Goofy's kitchen breakfast bummer!

[abookworm]

We went for the character breakfast on Thurs, Dec 11 at 9:40am. We saw Pluto as we entered for the staged pictures and Goofy was walking around.
I saw no other characters, which I thought was odd, but figured they'd be around soon.
My kids and I had finished breakfast and I looked at my check in receipt-23 minutes has passed and we didn't see any other characters!

As I motioned to the waitress I saw Balou (sp?) the Bear way on the other side of the room but no others. I asked her what was going on and she said it was a shift change and she had just requested characters come out for her birthday table.

Within 5 minutes we had Chip and Goofy over to our section-mainly because of the birthday table I think since they brought out the cake then.

But it was another 10-15 min for Dale and Aladdin and then nothing.

I asked the waitress what happened to the Bear but he was apparently done and wouldn't be back out. GRRRRR! I asked if there were any princesses and she said Jasmine was coming soon.

We had been there for 1 hr and only had 4 characters come to the table and saw Pluto at the door. Finally Jasmine came by which is what my DD wanted all along so it was worth it I guess.

But for that kind of money I expected more characters since we had a MUCH BETTER experience last March. We saw 8 or 9 characters! And in much less time.

We ended up being there about an hour and 10 minutes for 5 characters to the table and since Goofy is always there he hardly counts IMO.

It ended up OK with the kids but it could have been so much better. Especially since I knew last time they had more characters.

And we saw only 3 characters in the park this time which was terrible so we were banking on the breakfast to improve that issue.

Oh well, just wanted to vent.

I'm hoping it was a freak incident and not a common problem so others don't have the same disappointment.

 

[shoppingmom]

We had the same experience last year however the year before that we had an awesome experience. The only thing we figured was the awesome year we had reservations for early in the morning prior to the park opening, last year we went a little later and maybe 4 characters that was it. Next year when we go back we will be getting early reservations.

 

[pixiewings71]

That's how it was for us in July!! We won't make any future plans for eating at Goofy's Kitchen.

My girls hardly even ate.....they didn't really like many of the choices they had.

 

[DangerMouse]

Our one and only GK experience:

Waited for server for 15 minutes before finally getting up and just getting food. No one ever came over to tell us about buffet or give us drinks.

No one wished ds happy birthday (had button on and I mentioned it at check-in)

We saw two characters. TWO. Goofy and Fairy Godmother.

Food was greasy and gross.

We enjoy Storyteller's FAR MORE than GK.

 

[boiseflyfisher]

We had a similar experience at a dinner in April. The sad thing was that we were celebrating ds's birthday. In an hour and a half we had three characters stop by our table. It was very disappointing since we had had such a great experience there in January. Dh spoke to the manager and they ended up comping our meal, so they made it right in the end.

We ended up at Lilo and Stitch breakfast at the PP in May for dd's bday and had a great time.

 

[mrs.beast]

we went on the 12th and had a very similar experience. we had 3 characters in one hour, and then waited 30 minutes after we were done to meet Cinderella. we have been there 10+ times and it has been great character wise. We also had the pot and pan thing twice in 1 1/2 hours, and my daughters did not get a turn either time. There were kids literally taking 4-6 pots, pans, etc and not sharing. The people working did nothing about it. It was so annoying. My husband was livid ($130 for breakfast and all 3 kids not happy about the characters.) huge disappointment for us. not sure if we will go back. we saw mad hatter, goofy, cinderella, and chip (dale and pluto were in the building but never made it to our table during our breakfast)

 

[TinkerbellTris]

This is so sad. I have eaten there since I was a kid, and our last 2 experiences were terrible as well. We celebrated our 9 year anniversary there and I told the waitress ahead of time, and she said she'd bring out cupcakes for us, then she rolled her eyes like it was a bother right in front of me. Then at the end of the meal we just sat there like a couple of idiots and she kept asking me if I wanted more tea. Needless to say we never got the cupcakes, not that it was big deal but when you pay like $75 for breakfast for 2 adults and a kid, a cupcake is like gold! Then again last March we celebrated my sons 8th b-day there and funny thing is we were assigned the same server as the year before. Oh my God! I took one look at her and requested a new server right to her face. Needless to say it didn't matter we had a horrible server, and saw only 3 characters and only balou came over for the birthday song, and all my son wanted was goofy. We never saw goofy! We will never eat there EVER again. And the food wasn't very good at all.

 

[abookworm]

Wow, it sounds like we did good getting 5 characters considering some of you only got 2 or 3 !

I've only heard good things about Goofy's until this post! I never thought about going to any other breakfasts since we had such a good experience last time and always read positive comments.

Maybe I should send them a letter to let them know they need some improvements!

I should say that we were satisfied with the food. Plenty of variety for the kids-but they were mainly interested in the Mickey pancakes-and plenty of choices for me. We didn't really get any items that would have been greasy so I can't really attest to that issue.

I'll be sure to add this to the reviews section now that I think about it.

 

[bradk]

for the limited time i've been posting here, i've mentioned a couple of times that i didn't have a great time at goofy's. i don't recall specifically why, it wasn't this problem (i had first seating and easily saw goofy, pluto, belle, mad hatter, baloo and max) but i know i just didn't like it enough to further recommend it. this was a year and a half ago though.

 

[S. S. Columbia]

I hate to pile on, but ...

I went to GK for breakfast six weeks ago (Oct. 29), and I also thought that the character experience could have been better.

The day before we really enjoyed the princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto. The dining area in Ariel's Grotto was very large and bright, and the handlers were very helpful. Ariel greeted us as we walked in, and the princesses (Princess Minnie, Belle, Snow White, and Cinderella) greeted us thoughout the meal. Everything at Ariel's went smoothly and was organized. The food at Ariel's wasn't spectacular, but it was good.

At GK our ressie was for 10:30. As we walked in, DS6 and DD4 had their photo taken with Pluto. But we were there for one hour and only Chip had visited our table. We waited patiently, but there were no handlers and we felt somewhat abandonded. I was going to (politely) bring this to the attention of a CM when I saw Dale walking toward our area. Dale, Aladdin, and Goofy eventually visited us at 11:45.

I thought the characters did a great job, but IMO the presence of handlers and general organization could have been much better. IMO the food was O.K., but nothing special.

I would rate the entire experience as O.K. (my kids did enjoy their time with the characters!). But even our server could have been better, and I can definitely see why someone could walk out of GK disappointed.

 

[Jade+3]

We were there for breakfast, late November and were very disappointed. We were there for 90 minutes, and saw 4 characters (Goofy, Dale, Cinderella, and the bear). It was expensive. The food was ordinary, and the service terrible. Our server only came back to our table to offer more drinks once in the whole time we were there.

We thought the check-in experience was very disorganised. As first timers, we were not aware that we had to go to one counter to "check-in", then line up at the register to pay, then line up again to go into the restaurant. There were no obvious queues. People were trying to take photos in front of the christmas tree in the small foyer area. It was just a disorganised mess.

The following day we walked passed the Plaza breakfast, and there were heaps of characters. I wish we had gone there instead.

 

[ctamama]

Wow! I am also surprised at the wide range of experiences at GK.

We were there in November, and we loved it! 5-6 characters who spent quite a bit of time with all my kids. We loved the food. We also had a wonderful server. He was an older gentleman who was so sweet with my kids--gave them several GK buttons to add to their lanyards, and just seemed very attentive. I guess we were lucky???

But this is my only character breakfast experience. I would really like to try Storytellers as well!

 

[B9erSteve]

We did Ariel's Grotto about 5 years ago and had a great time. Loads of Characters, AND Minnie spent quite a bit of time sitting on the floor playing with my 1 year old (at the time) son. It was absolutely magical. Since that time we have done GK twice and both times walked away wondering why we bothered. The first time we were seated behind a barrier and One (1) Character came by our table in an hour and that was because I complained. Now, I did see a lot of Characters that day... They all bypassed our table. Good day for everyone else, not so good for us. I figured it was a fluke and in a fit of good naturedness, I scheduled another breakfast at GK, this time making sure that we were not seated behind that barrier. Now in the middle of the room we should be character central. Not so. I counted three that came by the table. (It was an improvement from the last time but not by much) We will not be dining there in the future.

 

[rumblytumbly]

We were also disappointed in Goofy's. Have been there several times before and it has always been our favorite but two weeks ago it was disappointing. Only 4 characters came to our table. Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty came together immediately after we sat down. Then we ate and waited and waited for Chip and Dale to come around. We were there about 90 minutes. Service was very poor. We basically felt forgotten. Food was ok. Kids had fun but for the price and comparing to previous visits it was a disappointment. We went to every character breakfast and Goofy's was the only disappointment. All others were great.

 

[farmfresh]

Have never experienced the character breakfast at goofy's (Always prime park time!). however we have eaten there 4 or more time in the past three years- twice this June for dinner. We have always been happy with both number of characters and food (although our food expectations are set at kids buffet level). Most meals would have 6- 8 characters present - a princess or two, goofy, max , pluto, chip and dale, minnie, and some I have no clues about but my kids knew them. Autographs and photos were no problem.

Last visit they also brought me a birthday cupcake, which my kids enjoyed!

So - maybe try it at dinnner time - mau just be less pressured all round.