Disneyland Thanksgiving Feast quick review and suggestions

[cseca]

We were lucky enough (so we thought) to snag at 6:45pm reservation on Thanksgiving for this dinner. I read the info on their website to get an idea of what we are paying $75 per adult for ($25 or something for kids).

It says we have food and characters. YAY me! No cooking turkey for Mommy... score!

At first I was confusing this with Goofy's Kitchen but then I realized that this is a separate event at the Ballroom.

So here was how it went.
We arrived at 6:30pm at the hotel. When we walked into the building we saw a line for Disneyland Thanksgiving Dinner. We walked in (with our double stroller) to get checked in by a CM in the podium. Then we went into another line pay for our dinner. Annual Pass discounts are accepted.

After we paid we walked into the "holding" room, where everyone waits for their tables. The waiting room has a table with drinks (water, lemonade, coffee, tea, hot cocoa) and also a little area for the little kiddos. Planes movie was playing in front of some chairs, mini sofas, and bean bags. Along with a coloring table with lots of crayons and coloring pages.

The room was really full and somehow lacking in trash cans. People were leaving their dirty cups and napkins everywhere. I had to ask a CM where I should throw away my cup.

While waiting I asked a CM up front (where we checked in) about the characters. She said they are stationed on the perimeter of the room and that they will be available all night. I asked if we should take pictures first or dinner first. She said no worries, they will be available all night... (more on this later). I also asked about photopass photographers, she wasn't sure on that.
I had asked Disneyland by email earlier on whether photopass would be available. They called me and said yes.

After waiting for a good 30min I decided to check on our status. Apparently a lot of people were thinking the same thing since there were lots of unhappy people up front. The Disney CMs said they know they are behind on seating and really are sorry.

We finally sat down around 7:15pm. By now the front check in door has been closed and apparently no more people are being allowed to check in.

The room was HUGE and beautiful. They had it decorated well. Food stations were everywhere. There was a live band as well on the stage.

Foodwise:
There were kiddies station with mini round pizzas, corn dogs, orange chicken, rice, and of course dessert (worm and dirt, rice krispies, etc.)
Soup station with rolls, crackers and muffins
Seafood station with loads of shrimp, crab legs.
Cheese and crackers station.
Make your own pasta station.
Turkey, roast beef, stuffing, mashed potato, salmon, roasted veggies and green bean.

And the best part of all... Dessert station...
They had chocolate fountain where you can have strawberries, rice krispies, cookies, and homemade marshmallows dipped. If you go next year try the mint marshmallows... they are so stinkin good.
Don't forget the crepe station with vanilla ice cream, apple pies, pumpkin pies, macaroon, chocolate mouse, cookies... and more!!!

Basically you can't possibly leave hungry... or stay within your healthy diet guideline...

Anyways, I asked the kids if they want to eat first or take pictures. They were so hungry that they gave me a look for even asking.

We saw Pocahantas and Meeko, Bears from Country Bears, Chip and Dale and Robin Hood with Friar Tuck on our side of the room.
The other side of the room is where Donald, Daisy and Minnie stationed with the big Thanksgiving spread for picture.

When we were done with dinner we wanted the servers to not clear our table yet but there is no way to really tell. So basically they clean your table as soon as the whole table gets up.

We lined up to meet Pocahantas/Meeko, Robin Hood/Friar Tuck and then made our way to D,D&M. Not a couple minutes after we lined up a CM closed our line. Basically we got totally lucky. If we had waited another minute we would have missed our chance. The line was pretty long too.
And by the time we were done with D,D and M, Chip and Dale and the Bears on the other side were done as well.

From talking to the CM who closed the line, she said the dinner started at noon until 8:30pm ish only for Thanksgiving day.

Anyways, to make summarize here are my suggestions.

1. Make an early dinner reservations. If I were to do it again (which I probably won't), I would make a reservation around noon. Definitely not after 5pm, there is just no time to enjoy your dinner.

2. If you are not terribly hungry yet, take pictures first. You don't want to have your tables cleaned out before you are ready to go.

3. Don't schedule any FPs until 4 hours after your seating. Or you might not make it.

 

[SFMommy]

Thanks for that info. We were debating between that Thanksgiving dinner or dinner at Steakhouse 55. We opted for Steakhouse 55 because I didn't want to have to get up and wait in a buffet line for our food.

Unfortunately, we were VERY disappointed with our Thanksgiving meal at Steakhouse 55. The atmosphere and attentiveness from the staff were good. The food was not very good and the time between courses was waaaaaay too long. After 1 hour we had still not received our main course. I finally said something and our food came out a few minutes later. But it wasn't even very good.

It sounds like I wouldn't have been much happier with the DLH Thanksgiving meal if we would have had a long wait to get our seats. If we go back for Thanksgiving again, we will have to find a good place for dinner...doesn't seem like it should be so hard!

 

[DopeyLisa]

We were there too and were not as lucky as you in the character line! We had a 6:20 reservation, checked in at 6 and were asked to come back at 6:15 where we were told there would be a "little wait" inside the ballroom but we were not seated until 7:40. Had a bit of a wait to get a $35 bottle of white wine with a screw off top to the table, ate and got in line for the characters on our side of the ballroom...chip & dale and the bears. The cast member told us there were others across the ballroom so we went that direction to see Pluto (my son's favorite), Minnie and a few others but the cast member told us the line was closed. We went to talk to a manager who said "they have already stayed an extra half hour and cannot let anyone else in line". I replied, "when people are being seated almost an hour and a half late a half hour is not enough", she seemed to agree but didn't really care. All in all I would say the dinner was not worth the price and build up. They really need to schedule it better...

 

[cseca]

... I replied, "when people are being seated almost an hour and a half late a half hour is not enough", she seemed to agree but didn't really care. All in all I would say the dinner was not worth the price and build up. They really need to schedule it better...

Oh I know. I told the CM holding the line the same thing. Basically I told her that I am being told a different thing by the front CM and the inside CMs. They should not tell people the characters will be available all night when they in fact close out lines at a certain times. That should be announced by the band.

You should send an email to DL, I already did.

 

[NJShoreDad]

We did the Disneyland Ballroom as well, but were on the opposite side of the spectrum time-wise. Our reservation was for 1:15 and it was perfect. We were seated pretty much right away, the place hadn't gotten totally crowded or messy. There was plenty of time to eat and get pictures (we were on the Side with Minnie, Donald, etc.) Food was excellent and the only downside was that I seemed I to throw our server for a loop by asking for a glass of wine. It was as if they hadn't considered that you'd want something like this... Needless to say, it was such a pain that I only ended up getting one.

So those who are thinking of it for next year, I recommend early because you can still spend a bit of the morning in a park (7am opening) and still have the evening to finish in a park. Of course staying on site (Grand) really helped.

We just got back on Monday and had an amazing trip!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

We have friends who did the DLH buffet and also reported a very good experience. They dined earlier as well (no later than 4pm, if I remember) and said it was very fun and enjoyable. It sounds like timing is key when choosing this buffet for Thanksgiving.

 

[Iceman93]

We did the DLH buffet and liked it, but wouldn't do it every year. Our reservation was for 12:15, and we showed up at noon to find a line winding all the way down the wall, around the corner, and out the door of the convention center. Not an auspicious beginning! But the line moved fairly fast and we were to the check-in podium by 12:30. We went in, paid, got into the holding area (which, in addition to the beverages previously mentioned also had mint juleps), and were then called in to be seated by 12:45.

That was the worst part of the experience. Clear directions were not being given to the guests, and different CMs would give different answers when asked what the process was supposed to be. I was left with the same impression as when using the old Fantasmic dessert package--Disney, which has typically mastered the whole crowd control thing, for some reason implemented an overly-complicated and poorly-communicated crowd flow process that really didn't start things off on the right foot.

Others already addressed the incredible food spread, attentive wait staff, abundance of characters, live band (who played a charming mix of traditional Christmas songs and Disney classics), amazing decorations, etc. Like NJShoreDad, it was a bit of a challenge for us to get wine. My wife and I wanted to enjoy a bottle, and it took the server awhile to find the wine list (which was short but reasonably-priced and impressively varied). Then it took a LONG time to get the bottle. Then the server, who was obviously not trained at all in wine service (and apparently doesn't even open bottles at home) struggled to open the bottle. When cutting the foil, she flung it across our table and right into our toddler's face (which could have been tragic, of course, but was a non-event since no one got hurt). Then she broke the cork off because she wasn't using the corkscrew properly. Then she sloshed the wine all over the place when pouring it. But all's well that ends well, and we couldn't fault her for being asked to perform a job she clearly wasn't prepared for by Disney.

I realize I'm pointing out all the flaws, but that's misleading. We really enjoyed the experience and thought we got our money's worth. The food was good--REALLY good especially for a buffet. We left as uncomfortably full as you should from a Thanksgiving feast. And I agree with the previous poster who said it was great to be staying on site, because we were able to waddle back to our suite at the Paradise Pier and take a nap before heading to DCA later in the day!

For what it's worth, the park was not crowded at all that day. We also went briefly on Friday morning, and could already tell it was going to be slammed. We were glad to be heading out of the park and on our way home by 10:00, especially after we saw the huge backup of cars trying to get into the M&F garage!

 

[yesman70]

We did Goofys Kitchen around 3:15 on Thanksgiving. It was busy but we had reservations and it was very manageable. The staff was great. Kids had a great time.

The line looked really long going into the thanksgiving buffet there at the Hotel.