So , we were supposed to have a breakfast at Cape May this morning, but , we cancelled it. The whole buffet thing just got me down. I was paying OOP for Cape May so no biggie. We decided to have a quick light breakfast and a nice lunch at Epcot. I think we ate at the Tangerine Cafe' which I will review later.
OK.. Of all the dinners , this is THE ONE, I kept reading about and wanted so badly to take DD7 too.. She loves all things Cinderella and of course Prince Charming.. I spent every waking hour calling for a cancellation as up to a few weeks before our trip - we had an ADR for Wispering Canyon.. now, in some ways I wish we went there.. I finally got a 6:30 ADR after weeks of calling and was thrilled that my little girl was going to see her Prince - she was so excited on the ride over..
We arrive to a ZOO of a waiting area. This place has one lousy Check In desk when they are busy. We were sent off with a Pager after Checking in at 6:15 - DS and I thought the Grand Floridian was pretty and decided to wander around outside (no I didn't learn my lesson yesterday.. ).. We didn't go out of visual range of DH though.. The GF is very pretty and we enjoyed listening to the band and piano players while we waited. The shops here are nice too.
OK.. so we get paged.. it is now 6:45 .. woo hoo.. only to get into a queue to have a photo taken. I was mislead and though this was part of the deal like Akershus, but, to find out later it is not.. The picture wasn't good and not worth buying in the end anyway.
So after the photo, we were told we could not be seating yet until the 'Celebration' inside was done.. it took about 5 minutes longer and we were let in. Our table was way in a back room seperate from the main dining room with about 12 tables. Prince Charming
was there waiting for us.. this was quite nice.. he escorted the ladies to the table and made my DD12 blush.. Cinderella Followed .. and then our server made it over. Character time was much better here, but again, this area removed us from the main dining room where we miss most of the action and antics .. so when this would go on, we would have to leave our table and stand in the main dining area to watch.. which is sad and hard when you have small children , or , in our case , disabled family members.
Our server was attentive and DH and I ordered a Cocktail and said that we'd like to have coffee in the end as our beverage. He then asked me if I wanted water. I told him yes, he said bottled or tap.. I said , I prefer bottled, In FL the tap water tastes different to me. He then told me that was an upcharge, I asked if I could use my 'beverage' for that and he told me no.. so I took tap water, which, for some reason wasn't as bad as in other places.
The kids got smoothies again, and DD7 got milk.
This buffet was much cleaner and well kept. The food was put out in smaller portions and kept , in my opinion , hotter. I aslo liked that the stations were personally tended to by chefs. I tried hard not to look at the people in front of me.. and had a small bottle of hand sanitizer
to make me feel better.
The food here was a notch higher in quality.
I started with some rolls, the Asparagus Soup and a Cesar Salad.
The rolls and salad were very good, the soup was not that hot which caused me to not want to eat it. I waited until a fresh soup was put out. This also wasn't that hot, but, acceptable and just ok.
I then sampled many items from the hot foods buffet. Some standouts were the Paella which was quite nice, and the Salmon. The pasta was also very good. It was sort of like a Rigatoni with a meat sauce. I also had Coq a Vin, Mussles and Turkey which were just ok.
I tried the Strawberry soup and I did not like this at all.. it should really be with the deserts. It tasted like a smoothie you eat with a spoon but very sweet.
My son was very excited about Prime Rib after his Kona Cafe Meal.. but this wasn't even close. I didn't like it much either. I did go back to see if I could get a different cut, mabye less fat and a little more rare. I did get a new piece and it was much better. DS did not like it .. period.. it wasn't the same as Kona but better than CP.
DD's both ate like birds.. DD7 really does not eat much, and DD12 did not like it much at all.
DH said he liked it better than CP , but, it is a buffet and he just can't get exicted about it and really didn't care for the food all that much. He did say he liked the Paella too, and , there were some Stir Fry's he liked. The Salmon was also ok, per hubby..
The highlight of this place though is the desert bar. Hands down best buffet desert bar I have seen in a long time. It was very pretty with neat little rows of tarts and cakes. The Fruit tarts were so good and fresh as were the mini Cheese Cakes. The strudel was yummy and piping hot. Everything I tried here was above par for a buffet.
When I got back from getting my deserts the step sisters and Lady Tremaine where in our area. They were very nice to DD7 and were the same ones we met earlier next to the castle. They were funny and in character . We enjoyed them alot, but, we also missed them when they left our area and 'performed' in the large dining room .. so we again were dissapointed in this table area.
Our server was attentive and prompt for the most part. He didn't do anything one way or the other to make an impression on.
So...
Service = 7 .. it was not the best service we've had but he did his job.
Food = 7 .. for a buffet the food was acceptable, one or two dishes for each of us would be rated above average.
Ambience= 5 , would be better if we were in the dining room, then I'd give a 7
Value = 7 , for a character buffet this one was more entertaining, offered a variety (prince charming etc) that you would not see anywhere else normally.
This is someplace that I can say I am glad we did, but , would not do again. This is a been there done that kind of place. While it didn't leave me totally cold like CP did, it didn't WOW me either. The place was much better organized and supervised then CP.. and the hand sanitizer gave me some added piece of mind..
..
So now we are all done with Buffets.. we are Ready for Ohana
, another first for us and another place I had tried really hard to get an ADR for.. so stay tuned...
(. This took away from the magic a little bit for us.. but sadly we are used to it. 
... We were seated by the door where the enter the dining room. So probably like the 5 or 6 table to get them to come by. Once we had our pictures, Ariel came by. Our meal was served then. There was a nice platter of Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Sausage and Potato Casserole. All were very nicely cooked. The eggs were not runny or too hard, the bacon crisp, the sausage was very hot and my favorite of the whole meal, the Potatos were excellent. A few moments later we were visted by Cinderella and Mulan. I think we got time to sign the book, take a few photos and a few words and off they went. Not a lot of interaction, but , pretty standard for this type of meal. 
)
due to the kids, it was just Ok. I got some carved beef - full of fat, very dry. I got some carved Turkey.. this was better but was just OK at best. I dabbled at some other items which just did not do anything at all for me. I just was not impressed and I am not picky.. we eat at Golden Corral because the kids like it.. and I liken this to a very expensive Golden Corral , and, in some cases even lower quality.
so they found a highlight. My son did like the turkey, Chicken Fingers and he tried the mussels which he said were very very gritty. 
