joyerbides
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 22, 2007
- Messages
- 200
I just thought I'd give my review of our dinner with Cinderella at Grand Floridian Cafe (moved from 1900 Park Fare). Let me start by saying that we had a grand gathering of 12 people. Four adults and 8 children. Of the 8 kids, only 2 were girls DD3 and DN9. This was a birthday dinner for them both and really the only reason we decided to dine here. It was suppose to be "THE" magical dinner. The one we looked the most forward to. They both dressed in their princess gowns (Cinderella, of course and Belle). Our ADR's were for 5:45 pm on Thursday (9/6/07). They were under two ressies. When I called to make the ADR's they said they could not put both families together, but we would be close, so we had one for 7 people and one for 5. No problem......OK.. so we get there at 5:30 thinking it wouldn't take that long
. I checked us in (both parties) and the CM said she would put us all together. 
UH HUH....not so great. We waited for an hour to get a table. I went up to the front after waiting for about 30 minutes and asked how much longer it was going to be. (Lots of impatient little ones). Besides, my DD3 was no longer looking like Princess Cinderella, more like Cinderella after midnight 
So, the CM politely tells me that because she is putting us all together, it's going to take awhile to get tables. UH......she could have told me this 30 minutes ago, we would have kept our original ressies. Ok, we are at Disney, just relax.....So another 15 minutes go by and my princess is now turning into the evil stepsister. Again, I walk up to the front and the CM sees me coming. She says that the people at the tables we are waiting for are on dessert and it will only be a little longer....Finally after an hour, we are taken to our tables. My DD3's hair is no longer looking princessy, but who cares....lets eat Well our not so magical server comes to our table. She was not smiling, she was not happy, she was basically just going to serve us. OK...I'll get over it, maybe she is just tired. This goes on for awhile, while she takes our drink orders. She leaves. Then here comes Cinderella and Prince Charming, the ones we came here to see. 
While they are signing autographs and taking pictures, with our 8 children, the waitress/server moves right past them and starts taking orders
. Hello... but what the heck. She cut right in front of them. I know we were there to eat, but couldn't she wait a minute. I mean really, maybe it's me, but I thought it was rude. So, finally we get our orders taken and the other characters come around (Suzie and Perla the mice... I think that's their names). After awhile, our entree's are delivered. Hold on... where are our appetizers????? I let the food servers know that we never got them, they go and get "Happy the server" and she actually had the audacity to tell me and I quote, " It's just salads and soups, you can eat them with the meal". 
Well, I just sat there stunned. Actually I was furious 
She left after that and evidentally someone (probably the food server) informed the manager. She came out and said that the appetisers were being prepared and they would only be a minute. Hello, I'm eating my prime rib now (by the way, I think it was excellant, I'm not really sure though since I was sooooo mad, I really didn't pay any attention. However, my DH and DNephew and DNiece said it was). Just a side note, I ordered the stawberry soup-appetizer-that I heard so much about and was looking forward to it all day. I didn't want to eat that with my meal. So we eventually get our appetizers, and everyone was almost done with their meals and waiting for dessert. By this time, I had had enough of the UNhappy server. So I went to front and asked to speak with the manager. I told her about the whole dinner, the server, etc. and asked if we were still even going to get the girl's birthday wishes, as planned. (who knew at this point). She said she would go to the bakery and get them cakes (on the house) for my inconvience. So I went back to the table, waited for dessert and the cakes I guess. We now had been there for 2 hours. We had plans for that evening, and it was cutting into that time frame. I had no idea that this dinner was supposed to be so long 
. She finally brought our desserts and cakes, no one cared to eat them anyways. By the time all was said and done, we had been there for 3 hours. The characters keep shrugging their shoulders everytime they walked by, all I could so is the same. Needless to say, our evening plans went to the wayside. I was seriously disappointed with this meal. The food was good, the service was poor. For such a high class restaurant, they certainly didn't put forth the disney magic Oh well, what can I say. At least we didn't have to pay for that meal as we were on the free DDP. But that server still got her 18% tip out of. She didn't lose anything, but we lost the magic and time from our evening.
. I checked us in (both parties) and the CM said she would put us all together. UH HUH....not so great. We waited for an hour to get a table. I went up to the front after waiting for about 30 minutes and asked how much longer it was going to be. (Lots of impatient little ones). Besides, my DD3 was no longer looking like Princess Cinderella, more like Cinderella after midnight So, the CM politely tells me that because she is putting us all together, it's going to take awhile to get tables. UH......she could have told me this 30 minutes ago, we would have kept our original ressies. Ok, we are at Disney, just relax.....So another 15 minutes go by and my princess is now turning into the evil stepsister. Again, I walk up to the front and the CM sees me coming. She says that the people at the tables we are waiting for are on dessert and it will only be a little longer....Finally after an hour, we are taken to our tables. My DD3's hair is no longer looking princessy, but who cares....lets eat Well our not so magical server comes to our table. She was not smiling, she was not happy, she was basically just going to serve us. OK...I'll get over it, maybe she is just tired. This goes on for awhile, while she takes our drink orders. She leaves. Then here comes Cinderella and Prince Charming, the ones we came here to see. While they are signing autographs and taking pictures, with our 8 children, the waitress/server moves right past them and starts taking orders. Hello... but what the heck. She cut right in front of them. I know we were there to eat, but couldn't she wait a minute. I mean really, maybe it's me, but I thought it was rude. So, finally we get our orders taken and the other characters come around (Suzie and Perla the mice... I think that's their names). After awhile, our entree's are delivered. Hold on... where are our appetizers????? I let the food servers know that we never got them, they go and get "Happy the server" and she actually had the audacity to tell me and I quote, " It's just salads and soups, you can eat them with the meal". Well, I just sat there stunned. Actually I was furious She left after that and evidentally someone (probably the food server) informed the manager. She came out and said that the appetisers were being prepared and they would only be a minute. Hello, I'm eating my prime rib now (by the way, I think it was excellant, I'm not really sure though since I was sooooo mad, I really didn't pay any attention. However, my DH and DNephew and DNiece said it was). Just a side note, I ordered the stawberry soup-appetizer-that I heard so much about and was looking forward to it all day. I didn't want to eat that with my meal. So we eventually get our appetizers, and everyone was almost done with their meals and waiting for dessert. By this time, I had had enough of the UNhappy server. So I went to front and asked to speak with the manager. I told her about the whole dinner, the server, etc. and asked if we were still even going to get the girl's birthday wishes, as planned. (who knew at this point). She said she would go to the bakery and get them cakes (on the house) for my inconvience. So I went back to the table, waited for dessert and the cakes I guess. We now had been there for 2 hours. We had plans for that evening, and it was cutting into that time frame. I had no idea that this dinner was supposed to be so long . She finally brought our desserts and cakes, no one cared to eat them anyways. By the time all was said and done, we had been there for 3 hours. The characters keep shrugging their shoulders everytime they walked by, all I could so is the same. Needless to say, our evening plans went to the wayside. I was seriously disappointed with this meal. The food was good, the service was poor. For such a high class restaurant, they certainly didn't put forth the disney magic Oh well, what can I say. At least we didn't have to pay for that meal as we were on the free DDP. But that server still got her 18% tip out of. She didn't lose anything, but we lost the magic and time from our evening.
Well, now that I am officially addicted to disney, I think I may start planning for next year's trip 
Thank God for small favors.
