BachataMan
Registered
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2017
- Messages
- 121
Just a little bit of background, the Bon Voyage breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno has been my top favorite meal at WDW. When I first heard about it, I was ecstatic. I mean, Rapunzel is my favorite character on screen and to meet in the parks and when I heard she was getting her own character meal alongside with Flynn Rider as well as Ariel and Eric, I had to find a reservation right away. At first it was pretty much impossible to get a reservation, and all the rave reviews I heard from it made me more desperate to want to go. With a bit of persistence, I was able to book a reservation at a reasonable time, and when the day of the reservation came, my experience exceeded expectations.
First of all, the character interactions are awesome. This is one of the only character dining experiences with princesses that's not within a park and if you are a big Rapunzel fan like I am and/or a fan of any of the other three, this is the perfect experience because it's the one place you can meet them without having a park ticket. Second, the service was amazing - I had one of the best servers out of all my dining experiences at WDW here. The food was also really good, and that should be the most important thing. You start out with refillable pastries, a fruit bowl, and any of the items on the menu. For annual passholders, the price is $36 for everything, which is really cheap for a character meal let alone one with princesses. I've tried everything on the menu and I have to say my favorite item is the Tangled Eggs but I also like the Tower pancakes. At this point, I've visited I think about 15 times now and the manager and chef even came out to greet me on one of my visits, officially dubbing me as a regular.
So why am I suggesting it is overrated? Well, the last few visits have been subpar. Granted, lately I've gotten later reservations including the reservations they now do after 11 AM so maybe getting something after 10 AM might have something to do with it, but that should be no excuse. First of all, the pastries they give you now are cold and stale and I wouldn't be surprised if they were made like three days before. One visit I went the pan was already on the table before I got there. They don't ask you if you want a refill on pastries either so if you want more (keyword: IF) you gotta ask your server up front, which leads to the second and probably the biggest problem: servers that go missing in action yet try to rush you out the door at the same time, if that makes any sense. Basically the servers will use an assembly line approach much like that used at restaurants like BOG to get you in and out, yet most of the time your server is no where to be found. I think this is more of a management issue than anything where they will only have three servers in the entire restaurant serving 20 or more tables. The fruit bowl they serve seems a lot smaller than what they had originally when they gave you a choice of that or yogurt but I'm not sure. The main dishes are still pretty good but I feel like the quality even there is starting to drop. Character interactions are still fun, but now it's like they get the same four people to play the characters instead of rotating them out based on the last few visits, and if you're an avid character person you know this can make things stale.
Overall, I really think Bon Voyage is resting on its laurels, but the problem is they can't afford to. This isn't Cinderella's Royal Table, Be Our Guest, or Chef Mickey's which stand out to people who pass by; this is at a restaurant that people would easily overlook and not know about simply by walking past it. I really want to enjoy this place, but it's really hard to considering the last 4-5 visits have been subpar. Will I go again? I don't know. If I do go, it will certainly not be for a reservation after 10 AM.
First of all, the character interactions are awesome. This is one of the only character dining experiences with princesses that's not within a park and if you are a big Rapunzel fan like I am and/or a fan of any of the other three, this is the perfect experience because it's the one place you can meet them without having a park ticket. Second, the service was amazing - I had one of the best servers out of all my dining experiences at WDW here. The food was also really good, and that should be the most important thing. You start out with refillable pastries, a fruit bowl, and any of the items on the menu. For annual passholders, the price is $36 for everything, which is really cheap for a character meal let alone one with princesses. I've tried everything on the menu and I have to say my favorite item is the Tangled Eggs but I also like the Tower pancakes. At this point, I've visited I think about 15 times now and the manager and chef even came out to greet me on one of my visits, officially dubbing me as a regular.
So why am I suggesting it is overrated? Well, the last few visits have been subpar. Granted, lately I've gotten later reservations including the reservations they now do after 11 AM so maybe getting something after 10 AM might have something to do with it, but that should be no excuse. First of all, the pastries they give you now are cold and stale and I wouldn't be surprised if they were made like three days before. One visit I went the pan was already on the table before I got there. They don't ask you if you want a refill on pastries either so if you want more (keyword: IF) you gotta ask your server up front, which leads to the second and probably the biggest problem: servers that go missing in action yet try to rush you out the door at the same time, if that makes any sense. Basically the servers will use an assembly line approach much like that used at restaurants like BOG to get you in and out, yet most of the time your server is no where to be found. I think this is more of a management issue than anything where they will only have three servers in the entire restaurant serving 20 or more tables. The fruit bowl they serve seems a lot smaller than what they had originally when they gave you a choice of that or yogurt but I'm not sure. The main dishes are still pretty good but I feel like the quality even there is starting to drop. Character interactions are still fun, but now it's like they get the same four people to play the characters instead of rotating them out based on the last few visits, and if you're an avid character person you know this can make things stale.
Overall, I really think Bon Voyage is resting on its laurels, but the problem is they can't afford to. This isn't Cinderella's Royal Table, Be Our Guest, or Chef Mickey's which stand out to people who pass by; this is at a restaurant that people would easily overlook and not know about simply by walking past it. I really want to enjoy this place, but it's really hard to considering the last 4-5 visits have been subpar. Will I go again? I don't know. If I do go, it will certainly not be for a reservation after 10 AM.
