If you've been around these parts for a while you'll know I have a massive love for all things Disney and Disney World.
It's also something that I have a whole lota knowledge about, and I quite regularly get messages from people on both Facebook and Instagram asking for Disney World tips or recommendations. I've decided to pull some of my tips and info out of my brain and put them into some blog posts for anyone interested or looking for some Disney advice.
One of my favourite types of experience at the Disney Parks is character dining and meals. They combine two of my favourite things, food and meeting characters! There's 20+ different character dinning options at the various parks and hotels in Disney World, which can feel very very overwhelming and can feel difficult to know where to start. Each character dining restaurant has different food options and choices, and different characters to hang out with - which are all things to keep in mind whilst deciding if a character meal is something for you, your family and your trip.
I would highly, highly recommend going to at least one character meal whilst visiting Disney World! They're an incredible experience, and you get the chance to meet 4+ characters without having to wait in super long lines. The food quality varies massively between the different restaurants, as does the type of food available, but my four top character dining picks all have amazing food quality!
Garden Grill - Epcot
The Garden Grill is my number 1, and top character restaurant in Walt Disney World!
The Garden Grill is in the Land Pavilion in Epcot, above the greenhouses where alot of the food you eat in the restaurant is grown.
The food is served family style, and is also all you can eat. The meats are incredible quality and very tender, plus there's also vegetables too, which can be a rarity in the Disney parks.
The characters you meet are some of the traditional favourites, Mickey, Pluto and Chip & Dale. The restaurant is also pretty small, which means you often get to see and meet each character multiple times, which is just even more fun for your time and money, especially compared to other restaurants in Disney.
Crystal Palace - Magic Kingdom
Crystal Palace is an absolute classic, and is in Magic Kingdom just across from Cinderella Castle. Crystal Palace is a buffet meal, available for breakfast, lunch and dinner, serving traditional American style food. The cast of characters at Crystal Palace are totally unique in Disney World, and come straight from the 100 Acre Wood - Pooh, Tiger, Piglet and Eeyore.
Hollywood & Vine - Hollywood Studios
Hollywood & Vine is a relatively new discovery of mine, and is a hidden gem in the Hollywood Studios Park. Hollywood & Vine is a buffet with some of the most incredible food I've ever had at a buffet style restaurant. It's all seasonal, and there's no chips in sight. The characters come around and meet you at your table, and it's the fab five dressed up to the nines - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy. The characters outfits change depending on the season or time of year, which is always super duper cute! There's also a character at the exit where you can get a professional picture of your whole group with one of the characters, in our case, at Christmas it was Goofy dressed up as Father Christmas, which was pretty hilarious!
Tusker House - Animal Kingdom
Tusker House is another rather hidden restaurant and can be found in the Africa area of Animal Kingdom. The food is again a buffet, and Tusker House serves food that is both traditional American and African, being the perfect option for groups with both adventurous and fussy eaters. The vibe and decoration is like an African market to fit in with the gorge food served, and the Africa area it's situated. The characters at Tusker House are again the fab five; Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy and they're all in safari gear to match the Animal Kingdom surroundings too.
Honorable Mentions
There's a couple of other Disney World character restaurants that I wanted to highlight too. These are both restaurants I've never been to but definitely want to in the future, as I've heard such great things and they're also that little bit different.
Ohana - Polynesian Village Resort
Ohana is a character breakfast meal situated in one of the resort hotels. The food is served family style with traditional American options along with both Hawaiian and Polynesian themed foods too. Lilo and Sitch are the main characters for this character dining meal, which is really fun as they're not characters you'll find really easily in the parks.
Trattoria Al Forno - The BoardWalk
This is a relatively new character meal, and is something that is totally different! Trattoria Al Forno is only a character meal at breakfast and offers traditonal Italian food for lunch & dinner.
For breakfast Trattoria Al Forno hosts the Bon Voyage Breakfast with extremely popular characters, Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. Princess character dining is always super duper popular and in high demand, and seeing princesses with their princes is something that only happens at special events like Halloween. Which makes the Bon Voyage Breakfast something really different, special and exciting. For the price of the meal everyone gets a breakfast main, starter and a sharing plate of pastries.
For those who're a big Tangled or Little Mermaid fan this is perfect as even the little details are themed on the films. The pastries come in a frying pan and the food is named after characters of scenes from the film (King Triton's Shipwreck).
I hope this was helpful, and if you have any questions feel free to get in touch! Also if there's anything you'd like another post to be on regarding Disney World and my tips and recommendations then holla!
Love
God Bless
