Crystal Palace for lunch- what's good, and what's not?

[Clover9990]

We've only done one character meal before- Chef Mickey's for breakfast (we loved it!). I'm really excited about our lunch with Pooh & Friends in a couple of weeks...any comments on how you liked the food & character interaction? Is there anything in particular that was outstanding, or any specific food that left much to be desired? Thanks in advance for your opinions!

 

[mmgrdg]

We had lunch at the CP last month and loved it! My DH thought that the buffet was the best meal that we had at Disney!! The characters were great, esp Eeyore...actually, the visit from Pooh was the shortest. They have a cute little buffet (I mean little....kid height!) for the kids and a nice dessert bar too. We really liked it...and the place is nice and bright....and cool!
Hope you have a great time!

 

[funnyhunny]

We loved it, we were there near closing time, ALL the pooh characters posed with my son for a group photo. They were wonderful, took up a lot of time with us. The food was very good also. Have fun!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

We did the Crystal Palace lunch on 8/14. Our ds are older 15,13, and 11 but they loved it as usually. Karen is the best server. We had Sondra but she was very nice too. All the food is good there. Your kids can even make their own PB and J with the rainbow bread. My one ds helped a littler child with the ice cream machine and we all got a kick out of watching the little parade they had around the place. Your kids can join in the fun too. It took a while for one of the characters to get to our table. Little ds would not leave until he got all the autographs and pictures. WARNING; On the day we went they were not taking any walkins and stated this to all people who were walking up, We are sold out all day (dinner included) So make a priority seating if you don't want to disappoint the kids.

 

[CalGal]

Our experience was much different. We were very disappointed in the Crystal Palace dinner we had last week. We were told that they had recently expanded the restaurant, so it now takes the characters over an hour to make the rounds. It was a full hour before a single character came to our table (and we had finished our meal by then). It was 90 minutes before all four characters had come around. That was after a 35 minute wait to be seated, by far our longest PS wait. The food was mediocre and the servers were not as friendly as most other places. The characters were great, but Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore are easy to find at MK (Judge's Tent), AK (as you enter Dinoland) and Epcot (England). We even saw Piglet at MGM near the Sorcerer's Hat. Perhaps it would have been better for lunch when we mighy have felt we had a couple of hours to kill.

Our favorite character meal this trip was the Liberty Tree Tavern where we were seated quickly, had pleasant service and a much better tasting meal. We also did character dinner at 1900 Park Fare (nice) and breakfast at Cinderalla's Royal Table, and Akershus (food a bit greasy and heavy but otherwise a delightful experience). We have done character meals in the past at Chef Mickey's, Garden Grill and at Disneyland/Disneyland resorts.

 

[Clover9990]

Wow- thanks for all of your fantastic replies/reviews...now I'm even more excited to go! Luvmarypoppins, I made a PS about 3 weeks ago, so we're good to go! Calgal, I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I'm hoping that ours will be better- esp. with character involvement, since we'll be there after Labor Day when the crowds have (hopefully) thinned out. Thanks for the tip about LTT- will have to try that in the future!

 

[magicmouse2]

We loved this CH meal. We ate there for lunch in May , and whilst Pooh and co, are (-were) not amongst our fav. characters, they were absolutely charming. The atmosphere was very laid back, we were not rushed and the buffet variety was superb. Well worth the $$$s. We will eat here each time we come to WDW. PS the restaurant itself is beautiful.