It is completely embarassing. I am an ADR failure. I feel like a Disney failure. But I will confess to you guys. Let you read about my terribleness. It's not even going to teach a lesson because I'm sure none of you would ever make this mistake. Time for my Disney walk of shame......
I made our New Year's Eve dinner reservations at.... Todd English's bluezoo.
So, we drove to the Dolphin. Dad took advantage of "free valet with meal."
I had walked by it before. It looked cool. I read a great review by Mike Scopa in a recent AllEarsNet newsletter. I was excited about this ADR. I knew it was a signature restaurant, which has a "dress code." However, I had eaten at a couple of signature restaurants before (Artist Point, Yachtsman Steakhouse) and they weren't very dressy. Nice jeans and a cardigan were totally acceptable. I figured that alot of people would be headed to the parks afterwards and wouldn't be that dressed up.
Boy, was I wrong.....
PEOPLE WERE IN COCKTAIL ATTIRE!!!
And we were in jeans and sweaters. And Sperry topsiders!!! Boy, did we feel out of place. Did we look... poor... or just stupid?
The menu was an even greater shock. Here it goes... my big blunder... I FORGOT TO LOOK AT THE MENU BEFOREHAND!!!
I believe the cheapest entree was $30. Now, this wouldn't have been quite as bad if we hadn't just gotten off a 9-day cruise where we could get all the seafood we wanted. And this restaurant (I can't even stand to type the name!) was charging $65 for lobster. Yeah, we weren't really feeling it.
So, our waitress came over and gave us this 15-minute expo on all of the seafood. She wouldn't shut up. To make matters worse, I had a really bad cough, and I was trying to muffle it in my napkin. Oh, this was terrible.
She took our drink orders...... we all went with water.
After she finally left, Dad asked us what we were getting. Nothing on the menu even looked appealing to me. We kept asking eachother if we should walk. I felt so bad. I didn't want my dad to have to pay $200 for dinner!!! Finally, we decided to make a run for it. I tried to pretend like I was invisible. It was so embarassing, but I was so glad to get out of that stuffy place. The lighting was pretty, but on the floor it just felt stuffy. The table behind us had all ordered the lobster. IMO, this is the place that you go when you want to show off in front of other people. That's what it felt like that night. I do think that people might have been more dressed up for New Year's Eve. Even if we had dressed up for the signature restaurant, we would not have been in cocktail attire. I might've been in a knit dress or a high-waisted skirt. Cocktail dress didn't even cross my mind.
Now... we still had the car to worry about. I remembered that there was a sushi restaurant at the Swan, and we went over to check that out. The prices were actually very reasonable. It was less expensive than the sushi we had at Yakatori House the previous day. However, it was crowded and we didn't get any attention, so we decided to just go on.
Rachel suggested that we go into Epcot and eat hotdogs in America. Perfect plan for poor people like us!
Dad wanted to move the car to Epcot, but I told him that he might as well get good use out of his $13 valet. I reminded him that it is cheaper than a day's parking at WDW ($14 a day is outrageous!!! I remember when it used to be $6... free parking is another great perk of being a resort guest!).
No comments:
Post a Comment