Be Warned, Small Children May Traumatized

[np4gp]

T-Rex -
October 23, 2008
Me, DH, DS2
Lunch, 11AM

Seated in Coral Reef room - on the plus, we made a special request to sit in there for the sake of my son already having been scared to death by the sudden movement and roaring of the T-Rex at the entrance. Before the section was open for seating, they found us a table by the fish instead of the fearsome beasts. Side note, he is not easily scared at all. We wandered through the restaurant to try and acclimate him to the other animatronic dinos and he just clutched and whined and repeated "I no yike that" = I don't like that. He did not delight even, in any of the smaller dinosaurs or the baby wooly mammoth. The only safe haven we had was back in our dining room where he could search for Dory's and Nemo's in the aquariums.

Instantly ordered a child's lemonade/water to try to calm the raging beast, DS2 - not the roaring dinosaurs. Although, they could have used a little calming as well.
$1.99 and no, it wasn't included with the later ordered children's meal... and I, my usual club soda with a lime (yup, I paid $2.99 for a glass of seltzer water...)

Due to our terrible two's daily plight, DH and I ordered one overly priced cocktail each, he at the beginning of the meal to loosen up while I had toddler duty and I at the end of the meal to relax from toddler duty (yes, terrible two's really can be that terrible sometimes). One tropical cotton candy martini with souvenier shaker and one caveman punch (more commonly known as a Hurricane) in a souvenier glass. $9.99 and $12.99 respectively

Enter the first of several meteor strikes - the room rumbles and darkens, the dinos protest loudly, the colors of the ice room change. It lasts just minutes, but our son hated every second. It gets very loud (even above the regular noise level, which is obnoxious enough with screaching dinos and blaring music) and the creatures that had already terrified him just became even more animated.

Next, it was time to try and feed the restless natives. One child's pasta with alfredo sauce $6.99 and an appetizer for the adults - flatbread with cheese, chicken, tomato sauce, onions and balsamic, $11.99 - Portions? Appropriate for the child, approx. $1.00 per piece of flatbread. They could have ditched the tomato sauce for me and doubled up on the balsamic glaze. More fitting to the carmelized onions and goat cheese IMO

DS2's food was quick to appear but failed to delight. Strangely shaped noodles turned him off as he is used to the kind he can slurp and make hit him in the face. These were flat and curled, almost like mini lasagna noodles. Thank goodness for the cheesy bread.

Daddy and mommy get to eat as well - or so we thought. DH - Chicken salad with waffle fries ($12.99 if I recall correctly with $1.99 for the waffle fries instead of potato chips)
Myself, the Paleozoic chicken sandwich with waffle fries...well, it is what I ordered anyway. I got some sort of Italian sandwich, which I didn't even see on the menu?? It took about 10 min. to get our waitress and send it back. 5 min. later, I had the correct order (as well, $12.99 as I recall and $1.99 extra for the fries), ANNOYANCE of the time passed, absolutely free.

Dessert, a pass. Little man dos was absolutely done with the meteor shower displays that terrorized kids all over the dining room. By the end of lunch, he didn't even want to Build a Dino...and this child loves Build a Bear. I honestly believe he was traumatized

Receipt total
Lunch $74+
Tip = $15+
Souveniers = "free"
Experience = Overpriced and Rated PG for mild violence

PS. Overall, service was pretty darn good for a brand new restaurant. Food portions were a very good size. I cannot say though, that I would recommend this to a family with small children. Our son typically has NO fear but this place had him clutching us the entire time we were there.

 

[whogirl'smom]

Thanks for your review. The podcast this week had similar feelings on the place, as well. We certainly won't be doing T-Rex for the same reason we don't do Rainforest Cafe, too noisy! What are they thinking? It must feel like eating while riding Dinosaur!

 

[Nee Nee and Biddy]

Loved your review! My son acted the exact same way when we went to the T-Rex in Kansas City. He has no fear of anything, but this place had him shaking! This is not a restaurant for the little ones.

 

[distherapy]

Thank you! That made our decision very easy...

 

[np4gp]

Glad I could help out other families with my review. We were so excited to take the day to check the place out. It was a near total bust...My son would have much preferred to just grab some chicken nuggets and fries from McD's and play in the fountain down by Once Upon a Toy...lol

 

[PrincessPoohsMom]

We'd been thinking about trying T-Rex in March...DD will be 2 1/2 and like your DS has NO FEAR...however, I can completely see her responding the same way. Thanks so much for posting your experience! I think we'll get an ADR, swing by and scope the place out, see how she reacts. If it's no dice we'll just cancel (you're welcome, walk-up party) & eat at WPE...and do Build-A-Dino. My brother, DD's favorite uncle, was a total dino freak as a child, and has already called dibs on doing this with her. Would not be a happy day for anyone if she was too freaked out by the meal to even try it.

 

[TDC Nala]

I'm 44 years old, the dinosaurs won't be a problem, but the prices are traumatizing me

I do want to go for a dessert martini though.

 

[momfor4]

we were planning on taking our kids- but what age is appropriate? I don't want them freaked out either- had the before. They are 10, 8 and 6 yrs. They do like dino's, but is it too scarey and not worth the price?? Can you get a peek in to even see it if not eating??

 

[mtemm]

we were there yesterday and can easily see how scary it is for little kids. definitely loud and more in-your-face than rainforest. but for older kids, at least older than toddlers, it isn't too bad. my kids are 6, 4, 4 and were fine. but yeah, prices are high and service was sketchy. but worth it for the look on my kids faces....they were thrilled to be there!

eta, we were in dtd on tuesday night and walked thru the place just checking it out. nobody stopped us (we had already eaten at a different restaurant). the crowds outside were high so not sure we would have waited anyway. yesterday we got there around 11:30 and were seated immediately, even though it was a saturday and dtd seemed pretty hopping.

 

[Sam'sMom0126]

Thank you for the review...we were thinking of trying it with our 21 month old, but now I can see that it will probably not go so well! I really don't feel like having him clutch my neck while I try to have a cocktail...forget trying to eat! I feel for you...I am already starting to see snipets of those dreaded terrible 2's!

 

[dreamin_disney]

i was thinking this would be fun to take dd(9) but the prices are pretty scarey. I cant believe how expensive a salad is $12 and up. Hopefully others will post pic of food on another thread and info on what meals can be shared. Thanks for your reveiw

 

[np4gp]

I wanted so bad to take pics of our food and drinks and such. I got a few pics of the inside of the restaurant, but nothing very good unfortunately. DS2 made it very difficult for us to snap any photos.

I would say children, maybe 3 and up and even more likely, 4 and up would be fine in the restaurant. It really does depend on the child come that age though. Like I said, my son is one of those fearless types and it did not suit him well at all.

The prices are high, but the portions are also pretty big. We are locals, so we could take our leftovers right home (and we did, 3 boxes worth...lol). For someone staying in a hotel room without some place to keep the leftovers fresh - you may consider sharing a dish. It will server your wallet and your waistline well. Honestly, if you had to compare it to any normal restaurant, you could probably say it was a lot like a chili's or TGI Friday's - except noisier and cooler looking. Food on par with those places, just with creative names. As far as service goes, I was actually impressed considering they had only been open a week. We have been to restaurants in the first month or two of them being open and have had service 10 times worse. We went to Tchoup Chop (sp?), an Emeril restaurant over in the Universal Resort area, about 4 months after it opened - long story short, we ended up with a COMPLETELY FREE FUTURE VISIT it was SOOOO bad!! I vowed never to go back, so I sent my parents for a free anniversary dinner. They were treated like GOLD. But, that is a whole other review....lol.

Anyway, I do know you can just go wander the restaurant and check it out. You can not use any video recording devices but you can take pictures.

 

[Vickis3js]

Thank you OP for the review. We were thinking of trying it in Dec with out kids 8, 7, and 6 but I think we will rule this one out. We take the kids to Rain Forest a few times a year and with DD being autistic the noise of the thunderstorm the first time gets her a little anxious but since she is used to it now she is able to work through the others and normally they don't even faze her. If T-Rex is more intense I don't want to put her through that especially since it will set the tone for the rest of the day.

 

[suzimar57]

thanks for sharing your recent review!

 

[np4gp]

Thank you OP for the review. We were thinking of trying it in Dec with out kids 8, 7, and 6 but I think we will rule this one out. We take the kids to Rain Forest a few times a year and with DD being autistic the noise of the thunderstorm the first time gets her a little anxious but since she is used to it now she is able to work through the others and normally they don't even faze her. If T-Rex is more intense I don't want to put her through that especially since it will set the tone for the rest of the day.

If you do decide to go, I would probably avoid taking DD for a walk through the whole restaurant to check it all out if you think she won't respond well to it. Request a table on the far wall of the Coral Reef room. There are no moving or noisemaking dinosaurs in that room. It does still get noisy during the meteor shower, which happens every 20 minutes.

 

[Michelle_R]

we were planning on taking our kids- but what age is appropriate? I don't want them freaked out either- had the before. They are 10, 8 and 6 yrs. They do like dino's, but is it too scarey and not worth the price?? Can you get a peek in to even see it if not eating??

My kids thought it was wonderful! There is a gift shop that you can go into that would allow you to get a feel for the place.

 

[DISNEYFOS]

We took our kids the first week it opened. They were 4 (almost 5) and 16 months. I agree it was very loud. We sat in the coral room. They both loved it. I think it was very exciting for them. My older daughter used to be scared of the rainforest when she was younger..but T-rex didn't bother her.