Dreaming of a Disney spring break! THIS SECTION COMPLETED About This Page:

[nalexander]

Sorry to hear about the bad service. I hope the food was good.

[ilovedisney247]

I'm actually wondering if the poor service stems from a whole lot of lousy tippers. When the economy is suffering people tend to tip less than they might otherwise. Just the other night I had two gentleman at the bar--one asked the other if he left a good tip, he said, of course I did. I'm not sure when 12% became a good tip, but you can get pretty burned out on superior service if you aren't being rewarded for it and you don't necessarily love your job. (I love my job)

[mcc0313]

Loved the photopass pictures, the one of you and Mark kissing with Wendy showing her thoughts on the kiss...priceless

Glad that you got to visit with Bob & Larry for a bit before splitting up for dinner. Sorry that the service at dinner was so terrible, it is always sad when the service can just ruin the meal, I hope the food made up for it somewhat.

[DopeyGirl]

Oh my-lanta . . . that has got to be the most hysterical thing I have seen in a long time.

. . . and I am fairly sure Mark was just giving Piglet the "Disney point" . . . yeah, that's what it was.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Alex'sMummy

I wonder if people will stop taking the standard DDP if the service is bad.... I know that Disney are offering a lot of free dining promo's but that's no excuse for poor service

I have also wondered for a while if the Dining Plans do contribute to this or perhaps Tables in Wonderland, as you're guaranteed the 18% tip. I don't know what it is, but I do hope by the time we head back out there again, they've resolved everything....

[chezp]

Originally Posted by LLaffinPlace

Sorry about the poor service. We had very good service at Via Napoli while y'all were being abused.

I of course was wishing that we could have had the whole crew together, but after I heard about your experience, I was definitely wishing that we had all eaten together--at Via Napoli!

I wish we could've all eaten there as well! It would've been so good to have spent more time with you and to have got much better service...

[chezp]

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

I'm actually wondering if the poor service stems from a whole lot of lousy tippers. When the economy is suffering people tend to tip less than they might otherwise. Just the other night I had two gentleman at the bar--one asked the other if he left a good tip, he said, of course I did. I'm not sure when 12% became a good tip, but you can get pretty burned out on superior service if you aren't being rewarded for it and you don't necessarily love your job. (I love my job)

That's true and a good point. I hadn't thought of that.

[chezp]

Friday 8 April – part eight: bad service, but how’s the food?

Anyway, enough of the bad stuff, because when it comes to the really important stuff – i.e the food – La Hacienda really delivers. For appetiser, I went for the Ensalata de la Hacienda, which was spinach salad, with queso fresco, tomatoes, pomegranate, pine nuts and avocado with a mustard vinaigrette dressing. I figured it was so unusual, I’d either love it or hate it.... fortunately I loved it! It was honestly one of the best salads I’ve ever had in my life.



Mark went for Botana, a sampler of Mexican favourites, chicken tostados, Chilorio sope (marinated pork) and cheese empanada.



I didn’t hear much from him about whether he liked it, but that could have something to do with the tequila flight we shared. I wasn’t sure about it, but Mark decided to go for it. We got three tequilas to try – Partida Blanco, Don Juan Reposado and Gran Centenario Anejo. When they were brought out, we did get a long explanation about them from the woman who served them, but to be honest, she had quite a thick accent and spoke quite fast, so we were still a bit mystified.



I quickly discovered that I don’t like tequila, any of them, : so Mark was left to pretty much drink all of them. He then spent much of the meal complaining he had a headache. Can’t think why...

Meanwhile, Wendy was having fun with her appetiser:



For the main course, Mark suggested we share Del Mar, which I was delighted about, as I’d seen it on the menu outside and it looked amazing, but I hadn’t realised that it was a sharing platter for a cool $50! It was a mixed grill, with mahi mahi, shrimps, scallops and vegetables, served with beans and fresh salsa. My goodness, did it look good when it arrived.



And I can tell you that it tasted just as good as well. The fish was cooked to absolute perfection and this is probably some of the best fish that I’ve tasted in Disney for a long time. I was very impressed with the food here. The prices are here, but you don’t mind when you’re getting such high quality dishes. It was just a great shame about the service we had, as that did mar our meal somewhat.

I think our bill came to just $5 more than the Cape May Cafe the night before and the food was just in a completely different league, plus we had the tequila sampler here. I think it says something for the poor value for money on offer at the Cape May Cafe these days.

La Hacienda de San Angel:

Appetiser 10 8½
Entree 9½ 9
Atmosphere 8½ 8½
Service 4 4
Value for money 8½ 8

Average score: 7.85

During the meal, I popped outside to send Bob and Larry a text to say that we wouldn’t be watching IllumiNations in here after all and would meet up with them to see it. When we finally emerged from our meal at 8.50pm, having sat down at 7.10pm I had a message to say that they were in Germany, opposite the caramel shop, so off we set. We couldn’t believe how many people were in Epcot. In Mexico, there were people sitting on the ground about six deep. It was insane! I appreciate that it was Extra Magic Hours night, but this started to bring it home to me how busy the parks were likely to be this trip.

We hustled over to Germany as quickly as we could to find Bob and Larry and they had staked out a pretty good spot. It was so good to see these happy faces!



And this one was happy from the tequila flight:



You can get an idea from some of the photos we took of IllumiNations of just how busy Epcot was.



We wandered slowly back to the Beach Club Villas, getting lots of night-time shots on the way.



Even at 9.20pm, it was still warm and no doubt tomorrow would bring more of the same....

The weather today was very hot and sunny, with temperatures in the high 80s.
The best thing today was the Segway tour.
The worst thing today was the service at La Hacienda.
The funniest thing today was Ben the troublemaker.
Today we tried dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel
And the result was the food there is absolutely superb.
The most magical moment today was seeing Bob and Larry, especially as one of them wasn’t expected.

Next: meeting the invisible princess

[emmalovesdisney]

Wow, I am glad the food was much better than the service! Your main course looked great!

And your photos of World Showcase after Illuminations are lovely, I know that last year after the fireworks were over it was late and we were keen to get back to the car so didn't take the time to admire how lovely it looks at night!

[Colexis Mom]

Glad the food made up for the disappointing service! great pics of IllumiNations!

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Sorry about the poor service but glad to hear the food delivered.

[Alex'sMummy]

Your spinach salad looked delicious Yum!!

[pamcarey]

Glad to hear that your food was great! That salad did look very interesting!

[lauriep]

I'm glad once the food arrived, the Hacienda experience improved. That salad looks delish!

[Wendyismyname]

This picture does not do your entree justice. It is really HUGE!!! Very well worth the money you paid.


I the cheese dip I had for the appetizer. I could have easily been satisfied with just that.

Maybe next time, Mark and I can have a tequila contest. I loved the glazed look in his eyes.