Rose & Crown - still good place to watch Illuminations?

[Liz]

Does Rose & Crown still let you request outside seating and are they good about letting you sort of linger over dinner and stay for Illuminations? I know outside seating isn't guaranteed but if you asked nicely, had a PS, and said you were willing to wait do you think your chances are pretty good?

Would a group of 8 be seated together, and would a group that large make a difference on whether we'd be more or less likely to get good seating?

Also would they likely let a small 13 yr. old girl order off the child's menu?

Thanks for any info!

 

[MarkLem]

Answer is yes to all. Of course your success of getting a seating for the fireworks time slot will depend on the time of year, how busy R&C is, etc. It is a bit of a crapshoot to get the timing right.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I tried for it earlier this month. You can try, but don't make it a top priority. I did not work out for us.

Here is the link for my experience I posted:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=706247

 

[Liz]

Thanks for the replies!

Luv2Roam, I read your earlier post about your R&C experience. Wow! You sure had a lot of things go wrong but I love your attitude about it!

If we dine at R&C it will be with another family who is visiting WDW for the first time, so I would be pretty disappointed if it doesn't work out. I suppose if the seating isn't to our satisfaction when they show us to the table(s) we could say we've decided not to eat there after all. How tacky is that?!!!

 

[Luv2Roam]

Liz, I must be tacky if that is the case. That is what I was going to do.
Never having been there I thought the VIP viewing area was much more -- well VIP-ish.
So my post was just a word of warning to fellow R&C newbies.
I would make it for an earlier time than an hour before. like I did. And I think the only way is to stay put. Sad, but true if it matters to you.
But having the inside diners, like we were, hanging over those seated outside could not have been enjoyable for them either.
The "VIP area" is not set up for how they are using it.

Personally I would just eat there only if you want. If it works out fine. If not there are plenty of good spots outside too.
The food was good at R&C. They just aren't my FAVORITE WS restaurant.

 

[snoopy5386]

if you can't get an outside table, can the inside diners go out on the patio to watch illuminations?

 

[Luv2Roam]

That is what happened to us (inside diners, going outside)
Very bad set up for that.
1) No room
2) Standing on the upper level, any arial viewing is blocked by the roof.

The outside portion is VERY limited in space. It really is not adequate and they are trying to make it into more than it is.

 

[RebelHawk]

Our upcoming trip will feature our first R&C Illuminations attempt. We have our PS for 7PM and have requested a seat outside. This will give us plenty of time if we have to wait out a table. If we get a table with a good view then we will camp out and just relax until the fireworks starts. If we get a bad view then we have plenty of time to eat our meal and make it to a good vantage spot for the show.

I will let you guys know how it worked for us.

 

[solotraveler]

I personally think the Rose and Crown location is highly overrated for Illuminations.

I would much rather make an earlier reservation for dinner and then get out in time to find a great spot somewhere else around the lagoon.

Also, for as many times as I have seen the show, 75% of the time it looks like rose and Crown is downwind of the display (and such was the case when I managed to get a patio table).

Best of luck with whatever you decide!
Solotraveler

 

[solotraveler]

Sorry... double post

 

[Simba's Mom]

Luv2Roam, I certainly wish we'd read your post BEFORE we tried to see Illuminations from R&C. But we were already at WDW. We had PS at 7:30, and were told it would be a 15 minute wait and were given a beeper. Our first mistake-we went across the street to sit on the curb and didn't hear them when they called our name. Our beeper? Didn't work! We found this out when we went back at 8:00 to check on things. They appologized profusely, said it would be "just a minute" and after about 5-10 minutes, gave us a table-inside. I rather hoped that after their big goof, giving us a non-functioning beeper, then making us wait so long ("just a minute"?), we might get a table inside. We even had someone come over during the meal to appologize. I was tempted to say "then why didn't we get a porch table instead of an appology?" but DS's girlfriend has this same job of visiting tables of unhappy customers at their resturaunt (what's that-a customer service rep?), so he wouldn't let me say anything other than "Everything's fine". When Illuminations came half way thru our meal, I figured we'd go out the back door and stand on the upper level, like I did last year. But no, that's been stopped, so our waitress led us to the viewing area, where we stood in back of a bunch of people. As far as view, I'm just so glad we'd gotten the Illuminations Cruise that week and not counted on R&C for the view. At least the food was good and our waitress was nice. But I was sorely disappointed in seeing Illuminatins from R&C.

 

[Mady/Sophiemom]

Our trip, a few years ago-

We chose Rose, and Crown, to watch Illuminations. We politely asked, along with everyone else. I figured we had No chance. Anyway, We were sat a a table inside, where we could not even see the patio, yet alone Illuminations. I was so bummed. However the food was great, and after a yard of Guiness, it really didn't matter where we were sitting.

Anyway, my DH, had mentioned to our waitress that we were hoping to sit and watch the show outside. As we were finishing up dinner, ready to go and hope to find a spot were our 2 Y.O. could see, the waitress came and said that a table had opened up outside. We were floored. Went out, ordered dessert (those choc. Epcot thingys), and sat right by the railing to watch the show. The waitress got a huge tip.

 

[Liz]

Now I'm leaning towards trying to book an Illuminations cruise instead of eating at Rose & Crown and having all the stress of are we going to get inside or outside, if its inside do we just leave, etc.

If money wasn't a big issue we could eat there and still find some place else to watch Illuminations after dinner if the seating didn't work out. But the benefit of a nice, relaxing place to watch the show is the only way we could justify the expense of dinner. At least if I'm able to nab a cruise we're 99.9% assured of a good experience. I hope.

Thanks so much for all the wonderful input!