WORST DISNEY DINING EXPERIENCE

[DrivenByDisney]

Man, I'm getting depressed reading these. It's because I'm going to Disney in under 50 days and a few of these places are on my ADR....

Tough not too I suppose. However look at it like this. How many great meals/service do thousands upon thousands of guests see every day in between these lapses of good, Disney level visits? If everyone just based their decisions on the negative comments, posts and/or reviews ... No one would ever visit any place outside of their homes.

 

[jen7233]

To be specific Whispering Canyon I've got two reservations, and one O'Hana dinner out of these. I had Chef Mickey's on then deleted it (not because of the this) but because I didn't feel like paying for the character meal experience or going out of our way from the park agenda we have. I've been to CM before though on another occasion. It was okay.

 

[jen7233]

Tough not too I suppose. However look at it like this. How many great meals/service do thousands upon thousands of guests see every day in between these lapses of good, Disney level visits? If everyone just based their decisions on the negative comments, posts and/or reviews ... No one would ever visit any place outside of their homes.

Oh, true. I get the same situation sometimes from my restaurants in town. Sometimes service and food knocks it out of the park, other times it's lacking. I return knowing some days it can just be off. And then there are just those restaurants that were so bad too many times to ever return back to!

 

[DrivenByDisney]

Oh, true. I get the same situation sometimes from my restaurants in town. Sometimes service and food knocks it out of the park, other times it's lacking. I return knowing some days it can just be off. And then there are just those restaurants that were so bad too many times to ever return back to!

Good attitude to have to me. Once is ok ... Maybe twice. But bad service over & over means I am not returning. I will return to Le Cellier of course. Just waiting a while at this point

 

[KELLY]

The only full-on bad meal I've had at WDW was Hollywood and Vine. We went so the kiddos could see the Disney Junior characters but the food was so horrid it literally made my aunt sick in the middle of the meal!! Also it was crazy loud and busy (which we fully expected) and we all came out with headaches which put a bit of a damper on the afternoon. The adults in our group wound up snacking a lot that afternoon as no one could stomach the food (I ate only the bread and fries which were fine). However, that was back in 2012 so they may have improved since then. And really in the end it was worth it to see the kids have so much fun with the characters

That is funny because we haven't ate there in at least 6 years. My brother ate lunch there with his family and swore it was the best meal all week. Granted our meals there were fine because we only usually do breakfast. We are trying lunch this year. Will see how it goes.

 

[rwdavis2]

Of all the trips listed in my signature I don't remember a bad meal or service and I'm pretty demanding when it comes to restaurants. Not that I've been "wowed" everywhere either. We tend to go at low crowd times which hopefully means less stressed-out restaurants. I don't get all hot and bothered about WDW food. I've mentioned in other Dining posts, living in the DC area tends to spoils you as to the quality of restaurants you have access to.

Given all that one has to be cognizant of a what a location can or cannot do well. At a buffet I at least expect to be served hot, average food. At a signature restaurant anything I order better be excellent at those prices. At some places, regardless of how extensive the menu is, I'm ordering a burger or a simple sandwich. That may be all they can competently handle.

 

[Madteaparty001]

I'll put another vote in for Chef Mickey's. Waited an hour to be seated for breakfast, stations were all messy and usually empty, and when we did get food it wasn't very good. What really got to me though was, because of the monorail, birds kept flying in and out and around the restaurant. All I could think was 'Isn't that a health hazard? Please don't let them crap on the buffet'. The waitress was absent for most of the meal but the characters were nice and engaging. Donald skipped our section but when we finally flagged the waitress down to take our credit card she was able to get us a meet with him. His handler was kinda rude but Donald put him in his place in a very Donald fashion, that was the highlight of the meal.

Sad to hear everyone having bad experiences at Chefs de France, haven't been since Remy was still there and always ordered the chicken with fingerling potatoes, but never had a bad experience or meal. The service was always slow, but that's just how it is in France, you're supposed to linger over a multiple course meal for hours. Plus their dessert with the puff pastry with ice cream was awesome.

 

[Cookiecamilla]

We haven't had a bad experience but we were not impressed with the buffet at Boma when we went in 2010. We also checked Chef Mickeys off our list. The breakfast was just okay and it is more a been there done that experience for us and not one we need to repeat. Not horrible just think there are so many more options to love at WDW.

We LOVED LOVED LOVED 50s Prime time when we went in 2009 but then on our visit in 2010 it was just blah!

We LOVE Akershus for lunch...but then again we are scandinavian so most of the food is not so foreign to us. I see that they now have the meatballs on their kids menu but when we were there in 09 and 10 they didn't and they were so nice to make a kids portion for my DD.

 

[disneysteve]

it is more a been there done that experience for us

I think this is what is unfortunate about so many restaurants at Disney. Pete has said this on the show. They are more focused on the first-timers than the repeat visitors. They know that people are going to keep coming no matter what, even if they don't get the return business. Pete has said he thinks the majority of Disney restaurants couldn't survive if they were offsite in the real world and I think that's true. For the prices they charge and the inconsistent experience they offer, they wouldn't last 6 months if they didn't have a captive audience.

 

[Madteaparty001]

I think this is what is unfortunate about so many restaurants at Disney. Pete has said this on the show. They are more focused on the first-timers than the repeat visitors. They know that people are going to keep coming no matter what, even if they don't get the return business. Pete has said he thinks the majority of Disney restaurants couldn't survive if they were offsite in the real world and I think that's true. For the prices they charge and the inconsistent experience they offer, they wouldn't last 6 months if they didn't have a captive audience.

And that's the flaw with Disney's outlook of bleeding first timers. Most of their 'first timer' audience would be parents taking their kids because they went as a kid. But if those parents and their kids don't have a good time, will those kids repeat the cycle when they have their kids? Will those parents talk their kids out of going when they're grand parents? We've seen what happens with companies get the attitude of 'to big to fail'. I don't think the company will go down, but I do think the parks will suffer if the trend continues. I really hope they return to the model that caters to the idea of making life long customers.

 

[ErinsMommy]

Hollywood & Vine.

 

[Crystal824]

That is funny because we haven't ate there in at least 6 years. My brother ate lunch there with his family and swore it was the best meal all week. Granted our meals there were fine because we only usually do breakfast. We are trying lunch this year. Will see how it goes.

Hollywood and Vine was one of the better character meals we had last week. Granted, we ate there for breakfast. It is hard to mess up breakfast.

 

[tinklvsu]

Hollywood Brown Derby

They were WAYYYY behind on seating parties. And the food....was....just.... ...service was good though.

 

[Hollymom1229]

To be specific Whispering Canyon I've got two reservations, and one O'Hana dinner out of these. I had Chef Mickey's on then deleted it (not because of the this) but because I didn't feel like paying for the character meal experience or going out of our way from the park agenda we have. I've been to CM before though on another occasion. It was okay.

While I listed WCC on my list of worst places, I would go back in the future, but I'll give it some time and also not order the skillets. The meals my companions had at breakfast and lunch were pretty darn tasty, and while our lunch service was lackluster, the breakfast service was great. As for 'Ohana we've been 4 times since 2002 and at each meal the food has been very good and our service has ranged from okay to very good.

 

[jennytmitch]

We will not return to Fulton's Crab House, Earl of Sandwich, Hollywood and Vine or Le Cellier.

Fulton's was extremely slow an poor service. Parties were sat after us and had their meals before we received an appetizer or any drinks. We didn't order anything extraordinarily difficult or that should have taken that long. For the price you pay there, I just expected better. The food was good, we just had a bad experience and there are other restaurants we want to try.

EOS- We just didn't think it lived up to the hype. They were just not our taste. Nothing wrong wit the food, we just prefer Subway or Jersey Mike's!

Hollywood and Vine- Honestly we only went for the Characters. DD was having a meltdown before our ADR time, the service was extremely slow and the food was not that great.

Le Cellier - The dining room is just way too crowded for us. The tables are right on top of each other and if I am paying that much for food (signature) I expect it to be a little less hectic. I also didn't think it lived up to the hype.

We are doing T-Rex, Boma, Chef Mickey's, Be Our Guest, Biergrten, Tearoom, Boatwrights, Crystal Palace, Raglan Road and Trail's End this trip. I have pretty low expectations except for Boma, so if that turns out bad I will be disappointed. Otherwise it is a whole week making memories with my family!

 

[corellianskies]

Boatwright's.

My husband got sick from the crawfish etouffee while we were on our honeymoon. He tried it, thought it tasted funny, but what little he ate of it was enough. We got back to the hotel that night and he was sick all night. My food was fine, but the pecan pie was ice cold - even though I asked if it would come heated and the server told me it would be. I sent an email and Disney apologized and requested I call them so they could fix it, but I didn't want to seem like I was fishing for anything free so I just let it slide. But we won't be back there. The service was lackluster and the restaurant was only memorable because of how much sleep DH lost, lol.

 

[cindyfan]

Here's our list of "never again!!".....
50's Prime Time
Sci-Fi
Chef Mickey's
Tony's

Couple that we may give a second try... bad, but not sickening to not give a second chance
Coral Reef
Via Napoli

 

[Metz172]

I have two new ones: Garden Grill and Chef Mickey's. I've eaten at both numerous times. In fact, I have told people are here at both were fairly good. We just returned from a trip. We ate at both. They were both terrible this time around. At Chef Mickey's all the food was cold, the character interaction was ok. Garden Grill the characters were awesome but the food was terrible. We won't be going back to either for a while.

Could you be more specific then the food was terrible. We are planning to eat there in the in a couple of weeks and wasn't too change if we need to.

 

[southjerseymom]

Ugh. Trying to make ADR's for our upcoming 7 night trip. No dining plan. Just going OOP. DH and I have worked in restaurants all our lives. He is a server at a casino and I am a bartender. Our problem is we have never been impressed with Disney food. Overrated and now just plain expensive. Used to be you could find a reasonable CS or a lower end TS. With the advent of the Dining Plan we have watched the food quality go down down down. Seriously. Finding decent food is our biggest problem in WDW. I have a post up about getting room delivery but sounds like not much offered that is any more palatable then Disney food. On our previous trips I used to love reading food porn blogs and enjoyed the anticipation of experiencing great food. Now I am just trying to keep my family fed some good/healthy food reasonably priced food. What a challenge.

 

[Tom Caselli]

I still don't get it. We just got back from WDW early this week. In the Magic Kingdom, we ate at Pinocchio Village Haus for lunch. The food was very good. It was different then I had remembered from times past. We ate at Crystal Palace for dinner. The food was very good and the character interaction was good. The next day we ate at Wolfgang Puck Express for lunch in Downtown Disney. The food was good. We ate at Chef Mickey's for dinner. As with Crystal Palace, the food was very good and the character interaction was good. For those making plans, don't let the negativity deter you from what you want to do. As with anything, just because one doesn't like something doesn't mean somebody else won't like that thing.