes, but overall our experience was great. I would definitely eat here again, though it was pricey. Of course, I will always eat lunch at Be Our Guest if I can get an ADR, but this is definitely a back-up restaurant.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

My DS8 and I ate lunch at Skipper's yesterday (12/29). Though I had read about the check-in/texting procedure here on the DIS, I wasn't exactly sure how I would be able to fit this in with our existing FP+ (I also didn't want to make DS walk all over a very crowded MK to get back for a table). We had an 11:15 am - 12:15 pm 7DMT FP+ which I didn't want to miss, so I checked in at 10:30 am and were told we would have a table when they opened at 11 am. I loved that they texted me with an estimated time when I checked in and, sure enough, we got another text at about 10:58 am, letting us know our table was ready. We were out by 11:45 am and had plenty of time for our FP+

The experience was very understated and underwhelming. Our server said "Safari, so good?" once and that was about it for the jokes. The dining rooms were lovely. The food, however, was quite mediocre. We go to WDW often and I should know, by now, not to expect much from in-park 1 credit TS meals. My DS8 had the kids' salad (a standard salad with a vinaigrette-like dressing) and the kids' steak (which was fine, not great). I had the salad appetizer (the dressing is spicy and overwhelming) and the sustainable fish (black cod). The fish was supposed to be in a lemongrass broth, but it was incredibly bland. DS8 had the kids' chocolate volcano for dessert (I thought it was delicious, but he didn't like the red sauce on it). I had the Kungaloosh, which was really just a brownie.

I'm glad we tried it, but I wouldn't go back. For a mediocre meal, it was $80 for me and DS8 (who ordered exclusively off the kids' menu) and they are offering no discounts (we are AP and TIW holders). MK is really in need of a signature dining experience with better food. We go to WDW often and I've really learned my lesson this time. Stick with signatures or resort TS. Our in-park 1 credit TS experiences on this trip were just not good at all.

I guess if we have to eat in MK, we will stick with CS from now on. The lunch food at BOG was far better than Skippers.

I really wish they had made this a more unique experience. More jokes? Something akin to Trader Sam's? It just wasn't good or exciting at all.