Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem (USH)

[smoaT]

I still think it's a half baked attraction. Everything is exceptional until you get to the actual showroom... a missed opportunity

 

[Jon Fu]

And yea I got pretty queasy off of that grilled cheese and pulled pork combo. It didn't sit well with my lack of sleep and dehydration at all. I was so annoyed since I actually waited around for their late opening especially for it.

I hate saying this, but I think Gru's has deteriorated pretty rapidly since it opened this Spring. I've eaten there quite a few times and it's been an interesting experience, to say the least.


I wouldn't think that the menu items are difficult to recreate, so I wonder what's up.

 

[Allen The Actor]

^ I've watched it completely deteriorate as well. From removing popular side dishes that were relatively unique to the restaurant and super popular, to altering the taste, quantity, and look of lots of options. Quite a pity.

 

[Ryan]

All I know is the best thing I had that day was cinammon roll iced coffee at Cinnabon, and the idea that the park is about to get a crapload of specialty food from Orlando kinda unnerves me. I hope they can, y'know, make it work.

 

[Jon Fu]

All I know is the best thing I had that day was cinammon roll iced coffee at Cinnabon, and the idea that the park is about to get a crapload of specialty food from Orlando kinda unnerves me. I hope they can, y'know, make it work.

Yeah, with the exception of Potter, I don't think Hollywood has a great track record when it comes to specialty food.


Maybe Fox and Warner Brothers will keep the quality up to snuff.

 

[Ryan]

I know we're dragging this WAY off-topic but the food served in the employee cafeterias was often much better than what they serve the guests. Normally it's on par or below at other theme parks, but that is the honest-to-god truth. And that was heavily discounted, too.

I currently work for a hotel that offers free employee dining and I would rather pay my 4 bucks for my amazing grilled cheese with hot fries that I can pour all the seasoning I want on it (along with on the grilled cheese), not to mention Pibb Xtra which I think is only served at Hollywood Grill?

Man I should've snuck into Take 5/Dino when I was there last week.

...haha I mean, Despicable Me! Minions! Fart guns!

 

[Jon Fu]

I know we're dragging this WAY off-topic but the food served in the employee cafeterias was often much better than what they serve the guests. Normally it's on par or below at other theme parks, but that is the honest-to-god truth. And that was heavily discounted, too.

Why is this? Do they simply care more when they serve employees rather than guests?

 

[Allen The Actor]

Honestly, I'm at that point with my family where we're gonna start totally eating only in CityWalk. The only reason we ever eat inside the park is because we get lazy about walking out of the park.

But when the dry chicken "tenders" plate I got at Mel's last week costs the same and is worse than a full and great meal at Wolfgang Puck in CityWalk, that's an issue. Universal still has a long way to go to serve good high quality food that isn't generic American. Say what you will about Disneyland's price of food, but it has so many amazing in park options in both parks.

 

[Ryan]

Why is this? Do they simply care more when they serve employees rather than guests?

This is pretty simple: in the employee cafeterias, there's usually one or two main chefs working the grill. A good deal of them refused to degrade themselves to the quick-serve attitude of the kitchens that are ran for park guests, and took their freaking time. This resulted in long waits commonly, but the payoff was a huge step up in food quality. Not to mention you have the luxuries of constantly changing menus, easy-to-order customization (seasoning!) and respect between both parties. 

It's a huge difference between prepping the same exact types of meals every day and having to do it quick enough to move the lines along. Remember the (very) short-lived T-Rex BBQ? A lot of people were excited since the food quality was akin to what the employees experienced, if not better. Yet somebody did not like that, and it got quickly pulled.

Somebody high up in Universal management thinks that no matter what, people will hate to wait for their food. Why do you think there are two grab-n-go's in the park? And yeah, people are going to hate it but they're not going to hate it if the quality is GOOD. I never understood why that connection can not be made.

 

[Allen The Actor]

^ Great insight.

The quality of food for park guests is really lacking and I find it so unfortunate. And for me, nothing from Springfield is gonna be my cup of tea either... *shrug*

 

[Jon Fu]

Credit where credit is due, my latest meal at Gru's was actually pretty good. I had the chicken for what it's worth.


So for future reference, avoid anything resembling a sandwich. Everything else - including the nachos - are good.

 

[William]

I found a hair in my nachos once. I told them, and all they offered me were more nachos.

How's the meatball sub?

 

[Jon Fu]

How's the meatball sub?

Avoid it like the plague. I classify it as a sandwich.

 

[William]

Avoid it like the plague. I classify it as a sandwich.

Is it really that bad? Didn't look to shabby last time I saw.

 

[Allen The Actor]

The meatball sandwich went downhill more than anything at Gru's since March. Trust me.

 

[JaySalahi]

Yeah the Meatball is an absolute mess. Stiff bread, hard meatballs, plus it falls apart way to easily. 

 

[Jon Fu]

Yeah the Meatball is an absolute mess. Stiff bread, hard meatballs, plus it falls apart way to easily.

Yes - you'd expect them to fix that by now. Something's not right.

 

[Allen The Actor]

Might be because they removed the delicious Asiago cheese off of it.....

 

[William]

So yesterday, I was evactuated from Minion Mayhem (technically speaking). We were in the middle of the ride where we're in the depths of Gru's lab, and everything stopped. The film froze (at a surprisingly photogenic spot, with Gru dangling from the girls' hovercraft like seen in the ads for the ride), and all of the ride vehicles were frozen in place. After a good minute or two, they addressed it by telling us to stay seated as they turned off the projection. Then, they turned on the lights as we all sat awkwardly in our tilted transformation pods. As we sat and hopefully waited for the ride to restart, they encouraged us to take photos and videos. We ended up singing "Happy Birthday" to some kids in the room, as well as doing random Despicable Me trivia. After waiting for about 15 minutes, the hydraulics were stopped and our pods finally became level. They gave us all a password to use for the entire day to access the Gate A line for the ride (yes, it was "Banana"). Lights behind the ginormous screen were illuminated revealing a backstage area, which happened to conceal many long, wooden planks with carved out handles. I'm not particularly sure what they did, but the team members set these wooden planks on top of the rubbery flap connected to the bottom of our pods that sit flush with the floor (I'm assuming so they

could lean on it), opened some secret door in the front of our vehicles while doing something, and made us manually push up on our lap bars. My party ended up being the very last people to leave the auditorium, and we ended up being in there for a good 30 minutes. I can find a way to post some of the many photos I took later on.

Story time is over. Props to those who read the whole thing.

 

[Allen The Actor]

I read the whole thing. Props to me then!

And I would like to see pictures