We did Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. Our reservations were for 4 PM and we only had to wait a few moments to be seated.
We had a large group (15 people) and were split. A party of 11 and a party of 4. We didn't mind the split parties because we were told ahead of time this would probably happen, but we felt that it should have been split 8/7 or something more even. We sat at the very back of the place, in the lobby that leads down the hall. We didn't mind missing the antics.
The food was so so. The turkey had a very distinct smoked flavor, too overwhelming in the opinion of my family. The chicken had too many herbs on it (way overseasoned). The ham was good. The stuffing was good. The sweet potatoes were dry and overcooked. The green beans were good. The salad was very good. The pumpkin pie was OK but extremely small pieces were served. (Mind you, this is the opinion of the entire family as there were many things I could not personally eat due to my gestational diabetes)
The server we had was named Bree. She was absolutely horrible! We were in a room with other big parties, and she only had our two tables and a small party of two (3 tables total). She couldn't manage to keep up with it. Other large tables of 10 were seated 10 and 20 minutes after us and were finished far before we were, and it was not because we sat there talking and not eating! We had a vegetarian in our party and the chef came to visit us when we sat down. He came out to deliver the vegetarian meal and found out our request for a salad with no dressing still had not been served. We also asked him for our food because the little ones were hungry. He looked very upset and we saw him take our server aside to talk with her. He ended up hand delivering many of our items to the table. It was nearly impossible to get refills on any food or beverages. She was very sarcastic (maybe playing in character?) and had no problem promptly delivering the bill, complete with tip added in at the end of the meal.
So, all in all... if you take out the bad service, I still wouldn't recommend WCC for Thanksgiving dinner. We still are fans of the place (love the BBQ skillet) but they just are incapable of straying off the path for a special occasion. I believe there are far too many other great places to eat to try this one next year!
