Ireland Trip Report 2015

[walnut611]

We finally see the hat! I was totally echoing Sayhello in Day 4.

The food at Earl of Thomond looks delicious, and Kate is gorgeous. Thank you for sharing!

 

[sayhello]

Love Kate's hat! *Very* Downton Abbey!

And Dromoland is gorgeous! So impressive! I may have to take this trip just to stay there...

Sayhello

 

[kaseyC]

I forget who on this forum mentioned the idea of eating at the Earl of Thomond. Thanks! We emailed the concierge of Dromoland a couple of weeks before our trip to make reservations. Both tonight and tomorrow night had dinners with ABD, so it was a difficult choice which night to skip and go to the Earl of Thomond. We chose this night as tomorrow had an entertainment component and was away from Dromoland. We dressed up a bit for dinner and walked around the castle as our reservations were still half an hour or more. Dinner itself was wonderful. It was absolutely straight out of Downton Abbey. I’m pretty sure Mr. Carson was overseeing our service. The many servers, wine sommelier and manager were all so very nice and welcoming. They had a harpist playing. The food was excellent. They have tasting menus and a la carte menus. We kind of created our own tasting menu by splitting a few appetizers (asparagus, scallops, foie gras). For our mains, Kate had the duck; I had the lamb. For dessert we had the orange soufflé. It was awesome! After dinner we immediately transitioned next door to the lounge where they had more live music. Great meal. I’d highly recommend a dinner there, but unfortunately that does mean you have to sacrifice one of the ABD dinners.

It was me. We did it on our TB tour. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I had the lamb as well, delicious. The service, the presentation and food were fantastic. Even some of the kids who ordered chicken tenders and fries were presented their meals dramatically with the silver covers. Very cool!

 

[Woodview]

It has been a pleasure to read your reports & to know that you enjoyed our country.

Next time you or anyone else would like to do a similar family trip I would be willing to give you some more ideas.

My home is within a 10 mile drive from Blarney Castle .

 

[Cousin Orville]

Good idea skipping Fig Tree's dinner. It was one of the least impressive on any ABD I've taken.

Interesting to hear. I didn't hear a lot of feedback on how the Fig Tree was for dinner. Not to spoil my next post, but we kind of regretted not skipping the next night instead. More on that later. I'll be interested to hear how you liked both evenings at Dromoland and which you preferred.

We finally see the hat! I was totally echoing Sayhello in Day 4.

The food at Earl of Thomond looks delicious, and Kate is gorgeous. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you very much. That's very nice of you to say. It was a great dinner.

Love Kate's hat! *Very* Downton Abbey!

And Dromoland is gorgeous! So impressive! I may have to take this trip just to stay there...

Sayhello

Seriously! The gears are turning in my head of how can I get back to Dromoland...

It was me. We did it on our TB tour. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I had the lamb as well, delicious. The service, the presentation and food were fantastic. Even some of the kids who ordered chicken tenders and fries were presented their meals dramatically with the silver covers. Very cool!

Thank you very much for the recommendation! I literally would not have gone had it not been for your suggestion. So, this was an included dinner with Tauck? Did you order off the menu? That's great that they had a kids' menu. I can totally see them dramatically lifting the covers to reveal the plates of chicken fingers! I loved that touch, but it probably was a bit overdone. They did the same thing at breakfast with my French toast.

It has been a pleasure to read your reports & to know that you enjoyed our country.

Next time you or anyone else would like to do a similar family trip I would be willing to give you some more ideas.

My home is within a 10 mile drive from Blarney Castle .

You have a beautiful country to be proud of! We will definitely return (hopefully sooner than later).

 

[Rapunzellover]

Interesting to hear. I didn't hear a lot of feedback on how the Fig Tree was for dinner.
Not to spoil my next post, but we kind of regretted not skipping the next night instead. More on that later. I'll be interested to hear how you liked both evenings at
Dromoland and which you preferred

Seriously! The gears are turning in
my head of how can I get back to Dromoland...

You didn't like the medieval banquet? Or do you mean the finale dinner? I thought both were way better experiences than the fig tree dinner. But I also had lunch at the fig tree during the free day, and it was delicious! The ABD diinner at fig tree was just really
generic. But can't understand why you'd wish you skipped the other dinners? Would love to hear your feelings? What was so bad?

And my gears are grinding for Dromoland too!

 

[calypso726]

Interesting to hear. I didn't hear a lot of feedback on how the Fig Tree was for dinner. Not to spoil my next post, but we kind of regretted not skipping the next night instead. More on that later. I'll be interested to hear how you liked both evenings at Dromoland and which you preferred.

Now I am really looking forward to your thoughts on the Medieval Banquet! We are booked for two nights at Ashford Castle and only have one night at Dromoland Castle. We were planning to do the Bunratty Castle Medieval Banquet that evening. However, after reading your comments on the dining experience at Earl of Thomond I am wondering if we should get reservations for dinner there over the medieval banquet. Looking forward to the next installment!

 

[Rapunzellover]

I thought the medieval banquet was cool! I wouldn't skip it.

 

[kaseyC]

Thank you very much for the recommendation! I literally would not have gone had it not been for your suggestion. So, this was an included dinner with Tauck? Did you order off the menu? That's great that they had a kids' menu. I can totally see them dramatically lifting the covers to reveal the plates of chicken fingers! I loved that touch, but it probably was a bit overdone. They did the same thing at breakfast with my French toast.

Yes, it was an included dinner with Tauck and we ordered off the menu. The only thing that wasn't included were alcoholic beverages. It was on our first evening in Dromoland. We gave our tour director our preferred times for dinner that morning and she confirmed them for us before we arrived that afternoon. We had a group lunch at the Fig Tree the next day after returning from the Cliffs of Moher. It was ok, but not even close to the Earl of Thomond.

 

[Woodview]

To Calypso 726

GO for the Banquet at Bunratty ... you will not be sorry.

... The Earl of Thomond type of dinner will be in Ashford Castle in Cong. .

Now that is a castle worth staying in ........... You really do pick the best of the best of hotels.

 

[calypso726]

To Calypso 726

GO for the Banquet at Bunratty ... you will not be sorry.

... The Earl of Thomond type of dinner will be in Ashford Castle in Cong. .

Now that is a castle worth staying in ........... You really do pick the best of the best of hotels.

Good to know. We are booked for the Banquet at Bunratty. Thanks Woodview! Now if I only I could stay in castles using points and miles ... sigh. Can't wait to read the rest of Cousin Orville's TR! It looks like he and Kate are having a great time!

 

[Cousin Orville]

You didn't like the medieval banquet? Or do you mean the finale dinner? I thought both were way better experiences than the fig tree dinner. But I also had lunch at the fig tree during the free day, and it was delicious! The ABD diinner at fig tree was just really
generic. But can't understand why you'd wish you skipped the other dinners? Would love to hear your feelings? What was so bad?

And my gears are grinding for Dromoland too!

It's interesting to hear feedback about the Fig Tree dinner. We didn't hear much about it the following day. I'll post my thoughts about the banquet in a bit. Which dinner to skip certainly wasn't a life altering choice I was dwelling long and hard on. On paper, both dinners sounded good. So, it was really more an arbitrary choice. We wanted to try Fig Tree, but we wanted to be with the ABD Family more when they were going out the next night to the banquet. That's why we chose to skip Fig Tree. While I didn't WANT to skip either, I'm very glad we did. Earl of Thomond was a pleasure to eat in. It really rounded out the experience at Dromoland, and I would highly recommend it. While the Ireland ABD seems to be a well established trip for Disney, maybe they will take notice and consider reorganizing a dinner at Earl rather than Fig Tree.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Now I am really looking forward to your thoughts on the Medieval Banquet! We are booked for two nights at Ashford Castle and only have one night at Dromoland Castle. We were planning to do the Bunratty Castle Medieval Banquet that evening. However, after reading your comments on the dining experience at Earl of Thomond I am wondering if we should get reservations for dinner there over the medieval banquet. Looking forward to the next installment!

I would love to hear about your experience at Ashford. I've recently looked into other rural castle resorts in Ireland and the UK. We had such a great time at Dromoland we would love to do something similar again. If you don't report about Ashford elsewhere, please feel free to pm me or report about your experience on this thread. I'd really love to hear about it!

 

[Cousin Orville]

I thought the medieval banquet was cool! I wouldn't skip it.

Absolutely, try it for yourself! Ours is just two opinions. I'll try explain what we liked and disliked.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Yes, it was an included dinner with Tauck and we ordered off the menu. The only thing that wasn't included were alcoholic beverages. It was on our first evening in Dromoland. We gave our tour director our preferred times for dinner that morning and she confirmed them for us before we arrived that afternoon. We had a group lunch at the Fig Tree the next day after returning from the Cliffs of Moher. It was ok, but not even close to the Earl of Thomond.

Very impressive! There's your competition, ABD Take notice.

 

[calypso726]

I am planning to do a day by day pre trip, trip and post trip report for next year's ABD River cruise. I will be posting here. We've booked an extended Hawk Walk falconry experience at Ashford Castle and also a falcon experience at Dromoland Castle. I am really looking forward to those and staying in castles! I am also looking forward to reading your thoughts on the banquet and falconry experience. Thank you so much for taking us all vicariously on this trip with you

 

[Cousin Orville]

Day 6 - Dromoland Castle (evening)

I'm going to discuss the dinner in the evening first, and then I'll go back and discuss the day. The day was wonderful and I'd prefer to post about it without ending on a low note.

Dinner was out at a medieval banquet. I'm sorry, I can't remember the name at the moment. There are several scattered about the area. It was located within a refurbished castle. When we arrived we were greeted by the performers dressed in... medieval castle garb? They greeted you, my Lady... my Lord, and you got your picture taken with them. They then invited you into the main entrance hall and welcomed you with mead to drink. I don't think many people liked it as they had a few sips and set it aside. It was ok - sweet, honeyed from what I remember. We hung out as more and more people entered until the entrance was very crowded. Everyone who attended was a part of a group tour. So it was our group and maybe 4 or 5 others. It was crowded, but soon enough the master of ceremonies greeted everyone. There was a bit of music played, and then we were brought into a large banquet room with long rows of tables set up in front of a stage.

The food was good. Fresh bread, a salmon starter, followed by tomato soup and then a chicken breast main dish. Nothing extravagant, but the chicken was moist and had a good flavor as I remember. They served wine and insisted that all the Lords be sure to keep all the Ladies' cups filled. It was all you could drink. Again fine. Certainly the food and drink was nothing too memorable, but was ok. The neverending wine probably made the evening a bit more enjoyable.

The performances were very Renaissance Festival in style. They told jokes, and certainly there was lots of medieval style music and singing. There was a girl playing the Irish harp and there was an Irish dancer. Certainly they had fun with the audience. There was audience participation which thank goodness I did not have to partake in. The highlight was seeing a couple of our friends on the trip be asked to be the King and Queen overseeing the entire banquet. They were dressed up and seated front and center. That was funny! For their sake, I'll withhold posting a photo of them. If you're reading and want me to post it, let me know.

That's pretty much it...


So, ok... opinion time. The event felt overly artificial. Overly touristy. The only people that were present were from group tours. It wasn't like Kate Kearney's a couple of days ago where there were some solo travelers and locals in the mix. Everyone present was shuttled there in their buses to see the performance and was shuttled back. I understand that's how group tours work, and I think I'm clearly a huge supporter here of ABD. However, this is where a group tour can go wrong. I think people that don't want to try a group tour have activities like this in mind. You're being taken to a place that exists solely to entertain tourists. It's not something I see locals enjoying. It's not really a historic landmark that you're seeing. The focus was certainly the Renaissance Fair entertainment rather than the castle. I think it's a stretch to say it has any cultural relevance. It is very contrived. Very touristy.

Even if it is created purely for the tourist trade, it still can be fun right? Of course. And if it was amazing fun, I'd overlook my first objection to it being overly artificial. But, I'm sorry, it wasn't. The entertainment was ok. It certainly wasn't bad, but it was boring after a while. I just wasn't entertained as much as I hoped to be. I think if you enjoy Renaissance festivals, you will enjoy this. And let me be clear, everyone else seemed to be having a good time. Maybe people were being polite about it, as I hope we were, but I guess most people genuinely enjoyed it.

Kate wanted to mention that she would have preferred to have a dinner or atmosphere that allowed more conversation between friends. During the day everyone did different activities. More on that later. It would have been nice to have more time to talk about what everyone else did that day. We had a little bit of time, but then the show started.

The guides prefaced the event on the way there that this was not like a typical Renaissance style dinner show. This was much better. I'm not so sure about that.

Look, some activities just aren't for everyone. And this one just wasn't for us. It still didn't put a damper on the day as a whole. And this was one heck of an amazing day! This day is what sold Dromoland and really all of western Ireland to me. It's why I want to return so much... It was an amazing day! Next time I'll probably just skip the night activity.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Day 6 - Dromoland Castle (evening)

 

[Rapunzellover]

Oh, I understand your opinion now. And I agree. Felt the same way about a couple other ABD meals/activities. I suppose I just expect it.

The thing about it is I would still rather skip a meal without entertainment, a la fig tree, than a meal with it. Like you said, different strokes. But I did also think this meal was tastier than fig tree.

 

[carpenta]

IMO the food choices is one aspect that ABD really drops the ball. We have traveled with two competitors on family trips and the food aspect really leaves ABD in the dust.