Whispering Canyon

[somagical]

Hi All! We are headed to the World from September 10-15 and are taking advantage of the free dining. We wanted to try a few new places this time and are thinking about Whispering Canyon for dinner at FWL. Any comments or suggestions about this place? It seemed fun and laid back, but I have not heard much about it. Any advice is appreciated....thanks!

 

[Goofy4]

We were there a month ago and had a great time. It's a little 'different' ; here's a little more on that:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2471434

and... Welcome to the Dis!

 

[AirGoofy]

Make sure someone at your table asks for ketchup.

 

[1000th happy haunt]

Hi All! We are headed to the World from September 10-15 and are taking advantage of the free dining. We wanted to try a few new places this time and are thinking about Whispering Canyon for dinner at FWL. Any comments or suggestions about this place? It seemed fun and laid back, but I have not heard much about it. Any advice is appreciated....thanks!

Whispering Canyon Cafe isn't at Fort Wilderness. It's at Wilderness Lodge.

And we have breakfast there on every trip.

 

[TheDisneyingNewfie]

I'd hate to spoil anything by saying much, but imho, you need to be a good sport and like fooling around in order to enjoy that place.

We love it. And will certainly go back.

But we also saw a few patrons with pretty grumpy faces. Has anyone come up with a good (and polite) way to put a name to the people that get into the "themed" Disney restaurants and get upset because there was more too it than just dinner? I don't get their attitude.

 

[RainK]

We just came back from there and ate at Whispering Canyon our 2nd night. We loved it! The food was great ( we had the skillet) and the atmosphere was fun! I will say it *does* make a difference on whether or not you get a great waiter/waitress. It makes the dining experience if ya get a good one!

Definately ask for ketchup ( even if you don't want it)

We will totally go back there.
Not to mention - the WL is amazing! We walked around it and decided - that is our next resort!!

 

[littletommy]

Don't forget to ask for the "LARGE" soda...You will be amazed.

 

[tami82]

We didnt get to go last trip but are definitely adding it to our August trip.

 

[wdwtheplacetobe]

Hi All! We are headed to the World from September 10-15 and are taking advantage of the free dining. We wanted to try a few new places this time and are thinking about Whispering Canyon for dinner at FWL. Any comments or suggestions about this place? It seemed fun and laid back, but I have not heard much about it. Any advice is appreciated....thanks!

We like it so much that we had our "after the wedding" lunch there! There is an "all you can eat BBQ" there and I wanted the Boys that attended the wedding to be able to have something substantial. We stayed in our Wedding Attire, led the stick horse race (with the MC warning the kids "not to run over the Bride and Groom"), and had our first dance there! The Manager of the restaurant insisted that I cover my dress with a sheet, even tho I was only eating VANILLA milk shake for lunch and being careful. Since our ceremony was traditional in the Wedding Pavilion, this was a great way to make it fun!

Go and have a great time!

 

[wdwtheplacetobe]

 

[jc040404]

We were there earlier this week and didn't care for it at all. Maybe it was just the night, but no one seemed into it. Some throwing straws and one call for ketchup, but that was it. Service was pretty bad. After making a HUGE deal about the refills on shakes, our server rarely came back to the table to check on anything. Dh had to call him over for more coffee and it then took twenty minutes for his drink to reach the table. We both did the skillet and had the same experience with more food being brought to the table. We finally asked for our desserts "to go" because we'd spent so much time waiting for him. He did finally jump into character and became super smiley when asking how I wanted to charge the tip though. Funny how they work that way, huh?

I spoke to someone in the ladies' room afterwards, who had a different server, and she expressed the same feelings about her dinner. Hope you have better luck if you try it!

 

[wahmtexas]

Stayed at the WL in Aug 09 and had our first morning breakfast there, the kids loved it and the food was good, not crowded, very nice, cleaner than a lot of other restaurants, nice change of pace from the rushed buffets
We have it booked for bk and dinner again on our upcoming Sept WL trip

 

[christinec68]

It's a fun place with good hearty food! Be prepared for some noise and just enjoy the show.

I'd hate to spoil anything by saying much, but imho, you need to be a good sport and like fooling around in order to enjoy that place.

We love it. And will certainly go back.

But we also saw a few patrons with pretty grumpy faces. Has anyone come up with a good (and polite) way to put a name to the people that get into the "themed" Disney restaurants and get upset because there was more too it than just dinner? I don't get their attitude.

I had no IDEA what it was like the first time I went there. I was tired and had a headache so WCC is the last place I should have been. Had I known, I wouldn't have gone there that night. Luckily, our server picked up on that quickly and let us off the hook with the games and antics and served our meal in a normal manner. So, I don't know what you want to call me - a kill joy? uninformed? unprepared?

We like it so much that we had our "after the wedding" lunch there! There is an "all you can eat BBQ" there and I wanted the Boys that attended the wedding to be able to have something substantial. We stayed in our Wedding Attire, led the stick horse race (with the MC warning the kids "not to run over the Bride and Groom"), and had our first dance there! The Manager of the restaurant insisted that I cover my dress with a sheet, even tho I was only eating VANILLA milk shake for lunch and being careful. Since our ceremony was traditional in the Wedding Pavilion, this was a great way to make it fun!

Go and have a great time!

That sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!! Your pictures are great and you looked gorgeous!!

 

[wdwtheplacetobe]

That sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!! Your pictures are great and you looked gorgeous!!

Thank you!

 

[ukhoops]

My DH and I enjoy the WC. We try to eat there once each trip. We get the skillet meal. We will be there next week and on the first night taking my DN, DS and DM for the first meal of our trip. We are going to celebrate the DN's birthday there. I can't wait to see the expression on his face when they bring out the cake.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

We went this past December, and none of us in the group really cared for it. The food was OK, but nothing great. I had read tons of reviews on here from people who said their kids loved it, but all the kids with us (ages 2,5,and 9) HATED it and all the stuff going on.

Maybe we just went on a crazy night, but about every 2 minutes there was someone yelling for something. After about an hour, we were so ready to get out of there

 

[Sweetpeamd]

If you decide to go, I would recommend going early on during your vacation. We waited until one of our last days and we weren't as amused as we might have been earlier in the week. We went on a night that we were really in the mood for a nice, quiet meal. You cannot get a nice, quiet meal at WCC. With the need to make ADR's 6 months in advance, it is difficult to know what kind of mood your family will be in on the night of your dinner. Scheduling it earlier in the week should help insure that you will have enough energy to enjoy the shenanagans!

Also, if you have a problem with germs (I got a little creeped out when we asked for ketchup), you may want to skip the ketchup!! Maybe I'm just a stick in the mud.

 

[iloveeeyore]

We did not care for it at all, and we are not grumpy or sour pusses or kill-joys. It just wasn't good the night we were there. We were into it; we wanted to do pony races and get yelled at, but there was no race during our entire meal and our waiter was not very fun, though the service was fine. The food (we got the skillet) was just plain yucky. Of course, if you're interested, you should try it for yourself.

 

[dacky041208]

Good food and fun shenanigans. We always want to try new places each trip, but WCC has become a place we always come back to.

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

We ate there this past week (Thursday night) and it was the only disappointing meal of our nine day trip. There were plenty of shenanigans, but they seemed forced and the servers seemed to be going through the motions. Our server was a bit odd, and I think that may have been her attempt at being "in character" but it came off as aloof, instead. We love character and theme meals, but this one just didn't land for us.

The food was also really a disappointment. I am a bit of a BBQ snob, and in all honesty the brisket was quite good (leading me to suspect they used a pre-smoked, reheated product, as brisket is usually the hardest to execute successfully) and the ribs were slightly better than average (I like St. Louis ribs, but those who seek baby backs may be disappointed), but the pulled pork was exceedingly fatty, the chicken was flabby and the slaw was mushy. The cornbread was tasty, and our server let me share with our table, which was a very nice touch. I found the BBQ sauce to be too sweet, but that is totally a personal preference and not an issue with their sauce but rather my palate.

My wife got the smoked pork loin with the Tillamook & chorizo grits. The grits were very good but refrigerator cold (not sure if that was intended or an error by the kitchen, but our server disappeared for a while so she ate them and found them good, just oddly cold) and the pork loin was more heft than flavor. Our daughter ordered the kid rib meal and declared them OK, but not great (she's a BBQ snob, as well). Our son sucked down several portions of baked beans, so I assume those were good.

Desserts were cold and tasteless, both the apple pie and pecan pie. Both were huge portions, but again almost devoid of taste.

That having been said, tons of people love WCC, so our experience may well have been just an "off night" for the kitchen and crew, or a mismatching of our palates to their menu, but we won't be rushing back. You should certainly give it a try for yourself if you like the look of it, however, and don't take our word for it!