Can anyone describe what the “skillet” at the Whispering Canyon Cafe is? Are all the foods lumped together, i.e. salad and side dishes mixed with the meat courses?
Also, can you tell me how I would get to the Wilderness Lodge where this restaurant is located (assuming I have no car). Is it on the monorail system? Bus?
The Wilderness Lodge is one of the Disney hotels. When we took my MIL there for Mother’s Day lunch, we drove there. I don’t think it’s actually on Disney park property.
Don’t know about the skillet, thought.
We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge for a week last fall at Disney. It is absolutely on the Disney property.
It’s not on the monorail system, but you can use the buses. You can also use the boat system from the Magic Kingdom or the other resorts on Bay Lake/Seven Seas Lagoon (Contemporary, Polynesian, and Grand Floridian).
Anyway, we never ate at Whispering Canyon the whole week we were there, so I can’t help you on the skillet. (We did eat at Artist Point and Roaring Brook.)
To address your question, I just consulted my copy of the The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, (which I highly recommend).
My 2007 copy describes the skillets at Whispering Canyon Cafe as “all-you-can-eat skillets with cornbread, pork ribs, pulled pork, roast chicken, pork sausage, potatoes, baked beans, cole slaw, and corn on the cob.”
I said it wasn’t on park property, meaning you don’t have to drive onto the theme park property, pay $12 for parking, and catch the shuttle train to the entrance.
Where are you staying? As Disney vets, we usually take a cab to get resort to resort. Or we plan to go to the resort for dinner straight from the park we are at - we’d try to do Whispering Canyon Cafe on a Magic Kingdom day - then head back to a park for the evening. That keeps you from needing to transfer buses and spend an hour getting around.
Haven’t been there in years and didn’t have the skillet when we went. Food was Outback quality. Get a reservation, this place DOES book completely. That resort is beautiful.
The skillet at Whispering Canyon is pretty decent, but the restaurant is anything but quiet! (Don’t forget to ask for some ketchup, or a refill… 
)
Generally when we’ve gone it’s been 3-4 people sharing all the food on the skillet with everyone having their favorites. Mine include the smoked sausage, cornbread and baked beans. The ribs and corn on the cob are good. The chicken is well, chicken - sometimes good othertimes rubbery, but being a mashed potato girl - they are a bit forgetable. I think that’s most of what’s on the skillet.
If you’re looking for some other yummy food Ohana’s at the Polynesian is REALLY good!
As far as getting there, if you’re staying on property you can probably take a series of busses to get there. Good luck! Have fun!
We just got back from a week at Wilderness Lodge! Whispering Canyon was always packed, but we very much enjoyed our dinner there. We found the ribs, corn, shrimp, and pulled pork to be the best on the skillet, but everything was good.
Yep, you can get there either by boat from the Magic Kingdom (which I highly recommend for the speed) or by bus from the other parks. We sometimes used a taxi to get around when we were in a hurry.
It is NOT a quiet place. As stated above, be sure to ask for ketchup and crayons. My daughter loved competing in the wooden horse race and all of the other cazy stuff that goes on. Have fun!
I’m not sure I understand your point, then–do you have to do all of this for any of the other resort hotels?
Last fall, we thought that the food at Ohana was absolutely terrible. All of the meat was dried out and everything tasted like lighter fluid.
We mentioned this to another couple who has been going to Ohana for years, and they also thought that the quality of the food had gone way, way down.
YMMV.
Hmm…thanks for the info, I know it’s been a bit since we’ve been here.
As far as paying to park at some of the resorts, I know in the past we’ve just told them “We’re visiting the gift shop; We have reservations at the restaurant…” etc. Last time we went, some friends of ours actually just parked in the parking lot of one of the hotels and hopped on the busses with us :eek:
Isn’t the Contemporary inside the theme park?
No.
No. The Contemporary has its own parking lot with guest access and free parking. If you want to save $11, you can park there and use the walkway to walk to the Magic Kingdom. You can also park at Downtown Disney and take the bus to any hotel and from there to any of the theme parks. Or you can park in check-in parking at any of the hotels and take the bus from there to the theme parks or other resort areas.
None of the on-property Disney hotels charge for parking, nor do they charge for transit around the property. A big part of the reason we usually stay on-property is that we only have to park the car once. The Disney Dining Plan is the other big part.
Thanks for clearing that up. So, I was right when I said Wilderness Lodge is not on Disney theme park property, but I was wrong to imply other hotels were.
So, any or all of Disney hotels are accessible outside the theme park.
Yes. But they are all on Disney property – that is, they are all located within the Reedy Creek Improvement District, as are parts of I-4 and US 192, as well as the towns of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake. Celebration was de-annexed from the District when it was created, because Disney did not want their residents having a vote in District operations.
The RCID also has its own building codes, EMS, firefighters, and water processing plants, as well as a few airstrips and heliports. Disney also generates its own power, but they haven’t (yet?) built the nuclear power plant that their charter from the state permits.
Right, although several hotels around Epcot actually have a private side entrance which goes straight into the World Showcase. I believe it doesn’t open before World Showcase does, around 10:00 am.
These are the Swan and the Dolphin. They are on Disney property, but are actually operated by Starwood. They (and Shades of Green) are the only non-Disney hotels located on property but outside the Downtown Disney hotel zone.
They both connect to the International Gateway, which enters Epcot between France and the UK. They also provide boat service to/from Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and this is a nice alternative way to travel to Epcot from the Studios.
ETA: Heh, maybe I should start an Ask the Disney Freak thread.
Not just. The Yacht and Beach clubs (Ok, they’re actually more than Hotels there, bt still) are also easily walkable there.
