Carnation Cafe in the Rain

[KrazyKat4DIS]

Hey guys,

Well, we are in the parks tomorrow for our annual Christmastime in DL trip. So excited! There is nothing as magical as DL at this time of year... Anyway, I digress...


We have an 8 a.m. ressie at the Carnation Cafe. I have never eaten there before, but due to the recs on DIS, I thought we should try it out. Seeing as how it's supposed to rain tomorrow, what is the restaurant like in the rain? I know they have umbrellas, but do the table and chairs stay dry??? This could be so disappointing. I already made DBF look at the menu online and we have our meals planned out! *sigh*

Thanks for the help,

Krazy Kat

 

[KrazyKat4DIS]

Anyone? Anyone?

Has anyone seen the coverings for CC, even if you haven't eaten there?

 

[sonnyjane]

I have no idea what they do when it's raining, but the umbrellas don't seem like they would keep you dry if it was raining, but I don't know for certain. It does say that tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM it should be 49 and 40% of rain...so, even if it doesn't rain, make sure you dress warmly! I'm not sure if they also have indoor seating or not??

 

[Sherry E]

Truthfully, if I recall correctly from what a CM told us, Carnation Cafe closes when it starts to rain steadily. There was one day last year where it began to rain pretty heavily and it was closed when I walked by. Now, they may give it some leeway and stay open until they see how heavy the rain gets, but I think it was either last year or the year before when we asked a CM and they said that was one of the few places that closes during the rain. Maybe that has changed now, but not sure. The seating is so limited anyway, and those umbrellas just wouldn't be enough coverage if the rain was heavy, I don't think.

 

[Sherry E]

I have no idea what they do when it's raining, but the umbrellas don't seem like they would keep you dry if it was raining, but I don't know for certain. It does say that tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM it should be 49 and 40% of rain...so, even if it doesn't rain, make sure you dress warmly! I'm not sure if they also have indoor seating or not??

No seating inside for Carnation anymore. Those days are long gone!

 

[KrazyKat4DIS]

Thanks for the info! I am thinking that maybe we should just try breakfast someplace else. Maybe see about the new Mickey breakfast at PPH. I imagine their first seating is at 7:30 a.m. Does that sound about right? I hate to miss rope drop, but it sounds like Carnation Cafe will be cold and wet tomorrow morning! Next time I suppose!

 

[pixiewings71]

They do close when it's raining steadily, there is no way to know if that will happen until tomorrow tho, I would probably make other plans.

 

[PHXscuba]

We were there in October, when it was rainy on and off. I stopped by Carnation Cafe that morning as soon as we got into the park to get a lunch reservation. She took it, but told me if it was raining, they'd shut down. It had rained on and off all morning but wasn't currently raining when we came back at noon. They were serving lunch, but only using fully-umbrella-covered tables, which limited the seating to about 60 percent of an already small restaurant. They were sweeping the water out from under tables as they went.

We ended up with a longer wait for a table than I was happy with, in part because they needed two tables together under umbrellas to seat our family of 6. They said that even if it wasn't raining right now, they wouldn't put people out in the open in case it started up again (too many complaints). The standby line got pretty long while were there. I had hot chocolate and baked potato soup!

So if I knew rain was predicted I'd go and try, but have a back-up plan. Might depend on the forecast for the morning whether they decide to fire the stoves up and open, or cut their losses.

PHXscuba

 

[Sherry E]

I think the OP is at DLR today, so the Carnation meal would have been today. Sure enough, it has been raining on and off all day, so I will be curious to hear whether or not they did another breakfast somewhere else or if they got lucky with Carnation!

 

[jory29]

We dined at the Carnation Cafe on Wed. Oct. 13th and it was cloudy when we got there around 11:30 and by the time we got our food it started raining; it was a colder/stronger rain than we thought it would be, and was kind of 'stinging' our skin, and yes, it was raining in our food too, lol! Because of the wind warning they didn't open the umbrellas, but we made the best of it. Our only regret was that Chef Oscar wasn't working that day so we were not able to meet him. Maybe next time. The loaded baked potato soup was awesome though, as was the rest of the meal. I don't think they closed the restaurant down that day.

 

[PHXscuba]

Jory29:
I think that was the same day we were there!

They had the umbrellas opened by the time we arrived. ITA about the baked potato soup! We thought the service was a little slow (especially since they weren't using all the tables) but the food was good.

PHXscuba

 

[jory29]

It's cool to find out another DISer was there the same day. Did you find that the parks were so crowded during that time? We sure did,and were glad we made our priority seating reservation for when we did. I didn't like everyone standing there staring at us when we were eating though, lol! We were facing the crowded lineup. We had the 11:30 PS arrangements so by the time we got our food, quite a line had formed, despite the rain. I guess the wind was blowing the rain at an angle, which is why it felt a little more pelting than usual rain.