Cut backs at Crystal Palace

[cast member sister]

I heard that the food seletions had been cut back at the Crystal Palace. It started back at Thanksgiving. Has anyone noticed this who has been there recently? Any input would be appreciated.

 

[sunshineNJ]

I hope not. This is one of our favorite must do dinners.

 

[smkaether]

This was going to be our first night's dinner, first character experience, on the kids first trip Disney! I'm starting to wonder if we should do Chef Mickeys instead?!

 

[carly chloe]

Hope not!! We love going there!

 

[loganpaulsmom]

read some of the reviews from over the past couple of months.. it looks as if some of the staples and or favorites are NO long part of the meal.. For example the breakfast lazagna..

 

[sunshineNJ]

Are we talking about just CP breakfast or all the meals?

 

[Deb & Bill]

We ate a late lunch there last Sunday and I noticed that the spread of food appeared to be less. They had pizza, chicken nuggets (basically kids' food) on the main serving line.

 

[drakekr03]

Just back and we will never go back to CP, the food was not that great and the service was bad. Seems like the servers just expect the money since they work where the characters are. CHEF MICKEYS was very good, excellent food and excellent service, we ate both dinner meals at each location. Ate at CP a few years ago, it does seem a little cut back, in fact the salad bar had only salad and I think cheese, Chef Mickeys had many many selections and the food was fantastic

Questions let me know

 

[travelfanatic]

We there in September & again Thanksgiving week. It was our first time eating there & I was a little disappointed in the selection. In fact, I really wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. Like the characters & the food that they did offer was good just not much in the way of choice. Like OP said there is pizza, beef, salmon, ham, some salads, potatoes, chicken nuggets, mac & cheese and that's about all I remember. It's hard to compare because I had not been prior to that.

 

[Rahel]

I was just there towards the end of December and didn't account any of these problems. There seemed to be a large selection of food available, and that's coming from a pescetarian (mostly vegetarian, but I'll eat fish as well). I went with my bf who was able to eat a lot of different meats and seafoods. We were very happy with it, and our server was very quick at getting drink refills for us, we never even had to ask for one.

 

[LilRonGal]

Hmm. I was just there on Monday for breakfast and I thought it was excellent. Great service, the food was piping hot and yummy, and I had a great time.

Went to Chef Mickey's on Thursday and the food there was cold and the character interactions were kinda rushed. It's interesting how experiences can be so different for different people, even in the same day!

 

[aes74]

We had breakfast there and noticed a difference. The last time we had been there we loved the made to order Mickey-shaped pancakes, the omelets, all the varieties of food. This time there were tiny, pre-made pancakes and scrambled eggs. Much less food. Don't know if it was an off-day or this is the new way of doing breakfast. We decided not to go back. It's just too much money for that.

 

[catne]

we were there for breakfast in May 2010 and loved it...beat Chef Mickey's and Hollywood & Vine breakfast by a mile. They were making Mickey pancakes to order (regular or choc chip) back then...maybe it's changed since then?

We just had lunch there last Saturday. The kids' buffet items were not actually on the regular buffet line, they were at the beginning, just to the side of where the salad/cold items were. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of items on all parts of the buffet...multiple salad choices including some really good pasta salad, and good potato salad...fresh fruit, and lettuce salad too. Hot items included chicken, ham, cutting board roast beef, salmon and various hot veggies. Believe there was also soup. We thought the food was very good, and service was fine, too.

 

[jenjersnap]

We thought dinner selections were scaled back quite a bit from the last time we ate there as a family in 9/08. It was similar to the dreadful Chef Mickey's in food quality and selection. A real bummer, as it has been our MK "go to" option. I would try breakfast again though.

 

[antmaril]

I had dinner for the first time at CP on December 1st (I've been there for breakfast many times). My friend and I were not very impressed with the offerings. I will probably stick with breakfast at CP in the future.

 

[carly chloe]

read some of the reviews from over the past couple of months.. it looks as if some of the staples and or favorites are NO long part of the meal.. For example the breakfast lazagna..

WHAT????? That's why I go there!!!!

 

[mickeyncldkd]

I hope this is not true because we go there for our family tradition every year. My wife and I have been going since our honeymoon. The kids also enjoy it even though they are getting older for the character breakfast. I think the kids oblige us due to us going everytime. I will very disappoint if this true.

 

[LoriJune]

We had lunch at the CP on December 11th and it was our biggest surprise. We all loved it. I enjoyed the salads so much that I was too full to even make it to the hot section. We had dinner at Chef Mickey's on December 8th and did not enjoy the food at all. The characters at both were good. Guess it's just another case of "to each his own!"

 

[ninecrayons]

Oh no! This is terrible to hear! I've never done a character meal before and was planning to do the CP because Pooh and friends are my favorite.

While I'm interested in the character interaction, I'm definitely not so interested in paying $$$ for scrambled eggs!

Forgive my not knowing - are Pooh and others at any other character breakfasts?

Are there are other inside MK breakfast spots people would recommend?

 

[pixarmom]

We were at CP last Sunday (a week ago) for dinner. I thought the salads were pretty good for a buffet and I also enjoyed the desserts.

We weren't fans of the hot items. They offered two carved meats (beef and turkey) and neither was particularly good. Both sides of the buffet offered the same items - except the dessert section. I'm glad I looked at the other side of the dessert section, because the offerings were entirely different.

The kids' section was quite small - just mac and cheese and one other item - but the regular section of the buffet included pizza and chicken nuggets, so there was enough for kids. Our pre-schooler LOVED CP, so we're really glad we made the ADR. It was crazy, energetic and very fun!

In the future, we'll stick with Garden Grill for a character dinner. We haven't enjoyed Chef Mickey's in the past (we've tried it several times,) and we didn't love the food at CRT or Akershus. The atmosphere at Garden Grill is so dramatically more relaxed than any other character meal. We prefer the family style meal to the buffet and enjoy the food there far more than other character meals.