Is ariels grotto worth it??

[hfrank90]

We have reservations for the Minnie breakfast at plaza inn, but we are also thinking about doing the Ariel's grotto as well... Is it worth the money?? Any advice would be great, thanks!

 

[JasonShannon76]

I've never done Ariel's, but I hear Plaza Inn is the worst food out of the Character Breakfast choices. Goofy's Kitchen and Storytellers are supposed to have the better food.

 

[Xenorye]

Did the Minnie & Friends at the Plaza Inn in February 2013. Off the top of my head, we met Minnie, Eeyore, Pooh, Tigger, Hook, Chip/Dale. I remember all of them. I do not remember the food.

Read into that what you will, but to me that means A) The food wasn't memorable, but B) The food wasn't the point.

 

[Hojoanaheim]

If you wanted to see the Princesses without having to wait in line at Fantasy Faire, I think Ariel’s Grotto might be worth going to. I have been to a couple character dining’s and as Zenorye said, the food isn’t that memorable but you don’t go to character dining for the food right?

~Kriss

 

[aacvacation]

I did Ariel's Grotto for the better World of Color seating, I don't remember the food, but I know I didn't hate it. I think it is beautiful inside and I had a nice time dining there. It was more than worth it for our perfect spot at World of Color.

 

[GracieB]

I had thought the price was steep, but I loved it. Our meals were delightful, the interaction was excellent, and our adults group loved it! The lunch was much better quality than Goofy's Kitchen, which had less sophisticated offerings.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

We went in Nov. last year and our food was good, but the service was horrible and I thought the interaction was rushed (sign book, take picture, maybe a hug, move on). I do like that it's a seated meal and it's on a schedule, so there isn't the risk of missing a character, but for us it just wasn't worth it.

 

[pwillunlv]

I am probably in the super-minority, but I actually like Ariel's Grotto's food better than Storytellers Cafe, GK, and Plaza Inn (and I would rank them in that order, AG, ST, GK, then PI). I have never tried PCH Grill.

However, the character meals are not about the middling food quality (which all of them suffer from), but rather about which characters are important are important to you/your family. My DD2 is into princesses and Minnie, so we tend to go to AG and PI. However, the nice thing about GK, ST, and PCH is that you do not need entry into the parks to eat at at them--so, in the past, we have ate breakfast at GK and ST on the days we check out (we don't go to the parks on the day we check out).

EDIT:
Also, I have never had lunch at any of the above, only breakfast/brunch. And, to directly answer your question, I think AG is worth it if somebody in your party is into princesses. In my past experiences, their interaction with my DD2 has been wonderful.

 

[Swtonscrappn]

I REALLY enjoyed our food from Ariels Grotto. I had the tri-tip and it was exceptionally tender. My dh and I are going again in Oct, and Im trying to decide how much he would protest if we went there for dinner. I liked it that much.

 

[707MickeyGirl]

I've never done Ariel's for breakfast but I've done WoC dinner there twice, and the service was awful both times. There is a very long time between courses, and once you have your dessert, there is a very long time before they come back with your bill. The food is decent but overpriced, so that's a low value in my book.

My granddaughter and I just did Minnie's breakfast at the Plaza Inn last week and we both loved it. We had the first seating and the food was fresh and tasty. The character interaction was better than we have experienced at Goofy's Kitchen, which I was not expecting at all - because Goofy's Kitchen is always awesome. We saw Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore, Minnie, Captain Hook and Chip & Dale. The characters came to our table over and over, and they were photobombing each other. My granddaughter was dressed as Doc McStuffins and the characters all wanted her to listen to their heartbeats. It was really sweet. Chip even had her stick the stethoscope on one of his ears so he could check her heartbeat. It really was priceless, and the photographs will surely be favorites of ours. Minnie's is the least expensive character dining and I feel it was a great value.

 

[Mysteryincorp]

I agree with above.....service was really slow. We were starving and our food took forever. The princesses were not very engaging and they did nothing special for her birthday. I paid extra for a little cake Ina treasure box that was very disappointing. We would not do it again.
BUT we have done surfs up at paradise pier three times.....and we would do it again!

 

[talentedmummy]

We did breakfast in January. The food was excellent, and our waitress was wonderful. However I could tell tables around us were not getting the same level of service. I was also really disappointed in that we had a 9am reservation and did not leave the main gate area until nearly 9:30. My kids were starving by the time we got to the restaurant. The M&G with Ariel was really rushed because of the back up. I was disappointed because Ariel is my DD's favourite and we weren't given the time for DD to warm up to Ariel and enjoy meeting her.

We won't be going again on out next trip, my husband would go back for the tri tip though. It was really good.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

We've been to AG for breakfast once. The food was fine. The character interaction was good. The two reasons I will probably not go again:

1. It is not that hard to get through PFF anymore. We just did it in 10 min a couple weeks ago. It certainly takes longer to eat at AG than it does to wait through PFF line.

2. I don't love any of the photos I have from character meals including AG because no matter how hard the princesses try to block the view, that view is of other people and their half eaten food. The photos are cute, but I'm not going to be framing them.

IME character interaction is better at PFF, so I prefer better visits and better photos - and of course saving money!

 

[keiraliz]

My family went to Ariel's Grotto for the first time during our recent trip. We loved it! The food was excellent, and they were very accommodating to our dietary needs (two vegetarians, one with a gluten sensitivity). The CMs were super friendly, and the service was at the right pace for us. The only criticism I have is that meeting the princesses felt a little rushed, but we still loved meeting them and we got some cute pictures. We enjoyed it just as much as the kids, if not more!

Our favorite part was meeting Ariel. She's our favorite princess, so my sister and I were thrilled to meet her! We were able to take our time talking with her (if it helps, our reservation was at 4:30 and didn't seem to be a crowded time). Ariel was so sweet, and she loved the matching Little Mermaid ears my sister and I wore. At first, only my sister and I took pictures with her, but we were able to include my mom in one photo (the three of us are redheads, and we always wanted to do a redhead group photo with Ariel). We also had one awesome CM who took candid photos of my sister and me meeting Ariel with my phone. Let me tell you, those pictures are treasured! The CMs and Ariel really sprinkled some magic in our day and created an amazing experience.

We usually don't do the character meals when we go to Disney, but our experience at Ariel's Grotto was fantastic. To us, it's totally worth the money. In fact, we want to eat there again!

 

[madasax12]

We are doing a Breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen for both the kiddos, but I think we will do a lunch at Ariel's for our Daughter as she is at the age where she is in love with the princesses. Im not super concerned with the food, im there to see my kids light up and this seems like a good place for our little girl to enjoy.

 

[mummabear]

I was a little disappointed with our visit to AG but not so much that I won't give it another go (have it booked for this upcoming trip).
CRT at WDW was heads and shoulders better in everyway.
It is lovely looking but the staff were pretty meh, we had 10 adults and 2 kids, a birthday celebration for both (it was one of their 1st birthday that actual day) and we had ordered a cake as well.
The girls were not given the colouring sheets etc that we saw other kids had, they were not given the button we saw other girls with later and we had to ask for then wait around for the cake, then were given the bums rush to leave.
I was also very frustrated that we were only allowed one photo with Ariel at the front, even though we had to pay an extra 3% tip for a group larger than 8-so if we had booked 4 tables we would have gotten 4 photos and paid less
So not terrible but for how much it was the staff felt like we could have been at Dennys and certainly nothing (and by this I mean even a Happy Birthday said let alone the things you hear like scattering the table with confetti etc) to celebrate it was DD's birthday-then I assume this is somewhere that would get a lot of birthday celebrations.

 

[auteur55]

I'm considering a World of Color package with Ariel's grotto. It's a little confusing on the site because it says there are no character meals at dinner time yet I saw some posts on here saying they went in later in the day. Do they just do normal dinners or no dinners at all? And if they just do lunch or breakfast with WOC tickets does anyone recommend one over the other?

 

[keiraliz]

I'm considering a World of Color package with Ariel's grotto. It's a little confusing on the site because it says there are no character meals at dinner time yet I saw some posts on here saying they went in later in the day. Do they just do normal dinners or no dinners at all? And if they just do lunch or breakfast with WOC tickets does anyone recommend one over the other?

I can't answer your second question because I've only done Ariel's Grotto once, but I can answer your first question. When my family went, we did not have an advanced reservation, so we asked if there was any times available for lunch. The first available time was 4:30, so my dad asked if there were any reservations for 5:00. We were told that if we wanted to meet the princesses, 4:30 was the last time we could meet them because 5:00 was a regular dinner without the princesses. We chose the 4:30 reservation because we wanted to meet the princesses.

I hope this helps!

 

[Kristina4109]

I've done both the WoC dinner (no princesses) and the character "dinner" (technically it was lunch but we booked a 4:00pm seating) and we liked the food. The WoC viewing area was great but our waitress told us we could show up 15 minutes before the show and have a great view. We should have come earlier; the viewing area was jammed.

The character "dinner" was quite fun. My daughter enjoyed meeting all the princesses, and the big surprise was seeing Minnie dressed as a Princess (like she was in The Brave Little Tailor).

 

[NWT]

I took my DD to Ariel's Grotto when she was younger, and it was perfect, and have recommended it to my friends and family since. The food was good, and she had a great time meeting and interacting with princesses, getting pics and autographs.

We have also tried Cinderella's Royal Table in Florida, and enjoyed that, too. I think because it is in the "castle," people might like that experience better. But, as far as food and meeting princesses, AG is just as good.

We have been to Minnie's Breakfast, Goofy's Kitchen and the Character Breakfast at the Paradise Pier Hotel many times. We enjoyed all of them. The food is great for the price. Do not expect "gourmet food", but we found there was plenty of choices of tasty food for everyone in our parties. I have read some reviews that the food is better here or there, but I really did not notice a difference.

I especially like it, because it means less characters to hunt down in the parks. Frankly, I am paying for the opportunity to sit down and eat, rather than stand in long lines to meet characters. It is a nice leisurely meal - in my opinion - two birds with one stone.