Not happy with breakfast at Goofy's kitchen

[DisneyJamieCA]

The problem is when you do say something and nothing is done about it. Truthfully, I know I'm not paying for the quality of food, but for the character interaction. In our cases, once at Minnie's and once at GK, there was NO interaction because the characters never came to our table. At GK, we did talk to somebody and it was quickly remedied. At Minnie's it wasn't. I was told to talk to the "handler", which I did. She told me not to worry, they all come by. We waited longer and they still didn't come by. Talked to her again, who again said not to worry, but never left her post. We watched all the characters make multiple trips through the section next to us. At this point, people are bringing their outside food in the Plaza Inn patio and using this as a regular M&G. Again the handler ignored it. Finally, a man bussing tables saw it and did something about it and at that point they characters came by; although we were still having to fight with outsiders who were not a part of the character meal. We waited 2 hours to see a single character at our table.

I don't think I'm particularly picky about my meals, but yes, at that price, I don't think I should have to hunt down characters. And I think at least as the Plaza Inn, they need to work better at keeping people from sneaking onto the patio from the sides. The timing part was our fault - I tried to make it a brunch and I've learned that the latest seating at Minnie's is NOT the time to go. It was just such a let down after 2 really great meals there where the interaction was fabulous!

 

[virgilatmit]

We went to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast earlier this year (February), and then did Storyteller's for breakfast earlier this month. I think the food quality and price is about the same at both, but we enjoyed our time at Storyteller's more, mainly because Goofy's Kitchen really felt rushed. Part of the problem may be when we went to Goofy's: we scheduled the breakfast early so we could take advantage of the early magic hour, which is probably a busy time for them. Conversely, when we ate at Storytellers, we had breakfast a little later since we weren't going into the park that day.

There was more diversity in types of characters at Goofy's; however, the Storyteller characters spent more time entertaining us.

 

[myty5]

Very hard to believe that on your youngest child's birthday and also on the day of you and your 25th wedding anniversary, that you didn't have an ADR set up before hand

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[mom2rtk]

Janet --

Exactly! It is definitely hit or miss with all character meals, and all meals in general. All of the character meals have gotten both glowing reviews and dismal reviews in the past. There have been lots of positive reviews of Goofy's over the years (including mine), but when there is one thread that presents a bad review then it attracts more bad reviews. I've seen good reviews attract other good reviews as well.

I've experienced some 'off' days at Goofy's Kitchen over the years -- but not many, comparatively speaking. I have never had terrible service. (Maybe my definition of "terrible" or "horrible" is different than others'.) I have never experienced anything even close to horrible there, except for that on certain days the scrambled eggs might taste bad (on other days they have tasted great). And the price is pretty frightening! Otherwise, I am fine with the number of characters and the character interaction, and I love the selection of food. Maybe I have lower expectations, or a higher tolerance for restaurant shenanigans -- who knows?

What I do know is that people have different opinions, tastes, expectations, preferences and perceptions -- which also happens with hotel reviews and reviews of other restaurants, or movies, or TV shows, or anything else in life! One person's experience is not necessarily going to be another person's experience at any restaurant of any kind.

Ditto all of that. We do GK every trip and generally have a good experience. But I'm not doubting that others have an occasional bad experience. I'd just hate for the occasional report here to scare others off.

One of the character handlers at PI was so nice on our last trip. Fairy Godmother had missed us, so we asked if they could send her back by. She thanked us profusely for being patient and talking to her instead of stalking FG through the restaurant! We saw the same character handler later in the day when we were looking for Cruella down in Town Square and she actually went in back for us and found out what time she'd be out.

 

[01spirit750]

We did GK (once) back in 2008. We too were seat off in a side room. I think we had 2 or maybe 3 characters come by during our 2 hour breakfast.

Having a "hit or mis" for character interactions means that they do not have a process and they are just "winging it". They have teams of industrial engineers for the parks but I am guessing none analyzing the character interactions at meals.

I am not sure how if my paying for my meal was "hit or mis" would work for the restaurant?

 

[Kristina4109]

I have never done a GK breakfast. But we've done the dinner several times, the last two times being October 2013 and June 2013. We sat and ate for about an hour and were very happy with the number of characters that came by. I was paying attention to who was where, and we never got skipped by any characters.

 

[Sherry E]

We did GK (once) back in 2008. We too were seat off in a side room. I think we had 2 or maybe 3 characters come by during our 2 hour breakfast.

Having a "hit or mis" for character interactions means that they do not have a process and they are just "winging it". They have teams of industrial engineers for the parks but I am guessing none analyzing the character interactions at meals.

I am not sure how if my paying for my meal was "hit or mis" would work for the restaurant?

My guess is that if you didn't pay, it wouldn't work well for them or for you.

What did they say at Goofy's when you complained or spoke to a manager about not seeing enough characters, or when/if you wrote in later and spoke with someone in Guest Services/Communications about your experience?

If they let you stay for 2 hours, that's generous -- the time limit is 90 minutes.

 

[GatorChris]

If they let you stay for 2 hours, that's generous -- the time limit is 90 minutes.

Generous? If I had to stay 2 hours just to see 3 characters, I wouldn't consider that being generous. I would call it bad management.

 

[Sherry E]

Generous? If I had to stay 2 hours just to see 3 characters, I wouldn't consider that being generous. I would call it bad management.

Then whoever the guest is should talk to management while there, or write in/call in as soon as he/she gets home to express dissatisfaction about the characters and bad management.

Ninety minutes is the time limit at GK -- it's not 2 hours. Whoever stays for 2 hours is staying past the allotted time limit.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Then whoever the guest is should talk to management while there, or write in/call in as soon as he/she gets home to express dissatisfaction about the characters and bad management.

Ninety minutes is the time limit at GK -- it's not 2 hours. Whoever stays for 2 hours is staying past the allotted time limit.

I'm not the person you are responding to at GK they did rectify it immediately. But like I said at Minnie's it was 2 hrs before single character came by, despite my repeated efforts before that. I may have been over my alloted time, but that was their doing. That is a lot of money to pay for lackluster food and zero character interaction had we left at 90 mins. FwIW, we did call to express our displeasure - they acknowledged it, but that was all.

I do agree that everybody needs to decide if it's worth it to them. I won't pay the price of Goofy's anymore, but I am willing to give Minnie's another go since we did have multiple great experiences there.

 

[Dukland]

Where was this touted previously? I always thought GK was my least favorite out of the DLR options. For as long as I have been on this board, I haven't seen folks singing the praises of GK over any other character meal.

It's one of the Premium Meals that can be used with Vouchers from Costco and other places. That is how. Disney promotes it, as Premium Character Meal.

We have had great experiences there before. It's just this time that was horrendous.

 

[Dukland]

I hate that you had this same experience at Minnie's, but I do feel some what validated since it seemed like I was the only one who ever had a bad experience there. We will be trying it again in Nov, but will do an earlier reservation. I too, think making it too late was part of the problem.

Our reservation was at 9:30 am on Thursday, which was an 8 am Magic Morning Opening. We were seated inside, which we definitely preferred. Our interaction was great.

 

[Dukland]

I'm not sure why the OP expected Captain Hook at Goofy's. We saw him at Minnie's (best character interaction ever ) We saw at least 6 characters at Goofys but no Hook.

I didn't expect Captain Hook at Goofy's. We did see him, though. In another section. When we saw him we expected him to come to our section. He didn't.

 

[Dukland]

Very hard to believe that on your youngest child's birthday and also on the day of you and your 25th wedding anniversary, that you didn't have an ADR set up before hand

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What's an ADR? We had a reservation. And they came out and gave my son a cupcake and sang to him, too.

We chose not to purchase additional packages for birthday and anniversary. The $178 character meal should have been enough.

 

[Dukland]

If they let you stay for 2 hours, that's generous -- the time limit is 90 minutes.

We've eaten at GK 3 times over the years and have never been informed of a time limit.

 

[SweetAlex]

What's an ADR? We had a reservation. And they came out and gave my son a cupcake and sang to him, too.

We chose not to purchase additional packages for birthday and anniversary. The $178 character meal should have been enough.

ADR is more of a WDW term and means Advanced Dining Reservation. It's not needed for most places at DLR but is often recommended for character meals. Honestly, I don't see how this relates to your initial complaints however... .

 

[Escape2Disney]

Sherry-
Both times we had issues at GK, I brought it to the attention of the CM at the front desk as well as the character handlers. Nothing was done to remedy the situation. The first time, the CM at the front literally rolled his eyes at me. I sent my concerns in writing when we got home, and nobody ever contacted me.

We still went back another time because I assumed they were having a bad day. After two attempts to rectify the situation, we left.

I know some people have had wonderful experiences at GK, and that's great! I say keep going if your experiences are different than ours. We just won't be going back.

 

[Girimama33]

It's one of the Premium Meals that can be used with Vouchers from Costco and other places. That is how. Disney promotes it, as Premium Character Meal.

We have had great experiences there before. It's just this time that was horrendous.

You referred to it as the best...that is where my question was directed to, not what a Premium Character meal is.

 

[Sherry E]

We've eaten at GK 3 times over the years and have never been informed of a time limit.

They don't announce it (I've been eating there since 1992, and I don't think they've ever said "You've got 90 minutes" without prompting), but you can ask Disneyland Dining on the phone and you can ask at the restaurant.

I've been there when we lost track of time and didn't realize we were at the 90-minute point, or close to it, and we noticed that the staff was suddenly fussing around with things near the table a lot, or continuing to ask us if we needed anything else. When we looked at the time we realized that they had been kind of gently trying to shoo us along, which was understandable as we were probably taking up a table that could be used for another group waiting.

 

[VicMom]

Then whoever the guest is should talk to management while there, or write in/call in as soon as he/she gets home to express dissatisfaction about the characters and bad management.

Ninety minutes is the time limit at GK -- it's not 2 hours. Whoever stays for 2 hours is staying past the allotted time limit.

Yeah but when it takes over an hour for your kids allergy breakfast to arrive because the kitchen forgot about it, good luck trying to rush an autistic 3 yr old to eat so that you can be out in 90min.