I visited for the first time January 2017 at part of the Fantasmic Dining Package. I have mixed feelings. The food is comparable to Carnival Cruise food . Just ehh. I did feel that it was worth it for the reserved seating for Fantasmic, and that characters were very fun. Our server (Sip) was great. Hope that helps!
We went a couple years ago to the very first night it opened. For it being the first night ever of a new character dinner, we thought it was great. The food was really good, the characters costumes were wonderful (we were there for the Christmas one) and our server was great,
H&V in general gets pretty bad reviews, but we were pleasantly surprised. We thought the food was actually pretty good and the characters in their Halloween costumes were adorable. We also had the Fantasmic package which made it an even better value. Would definitely go back.
I was there for the first night of the Halloween version in September 2016. It was better than I expected and the characters in their Halloween costumes were super cute! If they offer it again this September, I would definitely consider booking it again.
The costumes are cute, but I thought the food was underwhelming. There wasn't as much variety as I expected (particularly in regards to dessert), and it was palatable, but I didn't eat anything that I thought was really good. The lobster and shrimp mac and cheese did not live up to the hype for me, much to my disappointment.