The Garden Grill - surprising experience

[Dragonfly_34]

Monday night we had dinner at the Garden Grill ~ we'd been there before when our oldest was almost 6 years old and he did great. He enjoyed seeing the characters and watching the scenery rotate. It was a completely different experience this time with our youngest. He's almost 2 1/2 and we'd gone to other character breakfasts/dinners where he did great, plus did some other character meet and greets with no issues. However, he did not respond well to the Garden Grill. We were sitting on the outer ring and the scenery scared him ~ he spent most of the time burying his head into my ribcage and pointing at the different things that scared him. The characters were great and tried to get him to interact but the only one he would even look at was Mickey....and even then it took him a couple of visits to the table. I think it was just all too overwhelming to him and it seemed really loud even for me. I don't remember it being quite that loud on our last visit, where we also sat on the outer ring. I think if we go back again, we'll either wait until the kids are a little older, or ask to be seated on the interior ring.

 

[FireFighterWife]

Hmm. That's interesting. We have an ADR there in Dec. My 2 and 5 year old are easily scared. They did well at the character meals on our last trip.

What exactly in the scenery scared him? Did the movement bother him? (We've never been there.)

 

[Dragonfly_34]

The changes in scenery scared him from what I could tell. There's one "scene" with a field, fire, thunderstorm and sandstorm that's pretty dark ~ he pointed at that one a lot. The other one that really bothered him was the canyon scene, although he wasn't crazy about the rainforest either. The only one that didn't bother him was the painted mural of flowers. There were a lot of sounds too, coming from the Living With The Land ride that is underneath the restaurant. He didn't seem to notice the movement of the restaurant and he's not one to scare easily, so I think it was a case of sensory overload. He was so freaked out that he wouldn't even touch his dinner but once we left the restaurant he was fine and back to his normal self. I felt awful though and kept telling DH I'd never have taken him there if I knew he'd be scared.

 

[anjalee6]

I am sorry your little one was frightened. We have been there multiple times including June of this year, but my kids have never been frightened. I didn't notice noise either. In fact, it was one of the most enjoyable meals of the trip for us and our kids. They loved the food, the characters, and the dessert. Maybe if you ever go again, you could ask for a table on the inside. Maybe it wouldn't be as frightening if he couldn't see the scenes below as well.