This is copied from my trip report that I'm still working on. We (DS16 - Stephen, and myself) were there for the first time on August 27th. Overall, we thought the food itself was very good, but weren't as thrilled with the character interaction. I didn't edit this, so there may be parts that refer to other things in the trip report, but there's still a lot about the meal. My very long (with lots of pics!) review:
We werent sure of our driving time, so we decided to head over to the Grand Floridian for our 4:30 ADR at 1900 Park Fare. Wed also heard it was a long walk from the parking area, but it really turned out to be not bad at all. We probably arrived around 4:10, after a very quick stop at Pop for Stephen to run our chocolate concoctions into our room. They were just starting to check people in for opening, so we checked in. Stephen sat down, and I walked around the GF exploring just a bit and watching the wedding party that was obviously getting ready for the big moment! Snapped just a quick pic of the pool:
I stopped quickly in the gift shop, where the CMs were all in a cluster, evidently waiting for something. They all kind of looked at me like What do YOU want? (Maybe it was just my lime green
Crocs!). I looked over at the small section of CDs in the corner, and guess what I found!? Yes, the CD we were looking for! Bought it quickly and I headed back quickly to meet Stephen and get seated. First we had to get the formal photograph, which they then tried to pawn off on us for $30ish during the meal, but at least they were nice enough to take a quick shot with our camera:
They had a young girl lead the crowd in a chorus of Bippity Boppety Boo and then we were in. We had a nice seat near the middle of the main room, and I tried to go grab some quick pictures of the buffet before it was attacked:
Okay, everything Id read about this meal was how great the character interaction was and how bad the food was. Getting there at opening at least, we thought the food was pretty incredible. There was everything you could have wanted, and since I hadnt really eaten since breakfast, I was at least hungry for a change. Unfortunately, since I still wasnt carrying my fanny pack, I didnt have my pink sweeteners and had to go with the Sprite Zero for my beverage. Stephen and I each got several plates of all the different foods.
One big mistake. I looked at the seafood salad (pictured above and on my plate) and although Im definitely not a big seafood fan (especially cold), decided that it had olives and artichokes in it, both of which I really like so Id try some. I took care to NOT get any of the shrimp and just kind of scooped around it. Well, my plate is sitting there while I eat my soups (above too) and finally I say What IS that? to Stephen. He says the same thing he was wondering why on earth I would have gotten that. It looked like octopus or squid or whatever all shriveled/curled up and you could see the little suction cups from the tentacles. EEWWWW! Okay, I know some people are more adventurous eaters than I am, but that was it for the salad for me. Quickly covered it up with another plate and grabbed the first waiter going by to pawn it off on! Besides that incident, we thought the rest of the food was good and were enjoying ourselves.
But by now its getting on 5:30. Weve been done eating for 15 minutes and are dawdling over our desserts. We still havent seen the first character at our table. Theyve introduced them all (Prince, Cinderella, and the 3 steps), but they all moved through our room, into the back room, and havent even resurfaced from there yet. Its not just us other families in the area are getting a bit antsy. Even the CMs are getting antsy. We have one of the supervisor types with a clipboard come a couple times and ask us if were waiting to see the characters. We explain that we are (thats what we came for darn it!). Now I didnt care about Cinderella or the Prince, but I did want to see the Stepmother/sisters again since wed found them so funny yesterday and Stephen was really hoping to ham it up with them here.
As you can imagine, by the time they got to our table, the only interest was turnover. How quickly they could move through the area. We did the basic quick pic with the Prince and Cindy:
Getting on an hour and a half and still havent seen anyone else. One of the clipboard CMs asks us if were still waiting. Um, still yes! She offers if she wants she can take us over to meet the other characters on our way out. I thought this was fairly rude both to us, and to anyone else waiting (as everyone in our part of the room was not sure why they were just asking us this unless they felt that we shouldnt be waiting for characters as adults/teens). We decline and continue to wait.
The stepmother and first stepsister (sorry, I still get Anastasia and Drizella confused) finally come over fairly quickly. Stephen tries to play it up a bit with both of them, but theyre basically like take the pic so we can get out of here. So we do:
We had plenty of time to get a shot of both of us as we waited around:
Finally, the last stepsister makes it to our table and we have our only funny interaction of the evening, and its all due to Stephen. We do the obligatory quick pic, and Stephen comments on her dress, how stuck up Prince Charming seems to be, how nice her stepsister is, etc. and she just kind of says yeah, yeah. Meanwhile, she reaches for his CD case which he has now sitting on the table (were looking through the songs as were waiting), apparently thinking its an autograph book. She picks it up and says Do you need me to sign this? Stephen, always quick with a joke, quickly picks up our check (which has also been sitting there for the previous half hour) and says No, but you can sign this for us if youd like to pay for our meal! She just kind of rolled her eyes at him, but I thought it was hilarious:
Okay, okay, were leaving already! I definitely wouldnt go back and do this again. Really disappointing after all Id read about the great character interaction. Guess you have to have cute kids to qualify or be there on a less stressed night!
