Originally Posted by gsilliman
Depending on your kids, the high-end restaurants at the Marriotts may not work out so well. They are very formal and designed for an elaborate, slow paced evening. Example -- At Gustino's, we went with our kids right at the opening, figuring it would be quiet then and they'd want to expedite our service and get us out of there. In Marriott style they were all very nice and accommodating (one child just wanted a simple pizza -- OK, even if not on menu), but they seemed absolutely unable to speed up the service (it took forever to just to get the menus after we were seated, for one example). It reminded me of the top-level restaurants at Disney World -- "look, you've signed on to have an Experience tonight. You will be Very Impressed. There is one Order of Events for each step of the evening. Everything that arrives at this table will come with a Formal Ritual that dictates how it is Presented. This is what Fine Dining is." But they can't deviate from the script.
I agree with you, gsilliman, about the pace at Gustino's. It was definitely a high-end restaurant and was not a place to catch a quick bite.
However, knowing how agonizing a long meal can be for young children (like the original poster has), what I usually do in those situations is tell the waiter immediately upon being seated that we are in a bit of a 'time crunch' and would like to order ASAP. Once the ordering is done, let the server know that you are ready for the food as soon as it is cooked. Sometimes I would even mention something like "it's hard for the kids to sit too long" or "all the kids want to do is get back to the room". In most cases, the servers are happy to accomodate you. Heck, it gets kids out of their dining room faster (and we all know the effect the sight of kids can have on some members of the traveling public
)and it frees up their table for another party.