Ariel's Grotto....

[surgefest]

Who has been to Ariel's Grotto for lunch or dinner?? What did you think?? whats your overal review of your meal there.. Food... characters interaction..... atmosphere... Also did you sit inside or outside?? Which did you prefer and why?? Also how does that work? Do you request when you get there or at the time you make reservations? Thanks for any responses..

 

[VictoriaAndMatt]

We've been twice. Both times we were sat outside, and no one told us we would be. Both times it was pretty chilly, and we felt a bit secluded. So if we ever go again I would like to request indoor seating.

The first time we went was a few years ago before they changed the menu, and characters. The food was lacking, but there was much better character interaction then. This last time we had a few Princesses come to our table, but only one of them did more than pose and sign an autograph. Snow White actually paid attention to my DS and gave him a kiss on his cheek. This made us both very happy as the other Princesses only gave him a passing wave, and focused on my daughter. I understand that she's a girl, but I felt like he was left out. Anyway, the food this time was much better. I got a pasta, which was good, but I tried some of DH's Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip and wished I had gotten that. It was really good.

 

[Raindown]

At the time you make the reservation you can say whether you prefer indoor or outdoors.

 

[darlenesmommy]

I have not been here yet we are planning on going in May but they dont have the characters there for dinner because of woc.

 

[pixiewings71]

If you do a walk up then they will seat you outside, if you make your reservation via phone they will put you inside. Outside is usually a few dollars cheaper then inside. This is how it was done last summer, we have 2 DD's, we've eaten there quite a bit. We love love love the new menu, it's delish!!!!!!!! The agnolotti pasta is delish, the ciopinno is delish, the tri tip is super delish, and the chicken is amazing. I don't like chicken w/skin and bones but I loved that chicken!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've never had any problems/issues at all with the Princesses interaction with the girls, Jasmine even poses with DBF every time because she's his favorite. LOL The girls always tell her and she poses with our "king" LOL He loves it.

Now because of WoC they aren't doing characters at dinner, just the meal and then FP's for WoC, but the menu for lunch & dinner is the same so go for lunch and enjoy. Lunch/dinner is much better than the bfast menu IMO.

 

[DisSarahK]

We ate lunch there right after they changed the menu and we paid a bit extra to sit inside. The check-in person was quite surly. I did not like the food and it was not served at the correct temperatures. Additionally, my son is allergic to nuts and they were NOT at all accomodating of his allergy. Basically everything was contaminated except for some jello and some cheese. Despite the princesses, this meal was the one time during our Disneyland trip that I felt the magic truly was lacking.

With all that said, we'll likely go back there again this trip because of the princesses. Maybe.

 

[letthembelittle]

Here is our experince: we went last November with me, my dd (4 1/2), my mom, my sil, and her dd (6). My dd had to be taken to the doctor the morning of our reservation we asked to be moved later but they were booked solid and couldnt move our reservation. My dd ended up making it JUST before the princesses came (they were nice enough to let us stand off to the side near Ariel to see if she would make it), but it was pretty much just an assembly line of princesses once they came: quick smile, take a picture, sign an autograph, move onto the next table. I thought it was pretty crowded in the restuarant to get a good picture with all the tables and windows. As for the food, I had the tri tip and it was great! I ended up not being able to eat much since dd was still pretty sick so we left right after the princesses came, she didnt eat a bite but her dad and uncle sure enjoyed our boxed leftovers. Would I do it again? Probably not. I think we would try Goofy's or some other buffet-type place and wait in the PFF line and see the princesses that way.

 

[Raindown]

Once I was there for breakfast on a random Saturday before summer. Including my table there must have been only 7 or 8 other tables booked. There was plenty of time to converse at that point.

Other times I have gone have been pleasant. I want to try the outside seating one time.

 

[disneydreamer74]

I went to the dinner last summer. I took my 2 nieces and DD3. I highly recommend it if you have princess lovers in your group. In our case, each of the princesses visited our table for autographs and photo ops, but they definitely interacted with the kids as well. I will always recommend this character meal to others not only for the experience, but because the food was very good!

 

[ipdenc]

I have never eaten at Ariel's either. I have 2 boys (DS4 and DS12). So as you can guess they are not into the princesses. We will be going to DL in Sept. I really would like to see the WOC however, I don't want to waste time waiting in line for hours for a good spot.......so we have considered eating at Ariel's to have the WOC viewing with the dinner. I don't even know if they will be showing the WOC in late Sept. since the calendar of events has yet to be posted. I would appreciate any input on this........
Would my sons hate it? Too girly?
Is it worth it if WOC showing?
Food?

Thank you!!!!!

 

[Raindown]

Would my sons hate it? Too girly?

There are no characters at the WoC meal. Other than that I think the place has a cute under the sea theme.

 

[Eeee-va]

I went for a late lunch in June 2010 with a group of 3 adults. My expectations weren't much and it met my expectations.

I found the food to be overall good. The appetizers were just OK but I liked my tri-tip very much. The desserts were good too. We ate inside because we got really hot eating outside at Wine Country Trattoria just a week later in June 2009. The weather was nicer in June 2010 but we had already booked inside and it was nice. We were near the window so we got decent photos.

I thought character interaction was fine for adults. We were near the end of the rotation so they weren't particularly rushed--not that there was a lot of interaction, either. I think it was the first princess (Cinderella) who asked us if we wanted to get pictures and of course we did; the others must have observed because they all did photos. It was a little bit inconvenient to keep stopping eating when a princess came by, but not bad. They didn't mind each of us getting individual pictures with them either. I do think you get better interaction at PFF, but you only get 3 princesses (very occasionally 2, I've heard) and you never have any idea which ones. If you just want photos, Ariel's Grotto is fine, IMO.

Have a great trip!

 

[jodeja]

I have never eaten at Ariel's either. I have 2 boys (DS4 and DS12). So as you can guess they are not into the princesses. We will be going to DL in Sept. I really would like to see the WOC however, I don't want to waste time waiting in line for hours for a good spot.......so we have considered eating at Ariel's to have the WOC viewing with the dinner. I don't even know if they will be showing the WOC in late Sept. since the calendar of events has yet to be posted. I would appreciate any input on this........
Would my sons hate it? Too girly?
Is it worth it if WOC showing?
Food?

Thank you!!!!!

I also have 2 boys, so we never would have gone to Ariel's Grotto except for the WOC dining package. The boys were relieved to find out that no princesses would be there (though they didn't mind meeting and posing for pictures with the princesses at Goofy's Kitchen)!
We ate outside and we all enjoyed our meal very much. The outside patio is not really themed, but it was perfect weather the late afternoon we were there (in June) and we liked being out by the water.
The boys loved the tri-tip. I had the pasta with sausage and it was very good - came out steaming hot and the portion was huge. I read other reviews that the bread was rock hard but ours was soft and good. My younger son had the chicken skewer, which is on a sugarcane skewer. It was good but a small portion so he also shared an adult portion of tri-tip with his brother.
None of us liked the appetizer, but we are very picky eaters.
The dessert tray was beautiful - but in our opinion (picky, remember) most of it looked better than it tasted. It was too "fancy" for my kids' taste - they would have preferred a scoop of plain vanilla ice cream They did eat the white chocolate film strip though. There were a couple of items on the dessert tray that I enjoyed.
The service was quite slow, but we weren't particularly in a hurry either.

I hope you enjoy it if you go!

 

[jodeja]

I don't want to waste time waiting in line for hours for a good spot.......so we have considered eating at Ariel's to have the WOC viewing with the dinner.
Is it worth it if WOC showing?
Food?

Thank you!!!!!

Oh, I meant to address these questions/comments too!
I thought the food was good (like I said previously), it was our second favorite meal of our trip (Goofy's was first).
I thought it was totally worth it for the good food and relaxing atmosphere and the included ticket to WOC.
However, it doesn't exactly save you hours of waiting for a good spot!
We saw the 9pm show and the ticket we received said to come to the waiting area between 7:30 and 8:30. The advice on these boards has been to actually get there between 7:00 and 7:15. So, you are STILL looking at waiting 2 hours for the show, even with this dining package!
Because our meal took longer than I expected and we had to run back to the hotel room for jackets in between the meal and the WOC show, we didn't get to the waiting area until 7:35 (just 5 minutes after our ticket said to return) and the spots on the rail were all already taken. I have written in other posts about our experience in more detail, but my boys had a hard time seeing the show.
I would do it again: the Ariel's Grotto meal and the WOC show, but I would make sure to be there no later than 7pm to make sure that the kids can see.
Our unspoken rule this trip was that the boys could play their DSs when the wait was over an hour. So, they played DS in the airport, when riding on the bus to Legoland, and during our wait for WOC to start.

 

[Lissame]

I have never eaten at Ariel's either. I have 2 boys (DS4 and DS12). So as you can guess they are not into the princesses. We will be going to DL in Sept. I really would like to see the WOC however, I don't want to waste time waiting in line for hours for a good spot.......so we have considered eating at Ariel's to have the WOC viewing with the dinner. I don't even know if they will be showing the WOC in late Sept. since the calendar of events has yet to be posted. I would appreciate any input on this........
Would my sons hate it? Too girly?
Is it worth it if WOC showing?
Food?

Thank you!!!!!

It sounds like you are asking about a view of WOC actually from Ariel's at dinner? Because you don't stay at Ariel's to watch WOC, you still have to go out to the actual viewing area and stand, and you need to be there quite a bit early to get a decent spot. That said, I think that with the premium dining section you don't need to be there quite as early (maybe 7:30 or 8 as opposed to 7)

But you're right, no schedules for Sept have been released, so the times may be different for the show, and maybe only on the weekends...no one knows for sure yet (although there are rumors a'flyin!)

 

[carolinamama]

We had a 3:30 ressie on June 27. I knew from others on here that the food wasn't going o blow my socks off, but we had a decent meal. We met Ariel at the entrance, and then we had Belle, Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella. Snow White was awesome and really talked to DD. Belle was the quickest with her, which was too bad b/c that is DD's favorite, but she didn't seem to mind/notice. Belle was also the only one to interact with DS, but to be honest, DS had NO interest in having anything to do with the princesses, and he didn't want them to sign his book.

We sat inside, and we were asked at the time of our ressie if we wanted inside or outside.

Our bill came out somewhere around $140, but we used our Costco vouchers, so it was 'free.'

 

[ipdenc]

Oh, I meant to address these questions/comments too!
I thought the food was good (like I said previously), it was our second favorite meal of our trip (Goofy's was first).
I thought it was totally worth it for the good food and relaxing atmosphere and the included ticket to WOC.
However, it doesn't exactly save you hours of waiting for a good spot!
We saw the 9pm show and the ticket we received said to come to the waiting area between 7:30 and 8:30. The advice on these boards has been to actually get there between 7:00 and 7:15. So, you are STILL looking at waiting 2 hours for the show, even with this dining package!
Because our meal took longer than I expected and we had to run back to the hotel room for jackets in between the meal and the WOC show, we didn't get to the waiting area until 7:35 (just 5 minutes after our ticket said to return) and the spots on the rail were all already taken. I have written in other posts about our experience in more detail, but my boys had a hard time seeing the show.
I would do it again: the Ariel's Grotto meal and the WOC show, but I would make sure to be there no later than 7pm to make sure that the kids can see.
Our unspoken rule this trip was that the boys could play their DSs when the wait was over an hour. So, they played DS in the airport, when riding on the bus to Legoland, and during our wait for WOC to start.

Thank you very much! This was very helpful! Appreciate it!

 

[Mike_M]

I'm probably in the minority here but I thought it was a little excessive for a theme park resturant. The princesses gave my DD plenty of attention (It was her birthday) and we enjoyed the meal (We had lunch) but they were trying very hard to be a four star resturant and I just don't go to DLR looking for a fine dining experience (Except for Blue Bayou but that's a different story and we only do it once per trip anyways). It was pricy too. The bill for four adults and two kids got really close to $300.

All in all, it was nice and I'm glad we did it but I'll probably not do it again unless it's to celebrate a special occasion.