What Happened?

[lucysmom]

I'm sorry, but I've been enjoying WDW since August of 1972 and the food during our trip this month has really gone downhill. With the exception of Kona, where the food was great, but the service very poor (the waiter was trying to earn his ears;I'm sure he did not) and the Cape May Clam Bake and Cape May Character Breakfast, I would not return to a single one of these restaurants we chose:

1900 Park Faire: Stepsisters were a hoot, but there was nothing worth eating on the buffet. The last time we ate there, chicken marsala (sp?) was made with thinly pounded breasts. It was delicious. This time the dish was made with cheap hunks of what seemed like leftover dark meat parts. Even the bread pudding wasn't the same.

Tokyo Dining: A 45 minute wait after our ADR time and my tempura was delivered cold, even the rice was cold. What a waste of EPCOT time, although it was fun to see the fireworks from the windows.

Ohana Character Breakfast: The pineapple bread wasn't!! And where did they find bacon that thin? I didn't know you could get shaved bacon! The waitress was annoyed about having to refill water glasses. The all you can eat aspect was abbreviated by the fact that you had to ask for more and then wait and wait until they brought it. I had the nerve to ask for another Mickey waffle which arrived after the check! This restaurant has always been a family last day tradition for us. Not any more!

Garden Grille: Food was fine. My DH loved it, but the service was so poor we rotated around twice. The characters just started waving as they passed us. There were so many dirty dishes on the table, that there was literally no room to put the dessert.

Cinderella's Royal Table: Lunch in hyper speed! The princess characters moved so fast, you would have missed them if you blinked. The meal was less than satisfying. Major domo was as light as always, but without a salad, bread, something to round it out, you had to hit Casey's to quench your hunger afterwards. They do give you a little appetizer plate with two cubes of cheese, a few grapes, and two pieces of bread with a tomato topping. This was for a table with four adults!

Walt needs to speak to someone about this. When virtually every meal comes with a three digit tab, there should be more quality control. I'm afraid we are going to be far more choosy next time. I think we are going to find more food courts to eat at. Frankly, it will save us the outrageous tips and provide us with the same, or better, quality food.

 

[vicki_c]

Sorry you were so unhappy with your meals. I never feel that way. In fact, a bunch of us were just posting in the "easy to please" thread someone started today. But if you were that unhappy, I would quit booking meals and just grab counter service or eat outside the World.

 

[pooch]

you haven't really picked the gourmet restaurants here. Character buffets/all you can eat restaurants aren't necessarily the best choices for good food anywhere and Disney is no exception. We have been to many of the restaurants on property and the only 2 to which I would never return are H & V (buffet) and 'Ohana (all they care to throw at you)

 

[DisGirl23]

Sorry you were so unhappy with your meals. I never feel that way. In fact, a bunch of us were just posting in the "easy to please" thread someone started today. But if you were that unhappy, I would quit booking meals and just grab counter service or eat outside the World.

beat me to it...

 

[TLSnell1981]

The quality has definitely declined in the last few years and prices have continued to rise. We've always paid the premium for the characters. It WAS worth it in the past. At these prices, one would expect to receive an autograph and a take a photo with each character. This is no longer a given....

 

[EastonCat]

It seems that your complaint bakes down into two categories; value and service level.

We have only had one server deliver actual poor service in the times that we've been to the world. We have had servers that started out distracted or were plain in the weeds, but we can usually engage them a little bit and get them back on their game. Assuredly, service should always be good, but servers are people and sometimes people need a little help. Mostly, however, we have good service, sometimes it's adequate.

Regarding value, any restaurant should leave you feeling that you received a value consistent with your options in the locality. There is no reason why one buffet at Disney should make you feel valued and another should not. Sure-fire fully-booked venues get lazy and as long as people go to places that get reviewed poorly, it is difficult to get them to change.

I'm not sure what you mean by outrageous tips -- tips are generally provided by guests as a fraction of a check before discounts. If your service is poor, it is customary to adjust the tip to reflect it. If you're saying that the high cost of dining makes tipping expensive, well, you have a point, but tips are a relatively small bucket of allocation for something like a Disney vacation.

However, I'm biased. I am a generous tipper in the base case.