diz_girl
05-14-2012, 02:15 PM
OK. For those who complain how pricey TS and character meals are, here's one for you.
The cast: Me, DH, DS4, DS1, SIL, BIL and MIL.
My BIL picked the restaurant, which was at the track (Monmouth Park Racetrack). When he's up visiting from Texas, he's at the track every day it's open, so it's no surprise that's what he's pick. Anyway, we eat there normally once a summer, and the food is decent and reasonably priced given the location. BIL said that there was a new owner of the track and they brought in a new restaurant vendor.
We'll, after traveling 2+ hours to get there (and packing for two kids for a day trip), since we now live in MD, we sit down and look at the menu. You could choose from about four different appetizers (like shrimp cocktail) and maybe six entrees (including French Toast). While perusing the menu, I finally saw at the bottom in tiny letters a price of $45, excluding tax and tip. Also, only until after the bill came did I find out that beverages were not included and cost $3 each. So if you had a soda and coffee, that's an extra $6 on top of the $45, so that's $51 for lunch BEFORE tax and tip. I actually said out loud a couple of times, "Forty-five dollars? For this? Forty-five dollars?"
They - MIL, BIL and SIL - had already eaten before we got there, or else I would have left as soon as I saw the prices. It's normal at the track that you get the table for while, that's why they ate before us. I was about to ask my SIL to take my son to get a hot dog (which is what he'd asked for anyway), but DH asked if there was a children's menu, which there was and they could get chicken fingers, or scrambled eggs, or something else. Of course, it wasn't until later that I found out that they cost $14. So my four-year old got chicken fingers and milk (an extra $3 - so now we're up to $17) and we paid $14 (plus tax and tip) for scrambled eggs for my 1 year-old. I had a chicken sandwich and DH had the salmon over salad greens.
So normal convention is that BIL shouldn't pay because mother's day was also his birthday, so my (now) poor husband picked up the tab at a final cost of $355 (including a mandatory 20% tip for parties of 6 or more, which wound up to be a $60 tip) for five adults and two children for lunch. I will never eat there again.
We went to two character breakfasts ('Ohana and CP) in November, so I'll pay for something when I think that it's worth it. But this was ridiculous. This meal would have paid for both 'Ohana and CP combined when we were there (four adults and one child over 3 for our last WDW visit). I'm still angry and I probably will be for quite a while.
I actually dislike going out for Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. I'd rather wait a week and have a better meal that's not overpriced and not crowded. So instead, I'm in a car for 4-5 hours and we paid for a ridiculously overpriced meal that was good, but not worth the price. Happy friggin' Mother's Day. They most enjoyment that I got out of the day was spending time with my boys and I could have done that at home. My mother and father actually visited us on Saturday and we had hot dogs and burgers on the grill at home. Both Mom and I were cool with that.
I'm not being unreasonable, am I?
The cast: Me, DH, DS4, DS1, SIL, BIL and MIL.
My BIL picked the restaurant, which was at the track (Monmouth Park Racetrack). When he's up visiting from Texas, he's at the track every day it's open, so it's no surprise that's what he's pick. Anyway, we eat there normally once a summer, and the food is decent and reasonably priced given the location. BIL said that there was a new owner of the track and they brought in a new restaurant vendor.
We'll, after traveling 2+ hours to get there (and packing for two kids for a day trip), since we now live in MD, we sit down and look at the menu. You could choose from about four different appetizers (like shrimp cocktail) and maybe six entrees (including French Toast). While perusing the menu, I finally saw at the bottom in tiny letters a price of $45, excluding tax and tip. Also, only until after the bill came did I find out that beverages were not included and cost $3 each. So if you had a soda and coffee, that's an extra $6 on top of the $45, so that's $51 for lunch BEFORE tax and tip. I actually said out loud a couple of times, "Forty-five dollars? For this? Forty-five dollars?"
They - MIL, BIL and SIL - had already eaten before we got there, or else I would have left as soon as I saw the prices. It's normal at the track that you get the table for while, that's why they ate before us. I was about to ask my SIL to take my son to get a hot dog (which is what he'd asked for anyway), but DH asked if there was a children's menu, which there was and they could get chicken fingers, or scrambled eggs, or something else. Of course, it wasn't until later that I found out that they cost $14. So my four-year old got chicken fingers and milk (an extra $3 - so now we're up to $17) and we paid $14 (plus tax and tip) for scrambled eggs for my 1 year-old. I had a chicken sandwich and DH had the salmon over salad greens.
So normal convention is that BIL shouldn't pay because mother's day was also his birthday, so my (now) poor husband picked up the tab at a final cost of $355 (including a mandatory 20% tip for parties of 6 or more, which wound up to be a $60 tip) for five adults and two children for lunch. I will never eat there again.
We went to two character breakfasts ('Ohana and CP) in November, so I'll pay for something when I think that it's worth it. But this was ridiculous. This meal would have paid for both 'Ohana and CP combined when we were there (four adults and one child over 3 for our last WDW visit). I'm still angry and I probably will be for quite a while.
I actually dislike going out for Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. I'd rather wait a week and have a better meal that's not overpriced and not crowded. So instead, I'm in a car for 4-5 hours and we paid for a ridiculously overpriced meal that was good, but not worth the price. Happy friggin' Mother's Day. They most enjoyment that I got out of the day was spending time with my boys and I could have done that at home. My mother and father actually visited us on Saturday and we had hot dogs and burgers on the grill at home. Both Mom and I were cool with that.
I'm not being unreasonable, am I?