Bad Experience at Crystal Palace

[LindsayDunn228]

Wow, I'm suprised at all the bad experiences. My husband and I have been twice and have nothing but good things to say about CP. We also didn't have any children at our table and still got a lot of attention. Service was always good, food was delish, and the characters spent time with us.

Oh well.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

We have eaten there several times and have never had a problem with the characters missing us. We have been seated on both sides in numerous locations. I'm sorry you had a bad experience but I hope that is just a fluke and isn't becoming the norm.

 

[Tiger926]

My best friend just called us last night from Disney and ate at Crystal Palace as it's one of our favs, so we highly recommended it to them - same problems that she reported for breakfast as well. Hardly no character interaction, skipping tables, etc. This greatly surprised me since we've never had a problem at lunch or dinner (don't eat breakfast), so we'll have to see for ourselves on our next trip this summer. Hopefully, they can work the kinks out as something has definitely changed over the past several months based on all of these replies and the response of my best friend - this was there first time there, so I was a bit disappointed for them.

Tiger

 

[WDWCM]

I apologize because I am sure this is going to offend someone, but I find it very hard to believe that no character even came near your section in 75 min. Are you sure that you weren't at the buffet or bathroom when they came through? This restaurant has a very specific rotation that the characters follow in order to stay on target and they cannot backtrack. Being away from your table is one of the main ways to miss seeing a character.

Also, the characters do not "go on break". While they might step out for a few minutes, they do come right back. If you pay attention, you'll notice this happens about every 45 min. I will let you all imagine why this happens.

CP is one of the hardest dining locations for characters to work. It is busy and crowded all the time. Sometimes, groups are missed. When that happens, they do not bring the characters out of rotation, but simply wait for you all to finish your meal, pay your check and then take you to where the character(s) are that you missed on your way out of the restaurant. The servers know this is the process, but are usually very concerned that they will be tipped less because of character issues and so do not always provide all/correct info. Not to blame them though - the tip should be based on the food as that is what you are paying for - not the characters. They are free.

 

[skiwee1]

We have eaten at the CP many times and always had a great experience up until this past October. The characters were pretty much non existent too. We has to ask 4 times to get Tigger and Pooh to our table so we could leave. We had long finished eating and waited almost an entire hour longer for those two to get to the table. We were in the left side dining room seated at a table facing the buffet. Anyone could see us there along with every other table packed. Since this is our first bad experience there out of 20 good experiences we will give them another chance though.

 

[lillygator]

We have found character interaction to be better at breakfast than lunch or dinner. Sorry OP had such a bad time.

 

[jenny2]

This is one of our favorite Character dinners. We eat here every time and have had nothing but great character interaction each time (about 8 times, I'd say). Everyone's experiences and expectations are different.

 

[tink2]

I'm sad to read so many negative experiences. This is one of our favorite meals- we eat there at least twice every trip- usually a late lunch or early dinner. We've eaten here at least 6 times and only once did we have an issue- Thanksgiving day (very busy) with a party of 15- had problems with the bill (large party) and Piglet had to be escorted to our table- but I had to only mention it to the server. Maybe things will get better there- we love Crystal Palace!!!

 

[lissawynn]

We've been to CP twice for breakfast and had great character interaction on both trips. Sorry you had a bad experience.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We had dinner at CP in Jan. '05 and it was great.

We returned for dinner in October on the night of our MNSSHP and got the SAME table. Kind of freaky. But it was fine. The stupid woman sitting at the next table literally SWOOPED over and snatched piglet just as he was getting to us, so we never did see him.

Later in the week on the October trip we went back to CP for breakfast and told our server that we never saw Piglet at dinner. Piglet came to the table almost immediately after that.

We have always had excellent food and service as well as good charatcer interaction. I hope those who decide to try CP again will have a better experience next time!

 

[kaytieeldr]

I apologize because I am sure this is going to offend someone, but I find it very hard to believe that no character even came near your section in 75 min. Are you sure that you weren't at the buffet or bathroom when they came through? This restaurant has a very specific rotation that the characters follow in order to stay on target and they cannot backtrack. Being away from your table is one of the main ways to miss seeing a character.

I can't speak for the OP, but any time we go to a buffet, at least one person is at the table at any given time. I have no idea if the OP does this as well, but even if they don't, I think it's highly unlikely that every table in their area that was missed by characters was entirely empty every time a character approached. In addition, since the characters visit individually, I think it's equally unlikely that every Guest was away from every table every time any character approached that section/table.

 

[Minniedap]

On our last visit, we had the same exact lack of interaction with the characters as the OP's family did. Also, the characters kept going back to the same tables!! Somehow, their rotation, or whatever it is that they do, was completely off. I was getting really upset watching my DD's faces as they kept getting passed up. I finally asked a worker, standing in the middle of the restaurant if she could send some characters directly to our table since we were done eating and ready to go. Fortunately we got immediate results!

 

[groomtb]

wow what a shock!!! it's been 2 years since we had dinner at CP and it was a great experience. we took pictures with every character even though there was a good wait. I think they skip tables to make the rounds faster and probably forgot which one they been to or not... doesn't make sense for them to bother the same table every 20mins imo. but yeh if they totally skipped our table at unreasonble time frame..I'd say something about it.

or maybe they're reallly really into their 'animal' characters and seems untamed by their 'handler'

we're going there for bday dinner next month, hope it won't bee so bad!! I remember their food's great though, character experience is quite YMMV now I guess.