Tweet
Hi all! Well, we just got back - Nine wonderfull days in DisneyWorld.
Was hot and humid every day, and, of course, rained during the weekend, and pop-up chance each day around 5pm.
This is our fifth trip in seven years to the Kingdoms. Have to admit, can see the changes the economy has done to the parks, food, and customer service. All in all, it is still the best. Some changes I've noticed:
- Not surprisingly, price of most things have gone up. Bottle of Coke out of the machines at the resorts are now up to $2.75 each. But........ you can go to the gift shop by the food courts, and buy a 2liter for $3.74, out the door. Figure that one out.
- Food has changed too. I think Disney is outsoursing a lot of their food now. We get breakfast at the food court, and noticed that the biscuts come pre-baked, and are very hard, not fresh at all. Portion size and contents have gone down too. Have been to Chip&Dale's Harvest Grill at Epcot now three times. Last two, it was great. This time, OK at best. Nothing was really hot, like it was just cooked, but rather warm, like it was sent in, and warmed. The fresh vegtables there used to be incredible - I could eat a bowl of the fresh sugar snap pea's myself..... now you get a couple snap peas, but mostly cooked squash. Not sure if I'll be going back to Harvest Grill.
And it was like that at several places all around the parks.
- Quick review of resturants we visited:
Tony's Town Sqaure/Magic Kingdom --- Food very good! Good service.
Garden Grill/Epcot --- Fook OK at best, good service.
Sci-Fi Dine-In/Hollywood Studios --- Not impressed. Steak drowning in wine sauce, cheap vegtables. Service OK, can be slow. Hard to see menu or food in "car".
Crystal Palace/Magic Kingdom - Breakfast - Love this place. Been here several times. Food always good. Service good. One change: Every table used to get orange juice, with carafe of residual left at table. You have to ask for orange juice now. It's all included in the price, but used to get it automatically. Great service.
Liberty Tree Tavern/Magic Kingdom - Dinner - Love this place. Been here several times too. Menu and food has not changed, just as good as it always has been, hot, fresh, and delicious. Only down side is no more character dining. More on that later. If you plan to go there, ask if server "Cheri" is working. Fantastic service, we wanted for nothing.
Nine Dragons/Epcot - Dinner - Nice place - Got right in on a Saturday evening without reservations! Food fresh and fast. Good service!
Teppan Edo/Epcot - Dinner - Very good!! Food cooked right in front of you, and "show" by chef. Reccomend this to anyone. We'll be going back next year. One note: It is very loud back in the table/cooking area - can be hard to hear the server and chef. Just FYI.
Hoop-Dee-Doo/Fort Wilderness Campground - Dinner - Great show, very funny and greatly entertaining. Have to be honest, the food is ok at best. Salad, corn bread, and desert is best part. They could make this so much better. Again, believe food is prepared off site, and brought in.
T-Rex/Downtown Disney - Dinner - Beautiful building, incredible inside, good service. Food was bad, just bad. Filet steak was tough, lot of fat on it, my salmon was ok, a little dry, cheap vegetables again, mashed potatoes with steak were dry. We really like Rainforest, and this is owend by the same people - Not sure is this is growing pains from a new resturant. Hope it is. Interestingly, the Yak&Yetti resturant are owned by same group - you can use your Disney Dining plan at the Yak&Yetti, but not at the T-Rex..........strange.
- Service issue. Believe it or not, we ran into a couple problem employees. Yep, I didn't think it could happen either. First was on the Magic Express bus ride from the airport to the resort. Bus driver decided to practice her "comedy" on us. And, with her heavy "spanglish" accent, it was very hard to understand. Could do without that.
Second, and worse, was at Mouse Gear in Epcot. We had a question if they had a jacket in a different size. The lady salesperson we were dealing with was very nice, and told us that we could go over the the main registers, and they could up the UPC code, and find any and all sizes in the entire World, and where they were. Upon asking this to the "gentleman" behine the counter, he laughed at us, told us that she should not have told us that, and that only a manager can do that, and they were all in meeting right then, and he was not going to bother them.
WHAT!?!?!!? I was amazed and ticked off........... I have never been treated like that at Disney before. We left there, and went over to Guest Relations. We explained what had happened, and when they asked us who the person was, we told them, and the response was "Yes, we know him. This is the third complaint about him today." It was 10am!!!
They thanked us for letting them know, and were told they would look into it. Who knows.
Other than that, all the employees were very kind, friendly, and outgoing to make sure we had a great visit.
- If you want to see the characters returned to the Liberty Tree Tavern, I got a good contact. Write your letter to:
Magic Kingdom Park
Attn: Phil Holmes
PO Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000
So we're glad to be back home, but look foreward to planning next year!!!
Was hot and humid every day, and, of course, rained during the weekend, and pop-up chance each day around 5pm.
This is our fifth trip in seven years to the Kingdoms. Have to admit, can see the changes the economy has done to the parks, food, and customer service. All in all, it is still the best. Some changes I've noticed:
- Not surprisingly, price of most things have gone up. Bottle of Coke out of the machines at the resorts are now up to $2.75 each. But........ you can go to the gift shop by the food courts, and buy a 2liter for $3.74, out the door. Figure that one out.
- Food has changed too. I think Disney is outsoursing a lot of their food now. We get breakfast at the food court, and noticed that the biscuts come pre-baked, and are very hard, not fresh at all. Portion size and contents have gone down too. Have been to Chip&Dale's Harvest Grill at Epcot now three times. Last two, it was great. This time, OK at best. Nothing was really hot, like it was just cooked, but rather warm, like it was sent in, and warmed. The fresh vegtables there used to be incredible - I could eat a bowl of the fresh sugar snap pea's myself..... now you get a couple snap peas, but mostly cooked squash. Not sure if I'll be going back to Harvest Grill.
And it was like that at several places all around the parks.
- Quick review of resturants we visited:
Tony's Town Sqaure/Magic Kingdom --- Food very good! Good service.
Garden Grill/Epcot --- Fook OK at best, good service.
Sci-Fi Dine-In/Hollywood Studios --- Not impressed. Steak drowning in wine sauce, cheap vegtables. Service OK, can be slow. Hard to see menu or food in "car".
Crystal Palace/Magic Kingdom - Breakfast - Love this place. Been here several times. Food always good. Service good. One change: Every table used to get orange juice, with carafe of residual left at table. You have to ask for orange juice now. It's all included in the price, but used to get it automatically. Great service.
Liberty Tree Tavern/Magic Kingdom - Dinner - Love this place. Been here several times too. Menu and food has not changed, just as good as it always has been, hot, fresh, and delicious. Only down side is no more character dining. More on that later. If you plan to go there, ask if server "Cheri" is working. Fantastic service, we wanted for nothing.
Nine Dragons/Epcot - Dinner - Nice place - Got right in on a Saturday evening without reservations! Food fresh and fast. Good service!
Teppan Edo/Epcot - Dinner - Very good!! Food cooked right in front of you, and "show" by chef. Reccomend this to anyone. We'll be going back next year. One note: It is very loud back in the table/cooking area - can be hard to hear the server and chef. Just FYI.
Hoop-Dee-Doo/Fort Wilderness Campground - Dinner - Great show, very funny and greatly entertaining. Have to be honest, the food is ok at best. Salad, corn bread, and desert is best part. They could make this so much better. Again, believe food is prepared off site, and brought in.
T-Rex/Downtown Disney - Dinner - Beautiful building, incredible inside, good service. Food was bad, just bad. Filet steak was tough, lot of fat on it, my salmon was ok, a little dry, cheap vegetables again, mashed potatoes with steak were dry. We really like Rainforest, and this is owend by the same people - Not sure is this is growing pains from a new resturant. Hope it is. Interestingly, the Yak&Yetti resturant are owned by same group - you can use your Disney Dining plan at the Yak&Yetti, but not at the T-Rex..........strange.
- Service issue. Believe it or not, we ran into a couple problem employees. Yep, I didn't think it could happen either. First was on the Magic Express bus ride from the airport to the resort. Bus driver decided to practice her "comedy" on us. And, with her heavy "spanglish" accent, it was very hard to understand. Could do without that.
Second, and worse, was at Mouse Gear in Epcot. We had a question if they had a jacket in a different size. The lady salesperson we were dealing with was very nice, and told us that we could go over the the main registers, and they could up the UPC code, and find any and all sizes in the entire World, and where they were. Upon asking this to the "gentleman" behine the counter, he laughed at us, told us that she should not have told us that, and that only a manager can do that, and they were all in meeting right then, and he was not going to bother them.
WHAT!?!?!!? I was amazed and ticked off........... I have never been treated like that at Disney before. We left there, and went over to Guest Relations. We explained what had happened, and when they asked us who the person was, we told them, and the response was "Yes, we know him. This is the third complaint about him today." It was 10am!!!
They thanked us for letting them know, and were told they would look into it. Who knows.
Other than that, all the employees were very kind, friendly, and outgoing to make sure we had a great visit.
- If you want to see the characters returned to the Liberty Tree Tavern, I got a good contact. Write your letter to:
Magic Kingdom Park
Attn: Phil Holmes
PO Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000
So we're glad to be back home, but look foreward to planning next year!!!
Comment