I will admit, up front that I am a Disney-phile...yet, I know I pale in comparison to many. Believe me, if we had the funds, I would struggle deeply with the tug of a yearly vacation to Disney-Mecca versus spending travel funds in a more edifying way such as mission trips and supporting organizations like we did with The Simple Way. It is difficult to be altruistic when it comes to my Disney addiction. I'm hoping the thirst was quenched for a few years now and I can get back to funding great organizations doing Kingdom work if we have opportunity to travel again in the foreseeable future.
Don't get me wrong, Disney is magical and I delighted in every minute of it...almost. In an effort to give our third child an opportunity to have experiences different from her siblings, we tried new things like Sea World and hanging out at Cocoa Beach for a day (post to follow soon). One of those attempts on my part resulted in a scheduled character breakfast at 'Ohana in the Polynesian Resort. I thought dining with Lilo and Stitch would be a blast. They are very cute and star in one of our favorite Disney movies. But I'm uncertain that the total character encounter (which included visits from Mickey and Pluto too) of about 10 minutes accumulated was worth the $25 per person price tag. Yes, you read that right.
That's the other thing about Disney that has always disgruntled me...at 10 years old, you begin paying adult prices for children. Now, I could concede on the parks that a 10 year old would ride just as many rides as an adult. But none of my 10-15 year old children (including my son) could ever eat as much as an adult. And to be honest, I don't eat $25 worth of breakfast either.
In the past, we have enjoyed the Crystal Palace breakfast in Magic Kingdom with Winnie the Pooh characters and the buffet meal has been delicious and well worth the price. The family style Princess breakfast at Cinderella's castle and the Belle Princess buffet breakfast at Akershus in Norway at EPCOT may have been comparable in price (although we were paying child prices for our kids at the time), but there were many more characters and the food was far superior to 'Ohana. Bacon, sausage, eggs, very small biscuits, small Mickey Mouse shaped waffles, juice, fruit and roasted potatoes are not something I would normally pay this price for. I know the buffets mentioned above also include multiple bread choices and omelet bars cooked to order.
You don't know how it pains me to give a negative review to something Disney. But considering the "magic" was probably lessened considerably for a 13 year old and the food just wasn't on par with what I've come to expect from Disney, I would want others to know that going in. If you have a child that is a die-hard Lilo and Stitch fan, this might be just what you family would enjoy or if you have a dining plan option that includes character meals for the same price, I could see where this would be a fun diversion from the hustle and bustle of eating in one of the parks. But for this situation, when the cash had to come out of my pocket (instead of the new handy-dandy wrist bracelets Disney is using for resort guests), I'll confess...it hurt a little to hand over the greenbacks.
It was still a fun experience though because of the characters and the company and the reason why we were there...to celebrate Rebekah. Next time, I know though to do a little more research and to stick with some of our tried and true dining options.
No comments:
Post a Comment