Crystal Palace - Problems?

[rie'smom]

If you go during free dining, you're going to have a wait. At other timnes, get there early and sign in. We have had to wait a few times-may be 15 minutes- but the downtime is nice.

 

[DisneyNDecember]

It sounds like the dinner rush is the 1 hour delay, I always have a early/late lunch & have not had any problems.

 

[Sherlee]

We were just there for dinner on Sunday. We checked in at 5:25 for a 5:35 pm ADR and were seated by 5:45. The food was fine. The salads and meats were great! The side dishes were not so great. Desserts were also really good. Our server was fantastic - very enthusiastic and was right on for how long it would take the characters to get to us. They were very interactive, considering we were one adult and one teen.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

We went during free dining Aug. 24-30 and Crystal Palace was one of my favorite places! We had a 3:00pm reservation we arrived 15 minutes early (like they say to) and got in at exactly 3:00. I was surprised frankly that with the line they were right on time. They had water on the porch which was really nice since it was so hot. We had a excellent excellent waiter. They had the table set up for our celebration. They brought the birthday cupcake for my son and we saw all the characters 2 times during our meal! The food was delicious. Everything had just the right amount of flavor. It is on our list for a must do next year.

 

[3floridarays]

Now I'm worried! We are driving from Jacksonville on 12/18 - leaving about 1pm and its about a 2hr 45min drive. We were planning on checking into the hotel, catching the bus, and making a 5:50pm ressie at Crystal Palace before attending MVMCP at 7pm. Now I'm worried that we will have to wait an hour and cut out some serious time from the party.

What should we do??

 

[Corwin]

We were there at the end of August 2009. We had reservations for 3 and asked very nicely if they could change them to a table for 7! (Long story...basically, we met other family members who didn't plan their ADRs very well.) To my surprise, they said that they could accommodate us, but that we would have to wait 45 minutes or so. We readily agreed--and then they called us up just 10 minutes later!

Anyway, I thought that the food was just so-so, but my wife and son both loved it. The topiaries were beautiful, and it was a welcome respite from the August heat. I thought that the 18% tip was excessive for a buffet, though.

 

[spodie]

I've only been to CP once but the experience was so bad that I just can't bring myself to go back there (or at least for a very long time). Although I keep hearing rave reviews on it, I still have no desire to go back there. There were a couple of factors that were out of the restaurant's hands, but there were so many things that went wrong that was on their part that I really don't want to go back.

We ate there on the second night of trip last December, which was our second night while being on the Dining Plan for the first time. The night before, we realized at 50s Prime Time Cafe that we couldn't just saunter up to the stand at our ADR time and get seated, so we got to CP about 15 minutes before our ADR time and waited for about 30 minutes to be seated. The characters were great and I had a lot of fun interacting with them. However, when I got to the buffet, I was shocked at how messy and unappealing the food was presented. I know that it is a restaurant aimed at families, and I knew that walking in the door, but this was pretty gross. When I got back to our table, it turns out that one of the kids next to me threw up all over their table. Now, we were sitting in the middle section where the tables were super close together, so this spoiled my appetite right off the bat. I know that this wasn't the restaurant's fault, but our server disappeared for 30 minutes and when she came back, mumbled something about having to clean up the mess at the table next to us (even though I never saw her). By that point, we had been ready to leave and promptly paid our bill and left hungry.

I have had wonderful experiences at Chef Mickey's and LTT (when it was character dining), so I know that it's not the kid-friendly atmosphere that bothers me. I hope that was just a one-time thing at CP, but I am going to need some convincing to go back.