Defunct Dine with Elmo & Friends

[chickenking]

From the BGW website:

"Enjoy a delicious lunch or dinner buffet with Elmo & his Sesame Street® friends. Dining times vary. Note the time when selecting the date of your visit. Please arrive 15 minutes in advance to confirm your reservation.

Park admission and parking are not included but are required.

Adult $22.50
Child (Ages 3-9) $15.30
Children Under 3 $0.00

The all-you-care-to-eat buffet features chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pork loin with red onion marmalade, Annie Grogan’s stew, rotini with garlic olive oil sauce, BBQ chicken, macaroni & cheese, mozzarella sticks with marinara, green bean medley, tossed salad, rolls, Coca-Cola fountain drinks and assorted desserts.

Price for an adult reservation is $25 and $17 for children ages 3-9. Children under 3 years are free but do require a reservation. Pass members receive a 10 percent discount by logging into the pass member area of the Web site. Please arrive 15 minutes in advance to confirm your reservation.

*Prices and menu offerings are subject to change without notice.
Park admission and parking are not included but are required.
Cancellations: Dining reservations must be cancelled or rebooked a minimum of one day prior to the scheduled dine or total payment will be forfeited."

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Bit the bullet and reserved a lunch with Elmo & Friends. Turned out to be quite fun; especially for the kids. Here is the building and inside the room:

 

[Nora]

Thanks to your review, I may be interested. As long as they have Gluten Free options to enjoy.

I am glad you and Amy had a great time and the photos you took are fantastic. Thanks for writing up a review. I know there are plenty of parents out there reading this that will appreciate the time you took putting this together.

 

[xpert98]

Thank you, chickenking! This is an awesome review! I'm very seriously considering this now for a future trip. The one thing I haven't been able to do so far is rationalize the price.

If you don't mind, what are the logistics of the whole thing? Do they open the buffet before the characters do their shows? Do you have time to load up and sit down before everything begins? Are there gaps between the different characters' performances or is it pretty fluid?

If I'm going to take the plunge and do this, I want to do my due diligence in estimating whether or not my little one, who has a legendary short attention span, will want to bail on the whole thing about 20 minutes in. As a point of reference, Entwined keeps her attention for the whole show.

 

[Marie]

Great review. My kids loved this meal, I thought it was so worth it. The amount of character interaction you get is amazing. Cookie Monster was the star for sure!

 

[chickenking]

If you don't mind, what are the logistics of the whole thing? Do they open the buffet before the characters do their shows? Do you have time to load up and sit down before everything begins? Are there gaps between the different characters' performances or is it pretty fluid?

If I'm going to take the plunge and do this, I want to do my due diligence in estimating whether or not my little one, who has a legendary short attention span, will want to bail on the whole thing about 20 minutes in. As a point of reference, Entwined keeps her attention for the whole show.

OK, this is what I recall for logistics:
- Check in 15 minutes early at Castle O'Sullivan, you get your assigned table number.
- 10 minutes before official start time, the doors open.
- Go find your table, photo op with Abby on stage, take drink orders.
- The buffet was operating and available as soon as we walked in.
- About ten minutes in, the whole cast performs a short act on stage.
- Photo op with Big Bird & Elmo on stage, they call you up by table numbers.
- Most characters wander around the room, visiting your table. Be ready for pictures!!
- Then about every ten minutes or so there are more short performances on stage: Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert & Ernie, whole cast again.
- The buffet is open the entire time. Eat at your leisure.
- The event wrapped up at about one hour.

So to answer your other questions...
- Yes. the buffet is open as you walk in and stays open for the entire run of the event.
- Yes. You have time to load up and sit down with your food; though you could easily be distracted and lose time trying to take pictures.
- Yes. there are gaps between performances. Roughly ten minutes.


I think there is plenty going on between getting and eating food, photo ops onstage, performances, and characters visiting your table. I would be surprised if any child loses interest in what is going on in here. As a parent, it felt like a whirlwind trying to keep up with everything.

 

[Planeteer]

Dude, I may want to do this now with the youngest!

 

[Julia]

My kiddos LOVED this and for the price, it is well worth it! The food was very good!

 

[halfabee]

We did this last year (or the year before? starting to lose track...) and it was pretty good. At that time, Elmo was the alpha ham and really put "his" all into every interaction. Really great for the kids, and we parents had some fun too.

The food was average for BGW, I thought. One standout was the ample supply of various types of fresh fruit. Thumbs up for that. The mediocre quality of the meat dish options dragged down the overall spread. Still, I was happy to give the kids a fruit-heavy amusement park meal for once. A parent does not always get that opportunity.