Disney_Barbie
09-05-2007, 10:14 AM
I want to start by asking if anyone as any recommendations on how I go about contacting Disney about my experience. I was considering stopping by guest relations while on vacation, but I don’t vocalize myself well, I do a lot better in writing and would much prefer sending them a fax/email/letter. I was looking around on both Disneyworld.com & on the info central tab but couldn’t find anything in particular, should I just send it to Disney in general, or is there some specific address/fax number ect that I should use??? Please let me know if anyone has any ideas – thanks!
That being said, I have been a HUGE defender of Mama Melrose on these boards & I would like to retract my defense! First of all they changed the Fantasmic Dinner Package (note to moderator: I noticed it’s still listed the old way on info central, we ate there on 9/3/07 and it is no longer choice of selected flat bread to share, family style salad, entrée and tiramisu. It is now off the regular menu and it is appetizer, entrée & dessert) Which was stinky, I really liked the old way they did the dinner package, but baring that the food was good, it wouldn’t have been a problem. The last time we ate there was just about a year ago, and as usual everything was splendid! In fact, just before our trip my DH asked me what I was most looking forward to, and I said Mama Melrose, but after this I will never eat there again.
Alex was our server… if you can call him that. We were servers ourselves for many years and are kind, patient, understanding, and always leave a 25% tip because we know what it is like. However, we had very little pity for him. When we asked questions about different menu things he didn’t know the answer & didn’t offer to find out for us. Everything took forever (and we consider ourselves patient people, but this crossed the line! A table across the way from us sat down after us and had their entrée in front of them before we had our appetizers & we were ready to give our full order the first time Alex came to our table). Then, he seemed unconcerned by the fact that neither of us hardly touched our food. Literally, I got the eggplant napoleon, and didn’t even eat a full eggplant cutlet. Alex never asked how it was, or if everything was ok (especially when someone hasn’t touched their meal, it’s a server rule of thumb to double or triple check with them that the food itself wasn’t the reason for their loss of appetite) but he seemed unconcerned, when he came back and our entire entrée was hardly touched, sitting at the end of the table, he just asked what we wanted for dessert.
And worst of all the food : I had a Brushetta appetizer that actually wasn’t too bad, defiantly the highlight of the meal. DH on the other hand had a salad that tasted like it was prepared (and dressing was put on it) a week ago! It was wilted and soggy. He hardly touched it. Then the entrees came. I (as mentioned before) got Eggplant Napoleon, and one would have been hard-pressed to find any eggplant amongst the grease patties that were served. Not only where they disgustingly greasy, but it was that old grease taste too (like a 24hr highway side diner) I attempted to pick off the fried greasy part but there was no differentiating the grease/batter from the eggplant. My husband had the four cheese flat bread, because we SO adored our appetizer flatbread that we had always gotten with the old dinner package. But this flatbread tasted like microwave pizza! And of the 4cheese (Gorgonzola being one of the four) the Gorgonzola flavor was not well blended amongst the other cheeses for a nice kick as usual. Instead it tasted like straight Gorgonzola, the flavor was so pungent the smell of it alone turned your stomach. He had one bite and couldn’t stand it. He tried then picking the cheese off, but then the ‘microwave pizza’ taste was even more realistic so he gave up and hoped that he would be able to enjoy dessert. But dessert was soggy and flavorless too! (once again, tasted like it was prepared and plated SEVERAL days ago) I wonder if with the free dining they just can’t keep up during normal serving hours and are doing too much prep work in advance, because that was the best way to describe most of it, it tasted like leftovers reheated in the microwave.
And to top the evening off, we both got horribly sick. We’re not 100% sure of what caused it, but we actually determined that it was the water. We determined this because neither of us ate more than about 2 bites of each course, and neither of us shared any of the same items, but we both got sick. And admittedly, the water had a very gross flavor to it, granted all Florida water has a sulfur taste to it, but it was more than just that, it was a particularly bad flavor. But it was so hot outside that we came in and both downed our water despite the taste. We left the restaurant and walked down to Tower of Terror, and before we got there DH said he had weird stomach cramps and that he was going to run to the bathroom. I said I would wait for him right there, but a couple seconds later, I got the same feeling as he did and I had to make a run for it too! We both threw up and had wicked diarrhea.
Long story short, that was our LAST experience at Mama Melrose. I think it was especially disappointing to us, because it’s one thing to try something new and not enjoy it. But to go back to something that you’ve enjoyed many times over again and see it all of a sudden take a giant step down in a matter of 1year can be VERY disappointing. We were very glad that we had so many positive dinning experiences to weigh out this VERY bad one. But you can be sure, we will not eat, or recommend Mama Melrose ever again. And since I had defended it so often on these boards, I wanted to set the record straight that they’ve had a major downslide!
And yes if anyone has any recommendations on who in particular I should inform about my bad experience please let me know. I don’t want anything, I just want to let someone know about the serious decline the restaurant has experienced in the past year.
That being said, I have been a HUGE defender of Mama Melrose on these boards & I would like to retract my defense! First of all they changed the Fantasmic Dinner Package (note to moderator: I noticed it’s still listed the old way on info central, we ate there on 9/3/07 and it is no longer choice of selected flat bread to share, family style salad, entrée and tiramisu. It is now off the regular menu and it is appetizer, entrée & dessert) Which was stinky, I really liked the old way they did the dinner package, but baring that the food was good, it wouldn’t have been a problem. The last time we ate there was just about a year ago, and as usual everything was splendid! In fact, just before our trip my DH asked me what I was most looking forward to, and I said Mama Melrose, but after this I will never eat there again.
Alex was our server… if you can call him that. We were servers ourselves for many years and are kind, patient, understanding, and always leave a 25% tip because we know what it is like. However, we had very little pity for him. When we asked questions about different menu things he didn’t know the answer & didn’t offer to find out for us. Everything took forever (and we consider ourselves patient people, but this crossed the line! A table across the way from us sat down after us and had their entrée in front of them before we had our appetizers & we were ready to give our full order the first time Alex came to our table). Then, he seemed unconcerned by the fact that neither of us hardly touched our food. Literally, I got the eggplant napoleon, and didn’t even eat a full eggplant cutlet. Alex never asked how it was, or if everything was ok (especially when someone hasn’t touched their meal, it’s a server rule of thumb to double or triple check with them that the food itself wasn’t the reason for their loss of appetite) but he seemed unconcerned, when he came back and our entire entrée was hardly touched, sitting at the end of the table, he just asked what we wanted for dessert.
And worst of all the food : I had a Brushetta appetizer that actually wasn’t too bad, defiantly the highlight of the meal. DH on the other hand had a salad that tasted like it was prepared (and dressing was put on it) a week ago! It was wilted and soggy. He hardly touched it. Then the entrees came. I (as mentioned before) got Eggplant Napoleon, and one would have been hard-pressed to find any eggplant amongst the grease patties that were served. Not only where they disgustingly greasy, but it was that old grease taste too (like a 24hr highway side diner) I attempted to pick off the fried greasy part but there was no differentiating the grease/batter from the eggplant. My husband had the four cheese flat bread, because we SO adored our appetizer flatbread that we had always gotten with the old dinner package. But this flatbread tasted like microwave pizza! And of the 4cheese (Gorgonzola being one of the four) the Gorgonzola flavor was not well blended amongst the other cheeses for a nice kick as usual. Instead it tasted like straight Gorgonzola, the flavor was so pungent the smell of it alone turned your stomach. He had one bite and couldn’t stand it. He tried then picking the cheese off, but then the ‘microwave pizza’ taste was even more realistic so he gave up and hoped that he would be able to enjoy dessert. But dessert was soggy and flavorless too! (once again, tasted like it was prepared and plated SEVERAL days ago) I wonder if with the free dining they just can’t keep up during normal serving hours and are doing too much prep work in advance, because that was the best way to describe most of it, it tasted like leftovers reheated in the microwave.
And to top the evening off, we both got horribly sick. We’re not 100% sure of what caused it, but we actually determined that it was the water. We determined this because neither of us ate more than about 2 bites of each course, and neither of us shared any of the same items, but we both got sick. And admittedly, the water had a very gross flavor to it, granted all Florida water has a sulfur taste to it, but it was more than just that, it was a particularly bad flavor. But it was so hot outside that we came in and both downed our water despite the taste. We left the restaurant and walked down to Tower of Terror, and before we got there DH said he had weird stomach cramps and that he was going to run to the bathroom. I said I would wait for him right there, but a couple seconds later, I got the same feeling as he did and I had to make a run for it too! We both threw up and had wicked diarrhea.
Long story short, that was our LAST experience at Mama Melrose. I think it was especially disappointing to us, because it’s one thing to try something new and not enjoy it. But to go back to something that you’ve enjoyed many times over again and see it all of a sudden take a giant step down in a matter of 1year can be VERY disappointing. We were very glad that we had so many positive dinning experiences to weigh out this VERY bad one. But you can be sure, we will not eat, or recommend Mama Melrose ever again. And since I had defended it so often on these boards, I wanted to set the record straight that they’ve had a major downslide!
And yes if anyone has any recommendations on who in particular I should inform about my bad experience please let me know. I don’t want anything, I just want to let someone know about the serious decline the restaurant has experienced in the past year.