Eeyore1954
<font color=purple>A smart man who realizes that p
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2002
- Messages
- 5,327
My DW and I ate breakfast twice at Cape May Buffet in the BC. It's always been a must-do at least once per trip. We liked it better than Chef Mickey's, at least food-wise.
The buffet at first glance may appear somewhat small, but Cape May seems capable of packing quite a lot of food into a small space. The extra room is used for lots of seating, so if you make a PS (recommended!), your wait is hardly ever long.
On our first trip we had a PS for 7:30 a.m. (YAWN!); for our 2nd trip we did an 8:30 a.m. seating.
I truly enjoy the buffet's spread of fresh fruit, including watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapefruit, strawberries and more. Most of the fruit is sliced, except the strawberries, some of which are fairly large. The fruit is very fresh and tasty. And as I said somewhere else, it helps offset the obligatory Krispy Kreme doughnut!
Speaking of KK's, Cape May provides a large (!) selection of fresh KKs each morning. They include chocolate-covered ones and creme-filled ones (those are "killers" but oh so good going down!). Along with these, there's a selection of other pastries, which have the look and taste of those you can buy off the shelf at any grocery store. Bagels are also available, but there is not a wide selection of types.
Cereal selection at the buffet is a little limited. There is usually 2 or 3 cold cereal selections, including a couple of "kid's" selections, like Fruit Loops. The buffet offers a couple of hot cereals such as oatmeal and grits. Unfortunately, both times we went these appeared sort of cold and decidedly lumpy.
The hot selections include scambled eggs, a cheese omlet, bacon, sausage links, Mickey waffles, pancakes, etc. These are presented on 2 sides of the buffet, which makes it easy to serve yourself.
This year I noticed a change at Cape May and it wasn't for the better. The food was definitely cooler in temperature, almost approaching room temperature at times. The hot food also seemed somewhat drier, even when the buffet opened at 7:30 a.m. The bacon was overly crisp, and the sausage was occasionally dry. Most of the hot items were being kept "warm" using sterno cans. I don't know if this is a change for Cape May, but it doesn't help much.
Service both times was somewhat slow in getting started, even when we were one of the first ones seated. But once started, service was very attentive and very responsive to any request.
Character interaction: The characters are in beach attire and include Goofy, Chip and Dale. Minnie appears, but is usually relegated to the entrance for pictures and doesn't appear to cruise around the dining area. If you want to meet her, you'd better get in line for a picture. Alas, this character greeting appears to be largely self-policed, as the CMs are busy managing seating, PS requests, etc. It didn't appear to get out of hand, but the location of this made it especially hard to enter/exit the buffet.
The interaction of the other characters with children/teens was terrific. The characters spent lots of time at each table and surprisingly, most of the children were fairly well behaved. We didn't observe families taking over characters or hogging the interactions. Maybe we were just lucky (?) or maybe this is changing for the better???
Interaction with adults was haphazard at best. This seems to be true resort-wide, and it's something I wish the CMs would work on. Adults can enjoy these magical moments of fantasy as much as kids -- well, some of us can anyway! First trip Goofy and Chip mostly waved or gave DW a "smack" and then they were off. Only Dale spent any time at our table giving me a sporting chance to practice my incredibly poor sign language skills.
On the second trip, we saw a lot more of Goofy who hammed it up around our table. This time Chip & Dale reversed roles with Dale just waving and Chip trying (I think) to pick up my DW
. It was a cute site watching Chip getting down on one knee (how the CM managed that in that costume, I will never know!!) to "ask" her to go away with him.
Atmosphere: A (the beach theme is very appropriate and the character attire is a nice touch. When crowded -- and when is Cape May breakfast not crowded -- it can be noisy and not very easy to manage the buffet. Patience is a definite virtue here.)
Service: B+ (the servers need to be aware of when guests are seated in their area and make a definite effort to greet them in a more timely manner. However, once they greet you, they are very attentive and responsive.)
Food: C+ (over the years the quality has dropped somewhat on the hot foods; Cape May needs to learn that steam tables would do a MUCH better job.)
Would we go back? Yes, in a heartbeat. Our bill came to about $42 for 2 adults.
The buffet at first glance may appear somewhat small, but Cape May seems capable of packing quite a lot of food into a small space. The extra room is used for lots of seating, so if you make a PS (recommended!), your wait is hardly ever long.
On our first trip we had a PS for 7:30 a.m. (YAWN!); for our 2nd trip we did an 8:30 a.m. seating.
I truly enjoy the buffet's spread of fresh fruit, including watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapefruit, strawberries and more. Most of the fruit is sliced, except the strawberries, some of which are fairly large. The fruit is very fresh and tasty. And as I said somewhere else, it helps offset the obligatory Krispy Kreme doughnut!
Speaking of KK's, Cape May provides a large (!) selection of fresh KKs each morning. They include chocolate-covered ones and creme-filled ones (those are "killers" but oh so good going down!). Along with these, there's a selection of other pastries, which have the look and taste of those you can buy off the shelf at any grocery store. Bagels are also available, but there is not a wide selection of types.
Cereal selection at the buffet is a little limited. There is usually 2 or 3 cold cereal selections, including a couple of "kid's" selections, like Fruit Loops. The buffet offers a couple of hot cereals such as oatmeal and grits. Unfortunately, both times we went these appeared sort of cold and decidedly lumpy.
The hot selections include scambled eggs, a cheese omlet, bacon, sausage links, Mickey waffles, pancakes, etc. These are presented on 2 sides of the buffet, which makes it easy to serve yourself.
This year I noticed a change at Cape May and it wasn't for the better. The food was definitely cooler in temperature, almost approaching room temperature at times. The hot food also seemed somewhat drier, even when the buffet opened at 7:30 a.m. The bacon was overly crisp, and the sausage was occasionally dry. Most of the hot items were being kept "warm" using sterno cans. I don't know if this is a change for Cape May, but it doesn't help much.
Service both times was somewhat slow in getting started, even when we were one of the first ones seated. But once started, service was very attentive and very responsive to any request.
Character interaction: The characters are in beach attire and include Goofy, Chip and Dale. Minnie appears, but is usually relegated to the entrance for pictures and doesn't appear to cruise around the dining area. If you want to meet her, you'd better get in line for a picture. Alas, this character greeting appears to be largely self-policed, as the CMs are busy managing seating, PS requests, etc. It didn't appear to get out of hand, but the location of this made it especially hard to enter/exit the buffet.
The interaction of the other characters with children/teens was terrific. The characters spent lots of time at each table and surprisingly, most of the children were fairly well behaved. We didn't observe families taking over characters or hogging the interactions. Maybe we were just lucky (?) or maybe this is changing for the better???
Interaction with adults was haphazard at best. This seems to be true resort-wide, and it's something I wish the CMs would work on. Adults can enjoy these magical moments of fantasy as much as kids -- well, some of us can anyway! First trip Goofy and Chip mostly waved or gave DW a "smack" and then they were off. Only Dale spent any time at our table giving me a sporting chance to practice my incredibly poor sign language skills.
On the second trip, we saw a lot more of Goofy who hammed it up around our table. This time Chip & Dale reversed roles with Dale just waving and Chip trying (I think) to pick up my DW
. It was a cute site watching Chip getting down on one knee (how the CM managed that in that costume, I will never know!!) to "ask" her to go away with him. Atmosphere: A (the beach theme is very appropriate and the character attire is a nice touch. When crowded -- and when is Cape May breakfast not crowded -- it can be noisy and not very easy to manage the buffet. Patience is a definite virtue here.)
Service: B+ (the servers need to be aware of when guests are seated in their area and make a definite effort to greet them in a more timely manner. However, once they greet you, they are very attentive and responsive.)
Food: C+ (over the years the quality has dropped somewhat on the hot foods; Cape May needs to learn that steam tables would do a MUCH better job.)
Would we go back? Yes, in a heartbeat. Our bill came to about $42 for 2 adults.
