Originally Posted By ksargen Here's the link to the article on the Disneyland Blog - <a href="http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/04/dinner-with-ariel-and-her-princess-friends-coming-soon-to-ariels-grotto-at-disney-california-adventure-park/" target="_blank">http://disneyparks.disney.go.c...re-park/</a>. No more WOC dinners there - it'll be more Character dining for dinner. For all you princess lovers, I'm going to guess this is part of the plan for filing in while they work on the new Princess Fantasy Faire thing in DL. Makes me sad, personally, since I liked the WOC dinner at Ariel's best. *pout* It's also yet another bout of thinking of what started out as a FANTASTIC adult dining experience with Wolfgang Puck gone about as far into Disney Character fun as possible. *sigh* Hopefully, the food will still be good, and it'll be a decently priced dinner option for people with kids who want to see princesses...
Originally Posted By TP2000 My hunch is they are ramping down the WOC dinners here at Ariel's so they can ramp up a more upscale/spendier version at Carthay Circle Theater. Ariel's was the highest-cost dining option for WOC packages. Carthay will probably take that over, while the mid-level Trattoria and the entry-level picnic packs remain.
Originally Posted By ksargen I'm hoping. There are FAR too many people doing those packages to shift them all to the Trattoria. Maybe if they all ate picnic meals, but not in the restaurant. I also predict that the dinners at Carthay, whether WOC or not, will be at least $5 a head more expensive, period... With everything in BVS and Carsland seemingly just barely making it open in time, we'll have to wait and see how it goes. I can hardly imagine that they're going to open the restaurant that first week AND have it doing WOC... Then again, when they started the WOC dining, they'd just reopened the WCT, and it was... ahem, interesting, from what I've heard.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Ariel's was the highest-cost dining option for WOC packages. Carthay will probably take that over, while the mid-level Trattoria and the entry-level picnic packs remain. > I thought Ariel's and the Trattoria were within about a buck of each other, with the Trattoria actually the slightly higher one? Both just shy of $40 - considerably more than the picnic, but I didn't think a bad value (we got the Trattoria, and the food and service was quite good). I'm sure the Carthay will be more, though.
Originally Posted By ksargen Yes, you're right, and there's a reason why they're more than the picnics. The picnics aren't even half the food you get at dinner, and you're not getting a place to sit to eat it, either. *LOL* I did enjoy the one I got, though. I honestly wish they'd have a DESSERT option for WOC, and a DINNER option for Fantasmic. Yeah, I know, I can keep dreaming...
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< The picnics aren't even half the food you get at dinner, and you're not getting a place to sit to eat it, either. >>> Sure you do. There's plenty of open table space right where you pick them up.
Originally Posted By ksargen SuperDry - *LOL* Yes, but I mean you're not getting a sit down dining experience. You're getting a bag of food, and a "There ya go, enjoy!" Yes, you can park right there, but I also love that you can take it and eat it ANYWHERE. We actually walked from there to DL, ate dinner in the hub waiting to see if some folks met up with us, and marched back to line up. Yes, a little nuts, but that's what ya do if you're trying to do a meet up...
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: I've been wondering how it worked out for ducklings who ended up eating at Ariel's Grotto while the World of Color show was playing? I mean, did your food get wet and didn't YOU get wet while eating there? I know certain witches who wouldn't want to get wet while eating and watching a show like that. For some reason the witches from Oz seem to melt whenever they get wet. But us cauldron gals are from Morva and we never melt when we get wet. Anyway, if anybody knows what it's like, feel free to share!!
Originally Posted By ksargen WoM - they don't serve food on the patios after 7:30 or so, so no getting wet. Also no seeing the show, really. They stop serving dinner around 9-9:30, from what I remember, so no one coming in during / between shows, either. With doing character dining, it's going to likely stay the same as far as eating arrangements. The only way I see this changing is if they extend the park hours, and push the shows later.
Originally Posted By tashajilek I saw part of WOC while eating at Ariels Grotto, but i couldnt see any clear images. Im not really huge on the who WOC dinner only because we experienced a little problem. We made reservations and sometimes the restaurants are really backed up making it hard to finish our dinner and run to line up. I would have been upset if we didnt get the very last spot around the railing. Anyways, i dont care that they are removing the WOC option, just more princesses suck.
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle >>We made reservations and sometimes the restaurants are really backed up making it hard to finish our dinner and run to line up.<< Yes, we had the same problem the first time I saw the show. Ended up with a pretty dodgy spot - you could see most of it okay, but it wasn't a great view. We were at the restaurant before our time, but had quite a wait for an empty table. Then they even took forever to take our money in the end - they didn't seem to be experiencing any sense of urgency!
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 We enjoyed our WOC dinner (the food was very good) at Ariel's and were planning to go again sometime. Now that there will be Princess's wandering around, meh. Nothing against Princesses although they aren't really in our realm of interest, I just felt that the WOC dinner was fun in itself and PACKED and doesn't need the added distraction. Goofy's at dinner is a buffeteria where people and characters are up and about so to me the characters add an element of liveliness. I'm probably not making sense, but doubt we'll ever go back to Ariels's unless our grandson wants to go
Originally Posted By ksargen I hear all of that. We were lucky when we were there that we didn't experience the WOC "back up" problem. WCT, when they first started the WOC meals... wow, what a mess. Even the CM's were commenting on how crazy it got some nights. Making the switch for Princess dinner dining is not my thing. My 9 year old daughter no longer cares if we see princesses, and we've all agreed, unless the food is too good to pass up, we won't go. We'll see what happens if, as one someone has suggested, they do WOC dinners at the new Carthay restaurant. I'm not holding my breath for that. With that place being high end dining for both the public and Club 33 membership, it may be a really BAD idea to do WOC dinners in there, because, again, timing issues...
Originally Posted By tashajilek Are they going to be keeping the menu the same? or buffet? If the prices dont rise and the food is still decent then i guess it isnt a huge deal. When i think aboout how many character dining locations there is inside the parks at WDW i am a little suprised there hasnt been one added inside the DL parks. I guess it was time to add the first all day full time character dining location? At least they waited until another restaurant was built before the conversion.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< If the prices dont rise and the food is still decent then i guess it isnt a huge deal. >>> I would guess that the prices will go up. Why would they add the extra expense of princesses and not charge extra for it? Princesses don't work for nuthin'!
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>When i think aboout how many character dining locations there is inside the parks at WDW i am a little suprised there hasnt been one added inside the DL parks.<< DL has the birthday breakfast at the Plaza Inn with Minnie and company, and DCA had the princess dining before. I think part of it is the difference in demographic, where WDW guests are much more willing to have a sit-down meal in general. WDW also has far more dining choices (in terms of service style, type of food, etc), so it makes some sense that they would offer more of any single type of restaurant. They don't have as many scramble-style (Pizza Port, Rancho Del Zocalo) as DLR, but I think they win in every other category. >>Why would they add the extra expense of princesses and not charge extra for it? Princesses don't work for nuthin'!<< While they add the princesses, they also take away the WOC FPs, which was a huge selling point for a lot of guests. I don't remember if the prices changed when they started the WOC meals, but I suspect that would indicate what will happen when they revert to character dining.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Yes, the princesses use to be there for dinner, and went away when the whole world of color dining came about. We ate their two times with the princess dinner. We were celebrating my daughter's 5th birthday and they had the whole restaurant sing happy birthday to her. It was a lot of fun. The prices back then were something like $27-$28 per plate for adults, if I remember correctly. That's been 3 years now though. It'll probably be about the same as the WOC dining if I had to guess.
Originally Posted By tashajilek "DL has the birthday breakfast at the Plaza Inn with Minnie and company, and DCA had the princess dining before" Yes, there is that option which is good because characters can be avoided. I meant "fulltime" meaning all meals which DL doesnt offer and i guess they were missing that. On another note i cant believe i said aboout LOL. How Canadian of me!
