Hollywood & Vine - yea or nay?

[Infamousmare]

So I've read some pretty not-so-great things here and there about H&V here on the boards. I have a 4yo & a 6yo who *sometimes* watch Special Agent Oso & Little Einsteins (we don't watch a lot of TV). I have a breakfast ressie here for our trip next month...should I bag it? How is the food? How are the characters?

We will be going to 1900 PF and Akershus while there (two places the kids love).

 

[jenjersnap]

Most of the negative reviews are dinner (totally deserved too). Breakfast is much better - I mean, it's basic buffet food but it's fine. The characters are great here, super friendly and interactive, and the dance party they do every 20 minutes or so is a huge hit. When my kids are about 7 and under, this has typically been his fave character meal so we've eaten here a lot.

 

[cajunprincess]

I ate there for dinner and it was a nay. However, I am not a big fan of many dinner buffets. My philosophy with breakfast is that it hard to mess up breakfast. I wouldn't worry about their breakfast being bad, but hopefully someone with breakfast experience from here can help you out.

 

[bonoriffic]

If your reservation is before park opening, they could serve broken glass oatmeal and I would still recommend it. If you have an early ADR it is well worth it as Mickey waffles are the same here as every other buffet. Character interaction is great and getting to be at the front of the line for TSM is well worth the otherwise average breakfast.

 

[dreamcatcherkwe]

We've gone for lunch twice and it was okay. The kids really like Little Einsteins so we'll be doing it again this time around.

 

[JDUB]

We had lunch last monthwithmy DS2, DS5 and DD6. They enjoyed the character interaction and dancing with the characters every 15 minutes or so. The buffet had a huge selection and desserts were great. We would def return here while the kids are young and then move on to nicer ADRs. My DW actually thought the beef tips were the best part of the lunch.
Enjoy all the character meals!!!

 

[FireFighterWife]

We had lunch here last October. The food was fine. Not excellent but not bad. The character interaction was amazing! My girls had so much fun. We are having breakfast here in December.

 

[manolete]

We had lunch there and I thought the lunch was great! Interaction and the celebrations were great too.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

We had breakfast there about a week and a half ago with out daughter who is almost 3. She was very excited to meet Oso (and liked the others as well), wasn't too into the dance party stuff but it was fun and made for something to keep the kids entertained.

The food was ok and had a decent variety (but no cooked to order food)

We also did the Crystal Palace breakfast and found that one to be much better - puffed french toast and the cooked to order omelets and pancakes

Plus, at least when we went, Crystal Palace was a little cheaper

So basically, it isn't bad at all, and can get you into the park early and an opportunity to meet characters that aren't available everywhere - but if you have done Crystal Palace fore breakfast before lower your expectations just a bit

 

[topmonkeygirl]

My favorite is usually Tuskar House Breakfast, but this time around they technical difficulties so the food wasn't as good as usual. I like H&V better than both Crystal Palace and Tuskar this time. I would keep it.

 

[Infamousmare]

I ate there for dinner and it was a nay. However, I am not a big fan of many dinner buffets. My philosophy with breakfast is that it hard to mess up breakfast.

You know, now that you mention it, we don't do dinner buffets at WDW. This is partly because I have an anaphylactic shellfish allergy (and most have some sort of shrimp, crab, etc.) and because it just works better for us to do our character dining in the morning (and most character dining tends to be buffet-style).

If your reservation is before park opening, they could serve broken glass oatmeal and I would still recommend it.

We had breakfast there about a week and a half ago with out daughter who is almost 3. She was very excited to meet Oso (and liked the others as well), wasn't too into the dance party stuff but it was fun and made for something to keep the kids entertained.

The food was ok and had a decent variety (but no cooked to order food)

We also did the Crystal Palace breakfast and found that one to be much better - puffed french toast and the cooked to order omelets and pancakes

So basically, it isn't bad at all, and can get you into the park early and an opportunity to meet characters that aren't available everywhere - but if you have done Crystal Palace fore breakfast before lower your expectations just a bit

My favorite is usually Tuskar House Breakfast, but this time around they technical difficulties so the food wasn't as good as usual. I like H&V better than both Crystal Palace and Tuskar this time. I would keep it.

Interesting. I've never done Crystal Palace or Tusker House for breakfast, so I can't compare to those two. We have done CRT, 1900 PF and CM's for b'fast, as well as the Grand Gatherings Tony's Town Square (my FAVE! So sad they're doing away w/that!) and both were fine. My expectations aren't that high, so I guess we'll be fine. Thanks so much for all your f'back! We'll keep the ressie.

 

[Daphne W]

I would do the breakfast ressie. If it was a lunch or a dinner I would cancel it.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

we had b-fast there last month with our 3 kids 11,5,&4 and we all thought it was fun

We food was typical america breakfast buffet, but everybody ate something.

The characters were great, the MC really helped shy kids come up to the fromt w/o pressuring them and we thought it was a great time.

We did get to ride TSM back to back 2 times w/o hardly any time at all, 5 mines once 10 min the 2nd time. We got fast passes to return in 2 hours and when we went back to use our fast pases they were sold out for the day.

You can't go wrong with a b-fast RSVP

 

[eddiemcgarrigle]

Hollywood & Vile is a deserved moniker when it comes to the dinner.

I can't comment on the breakfast as I've only done the breakfast buffets at Crystal Palace (always on our first day) and Tusker House. It's getting near to my time for reserving restuarants for next years trip and the missus has dended these two. I guess she likes them.

 

[dseth]

Breakfast yes, anything else stay away.....icky!!!!!

 

[bellamama]

Breakfast is good. Like a PP said, it's hard to screw up breakfast. Have never been to any dinner buffets, don't think we will either. Not our cup of tea.

If your res if for before park opening, it is definitely worth keeping. You can sign up for JTA and snag FP for TSM all before the general rope drop crowds come marching in.

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

weve done lunch and dinner and had no issues. maybe i have low standards? lol ive have dietary restictions and a fussy kid and all of us manage to find something. we did do lunch there with oso etc in feb and it was fun for the kids. my only real issue was when we cehcked in that time the lady checking us in didn't. i don't know why. we waited long after our ressies time, hubby went up, orginally lady gone and they discover she never checked us in. i don't know how you say t a custmer you're checked in and aren't but anyways.

 

[mdmetromom]

We prefer the late breakfast/early lunch there. We always get 10:40 reservations and they usually have both breakfast and lunch food out at that time. It also gives us an opportunity to ride some rides, collect fastpasses, etc. in the morning.

FYI on the before park opening breakfast. It DOES NOT get you any advantage at all as a headstart to TSM. It isn't like getting into the Magic Kingdom before park opening. People are lined up by the rope right outside H&V starting 30 minutes before rope drop. Last year, we were actually belly up to the rope at 8:30am for a 9am opening. People were coming out of the breakfast and lining up behind up. The CM that worked the rope actually dropped it about 30 seconds after the main rope drop and so us, and all the H&V diners, were already way behind the herd of people that got let in first.