Should I be discouraged or are people too critical?

[CynJ]

FWIW - my plan is to do the Contempo for a QS lunch. Gives me a bit of break from the park and I get to explore the Contemporary resort a little

 

[LovesTimone]

Thanks - that makes a lot of sense and will save a lot of time - so you can get to DS from the parks directly and then take the bus back to your resort

DH and I noticed the bus leaving AK heading to DS it was around 5:00ish, so around the dinner hour. I asked the CM and he was like yes it is going to DS. There were people getting on it. DH and I were heading back to the resort to shower and change for dinner. I did ask if it was a permanent thing, he said he did not know. I hope so, with so many knew place at DS it would be nice to be able to go straight there for dinner, without all that other transferring around. On a side note, I wish that they would have a more breakfast options at DS, really only EOS, I say that with all the spots on the water it just seem like a natural fit to offer some type of breakfast.. a really nice brunch would be great.

 

[LovesTimone]

Contempo Cafe is QS. You might be confusing it with The Wave.

LOL -- Well I had a blonde moment when I wrote this ( I'm blonde so nothing negative meant by it )... I was trying to do to many things at once... imagine that... LOL I had to go back and see what in the world I thought I read and then answered to.... So what I should have said is that she felt that it was more along the lines of drive thru fast food for breakfast she said everything was blah/ over cooked and luke warm.. But was happy with their dinner meal later in the week, and just a typo on the TS should have been QS.. again just not paying attention. Thanks for letting me know I would never want to give someone the wrong info... Thanks for being nice about it.

 

[iloveeeyore]

We just back Friday night and enjoyed a week at WDW with lots of great and some mediocre experiences. I can't think of anything that was bad or inedible.

Have you checked out the Restaurant Reviews board here on The DIS? I have watched it for years and done a few review threads of my own, and I think they are overwhelmingly positive.

I think that enjoyment of life in general is inversely proportional to expectations. You are in a good place, because if you go with these low expectations, you are most certainly going to be pleasantly surprised!

 

[AngiTN]

So my last Disney trip was 2002 with my mom. We did some planning at the time but for most of our restaurant choices we made reservations same day or did quick service. The only meal either of us had a problem with was at a counter service in AK where we got wrap sandwiches which were really nasty. The rest of our meals were good (some better than others, but all were edible).

So fast forward to today and I am planning a solo trip for November 2017 (happy birthday to me!) and I've been reading a lot of restaurant critiques and watching the DISUnplugged restaurant reviews to start planning out my choices so I can make ADRs when the time comes. However, I'm getting really discouraged the more I read/watch. Has the food in WDW really become that bad? Or are folks just being really picky and overly critical?

I live in Connecticut so the menu prices really don't shock me (nor do any of the food/snack prices actually). I know price seems to be a big sticking point with some folks (and the accompanying portion size), but a $45 tab per person at a sit down restaurant doesn't phase me so long as the food is edible.

Should I maybe just wing it and ignore the reviews and make my ADRs at restaurants that fit my touring plan and interest me? Or should I really heed the dire critiques?

Short answer, yes. There is a current trend to "hate on Disney" as in, hunt to find things wrong.
But for every Restaurant on property you can find a great review and you can find an awful review.
Doesn't mean a thing since there are some many varied tastes.
A good example is Mama Melrose. We heard nothing but avg to below avg reports about it. We finally tried it on Saturday and loved it. Had one of the best meals we've had on property and we've eaten at nearly 75% of the restaurants. No idea why I'd heard so many negatives on it. Other than like I said above, folks love to post anything negative on Disney lately. It's no where near as popular to post positive stuff.

I say if you want to try it, try it.

 

[AngiTN]

I was saying in general people just want to complain. OBVIOUSLY people will get a bad meal here or there (even the OP had an experience last time) but overall the food is great and society just looks to point out the bad and none of the good.

Yes! Exactly what I saying.
Has nothing to do with someone getting a bad meal or someone getting a good meal. Just that folks are quick to post about bad and slow to post about good. Skews results.

 

[tony67]

Yes! Exactly what I saying.
Has nothing to do with someone getting a bad meal or someone getting a good meal. Just that folks are quick to post about bad and slow to post about good. Skews results.

That may have been true at one time, but I think things have changed in our modern connected society.
Sixty six percent of all reviews on yelp were either 4 or 5 stars - only 21% percent were 1 or 2 stars (2013 stats).
Yelp is a pretty good sample size to use in this case.

We don't have the same stats for DISBoards, but it seems there are just as many good reviews as bad reviews IMO.

There are actually people who think Tony's is good..it boggles the mind...but I'm glad they enjoyed it.


Anyway seems to me people on this site are just quicker to jump all over the bad reviews and point out the good reviews to prove their point and vice versa.

One thing that seems obvious to me is that Disney is aware and is making changes - maybe Tony's really has improved, but the recent photo on one of the many Disney review sites of the frozen chicken parm was not particularly appetizing.

The menu at Skippers is very unusual for Disney...but I'll say it again...I have not had many amazing meals at Disney in the last few years.

In the end - the good reviews and the bad reviews are all peoples personal opinion based on their experiences in Disney and elsewhere.

As has been pointed out by so many people here ..someone from new York might think the ribs at Flame tree are really good, and someone from Georgia would think they are average at best. Barbecue up north is pretty limited.

Alternately if you are from somewhere that Pizza Hut is listed under fine dinning (and I have actually seen this while traveling the country) you will probably be quite happy with the food at Tony's..and the person from New York may not be.

Again it does not make either wrong or right - they are both right.

 

[CynJ]

I totally agree @tony67.

I think one of the more helpful things about me and my dining preferences is that I'm really not a nit picky eater. I'm not someone who sends food back to kitchen (lol well there was that time at Applebees where our buffalo wings were literally still frozen- lol they went right from the freezer to the buffalo sauce to the plate. We and the waitress had a good laugh over it as the manager was the one running the short staffed kitchen that night- we didn't ask for a comp but the manager comped our appetizers and desserts and came out to personally apologize) and I'm also not afraid to ask what something is on the menu if I don't know. (How many people don't do this because they think they will look stupid and then HATE what is put in front of them regardless of well it's prepared?)