- Joined
- Jul 14, 2002
- Messages
- 337
Hi there,
We did our first split stay trip between Universal and Disney. We had great food at both places, with a ton less hassle at Universal. We were at Universal from Valentine's through President's Day with our party of 11 and no problems or issues at all. We were at Disney for the next three days and boy howdy, what a mess. I had made reservations for all dining at 180+ days out.
Flying Fish Café dinner
Here we could only get what we could get online, which was a table for 5 at 7:15 and a table for 6 at 7:20. I had called ahead (6 months ahead) when we made the reservation to see if that was OK. I called the location itself not WDW-DINE. I was told we were fine as long as we did not expect to sit together, which was fine with us. 5 kids-tweens at one table and 6 adults at the other, no problem.
We checked in, told they were not able to seat us together, which I knew, no problem. They were running behind with seatings, no problem as the kids were enthralled by the Boardwalk show. Twenty minutes later pagers go off and in we go. Two hostesses have our tickets and direct us to tables. I follow the kids to make sure all's well. That hostess says to the youngest of the kids, "You can't sit here without a parent. Where is your parent?" Now that little girl is shy and I can see the waterworks coming. Whoa! Since I am standing right there, I ask the hostess to talk to me. She says kids can't sit alone without an 18-year-old and manager gets involved. He says we're fine and apologizes for hostess' misinformation. However I can' t help but notice that the kids are seated in the back of the back room, with an empty eight-top on one side of them and two empty four-tops on the other side. So I ask, why not move the adults here anyway? He says sure, somehow the message he got was that we were against sitting together, wires crossed, etc. He quickly moves silverware and now we're all essentially together. Manager says first round of drinks is on him, for our trouble. Lovely! Server finally arrives, takes orders, takes forever to bring drinks.
Reservation time: 7:15. Seating time: 7:40. First drink hits the table: 8:20. Ridiculous.
Food was delicious but app portions are ridiculously small for the price (3 bite-size pieces of sushi roll for $19). Great drinks, slow service at any rate.
Tusker House brunch
Reservation for 11. Huge line to check in, takes 15 minutes to get to the podium. AK is nuts because it looks like it's about to pour so people are trying to take cover but don't have reservations. Once we get to the podium, we're seated nearly immediately. Food was varied and yummy and hot and fresh. Loved this place, even though it feels like a high school cafeteria in the seating area and it's loud. Not cheap.
Be Our Guest dinner
Ouch this was hard to book. In order to book this we had to settle for two reservations for 4 and one reservation for 3 within about 10 minutes. I called WDW-DINE when we booked, and was told, "location is huge, they will push tables together, we do this every day." Wrong. First the reservation for 3 wasn't in the hostess' computer. Even though I could still see it in my app. Second they told us there was no way to be seated together unless we wanted to wait two hours. My mom is allergic to rain (ha) so stayed home that night, so we split four and four into tables (nowhere near each other) and my fiancé and I walked to Pinocchio's for flatbread. Worst family dinner ever. At Pinocchio's I vowed never to get up again at 3a to book dinners I wasn't even going to be able to eat. I have no idea how the food was, but I was irate.
Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Viewing Party
Super fun! Go hungry. Everything was delicious, no competition with other guests for space or food, luxury! We were seated smoothly and the manager was a dear. She explained that our table had been moved from the front due to rain and so we were in the back but she did let us take a ToGo box for my mom, at the end of the party. Very kind.
Backlot Express lunch
Good grub, tasty turkey Panini for sure! Lots of variety here and we like the beer selection too. Ample seating. Easy-peasy.
Beaches and Cream dinner
Reservation for 8 and we only had 8. When we checked in, they said they were running 30-45 minutes behind in seating. "New reservations system, small restaurant, can't predict tables" were some of the comments from the two hostesses. Oddly here, they broke us up into two tables of four, with two different servers, even though we did have one reservation. Wasn't great because one waitress was awesome and funny and fast, while the other one was grumpy and slow, so the pacing and experience were quite different. All the food was fantastic, though that could have been due to our warm-up drinks in Martha's Vineyard while we waited
End of the Day
It's just too hard for large parties, like our family, to eat at many of the popular places at WDW. I think we're done trying. I have one last trip planned for October this year for F&WF with eight of us, but after that we're only going in smaller groups. Or to Universal instead, where we were seated together, immediately, for every meal. Emeril's at CityWalk, Valentine's Day Saturday night, 7:30, we walked in and our table was waiting for us. That was awesome!
We did our first split stay trip between Universal and Disney. We had great food at both places, with a ton less hassle at Universal. We were at Universal from Valentine's through President's Day with our party of 11 and no problems or issues at all. We were at Disney for the next three days and boy howdy, what a mess. I had made reservations for all dining at 180+ days out.
Flying Fish Café dinner
Here we could only get what we could get online, which was a table for 5 at 7:15 and a table for 6 at 7:20. I had called ahead (6 months ahead) when we made the reservation to see if that was OK. I called the location itself not WDW-DINE. I was told we were fine as long as we did not expect to sit together, which was fine with us. 5 kids-tweens at one table and 6 adults at the other, no problem.
We checked in, told they were not able to seat us together, which I knew, no problem. They were running behind with seatings, no problem as the kids were enthralled by the Boardwalk show. Twenty minutes later pagers go off and in we go. Two hostesses have our tickets and direct us to tables. I follow the kids to make sure all's well. That hostess says to the youngest of the kids, "You can't sit here without a parent. Where is your parent?" Now that little girl is shy and I can see the waterworks coming. Whoa! Since I am standing right there, I ask the hostess to talk to me. She says kids can't sit alone without an 18-year-old and manager gets involved. He says we're fine and apologizes for hostess' misinformation. However I can' t help but notice that the kids are seated in the back of the back room, with an empty eight-top on one side of them and two empty four-tops on the other side. So I ask, why not move the adults here anyway? He says sure, somehow the message he got was that we were against sitting together, wires crossed, etc. He quickly moves silverware and now we're all essentially together. Manager says first round of drinks is on him, for our trouble. Lovely! Server finally arrives, takes orders, takes forever to bring drinks.
Reservation time: 7:15. Seating time: 7:40. First drink hits the table: 8:20. Ridiculous.
Food was delicious but app portions are ridiculously small for the price (3 bite-size pieces of sushi roll for $19). Great drinks, slow service at any rate.
Tusker House brunch
Reservation for 11. Huge line to check in, takes 15 minutes to get to the podium. AK is nuts because it looks like it's about to pour so people are trying to take cover but don't have reservations. Once we get to the podium, we're seated nearly immediately. Food was varied and yummy and hot and fresh. Loved this place, even though it feels like a high school cafeteria in the seating area and it's loud. Not cheap.
Be Our Guest dinner
Ouch this was hard to book. In order to book this we had to settle for two reservations for 4 and one reservation for 3 within about 10 minutes. I called WDW-DINE when we booked, and was told, "location is huge, they will push tables together, we do this every day." Wrong. First the reservation for 3 wasn't in the hostess' computer. Even though I could still see it in my app. Second they told us there was no way to be seated together unless we wanted to wait two hours. My mom is allergic to rain (ha) so stayed home that night, so we split four and four into tables (nowhere near each other) and my fiancé and I walked to Pinocchio's for flatbread. Worst family dinner ever. At Pinocchio's I vowed never to get up again at 3a to book dinners I wasn't even going to be able to eat. I have no idea how the food was, but I was irate.
Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Viewing Party
Super fun! Go hungry. Everything was delicious, no competition with other guests for space or food, luxury! We were seated smoothly and the manager was a dear. She explained that our table had been moved from the front due to rain and so we were in the back but she did let us take a ToGo box for my mom, at the end of the party. Very kind.
Backlot Express lunch
Good grub, tasty turkey Panini for sure! Lots of variety here and we like the beer selection too. Ample seating. Easy-peasy.
Beaches and Cream dinner
Reservation for 8 and we only had 8. When we checked in, they said they were running 30-45 minutes behind in seating. "New reservations system, small restaurant, can't predict tables" were some of the comments from the two hostesses. Oddly here, they broke us up into two tables of four, with two different servers, even though we did have one reservation. Wasn't great because one waitress was awesome and funny and fast, while the other one was grumpy and slow, so the pacing and experience were quite different. All the food was fantastic, though that could have been due to our warm-up drinks in Martha's Vineyard while we waited
End of the Day
It's just too hard for large parties, like our family, to eat at many of the popular places at WDW. I think we're done trying. I have one last trip planned for October this year for F&WF with eight of us, but after that we're only going in smaller groups. Or to Universal instead, where we were seated together, immediately, for every meal. Emeril's at CityWalk, Valentine's Day Saturday night, 7:30, we walked in and our table was waiting for us. That was awesome!
