Thoughts on Garden Grove Dinner?

[mzozzietj]

Hi Everyone,

We are going down one month from Tomorrow. I had made all our ADRs and plans 180-days out but my DM decide she and my Dniece would be joining us for a night and 2 days. My niece is 9 and I have desperately been trying to get a character meal to make it special for her. Today I found out about garden grove over in the Swan & Dolphin having a couple characters at dinner.

Have you been there? Were the character interactions as good as at a Disney location? How was the food?

Thanks for any info!
-Stacey

 

[mzozzietj]

Hmm, wondering if I posted this in the wrong place since it's not owned by disney?

 

[LockShockBarrel]

Never been there myself but you can find a menu on allears.net if you're interested. You could probably call ahead to see if they can tell you which characters will be there.

You may want to post this over on the resort boards too, you may get more, or at least different responses.

 

[pattyw]

We ate there two weeks ago. They have a buffet and the theme changes during the week. We were there on Fisherman's night- buffet included crab legs and alot of seafood options. The food was very good. There are two characters here each night- that night it was Rafiki and Timon. They come out one at a time. This place does not accept the DDP, (we used our TIW discount), so it doesn't get crowded at all. So the characters are very attentive! We enjoyed our meal and the quiet as well! If you go to the Disney web site and go into the dining reservation section you can find the menu and it will tell you the themed days.

 

[gfolchick]

We were there in August on a Wednesday night. It was BBQ night. Characters were Pluto and Goofy. Our kids are 11 and 13, interaction was very quick, picture only, and the restaurant wasn't busy at all so I thought they'd stay longer at each table.

FYI, you can go on restaurant.com and purchase a $25 gift certificate for $2-$4 depending on the special they're running.

 

[Tiger926]

We've gone several times, as recently as July, and we always attend the Meditarranean night - it's tasty! We saw Pluto and Goofy.

Characters are always fabulous, as it's never busy. They actually will come and sit at our table, and pretend to eat food, sign lots of autographs and spent extra time with kids.

They don't take DDP, but they do take TIW and AP/DVC, I think? You can make ADRs on Disney's website too. Also used the Restaurant.com certificate, without any problems.

One other thing, drinks are not included with buffet prices, so that will put your cost a little higher.

Tiger

 

[mzozzietj]

Thank you all so much for the replies, they are super helpful! Our date is a Sunday so it is also the Southern BBQ menu which still looks good to us. I actually did purchase a $25 gift card from Restaurants.com for $2 yesterday with the code TOUCHDOWN. I had no idea they accepted TiW also. I wonder which of the two would end up being a better deal for 3 adults/1 child/1 freebie infant, lol. I'm guessing they would not allow both as most places don't. We will also have APs and are DVC members... decisions decisions, LOL

This sounds fun, I'm so glad to hear it's not very crowded. Since we are DVC and tend to enjoy mostly TS but not 3-per day we are buying our TiW card instead of using DDP.

If anyone knows which discount is best or if they allow you to use the gift card with a discount, please let me know.

Thanks again!

 

[johnsonville5]

We had dinner at the Garden Grove in June 2010. We went on Seafood night and it was very good and a good value. Our grandson enjoyed the characters and was able to eat plenty off our plates (2 year old). They did seem a little aggressive before we went in - made a big point of telling us that no discounts applied here etc. Funny, becasuse we were not expecting to use any. Once we were in it was very good.

 

[Tiger926]

Thank you all so much for the replies, they are super helpful! Our date is a Sunday so it is also the Southern BBQ menu which still looks good to us. I actually did purchase a $25 gift card from Restaurants.com for $2 yesterday with the code TOUCHDOWN. I had no idea they accepted TiW also. I wonder which of the two would end up being a better deal for 3 adults/1 child/1 freebie infant, lol. I'm guessing they would not allow both as most places don't. We will also have APs and are DVC members... decisions decisions, LOL

This sounds fun, I'm so glad to hear it's not very crowded. Since we are DVC and tend to enjoy mostly TS but not 3-per day we are buying our TiW card instead of using DDP.

If anyone knows which discount is best or if they allow you to use the gift card with a discount, please let me know.

Thanks again!

You cannot stack discounts - it's one or the other.

Just look at the menu and get the prices, and then do the math to figure out which is best. We don't drink alcohol, so for us, we saved the most with our TIW discount. Don't forget to add in the cost of the certificate in your final analysis, and it shouldn't be too hard to see which is best for your family. Don't forget to add costs of beverages as well, as they are not included in any of their buffets.

Happy eating, Tiger