I just went in August and was extremely impressed.
Due to cost, I decided not to bring our whole group so just my brother, my niece, and I went. We got there very early. There were Photopass photographers outside the front entrance taking pictures. We were there very, very early and no one was there yet so I asked for a small photoshoot and we got some great photos. Later on, we wandered back to the entrance and I asked for a 2nd round of photos and they gladly obliged. My brother an I were so very impressed how many PP photographers there were around all night. So many times they were standing around with nothing to do so I would ask for certain types of shots. I have some cute pics of me with a Mickey bar and my niece eating a popsicle. We had Memory Maker and I took full advantage of that.
I thought the food was very good and the ribs were the best we had in WDW that trip (we had ribs at a couple of other TS places too, including Whispering Canyon Cafe). The burgers were as dreadful as Josh reported though lol. Still, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal and my brother and I practically ate our money's worth in ribs. It was basic BBQ food so if you like that, you'll like this. Not signature food - but comparable to HDDR and WCC. We also had some beers and sangrias. I was glad I managed to grab a Mickey bar. I wish I had had more time/stomach to eat more ice cream lol.
My one "complaint"? There was entertainment going on all the time - hard to find time to eat haha! The entertainment started shortly after everyone was seated and they kept it going continuously until the end. The characters came out to dance 3, maybe 4 times. In between, they had traditional meet & greet lines while there was busker-style entertainment going on in the middle (all the kids would go and sit on the ground to watch). My niece was 3 and it was by far the absolute best character interaction for her. She's obsessed with Mickey so we also did Garden Grill (awesome) and traditional meet & greets in the parks about 3 times. She was beyond thrilled to be able to dance with Mickey and interact with him multiple times over the course of the night.
We were on
DDP so had to do Cat 2. I don't think Cat 1 was really necessary - if you're willing to time yourself for the traditional meet & greet lines. We learned to move quickly over to each line immediately after the characters left the dance floor. With this strategy, we were among the first in the meet & greet lines.
Also, we hung around until the very, very end (still shoving more food in haha!). Mickey & Minnie finished the line a little early and ended up moving together to the middle of the dance floor to take care of photos with the last few stragglers. So we got a rare opportunity for a last shot with BOTH Mickey & Minnie. Sooo awesome!
Some caveats:
- not so good for shy kids. It is a bit of a scrum to dance with the characters. If your kid is painfully shy and will only watch from the sidelines, this would not be the best setup even though the characters do their best and will sometimes purposely pick out shyer kids.
- not so good for older kids. It does skew younger to the preschooler set and unless you have very confident kids, it can be a little awkward. By the time I was prepared to try this, my kids were too old. And I'm glad I didn't bring them anyway. The bulk of the fun was watching my 3 year old niece.
- it's a hokey country bbq with plenty of country music and "wedding-type" songs. If you don't like that, you won't like this.
After so many negative reviews on the Dis, I am so glad I listened to other more positive reviews and did this. Still, 2 TS credits is a lot. The rest of our group would also have had fun here - but at the end of the day, it was the right choice for us to save those other TS credits for other meals.
