Crystal Palace was horrible

[rance]

Maybe the carpet was just dirty with food on it etc.

I did talk with the manager after and she was very appreciative of my feedback. She did say it was a bad night with over crowding, I then asked why if it is so overcrowded why are they still accepting walk ins when reservations are 50 minutes behind. she said it was disneys policy to offer reservations outside adr's.

She was also suspiscious of my server saying there was no hot water available for tea and asked me for servers name. I didn't feel comfortbable getting server in trouble, but maybe I should have.

she also mentioned that disney is re thinking free dining promotion in future as there have been many complaints of declining quality of the restaurants.

I told her they should look at 1900 park fare, because for the same price it was soooo much better.

anyways just my $0.02 as rest of the dining was great for us.

 

[emmabemmainc]

You definitely should have told her your server's name--how strange that she would say that there was no hot water for tea! I also agree with you--for them to accept walk ups while someone with an ADR is still waiting for their table is not right. Unless, their party size was different than your's and there was that table size available? That's the only thing I can think of. I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but I'm glad the rest of your eating was good!

 

[Don Disney]

We have dinner twice per trip-4 years running....and have never had a "bad" meal? It was probably just and off night-I hope;We'll be in WDW this week,and have 2 ressies!!!

 

[Laketravis]

We have dinner twice per trip-4 years running....and have never had a "bad" meal? It was probably just and off night-I hope;We'll be in WDW this week,and have 2 ressies!!!

I sure hope so - we've got 4! (1 breakfast, 2 lunches, 1 dinner).

 

[wcpamotm]

My biggest problem with Crystal Palace is that they always seem to be running behind in seating... sometimes significantly so.

 

[Cafeen]

I did talk with the manager after and she was very appreciative of my feedback. She did say it was a bad night with over crowding, I then asked why if it is so overcrowded why are they still accepting walk ins when reservations are 50 minutes behind. she said it was disneys policy to offer reservations outside adr's.

In light of a certain other conversation on the boards (we'll not discuss that here, only how this relates to it), I find this portion very interesting.

CP is one of the major offenders of waiting way beyond ADRs (same with Ohana, Le Cellier, etc), and it gets worse the later in the day (so dinners get absolutely horrible). Whether it's due to overbooking or staff issues, I can't say, but it's consistently behind schedule (you'd think they'd figure that out after awhile...)

In my experiences (2009 7pm dinner, 2011 8:05am Breakfast) I noticed that huge wait for dinner, 45-60minutes or so after the ADR, same mob of people everywhere waiting for their name to get called. 2011 was pretty quick. There was a bit of a line at 7:50ish AM, but once I checked in it was only about 5mins until I was brought in. Food was so-so both times, but I'm not a huge fan of breakfast food anyway. Characters were great both times though.

In the end, it's all about consistency, which is something Disney's been lacking for quite awhile now. Hopefully it gets better, but I certainly can't blame anyone for having a bad meal anywhere on property and not wanting to go back. It's not like you frequent these restaurants on a monthly basis, for many it's their one shot at the place and the first impression means a whole ton more.

 

[worldmickey]

We ate there on our last trip in 2009 and will never go back, which is sad because it was one of our favorites. There were dirty tables everywhere, the food was bad, but the worst was the characters. Pooh skipped our table and when we went to ask the CM if he could come to our table, Pooh walked over, picked up our camera handed it to the CM, she took a picture, he tossed it back on the table made a rude gesture and walked away. Never again. We were just in shock. Oh well, we have other good memories of eating there.

 

[fireman17]

I just want to chime here on this subject and offer a suggestion as I too have experienced this type of situation at some Disney restaurants. My suggestion is if you are not happy with the way your experience was by all means let Disney know about it.
We took a back to back cruise on The Dream this October and had reserved a harbor cruise in Nassau well long story short it turned out to be a very bad and unsafe excursion to say the least. When we went to guest services we were informed to fill out a survey card of our experience. The very next day we were called by guest services which informed us that others had complained as well and our money was refunded in full for the excursion.
Now I'm not saying you're going to get a refund for your ADR but as was told to us by a guest services member that the only way something will be fixed if the guest let Disney know it needs to be fixed.
I believe if Disney get enough feedback from guest some things may or could change..
Off my soap box now..

 

[KyCruisinSusan]

I am a huge Tigger fan and I love CP for their breakfast but I agree with the OP as I was not impressed with the dinner buffet and will not be returning for the evening meal. The puffed French toast at breakfast cannot be beat tho.

 

[MASKED MANIAC]

We eat there for lunch EVERY sat at 11:30 for lunch and the lunch is NEVER anything but great, that being said we have done dinner maybe 4X in the last few months and each time we hoped it would be better but the food is not as good as lunch not even close and we always feel like herded cattle....waiters and waitresses pushing us to get in and out....

I can tell you this the old GM Shelly who always had the place running amazing moved on to another Disney restaurant and since then I def see a difference for the worst....

 

[babyrich]

We just had breakfast at CP on October 27th and we loved it. We didnt find the place worn at all. In fact we had lunch at the Plaza the next day and I commented to my DH how old the place looked, the seat cushions were even ripped. Food great, decor bad.

We go to CP for breakfast every year. We are usually in the first round of seating. Love the character interaction, love the food, and the service was great, it was my bday and the waitress brought over a cupcake with a candle and sang happy birthday to me.

I think dinner buffets are just more difficult. Its gotta be tuff to cook that amount of food and keep turning it over.

Give breakfast a try.

 

[Yellosno]

I'm not a big fan of all the buffets. All the meals I ordered where 10x better than anything I had at the buffets.

 

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

This was our exact experience too...horrible and will never go there again. Our visit was two years ago and many posters came back and said how much they loved it. I don't know how it could be so much better on another night. Ours was dinner too: FILTHY restaurant, characters so slow we left before seeing all of them, food picked over... I love all things Disney and this is the ONLY bad experience we have ever had in Disney restaurants in 30 + visits.

 

[lugnut33]

I love that he manager blamed it on free dining.

 

[KNovacovschi]

I've never eaten dinner here just breakfast and I loved it. Last time we went we had dinning plan so I didn't look at the pricing. This time we are not going with the dinning plan and was wondering what the cost of the breakfast buffet is. They don't give an actual cost just a range from $36-$59.99. We are all over 10, lol.

 

[mom2rb]

I am a huge Tigger fan and I love CP for their breakfast but I agree with the OP as I was not impressed with the dinner buffet and will not be returning for the evening meal. The puffed French toast at breakfast cannot be beat tho.

We go every trip for breakfast. We tried dinner once.

 

[aprilp]

I went in early december of 2009 and it was great. I think we had a 12:00 reservation, or maybe it was 12:05, at any rate, we only had to wait for about 10 minutes and then we were in. The restaurant was clean (very open and bright, which was nice) and the food was great (lots of things to pick from that were pretty healthy and some quite creative, most was yummy). It was crowded but not insanely so (it was off season, though, so that probably helped). Our waitress wasn't the greatest, but the characters went around to every table including ours even though we had no children with us. They took pics with everyone and didnt seem in a hurry. My parents specifically requested to eat here again when we go in early december this year. I'll have to let you know what its like once we get back from this trip...I'm thinking lunch is a better time to go than dinner after hearing everyone's reviews.

 

[summermac]

I've never eaten dinner here just breakfast and I loved it. Last time we went we had dinning plan so I didn't look at the pricing. This time we are not going with the dinning plan and was wondering what the cost of the breakfast buffet is. They don't give an actual cost just a range from $36-$59.99. We are all over 10, lol.

From AllEars:
Seasonal (including Holiday) Pricing May Apply During the Year.

COST: $28.75 adults; Children $15.97 (3-9) tax included NOT gratuity

Menu date August 2011

http://allears.net/menu/menu_cpb.htm

 

[summermac]

We went for breakfast (8:15 ressie) and loved it. After reading this, I think I'm glad we booked breakfast again for our May trip.

 

[Elmo9607]

I was friends with somebody who was friends with Pooh during my CP and she hated going to the Crystal Palace. Said the place was always just insane-unorganized, messy, and frazzled were some of the ways she described it.