mndisfam
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2004
Ok, before I start my criticism ... We have owned for 11 years and have loved every vacation, cruise etc. If we have ever had any issues, they were solved or we forgot.
So, having said that. We went to the DVC Member Exclusive Xmas Eve dinner. Our family decided that DVC saved up every fail we never had and gave it to us for that dinner. No joke.
First, it was $90 a person. At the Contemporary. The Contempotary isn't very Christmasy, but we KNEW DVC would fix that with decorations, etc, bcs hey - it's DVC. We also KNEW that at that price, the food would be amazing!
Wow - were we SO WRONG! Before we walked into the Contemporary ballroom, they had drinks, cookies with a Xmas choir in the lobby. We thought, "wow, how nice!" And that was the first and last "exclusive " thing we experienced.
The ballroom is cavernous, and does not lend itself to ANY decorations. It was like eating in a high school gym. The tables were set up pretty tho, with beautiful fresh rose bouquets we could keep.
Instead of Xmas type music, they had a dJ on the other end of the ballroom blasting music for little kids. It was TOO loud to talk at our table. I am 53, and I think all music is loud, but my college and high school kids complained too.
And now for the food. I kept thinking I was at one of my kids school banquets. Boring tossed salad with maybe two dressings, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, turkey, prime rib for sure. I think also candy yams and rolls? There may have been a few other things, but I don't recall.
The food they had was again - athletic banquet taste and salt level. The prime rib was good tho. You know when u go somewhere and they fill small plastic trays with ice and then put the canned soda in the ice trays? That's what they did. Again, no problem at backyard parties or school banquets, but not for $90 a person!
If u wanted something else, there was a portable well stocked bar on the other side. I don't drink, but I thought I would get sparkling water there. There was a bartender and a lady with a big roll of paper raffle tickets like u use at a fair, or again, and school fundraisers. She gave me a paper ticket, I gave it to the bartender, and then I got my soda. It was so weird...
There was a small dessert table of rice Krispy desserts and bite size tarts, which were good.
I can't believe they had the nerve to charge $90 pp. Every aspect was SO subpar we kept waiting, kind of, for something good to happen.
There were large groups of families at tables. I was thinking these groups easily paid $1000 for this event. Seriously, if I had dragged non DVCers to this dinner and asked them to pay, I would be SO embarrassed.
I don't KNOW what the heck DVC was thinking, or if something went really bad, but this was a huge fail.
So, having said that. We went to the DVC Member Exclusive Xmas Eve dinner. Our family decided that DVC saved up every fail we never had and gave it to us for that dinner. No joke.
First, it was $90 a person. At the Contemporary. The Contempotary isn't very Christmasy, but we KNEW DVC would fix that with decorations, etc, bcs hey - it's DVC. We also KNEW that at that price, the food would be amazing!
Wow - were we SO WRONG! Before we walked into the Contemporary ballroom, they had drinks, cookies with a Xmas choir in the lobby. We thought, "wow, how nice!" And that was the first and last "exclusive " thing we experienced.
The ballroom is cavernous, and does not lend itself to ANY decorations. It was like eating in a high school gym. The tables were set up pretty tho, with beautiful fresh rose bouquets we could keep.
Instead of Xmas type music, they had a dJ on the other end of the ballroom blasting music for little kids. It was TOO loud to talk at our table. I am 53, and I think all music is loud, but my college and high school kids complained too.
And now for the food. I kept thinking I was at one of my kids school banquets. Boring tossed salad with maybe two dressings, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, turkey, prime rib for sure. I think also candy yams and rolls? There may have been a few other things, but I don't recall.
The food they had was again - athletic banquet taste and salt level. The prime rib was good tho. You know when u go somewhere and they fill small plastic trays with ice and then put the canned soda in the ice trays? That's what they did. Again, no problem at backyard parties or school banquets, but not for $90 a person!
If u wanted something else, there was a portable well stocked bar on the other side. I don't drink, but I thought I would get sparkling water there. There was a bartender and a lady with a big roll of paper raffle tickets like u use at a fair, or again, and school fundraisers. She gave me a paper ticket, I gave it to the bartender, and then I got my soda. It was so weird...
There was a small dessert table of rice Krispy desserts and bite size tarts, which were good.
I can't believe they had the nerve to charge $90 pp. Every aspect was SO subpar we kept waiting, kind of, for something good to happen.
There were large groups of families at tables. I was thinking these groups easily paid $1000 for this event. Seriously, if I had dragged non DVCers to this dinner and asked them to pay, I would be SO embarrassed.
I don't KNOW what the heck DVC was thinking, or if something went really bad, but this was a huge fail.
I'm sorry it was so plain & ordinary at that high cost. I'm afraid Disney's days of serving high quality food at any price are over (with a few exceptions.) As Theme Park fare, it's above average, but as far as expecting anything extraordinary, I've pretty much thrown in the towel. I just tell myself I could be eating Applebee's food looking out at a strip mall at home, or eating Applebee's quality food looking out at a castle in the Fla. sunshine. 
