How old are the kids?
Personally, we love Sci Fi... been there several times, never had bad food. We have ordered everything from salads to burgers to pasta and shrimp to bbq... kids usually get the hot dogs or nuggets (and let's face it, those are pretty much the same wherever you go in WDW!) Last time, I tried something different -- we went for dinner and I ordered 2 appetizers! As I recall, I ordered a salad and some spring rolls. Reason -- I wanted to save room for a milk shake (which I ordered as a "dessert".) THeirs are quite big. Speaking of drinks -- The "glowing" drinks are a real hit with the kids at a place like this, because of the darkened area. My son got a glowing drink at Prime TIme -- just not the same effect in the light of day! We have had virtually every age of kid there -- from toddlers to teens -- and never had a fear factor issue! They are mesmerized by the flicks on the screen -- it is the one place where we haven't had to remind them to sit down, or lower their voices -- they are entranced by the whole night-skye movie-time aura of the place! THe kids think it is WAY cool to sit in a "car", too!
As for Prime TIme -- we FINALLY broke away from Sci Fi this last trip to try it. Unfortunately, you can't always predict how you will be "treated" by the staf there. I went HOPING my gang would be picked on and got a VERY VERY tame waitress. Not lame -- she was a good waitress as waitresses go, but very tame. No pickin', no teasin', no telling us about or elbows or really, much interaction of that sort at all. I had not told my kids / crew what to expect there, so it wasn't like they tried too hard or had too high of an expectation , either -- it just never happened! My eldest son (age 9 at the time) gave me a perspective I hadn't counted on, either -- he said, "THis place is so lame, Mom! Why, look -- they can't even afford COLOR TV!" I guess it hadn't occurred to me that nostalgia could be a lost art on a 9 yr old. Whereas we adults got a kick out of the Leave it to Beaver and I love Lucy shows, the kids were all like, "Huh? Why are they only showing Nick At Night shows?" It was funny, really, in retrospect! Our food was good there -- but we all agreed that the theming of Sci Fi seemed more... "special" and "awesome" to us. We may try PT again -- perhaps once our kids are closer to the teen years. I think the wait-staff prefers to pick on older kids -- perhaps they have had some young'uns that had meltdowns if they or Mom/Dad got picked on, who knows. The table next to ours had teens and they received more of the funny-type attention than us (though since it was the same server -- it was still VERY TAME compared to what we heard going on in the room behind us. Now THAT guy was giving his group a real show, it seemed.) We had an infant with us too -- maybe they thought a ruckus would bother baby. WHo knows.
I realize you got concerned based on a bad reivew, but if there's one thing we've learned from experience -- the place is GREAT if you like it, to heck with reviews -- and all the great reviews in the world won't make up for a bad experience, either. In other words, take reviews with a grain of salt. Look at the menus, look at the theming, and if it sounds like something that might appeal to your group, give 'er a go and to heck with reivews -- write your OWN review!
