Hopping instead of shopping

[Travisma 1,317]

Quick trip report about our WDW visit on Black Friday and Saturday.  Won’t be anywhere as elaborate or exciting as TCD’s upcoming TR.

 

There will be praises and criticisms.

 

Also Imgur is giving me a hard time so pictures will be following later

 

Headed over towards WDW Friday morning from Tampa.  My daughter had gotten us a good price thru her job on a room at TownePlace Suites at Flamingo Crossing so we headed there first to see if our room was ready.  It was, so we dropped off our bags before heading towards HS.

 

It was a quick trip using Western Way, traffic was light and HS parking lot wasn’t too bad.

 

My daughters plan was to see all the gingerbread houses and Jingle Bells, Jingle Bam.  Anything else we did would be bonuses, so we figured park at HS, boat to the Boardwalk loop to see the decorations, then depending on time, either do Epcot, or the monorail hotels before heading back to HS.

 

As we were waiting for the HS boat, I realized I had my non-acceptable knife in my pocket so I headed back to the car to store it. Told the family I would catch up with them at the Boardwalk Hotel.

 

Rant #1.  Disney maintenance is definitely lacking.  While in line at the boat dock I noticed how badly the paint had been chipped off the railings.  It wasn’t newly chipped, because there was a thick layer of rust in numerous spots and bare metal showing in others. It was a shocker that they would let something deteriorate that far.

 

I started walking the path between HS and Boardwalk when I got the call that my other daughter was on her way in from the parking lot so I waited and we had a nice walk to the Boardwalk hotel and only got there a few minutes after my wife and other daughter.

 

Rant #2  Daughter #1 from Minneapolis was fired up to see the gingerbread houses (except Contemporary) and wanted to do the cupcake or cookie decorating at the Boardwalk as listed in the Disney Blog pages.  No gingerbread house in the lobby, and no signs about the decorating event.  It took 3 of us asking 4 different people at the concierge desk and check in desk who asked 3 other people until we got an answer… the cupcake deal wasn’t starting until 12/2 !  Big fail on Disney Blog, and a bigger one that the CMs had no clue about when or where the event was happening.  And no, the Boardwalk was not having a gingerbread house at all this year.

 

Next stop was food.  My wife and I split a tomato mozzarella sandwich from the Boardwalk Bakery that came with a small salad or chips.  It was good, and to top it off we got our 20% AP discount.  One daughter got a slice of pizza that came with a salad and the other got a hotdog. The pizza slice was large and so was the hot dog. 

 

Afterwards I got my wife the prosecco with lemon sherbet from the ice cream shop and the girls got cups of ice cream. My wife’s drink was good, but small for the $10 and no discount.  They must have the world’s smallest ice cream scoop to get the dollop of ice cream into the flute glass.

 

Stuffed we headed to the Beach Club to see the Carousel.  It was well made, had Disney themed horses, and the pastry chef that designed it was in the lobby for just a couple hours that day only to sign limited edition carousel pins.  I got one for one daughter and myself, and got both the chef and his assistant to sign them.  This made up for the Boardwalk fiasco.

 

It was still early, and we still had plenty of energy, so we decided to go to EPCOT.

 

Coming in the International Gate we picked up a brochure that showed some of the Food and Wine Booths were serving “Holiday” treats and food, then turned right and headed towards France.

 

The World Showcase side had some nice decorations.  We saw Pere Noel at France along with giant ornaments with French landmark dioramas inside.

 

Italy had some garland hanging, Germany had topiaries and one of the F&W booths had big nutcrackers next to it.

 

American Pavilion had a large tree and a doll vendor has a Precious Moments doll tree. Inside the great hall, there was a diorama of the Capitol, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial made out of gingerbread.

 

Norway had some big ornaments.

 

Future World had some topiaries and a stage set up with the American Music Machine performing holiday songs.

 

We had been wavering between doing the monorail hotels on Friday or Saturday.  We still had enough time to go to the GF and get back to HS for Jingle Bam so we headed to the front exit.  We were going to take the monorail, but then remembered we would have to switch at the transportation center, so we figured we would take a bus over to GF. Wrong, there are no busses to any monorail hotels. We didn’t want to mess going back thru the crowds to the monorail and possibly having to go thru security again, so we caught a bus directly to HS.

 

Will continue our HS jaunt later.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I'm in!

I am interested to see if your were at Jingle Bam on Friday night.

Because we were there!

We had some rat pizza first.  I'll bet you checked that out too.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

Yes to both.  And we were not impressed with either.

Worst dining experience we've had at WDW.

They do the Muppet name a big disservice!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

28 minutes ago, Travisma said:

Yes to both.  And we were not impressed with either.

Worst dining experience we've had at WDW.

They do the Muppet name a big disservice!

Wow, I can't wait to hear about it.

We went to rat pizza on Friday night, and had a nice time.  I thought it was a huge improvement over Pizza Planet.  I also didn't hate Jingle Bam.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

7 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Wow, I can't wait to hear about it.

We went to rat pizza on Friday night, and had a nice time.  I thought it was a huge improvement over Pizza Planet.  I also didn't hate Jingle Bam.

TCD

We were there about 5:30, and it took over a 1/2 hour to get our food, and it wasn't all that crowded.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

13 minutes ago, Travisma said:

We were there about 5:30, and it took over a 1/2 hour to get our food, and it wasn't all that crowded.

I just checked the time stamps on my photos, and we were there at 6:30.  It wasn't busy then either, and the food did take a while- but I've had much longer waits at quick serve restaurants. It wasn't anywhere near 1/2 hour for us.  They did seem to be a bit unorganized in the kitchen, so I can see where it could get bad.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

23 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I just checked the time stamps on my photos, and we were there at 6:30.  It wasn't busy then either, and the food did take a while- but I've had much longer waits at quick serve restaurants. It wasn't anywhere near 1/2 hour for us.  They did seem to be a bit unorganized in the kitchen, so I can see where it could get bad.

TCD

We were in there at least that long by the time we got our food.  We were sitting to the left of the lit stairs on the ground floor.  I wandered upstairs after we ate and snooped around a bit.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

9 minutes ago, Travisma said:

We were in there at least that long by the time we got our food.  We were sitting to the left of the lit stairs on the ground floor.  I wandered upstairs after we ate and snooped around a bit.

We went up those stairs and out on the balcony.  We figured if we were ever going to sit out there, it was the night to do it, since it was a cool evening.  We hung out there for a while- I think right up to the time we went and claimed spots for the Jingle Bam show.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

3 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

We went up those stairs and out on the balcony.  We figured if we were ever going to sit out there, it was the night to do it, since it was a cool evening.  We hung out there for a while- I think right up to the time we went and claimed spots for the Jingle Bam show.

TCD

Crazy, I went out on the balcony at the end closest to the Muppet 3D building and took a picture. 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

Crazy, I went out on the balcony at the end closest to the Muppet 3D building and took a picture. 

We were right along the railing at the other end- closest to that wedding banquet room.

TCD

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

I'm in! Sorry your experience wasn't great. 

[Beckers 1,136]

I'm in! 

[Travisma 1,317]

14 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

We were right along the railing at the other end- closest to that wedding banquet room.

TCD

I went to the banquet room, but the music wasn't playing.  The reviews I read said they had music and a small dance floor.

[Travisma 1,317]

Need to make a correction to our EPCOT visit. 

Don't know how I forgot to add this since I took quite a few pictures.

We left the American Pavilion and started heading towards Germany.  There is an alley next to America, and handlers were taking 5 characters down there. 

Pluto, Baloo, Rafiki, Launchpad McQuack, and Mickey.  We thought they were leaving the park, but they spread out and stopped in the alley for a meet and greet.

My wife and daughters posed with Rafiki and Launchpad, and I also got a picture of Mickey.

 

And Mr and Mrs Claus were set up over near the area where the restrooms are at the American Pavilion.

[Travisma 1,317]

So we are heading to HS (still no pictures) for a fun filled evening of Jingle Bells, Jingle BAM.  But wait, it’s still too early, so we start acting like tourists and stop every few feet to ooh and aah at the decorations.

 

We made it the area in front of Graumans, and there were already people hanging out at 5:00.  I don’t know if they were there for the 9:00 Jingle show or if something else was going on.

 

Now since my family knows my affinity with Muppets, my daughters start heading over towards Muppets 3D, but once we get there my one daughter says she’s hungry and let’s eat at Pizza Rizzo’s.

 

So in we go.  By now it’s about 5:30, and there is a slight crowd, but with the numerous lines open, we figure it won’t take long to get our food. 

 

WRONG. First, it took over 10 minutes to place our order, and this is with only 3 or 4 people ahead of us.  Yes they do those double lines, but I’ve been in other Disney places with the same setup and a lot more food choices, and it didn’t take ½ the time to order.

 

After placing our orders we are now in the cattle run lines.  These ones seemed to be even narrower than normal.  Of course, we had 2 or 3 entire families in line ahead of us which really crowded it up, and they all lined up at the counter blocking anyone else from getting their orders.  We even had people come out the incoming line because the families were blocking the exit lane.

 

So 20+ minutes later, I finally hear my number called.  We were getting a vegetable pizza, soda, and an antipasto salad.  Why it took so long I have no idea.  They had CMs putting soda on the trays, pushing them over to the CMs in front of the pizzas, and then they would take the tray and add salad, desserts, etc.  I go to grab my tray, and the antipasto salad isn’t there.  CM goes oops and heads over to get it.

 

On my way to the table I took a quick glance at the salad, and thought I was seeing things.  I get to the table and get a better look in the light.  All of the romaine is brown and wilted.  The few tomatoes are mushy looking, there were just a few mozzarella balls, and I can't even see the meat. It was really nasty looking, and I’m not a fussy eater. This is on a salad that they advertised tossed fresh! 

 

So I get up to take it back. My oldest daughter had the same thing, but she said hers didn’t look as bad. I get to the counter and a CM asks if I need help.  I show her the salad, and she said she would get another one.  While she’s gone a gentleman in a black button up shirt and a fancier nametag comes out of the back and asks why I was standing there.  I show him the salad, and he says oh, we’ve had a couple wilted ones get by us, let me go get you a fresh one.

While he’s gone my daughter comes walking up with hers.  She said she tried to eat it and it was disgusting and was going to see if she could exchange it for something else. So out comes the manager? with my fresh salad and I head out as my daughter show him her mess, and right behind her was another woman with the same bad salad.

 

Now, I will give them credit.  The replacement salad was great, had crispy romaine, lots of cheese balls, stacks of meat, and tons of olives.  But, I shouldn’t have had to take a bad salad back up to get a correctly made one.  By the time my daughter and I got back to the table my wife and other daughter were ½ way done with their meals.

 

As others have already reported, the pizza recipe was a carry-over from Pizza Planet, which isn’t a good thing.  I’ve had better $2 frozen pizzas.  The best thing you could say was it was slightly filling because of the dough, but not the toppings

 

Now the downstairs area had very little Muppet decorations.  The trash cans had some cute sayings with the Rizzo icon that is on the sign and the pizza boxes.  We did sit right next to a lighted staircase that was impressive.  After we ate, I went to look around upstairs.  The wedding ballroom didn’t have the music playing or the disco ball shining.  There were some interesting framed items on the wall that were covered in one of the blogs.  I wandered out of the balcony and that seemed really nice, but my wife’s knee was bothering her, so that’s why we stayed downstairs.  I did see an elevator, but by the time we got our food she was already settled in at our table.

 

So, I would give Pizza Rizzo and F minus for food, a D minus for service, and a C plus for ambiance.

 

Next up Fantasmic!

[Beckers 1,136]

That's so gross about the salads. You'd think they'd notice if while handing them out??

 

we never ate at pizza planet because everyone said it wasn't any good and it looks like we won't be eating here either. 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Now I understand why you are so down on the rat pizza place.  I think the whole staff there is new, and they are having some management and consistency issues.  As I already mentioned, we ate there at 6:30 pm the same night you were there, and had no issues with the service or food.  We just had meatball subs, which are hard to mess up.  The remarkable thing is that this was a busy Friday night at the park, and only about 10% of the tables in the restaurant were occupied.  They may have a genuine flop on their hands here.  They should have upped their food game.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

As I was in the line waiting for food, I saw a huge stack of pizzas on the shelf where they were pulling from, but still the wait was crazy.  

They brought a tray of 6 pizzas over towards my line and called out the number.  It was still sitting there when I finally got my food.  Turns out, the person that ordered it was in the line 2 registers over and the CM wasn't calling out the # loud enough for them to hear it.

It was just a fiasco.  I wrote to the Disney dining email address,. haven't heard back yet. 

[YJeepgirl32 3]

That stinks. I was hoping this place would be better as my DH is a fan of the muppets. Loving your review. 

[Travisma 1,317]

19 minutes ago, YJeepgirl32 said:

That stinks. I was hoping this place would be better as my DH is a fan of the muppets. Loving your review. 

Skip the food and just head right upstairs.  That is where the majority of Muppet items are located.  There is an outdoor stairway to the balcony so you don't even need to go into the bottom floor.

[YJeepgirl32 3]

Thank you for the tip. Travisma