Just Back? Thanksgiving dinner reviews wanted!

[Simba's Mom]

If you ate Thanksgiving dinner at WDW, where did you eat? How was it? What did they have "Thanksgiving-y" there? We're thinking of going next year, and would be really interested in others' experiences.

 

[janskin]

We had a 7:30 PS on Thanksgiving to eat dinner at 1900 Park Fare. We arrived at the hotel about 15 minutes early and the lobby of the hotel was jam packed! I went to check in and was told they were out of pagers. That should have been clue # 1. The hostess told me they were running about an hour behind. So it would be around 8:30PM for them to seat us. OK, I can hang around the lobby for an hour and look at the beautiful Christmas decorations. Well, one hour turned into two and my husband and girls were getting very, very cranky. My holiday spirit was dwindling. We were finally seated a little after 9:30 and by this time we were beyond hungry. They served the traditional holiday fare along with lasagna, pasta with shrimp, prime rib, and chicken marsala. The food was good.....but the whole experience was horrible. I don't think I would eat another holiday meal here again ever!!!

Jan

 

[kajohn]

We didn't know we would be at WDW on Thanksgiving until about 6 weeks before, so we weren't able to get a reservation for 8 at any of the normal restuarants. I did find out on these boards however, that they were having a Thanksgiving Buffet at the Swan Ballroom. We got a 1:15 reservation. It was a little earlier than I had wanted, but it was all I could get.

I have to say the whole experience was great. They started serving at 1:00, so there was no wait for our table. Since it was in the ballroom, all the tables sat 10, so we had plenty of room. There were two waiters for our table who were in their formal dress banquet type outfits. They were extremely attentive.

The food was excellent, standard thanksgiving fair with Turkey, stuffing, etc. Also had ham, a pasta with shrimp and so forth.

There was an excellent dessert buffet with pumpkin pie and other tasty treats. My nefew didn't like any of the desserts, he is extremely picky, and the waiter went to the house phone nearby and called Mickey who told him to go get ice cream for him and my boys. That made them very happy.

The best part of the whole thing was that there were 3 character stations set up around the room. One had 1/2 hour of Stich alternating with Donald Duck, one had Buzz and Woodie alternating and the best one was Mickey and Minnie together! The lines were short, and we were able to get a great family picture with both Mickey and Minnie.

The price for the dinner was a bit pricey, $40 or so for adults and $23 I believe for kids. That included gratuities.

Although we didn't get to eat in a regular WDW restaurant I was very happy with the way dinner turned out!

 

[MouseEars4us]

We had 4:20 Dinner reservations at Boma. We got there a little early to enjoy the resort, but because we were pretty hungry, I checked in at the podium about a half hour early, they seated us right away!
The Food was great, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry apple relish. Plus all the regular Boma dishes and desserts...you could tell the turkey was turkey roll, but it was still tender and moist, so no one complained...there were 9 of us and everyone agreed it was very good!

 

[piratesmate]

...you could tell the turkey was turkey roll, but it was still tender and moist, so no one complained...

I'm so disappointed! I thought they'd serve a real roasted turkey specialized with their own blend of spices. I was looking forward to someone posting the recipe for it.

I'm glad you had a nice meal though!

 

[SCgoofy64]

We originally had a reservation at Yacht Club Galley for 3:00 but the price seemed high and we had a couple Q & C Lunch Vouchers left so we went to Pepper Market. I had Thanksgiving here in 2001 and it was great so I knew it would be good. In 2002 we dined at Boatwrights and it was a rip off. It was a preplated meal and I think like $15 per adult and $10 per child. The food was terrible. This year Pepper Market was great, your options were carved Turkey or Ham with several sides, large portions. It normally cost $19.99 for the meal but with the vouchers our $60 dinner ended up only costing $22 for 2 people with drink, dessert, tax, tip included. The best part no lines, crowds, anything.

 

[chobie]

We ate at Boma at 6:30 and I could have sworn it was a whole roasted Turkey they put out. After people ate off the whole turkey for a while they pulled it off and cut what was left into slices. Maybe that is why the other poster thought it was a turkey roll? The turkey was very moist and good and they had traditional giblet gravy. Mostly. our party of 6 ate all the regular Boma items and did eat much of the Thanksgiving offerings. It was wonderful as always.

The soups were mulligatawny, acorn squash, potato, seafood gumbo and corn and plantain soup.

The desserts were some kind of apple pudding, a gingerbread trifle(which was wonderful), tiny pumpkin and pecan tartlets, plus zebra domes, the chocolate mousse thingies and a couple of others I can't remember.

We brought our somewhat picky in-laws with us and we were a bit afraid they would not like it, but they loved everything especially the soups and desserts.

 

[wintergreen]

We did the Fantasmic dinner package at the Brown Derby in MGM. With the package, you get an appetizer, main course and dessert. Most of us got a special salad with spiced pecans and blue maytag cheese for appetizers, and all of us got the Thanksgiving dinner as the main course. There was turkey (sliced thin, and a bit dry, the only disappointment of the meal), stuffing with apples and cranberries, red skin mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans. The green beans were the best! Even my seven year old ate them. They had a special pumpkin brulee for dessert, but we got the pineapple cake and flourless chocolate cake.

The meal was great, and even though when we checked in for our PS, they told us that they were running behind and there would be up to an hour wait, we only waited for about 20 minutes. The service was also very attentive.

 

[rileyroosmom]

We had 7:40 reservations at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. Due to a mix up about the number of people in our party, we weren't seated until 8:30ish. They had the standard Thanksgiving meal, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato, beans and pumpkin pie. Unfortunelty, that is all they had, there were no other choices for the kids. The regular "antics" that the Cafe is noted for weren't really happening since no one needed ketchup and because we were there so late you could tell everyone was tired. We were very dissapointed and it was a little pricey, $120 before tip for 6 people, no drinks.

 

[jddicarlo]

We had dinner reservations at the Coral Reef - my wife and I and seafood eaters and found it to be quite good. We both had seafood dinners, mine was a Talipia that was served with a crab cake on top. My wife had the Mahi Mahi. Both were delicious although a little on the smaller size as far as portions go. I have a son with food alergies and he ordered a cheese-less pizza (I know - a bit strange but that's what he wanted). My other son got the traditional turkey dinner which they were also serving. We also have a 2 year old who ate something off the kids menu (I think noodles with Alfredo). We also had crab cakes for an appetizer and we both got the "Chocolate Wave" for desert. I wasn't too impressed with the desert, but overall, the food was great. The kids also loved the fish tank and spent most of the dinner looking at the various fish and trying to determine which each one was.

We were there for 6 nights and this was the highest cost - I believe the bill was $160 before tax (inclusive of a glass of wine for me), but with what I was reading on prior posts, I was expecting worse. I would't call it a must go to but I would not be opposed to going to this one again.