Crystal Palace

[Eeyore's Girl]

I'm looking for some encouragement! We had an early lunch at Crystal Palace last Monday, and although we REALLY enjoyed the food, the character interaction was minimal, to say the least. Pooh and Eeyore stopped by our table, but we only saw Tigger from across the room, and we never saw Piglet at all. I'm hoping our experience was a fluke, otherwise I don't understand why anyone would pay a premium for the food, but not get the expected character experience.

This was our first time at Crystal Palace. Our two favorite character meals are at LTT and Garden Grill and we were totally happy with those meals this week. The waiter, the food, the characters - all were fabulous!

 

[Aimeedyan]

Did you mention it to your server? Oftentimes if the character misses a table, the server can direct them to your table.

Sorry you missed out on a few characters =(

 

[debilovesmickey]

Well our experience was different.
We were there on April 20th and had lunch around 1 pm. We saw all characters at our table and they did a little parade type thing for the younger kids around the restaurant.
We were not looking for autographs as my kids are 15 and 18, but all the characters signed them for kids around us and took plenty of time to pose for photos.
Even I posed with Pooh.
I would not give up!
Sorry your experience was not the best.

Debi
PS I loved the food -- especially the shrimp, hearts of palm, quinoa salad. Yum!

 

[hildarumpole]

We had problems seeing the characters during breakfast. 30 min. into our meal, only Pooh had visited our table. We asked our waitress about it, but she wasn't particularly helpful, saying they were busy and they'd get to us when they could. Another 30 min. later a manager came to our table and asked if we'd seen all the characters. We let her know and she had Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore visit us in quick succession. Don't be afraid to voice your concerns to your server or the manager. Ohana was much better at handling the characters and seemed more organized.

 

[Praying Colonel]

We loved the character interaction we had at CP on our last trip. Our dining review with pics is here, and our trip report from that day with character pics is here.

OP, I'm sorry it didn't work out for you.

 

[teach22180]

We've done both lunch and breakfast and saw all 4 characters at both meals. Now, the quality of the interaction did vary. The first time, Tigger made sure to give me a big hug, and the second time he left after I took a picture with my 20 year old. I didn't even get a picture with him. I was a little disappointed with that, but I think I should have said, wait! I'm sure he would have come back!

We didn't get a pose my teen wanted the first time, and the server helped us catch Pooh between tables to get that quick picture. I thought they went above and beyond making sure we got pictures. I think your situation was unusual, so do try again!

 

[Disney Fans]

I'm looking for some encouragement! We had an early lunch at Crystal Palace last Monday, and although we REALLY enjoyed the food, the character interaction was minimal, to say the least. Pooh and Eeyore stopped by our table, but we only saw Tigger from across the room, and we never saw Piglet at all. I'm hoping our experience was a fluke, otherwise I don't understand why anyone would pay a premium for the food, but not get the expected character experience.

This was our first time at Crystal Palace. Our two favorite character meals are at LTT and Garden Grill and we were totally happy with those meals this week. The waiter, the food, the characters - all were fabulous!

We love CP and about everytime we have ate there it can happen and you just have to let them know and they will bring the missed character back over to you. I think it is hard for them to see and keep track of everyone.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We went for breakfast last Oct and were there for 45 minutes, no character were on our side of the room at all. Families around us were getting pissed and yelling at the waitresses....all the characters were on one side of the room which is wrong, there should be 2 and 2.

We didnt mind at all because we were there for the food!

 

[skater]

I think I love these character meals . The buffets in particular can be so very hectic and getting stressed about whether you'll see all the characters can ruin an otherwise great meal. We have almost given up on the character buffets for this reason. Sometimes we're scared to get up and get our food or go to the bathroom because we might miss a character.

We enjoy Ohana a lot since the food is brought to us. We are trying the breakfast at AK this Sept. again though - I guess I can't resist the seeing Donald again .

 

[Eeyore's Girl]

Did you mention it to your server? Oftentimes if the character misses a table, the server can direct them to your table.

Sorry you missed out on a few characters =(

It wasn't just that our table was missed, it was the entire side of the restaurant where we were seated. I'm sure we could have waited around for a while, but...the characters were about to start some kind of parade and there were plenty of people waiting outside to be seated.

Thanks for the responses. We enjoyed the food enough that we'll probably give it another try. Who knows when that might be, though - we just got home Friday night

 

[bigbabyblues]

It wasn't just that our table was missed, it was the entire side of the restaurant where we were seated. I'm sure we could have waited around for a while, but...the characters were about to start some kind of parade and there were plenty of people waiting outside to be seated.

Thanks for the responses. We enjoyed the food enough that we'll probably give it another try. Who knows when that might be, though - we just got home Friday night

That stinks! How long were you there? We've had breakfast at CP 3 times and always see all the characters, but I'm thinking we were there awhile....an hour or so?

I'm sorry you were disappointed!

 

[PlainJane]

We've always gone at dinner, but we've always been able to see all the characters, and I don't think we've ever stayed much over an hour. Normally, the trainer that escorts the characters will ask us who we've seen and send over the characters that haven't made it to our table yet. I don't know if it's because of when we go, but when we've eaten there we've almost always seen all the characters in the first 30 minutes.

If you go again, and you have the same problem and the waiter is less than helpful, I would ask for the manager.

 

[B-Ride]

We went for breakfast last Oct and were there for 45 minutes, no character were on our side of the room at all. Families around us were getting pissed and yelling at the waitresses....all the characters were on one side of the room which is wrong, there should be 2 and 2.

Getting pissed and yelling at the waitresses? Someone needs a time out. I have always found that you get a lot further kindness than anger.

Timing is always an issue. Characters can move slowly around the room as they do not want to rush the guests who they are interacting with. That is what makes a character meal special. I would suggest a friendly comment to the servers might get better results.

We have been at Crystal Palace twice and never had a problem seeing the characters.

 

[HoneyPooh]

We went for breakfast and had a problem that 2 characters never seemed to make it to one section.

Just as they would be about to get there the parade would start and after the parade they would be back over on the other side of the room again where they had already been. We finally did say something "nicely" to the waiter and soon after that the characters did come to our section.

We weren't happy that our breakfast took over two hours because we were waiting around for characters but it all turned out okay in the end.

One odd thing was that part way through our meal a group of people in matching t-shirts with some sort of Disney uniformed guide came in from outside and gathered all the characters and had pictures done with the group and the characters. This took about 10-15 minutes. We wondered why they didn't do this somewhere else and not in a place were people had paid to have a meal with those characters? Seemed really strange to do it there in the middle of peoples meals. The group didn't sit down to eat or anything, they came in and did the pictures then left. Anyone know what that might have been all about?