Day 1: Crystal Palace Dinner!
So by about 4:30 we were REALLY dragging after our long day and the kiddo wanted to check in early for our Crystal Palace dinner. At first I thought it would just cause trouble but then I realized it was a less than prime time and they still had ADRs so we went over and checked in and were seated pretty quickly.
Crystal Palace is one of our (ok my) not to miss meals at WDW, but we usually do breakfast because I'm too cheap to pay for buffet dinners and because dinner food is better made to order than it is on a buffet, while I find disney breakfast to be pretty much the same buffet or made to order to be quite honest. Also. I'm cheap. Also. breakfast lasagna. But since I decided to do the
DDP and capture our more expensive TS meals at the front end of the trip, this seemed like pretty much the ideal first day dinner.
We have seen Christopher Robin a bunch of times, which has given my child some interest in Pooh beyond "it makes mom happy." So he was looking forward to this meal too.
I have read pretty meh reviews on the lunch/dinner buffet here - last time I was here in 2014, though, I remember enjoying it just fine, so I was honestly not sure what to expect. I kept my expectations pretty low, but they were exceeded by a mile and we ended up really really enjoying this meal. I mean it's a buffet, but in general everything was hot (that was meant to be!), well prepared, fresh and delicious, if not the most interesting thing in the world. The restaurant was about half empty at that time of the day and it did not feel like a regular zooey character meal. It was actually a pretty chill overall experience and much appreciated at the end of a long travel day where we'd been going for 12 hours already.
Our last dinner buffet was H&V in December 2016 and although that was far better than I expected (I was prepared for the worst) the food was MUCH better here. Honestly I'd happily do either breakfast OR dinner here again ... even though dinner is pricier, if it fit into my schedule better (as this did) I would not feel bad about doing it - whereas H&V I left feeling like I would not pay OOP for it and might only do it again during a holiday where I wanted to see the characters (Halloween or Christmas) AND on the DDP. There was nothing BAD about it but nothing that left me wanting to do it again.
Anyway on to the food!
The kid got up and attended to by himself while I waited for the server to show up and take drink orders (only benefit of having a disney adult kid is that they can pretty much attend to themselves in the bathroom and at buffets). No pics of drinks but pretty sure the kid got a chocolate milk as he usually does and I got a glass of Fess Parker Riesling. I have no real memory of it which means it was fine... it was not mineraly or I would have remembered that (I do not like that in a riesling). I think it is fine and since it is my favorite type of wine I appreciate having some form of riesling on all of the Disney menus rather than just pino and chardonnay, neither of which I love.
He was starving and honestly I am thinking I may always do a buffet for arrival day dinner because it's nice to not have to wait for ordering and prep and just be able to sit and chow down immediately.
Bread. Mac and Cheese. Nuggets. Permissive vacation mom was in full force as I briefly thought about making another trip with him right then and there to see what he could try but then decided I was too bone tired to do that so I let him be.
For my first plate I tried a bit of everything that looked interesting.
Starting at about 11 o'clock and going clockwise I had some weird slaw salad (did not like), some tomato and feta salad that I have no memory of, which means I was probably neutral on it, marinated cucumber and red onion salad that was delicious - vinegary and sweet and fresh and crunchy and some of the beet salad which was deliciously sweet... the little cubes of sweet beet went great with the more bitter greens. Then I had a couple of peel and eat shrimp with way too much cocktail sauce - these were solid tasty peel and eat shrimp with no off flavors or textures. Just your basic solid shrimp and the cocktail sauce has a little horseradish bite and does not taste overpoweringly like high fructose corn syrup like supermarket cocktail sauce does, so I enjoyed it. Next is the honey soy salmon which was absolutely delicious, with a sweet (but not cloyingly so) crispy glazed top and cooked the way I like it - I don't like rare salmon, I know that is not the foodie way to go but I don't like the texture (or salmon sushi, but I do like tuna). I always choose a piece from the thick part and it was done without being dry. Next are the pierogis, which I freaking LOVE and I have not had in nearly 2 years and I don't care if they are basically mini Mrs. T's pierogis, they were delicious topped with shredded parmesan and caramelized onions and fresh chives. I LOVED these. And then in the middle is jambalaya, which I basically mined a couple of shrimp and a couple of cubes of sausage out of and whatever little bit of rice stuck to it. This had more of a kick than I expected and and I really liked it a lot.
The characters came around while we were eating plate one and as tired as I was, we enjoyed them. Got the handler to take a pic of us with Pooh but I do wish they would make more of an effort to get kids to look at the camera rather than just snapping away... my child needs you to get his attention. Oh well.
I will say I have also heard mixed reviews about character interaction here. There were a lot of little kids and the characters did not really seem to want to dawdle at our table UNTIL we started talking to them, and then they got really interactive. The kid LOVES Christopher Robin the movie and I mentioned we had seen it, Pooh got a LOT more perfunctory when I said that. So I would say on character interaction... sometimes you get out what you put in. If you give them something to latch on to they are happy to give you a more personalized experience but if you just stand and pose for photos, it's more likely you'll just get something more standard.
Anyway we both ended up going back for a second plate, as I can graze quite a bit of food in (for me) if I sit around and eat over the space of an hour, which is what we ended up doing. Kid's second plate
This time I helped him get some carved strip loin from the carving station, which I then trimmed up for him. He liked it fine, and more mac and cheese.
My second:
More of the same with the addition of one chicken nugget and a tiny spoon of the corn spoonbread. I have read this is disappointing as well but it was delicious, sweet and warm and comforting... maybe because I don't normally eat carbs I am less picky, I don't know. The chicken nugget was standard disney chicken nugget - salty and crispy and delicious... the nuggets at the buffets are tiny though, that's about the size of a quarter. 2 bites at most! Second plate is always "eyes bigger than stomach" and i just picked at this and left most of the salmon as protein really fills me the most.
Then it was time for dessert. CP does have an ice cream machine, which is a favorite of the picky kid. The kid got himself a big bowl and topped it off with a toffee molten brownie bite. What can I say, he's my kid and has his priorities right. We don't do cake a la mode, we do ice cream with a little cake!
Here is my dessert plate:
On the back is an orange chocolate chip brown pudding which I tried because I love bread pudding but it tasted like what I expected, that kind of gross sharp tasting fake orange and this was a big miss for me. I tried the toffee brownie bite thing and honestly was going to just have a bite (I am usually fine with a bite or two of something sweet after dinner.. I don't need an entire dessert and didn't even before surgery) but this was so delicious I ended up eating the whole thing. One thing anyone considering bariatric surgery should know is that if you don't have dumping (and I have the sleeve, so I don't) carbs go down REAL easy without making you feel full at all. I am not really so much into desserts so it's not a struggle for me really but I think that is how a lot of people gain back weight... sweets and chips and what they call "slider foods" that just go right down without making you feel full. Even though I was pretty full I still had room for that thing and a little bit of ice cream!
Overall even though we were both EXHAUSTED by now after being up at 4am for our flight, this was a great meal.
I would give it a solid "Disney Buffet" A. I don't think it is fair to rate a Disney Buffet against regular TS meals and although the food is not quite up to a Boma, with the addition of characters it gets the "A" for overall experience with very tasty food and solid character interaction. Crystal Palace remains on our do not miss list and although I'd still rather pay breakfast prices, I will not fear the lunch/dinner either.
Dining Plan Value Tally ($604 total): 1TS, 1QS, 1 Snack, $62.80 + $109.28 =$172.08 - $431.92 to break even (note, AP discounted prices are used for TS since we would have gotten the 10% off)
so for one day worth of eating, minus 3 snacks, we are running about $21 in extra value. Not bad!
Up next: PPO Garden Grill. A big hit last time, does it live up to the memory??? Stay tuned and see!