Restaurant Review for 7 Day Trip

RobertR

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 12, 2000
Messages
17
I have posted my complete trip report on the Trip Report board. Here are the sections that only relate to the Restaurants. Sorry if something doesn't make sense but it probably has to do with my cut/paste job. Check out the full trip report if this is the case. Let me know if you have any questions.

Group Info

Three families went totaling 6 Adults, 3 children (ages 4, 5, and 8), and 1 infant (almost 2).

Friday, October 4th

Restaurants: We went to the POR food court for dinner. We had some trouble with the Pizza/Pasta section. They were very unorganized when ordering the small pizzas. After checking twice for our order we were finally told that it was sitting there the whole time! Didn’t order pizza again. Daughter (8 year old) loved the pasta. I tried the chicken and ribs, which was a C-. Not worth the money but we had limited choices. The far back left hand side has a Television and lego section. Good place to sit if the kids get done first.

Saturday, October 5th

Restaurants: Big day for eating! Went to the Princess Breakfast, the Ice Cream Social, and Coral Reef. Remember our party size was almost always for 10 and tips were always included in the price due to the party size. Princess was a B+. The food was good. The characters were staggered, which meant eating was a stop and go affair. Aladdin, Jasmine (the men’s favorite), Snow White, Mary Poppins, and Aurora were there. The Ice Cream Social was a B. Chip, Dale, Pluto and Mickey were there. The sundaes were in the shape of a face and included a code for the kids. The adults had something similar but had a cookie, too. We had one diabetic and he received sugar-free ice cream. He ate it all and said it was good. The Coral Reef was a C. Just too expensive for the quality of the food. The aquarium was neat and there were a number of divers that would look in on everyone. We happened to be in the front row so it worked out.

Sunday, October 6th

Restaurants: Nothing scheduled except we were going to go to the Toy Story Pizza Planet at MGM for dinner. Got there prior to 7 p.m. only to find it closed! Big whoops! We ended up going downtown (another big whoops). Everyone was cranky from lack of food and just plain tired. Ended up at Wolf Gang Puck – Express. It was alright, but everyone was kind of mad at everyone else. Downtown was crowded as everyone seemed to head there after the parks were closed. The group recovered by the next day…no blood was shed.

Monday, October 7th

Restaurants: Nothing scheduled. My family decided to go to Epcot prior to the cruise and eat at 9 Dragons. Wow, did you hear that? A collective “yuck” from all of you reading this! That was cool! Now, here’s my pitch for 9 Dragons (by the way they get an A)…the food, which in our case was the kid’s sweet and sour chicken and the honey sesame chicken was excellent. I’ve heard everyone say that it’s not better than what you have in your hometown, but it’s much better than mine. Just be thankful you all live in Chinatown, I guess! The thing that I really like is the price. Wow! Did you hear that? A collective, “WHAT?!?!” from all of you, but look at it this way. My kids share the kid’s meal and my wife and I share the one entrée. Although the food is more expensive than your hometown restaurant, it’s by far the cheapest alternative within Disney World and that includes the below average food at high cost food court! There, I’m done…and you can stick that in your Chinese firecracker and light it!

Tuesday, October 8th

Restaurants: Donalds'asoures for breakfast before AK opened. No problems getting in. O’hana for dinner. These were probably my two favorite restaurants prior to going on our trip. Both were disappointing! The great thing about Donalds’ was the interaction between the servers and the guest. This time around there was very little. It also seemed very hectic. Overall, it gets a C+…last time it would have gotten an A. O’hana has changed their menu slightly since the last time we were there. No dumplings or spring rolls. The spring rolls were our favorites. In their place were BBQ chicken wings (very good) and wonton (just O.K.) The beef was overcooked but the other items were very good. The salad (another favorite) was great. They also now leave the “appetizers” at your table throughout the meal…good move here. I just expect so much from O’hana and it didn’t deliver this time. Probably a B or B-. I was also surprised that no games had been played in the hour we were there. I had to ask, which got the coconut race going.

Wednesday, October 9th

Restaurants: Cinderella for Breakfast (9:45 a.m.) and Tony’s for a late Lunch. The castle was cool but boy was it hectic when we got in there. Got called in pretty quick and it was cool to here the groans when the Lord Rochelle party of 10 got called out. Funny. It was pretty hectic upstairs, too. Still pretty nice. The interesting thing was that the characters were going around in a group offset by one table. I guess this allows them to clear a table once the characters leave and set it up long before they come around again. Interesting, but if you don’t take your time eating then you have a wait between the time you are done and when they finally come around. Our party was split as far as which restaurant was better – Cinderella’s or Princess. Oh, the characters were Cinderella, Snow White, Prince Charming, Aurora, and Belle. The Fairy Godmother was downstairs. Overall, a B (I was one voting on Princess…did I mention Jasmine was there?) Tony’s was pretty good. We had never eaten there and we timed it for the parade, which worked out perfect. Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore were there. Probably the best interaction of characters we had. Probably had to do with the lack of people at the restaurant. Overall a B.

Thursday, October 10th

Restaurants: Scheduled the Fantasmic package with the Hollywood and Vine restaurant. Worked out fine but with the lack of crowds I’m not sure if it was really worth it. I don’t really like buffets too much. Why spend $20 for Luby’s (or Furrs or insert whatever generic buffet exists in your part of the world). I grade the H&V a C but after my daughter said it was her favorite, it goes to a B.

Summary:

Best restaurant was 9 Dragons. Worst was Coral Reef (or POR food court). Best character interaction was Tony’s.
 
RobertR,

Thanks for your candid reviews. What kind of menu choices did you make at Coral Reef? I was just wondering what some of you might have ordered.

Any good choices for your WP Express "disgruntled crowd" dinner?

Thanks for posting. Your comments were very helpful indeed!

--penny
 
I just had to laugh at your Sunday report. We were at WDW in June with a group of 18 (4 families) and by our 3rd day we were all slightly mad at each other, too. Everyone wants to do different things and it's always hurry up and wait. By the 3rd day, we decided to split up and just meet for our PS meals mostly. It ended up working out fine and we had a wonderful trip.

By the way, sorry that Donald's wasn't up to par. We had the first seating for our entire group one morning (familiar with the groans from the crowd) and it was great. We got done with breakfast in time to be the first ones on Dinosaur and in Dinoland.
 
Thanks for your reviews! I had to laugh about your report on Nine Dragons. Can I just say I agree with you 100%!! We love this place and go everytime we're in the "World". I don't know what kind of food most people expect, but we always find the food fresh and tasty. Better than what is around me. They never have a problem making something for us not on their menu. We love it there!;)
 

Funny your favorite character is Jasmine-My husband's is Ariel. I thought it was the red hair, but he says he likes her coconut shells. We had the same impression of Donald's this time-We won't go back.
 
Penny,

At the Coral Reef we had blacken catfish, lobster, steak, chicken and mahi mahi. The catfish was the only big winner. The lobster was fine but just very expensive. I think this was a case where expectations exceeded the actual meal. It was our first time there and it just wasn't anything special.

As far as the "disgruntled crowd dinner" goes there was nothing on this Earth that would have gone over well at that time. Looking back we had a couple of pizzas which were good and then some kid's meals (chicken nuggets with macaroni & cheese). The kids meals are HUGE and will easily fill up an adult.

Rob
 
My wife and I had the Fantasmic Dinner at H&V the night before you . ( Wed. ) It was worth it that night because the show was overflowing . Funny how one night it is and the next night it's not . I had four meats and one vegetable with five desserts . I would do that again !!
 
Thanks for the detailed review! Haven't tried Nine Dragons since it opened. Guess I need to give it another try! :)
 












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