All 16 of us caravanned from Georgia together in 4 Honda Odyssey's. While we all have similar taste in minivan's we do not all share the same food preferences. With 8 kids we needed to plan for their tastes. 4 of the 8 kids had never been to WDW before so we though character meals would be fun for them. Grandma and SIL are very picky eaters. I believe they ate chicken fingers and fries with every meal.
We arrived at Pop Century at 5:45 and started to check in. We had reservations for 8 of us at 7:05 and 8 of us at 7:40 at 1900 Park Fare. It took a while to check us all in and get our Room keys. We didn't have time to see our rooms before dinner. We had planned to take the bus to Magic Kingdom and ride the Monorail over to the Grand Floridian, but there wasn't enough time so we divided up into 3 of our vans and drove over. We dropped most everyone off at the entrance and the Dads parked the vans in the self-park lot.
We took a few pictures in the carriage out front and then went in to check in. The hostess said they would try to seat us near each other and gave us a buzzer. We waited in the large atrium, enjoying the live music and the beautiful flower arrangements, while trying to keep the kids from jumping on the furniture. Finally, our buzzer lights up and we herd the group back to the podium and get our picture taken. The picture turned out great!
We are led to our seats in the first room inside the doors. A table for 4, a large round table for 8 and another table for 4 spread across the room. Not a good seating arrangement. The kids promptly park themselves at the table for 8. That won't work because two of the kids are only 2 years old and need adults sitting next to them. My Brother in law decides to put his kids and mine (ages 10, 7, 6 and 5) at the first 4 top. My other Brother in law and his family sit at the table for 8 along with Grandma, Sister in law and her 2 kids. I ended up with my DH, his sister, and her husband. This did not work!
I find out that I am the only one who brought a camera. So I have to squeeze across the room to take pictures as the characters come around. The stepsisters come around quickly, before we get our drinks. Back and forth I go taking pictures of the kids with the Step sisters and step mother.
Finally, I take my kids up to the buffet to find some food. Ethan picks broccoli, baked chicken leg, and plain penne pasta. Abby ate chicken noodle soup, noodles with marinara sauce, roast pork, fruit and dessert. Both of my kids liked their meals. I didn't see what the other kids had.
I fixed a salad plate first. I had roasted vegetable salad, caprese salad, and some mozzarella and tomato salad. I also tried the chicken marsala. I really liked all of the salads, the vegetables were fresh and crisp. The chicken marsala was made with boneless chicken thighs, I prefer white meat so I didn't like this dish. Next plate, I went to the section with Coq au vin, mashed potatoes and green beans. I got a piece of chicken breast this time and I really enjoyed this chicken the brown mushroom gravy was really delicious. The mashed potatoes were good and so were the green beans.
When I was getting my second plate I noticed my Mother in law at the buffet. She had corn, macaroni and cheese and a roll on her plate. She was looking for some chicken. I suggested the chicken on the kids section but she wasn't interested. It was baked wings and legs, but I think she was looking for a chicken breast or some chicken tenders so she didn't take any.
Time for dessert. I had some of the strawberry soup, I put a large fresh strawberry in the bowl which was not a good idea. That made it a little two full and I dripped a little of it. I also had some bread pudding with vanilla sauce and a couple of chocolate shells with chocolate mousse in them. All the desserts were really fresh and delicious. There was also key lime pie tarts and cheesecake tarts.
This meal ended up being very chaotic. The kids at the table by themselves needed more supervision but I was the only one who cared and I ended up going back and forth between the tables, trying to take pictures and get the kids to sit still. Not very relaxing. I told my husband I wasn't happy about the seating arrangements but he just brushed me off. I wasn't going to spend every meal like that so I made sure I was sitting near the kids at every meal after that.
The highlight of the meal was the waitress. She was friendly, brought refills of ice tea quickly and cleared our plates promptly. Great service!
