How is the food at Play and dine at hollywood and vine?

[danielephant]

We ate there our first trip in 2011 and the food was seriously worse than Ryans buffet. My daughter was almost 3 at the time and my son was 9 months so they LOVED the characters and that made up for it to me, but we didn't eat there our 2nd trip the next year. So fast forward 5 years....has the food improved? if

I will have an almost 4 year old who loves doc and sofia, and a 6 year old with autism who loves the shows and their older sister will be almost 9 and she still watches sofia as well.

I know they have a character station by the Disney junior show as well. can someone tell me who is in the show. We just started planning our trip in January and had to cancel our last year trip since my husband got injured at work. Play and dine wasn't on that trip either. But I'm starting to get all mushy thinking this may be the last time my kids will care about Disney junior on a trip to Disney.

 

[KateP85]

The Disney Junior show features puppets, rather than actual characters. They have Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins & the characters from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Outside the theatre you can meet some of the actual characters; I believe Minnie, Sofia, and Jake.

As for Play and Dine, the only place I've found worse than there was Chef Mickeys. I thought the food was awful, we barely ate BUT my son did love it (he'd just turned 3 at the time). He especially loved being able to dance to the Hot Dog song - I'll never understand why the Disney Junior show doesn't have that.

 

[MarBee]

I found the Disney Jr. Breakfast to be fine at H&V. It was typical breakfast buffet stuff with some extra dishes.
We stuck with scrambled eggs, bacon, bagel, and fruit. Was it gourmet cuisine? Not at all, but it was fine and totally worth it for the character interactions.

 

[danielephant]

thanks yeah I have chef mickeys on the list for this time as well. :/

The last time were were there they had some characters outside of the disney jr show...do they not do that anymore?

 

[ELSA711]

We are trying H&V for the Minnie's Holiday Dine w/Fantasmic. Hoping to see the characters in their holiday best and get decent dinner.
I am waiting to hear reviews as well or I may go back to Mama Melrose for my Fantasmic seating.

 

[MarBee]

We are trying H&V for the Minnie's Holiday Dine w/Fantasmic. Hoping to see the characters in their holiday best and get decent dinner.
I am waiting to hear reviews as well or I may go back to Mama Melrose for my Fantasmic seating.

I've actually done Minnie's Holiday Dine with Fantasmic twice. Again, the food was typical American buffet fare. It has some good items (turkey, pretzel rolls, fresh salad, green beans to think of some off hand) and some that were not so hot (mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese). Again, it was not gourmet, but I liked it overall, but we like character meals in general.
I've done Mama Melrose with Fantasmic previously. The food at MM is definitely better, but the character meal has us going back to H&V every time.

 

[DWFamilyof6]

We did H&V Fantasmic Package for lunch end of May. We had to wait about 40 minutes to get in and over an hour to get all the Characters to get around us. Then Doc still skipped us and we had to wait at the entrance as we left to meet her. They CMs were very nice in accommodating us to meet her before leaving but it would have been much better had they been more careful not to skip anyone. With all that being said, my kids who are 4, 4, 6 and 7 absolutely loved the food, the ice cream, the singing, dancing and the Character interaction. We did not do the Disney Jr show so this was our "Disney Jr" stop. Husband and I did enjoyed our lunch but did not go in expecting to be wowed by the food. The Fantasmic tix were our main reason for going but the kids probably enjoyed this Character meal the most compared to any others. We would consider going to the Minnie Holiday Dine on our next trip but it would not be another must do experience.

 

[KateP85]

thanks yeah I have chef mickeys on the list for this time as well. :/

The last time were were there they had some characters outside of the disney jr show...do they not do that anymore?

I know plenty of people like Chef Mickeys, it's just not for me. I'm not much of a buffet person in general though.

As far as I know there are no other characters outside the Disney Junior show, just the three I mentioned (Minnie, Sofia & Jake).

 

[KatieMO]

We are trying H&V for the Minnie's Holiday Dine w/Fantasmic. Hoping to see the characters in their holiday best and get decent dinner.
I am waiting to hear reviews as well or I may go back to Mama Melrose for my Fantasmic seating.

I am also doing H &V for Minnies Holiday and Dine in Nov. 16th but it never popped up that the fantasmic option was avail which had me kind of confused casue that was a major reason for doign that dinner !?!?!?! Does it actually tell you that it is fantasmic on the reservation you have?

 

[ELSA711]

I am also doing H &V for Minnies Holiday and Dine in Nov. 16th but it never popped up that the fantasmic option was avail which had me kind of confused casue that was a major reason for doign that dinner !?!?!?! Does it actually tell you that it is fantasmic on the reservation you have?

I booked it through the Fantasmic option on the website where it makes you choose your restaurant.
Just filter the dining options to only HS, then you'll see Fantasmic Package is a separate option

 

[AngiTN]

I know plenty of people like Chef Mickeys, it's just not for me. I'm not much of a buffet person in general though.

As far as I know there are no other characters outside the Disney Junior show, just the three I mentioned (Minnie, Sofia & Jake).

Minnie is not outside Dis Jr. Doc McStuffins is, along with Jake and Sofia.
Matter of fact, there isn't any reason to go to H&V just to meet characters. Pretty sure everyone there is outside the meal, and in much cuter settings

 

[KateP85]

Minnie is not outside Dis Jr. Doc McStuffins is, along with Jake and Sofia.
Matter of fact, there isn't any reason to go to H&V just to meet characters. Pretty sure everyone there is outside the meal, and in much cuter settings

Really? Minnie was there a couple of months ago, I didn't know she'd moved. She was in a pink dress, it was cute.

 

[AngiTN]

Really? Minnie was there a couple of months ago, I didn't know she'd moved. She was in a pink dress, it was cute.

If she was it's not scheduled. She's been in with Mickey in her starlet costume. She may have been out as a replacement if one of the regulars was missing for some reason

 

[Miskey]

Minnie is not outside Dis Jr. Doc McStuffins is, along with Jake and Sofia.
Matter of fact, there isn't any reason to go to H&V just to meet characters. Pretty sure everyone there is outside the meal, and in much cuter settings

In December, the exception was Handy Manny, who was only at the meal

OP, I brought my niece for a quick birthday trip in December. The meals were completely planned around what she wanted, and Hollywood & Vine wound up on the list not just once, but twice in the same day. We had an early lunch, then dinner that night for Minnie's Holiday Dine. After reading so many negative posts, I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe I just hit a really good day, but we liked both meals, and wouldn't hesitate to eat there again. The buffet had plenty of different options, which were all hot and fresh, and the dessert selection was very good

 

[plbreeze]

I thought the food was on par with Crystal Palace but not as good as Tusker House but better then Chef Mickeys. Tusker House was some of my favorite food all trip. None of the buffets were bad just some better then others.

 

[Marthasor]

The food is pretty bad, but, if your goal is to have a relaxing, easy way to meet the Disney Jr. characters, it's the way to go. My DS also has ASD and we've done the H&V breakfast twice, plus lunch once. He absolutely loved the character interaction. I would suggest booking an early breakfast (pre-park opening is nice!) when the restaurant won't be too crowded. Early in the morning, it's clean, no crowds, fairly quiet other than the music and dancing.

 

[Chrelaine]

We did breakfast last year and found the food to be just fine. Pretty typical breakfast food. We had good service and enjoyed the experience very much. It was DH's fave character breakfast over Tusker House and Akershus.

 

[Tucker24]

We went for either dinner or lunch for the Disney Junior Characters. We saw Sophia, Doc, Jake, and Handy Mandy. We waited probably 40 minutes just to realize they had "forgotten" about us. Even though we asked a couple of times once we saw people getting seated before us. The food was pretty terrible. The kids didn't seem to mind a few of the buffet choices but hubby and myself ate enough desserts to get our money's worth. The kids really liked the character interaction and it wasn't as crazy as Chef Mickey's.
As far as the clubhouse show it's a puppet show up on a stage. The audience moves into a giant room and sits on the floor. Kids usually join in on some of the fun but just be aware that you are sitting on a hard floor

 

[crystaldawn]

We had an overall good experience this last time at our breakfast at Hollywood and vine. It was pretty slow (prepark opening adr) and tables on both sides of us were empty so the characters took lots of time with our kids (two families.... 11 of us total). We had Doc, Jake, Sophia and Handy Manny. We have older kids but specifically did this breakfast for our two preschool boys and all of the kids enjoyed it. The food was typical breakfast food. Plenty of selections and food was plentiful and warm. Oh and our waiter was awesome.

This is probably our last year doing the puppet show as our kids are outgrowing it. They are definitely not as impressed at this show as at others with "real characters" However, when we walked out Minnie was meeting outside the exit and my littles were excited about seeing her.