Walt Disney World charcter dining is a popular way to interact with some of Disney’s most beloved icons. Imagine being visited by Mickey and his pals, Winnie the Pooh or even Disney princesses while dining at Disney World.
With the return of the Disney Dining Plan in 2024, character dining promises to be more popular than ever. Learn important tips for dining with Disney stars and where to find the best charcter meals in Disney World for your trip.
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What is Walt Disney World Character Dining?
A Walt Disney World character meal gives you the chance to enjoy time with some of your favorite Disney Characters, while also enjoying some of Disney’s finer cuisine. At present, character dining is available at the following restaurants, featuring the indicated characters:
Disney World Character Dining List
MAGIC KINGDOM
- Cinderella’s Royal Table
- Characters include Cinderella
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
- Price: Breakfast: $69 adult/$42 Child; Lunch or dinner: $84 adult/$49 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes, requires 2 dining credits per person
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- Crystal Palace
- Characters include Winnie the Pooh and friends
- Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Price: Breakfast is $48 adult/$30 child; Lunch or dinner is: $61 adult/$40 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
- Disney Junior Play & Dine at Hollywood & Vine
- Characters include: Vampirina, Roadster Goofy, Fancy Nancy, Doc McStuffins
- Meals: Breakfast
- Price:
- Price: Breakfast is $47 adult/$30 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- Minnie’s Seasonal Dine at Hollywood & Vine
- Characters include Minnie, Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Goofy
- Offered only during select seasons, such as Halloween and Christmas
- Meals: Lunch, Dinner
- Price: Lunch and dinner are $63 adult/$40 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
ANIMAL KINGDOM
- Tusker House
- Characters include Donald, Mickey, Goofy, Daisy dressed safari garb
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
- Price: Breakfast is $47 adult/$30 child; Lunch or dinner $62 adult/$40 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
EPCOT
- Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
- Characters include Disney Princesses, including Belle
- Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Price: Breakfast $55 adult/$35 child; Lunch or dinner $67 adult/$43 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes, will use 2 credits per guest
- Rated 4.5 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- Garden Grill Restaurant
- Characters include Mickey, Pluto, Chip ‘n’ Dale
- Meals: Lunch, Dinner
- Price: Breakfast is $47 adult/ $30 child; Lunch or dinner $62 adult/$40 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
Character Dining at Disney World Resort Hotels
- Cape May Cafe at Disney’s Beach Club Resort
- Characters include Minnie Mouse and friends
- Meals: Breakfast
- Price: $47 adult/$30 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- Chef Mickey’s at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Characters include Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pluto
- Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
- Price: Breakfast $54 adult/$34 child; Dinner $66 adult/$41 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4.5 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- O’hana at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
- Characters include Lilo and Stitch
- Meals: Breakfast
- Price: $49 adult/ $30 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- Topolino’s Terrace (Riviera Resort)
- Characters include Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy
- Meals: Breakfast
- Note Dinner is available at Topolino’s Terrace but it NOT character dining.
- Price: $49 adult/$30 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- Story Book Dining at Artist Point Wilderness Lodge
- Characters include Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs
- Meals: Dinner
- Price: $65 adult/$39 child
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes,
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
Disney World Character Dining Restaurants Reopening Soon
1900 Park Fare (Disney World Grand Floridian Resort)
- Characters included Mary Poppins and friends
What Happens at a Walt Disney World Character Meal?
Character dining at Walt Disney World is a magical experience for children and adults alike. Characters will move around the room, stopping at each table to visit. Once they arrive at your table, you’ll have the opportunity to “chat” with characters, pose for pictures, and get autographs if you desire.
Some of our favorite Disney World memories were experienced during a Walt Disney World character meal. Like the time that Goofy took my daughter in her Red Sox t-shirt over to meet a boy of similar age dressed in a Yankee’s shirt. Or the time that Donald flirted with the women in our group only to be shut down by Daisy.
You can’t put a price on interactions like these. A Walt Disney World character meal will allow you to get closer to the characters than many of the experiences you’ll have within the parks, unless you’ll willing to wait in long lines to have your photo snapped with one Disney’s celebrities.
When you’re not visiting with characters, plan on dining as usual. Your server will come to your table, take your order and bring your food.
Many Walt Disney World charcater meals are served buffet style. This means, you’ll need to keep an eye on the charcters as they move around the room. If they’re only a few tables away, it’s wise to to delay your trip to the buffet for a few moments. If characters come to you table, and no one is there, they will need to continue moving to the next guest waiting to see them.
How Do I Book a Character Dining Experience?
When it comes to dining at a Disney World table service restaurant, we are sticklers for making Advanced Dining Reservations (ADR). An advanced dining reservation allows you to book a timeslot for a given day. Once you arrive at the restaurant, you’ll be provided the next available table fitting your party size.
While not a true reservation, an ADR does ensure that you will get a table. While it isn’t impossible to find last minute availability at a Disney World restaurant, spaces at popular dining establishments can sell out for a day. This is often the case with character meals. If you book a Disney World character dining reservation, you will be assured a table.
Booking ADRs is simple. Just visit the Disney World website and sign into your Disney account. Then, hover over “things to do” in the top navigation, and select “make reservations” under dining in the dropdown menu.
From there, you will be taken to a listing of all Walt Disney World restaurants. To narrow down the results, simply click on the box that says “character”. Doing so will eliminated any non-character meals from your available options.
When you find a restaurant you want to book, simply click on the arrow to the right of the restaurant name.
You will then be taken to a page for booking. Select a day from the drop-down calendar and click “check availability”.
You will then receive a list of available timeslots for that day. Click on the one you want to book, and you’ll be guided through the booking process.
In 2023, Disney World offered some improvements to the Advanced Dining Reservation scheduling system, making it possible to review all open reservations on a given day. If your plans are open, this is one of the easiest ways to make dining reservations for charcter meals.
Simply select “check all availability” from the top of the page. You’l be asked to select the number in your party and the date on which you’d like to dine.
From there, you will be shown a list of restaurants with availability and a list of open time. To see only charcter dining experiences, use the filters at the top of the list to narrow in on character dining. We’ve found this a welcome addition to the scheduling procedure and a much easier way to reserve charcter dining experiences.
What if I Don’t Get an Advanced Reservation for Walt Disney World Character Dining?
Since character dining at Disney World offers you the chance to sup with some of Disney’s biggest stars, there is one drawback you may experience. Character meals are very popular with guests and do book up quickly.
Guests have the chance to make advanced dining reservations beginning 60 days before their arrival date. The reservation window opens at 6:00 am eastern time, and for some of the more popular restaurants, such as Chef Mickey’s, all available spots will book up within an hour of system opening.
If you’re staying at a resort offsite, you may find added difficulty in snagging a more coveted reservation. That’s because offsite guests are only able to book dining reservations 60 days in advance of each date. By contrast, guests of Disney World resorts can book for their entire trip beginning 60 days prior to arrival. This means by the time you log in to book reservations, guests of Disney World resorts have already filled several spots for the day, simply because they were able to book a day or more before you.
If this happens to you, we recommend that you keep checking back, particularly in the 2 weeks leading up to your departure. We often find available openings for our clients during this window as guests rearrange plans at this time and cancel.
With Disney’s new cancellation policy, you may also find it easier to get day-of reservations. The original policy required guests to cancel 24 hours prior to their reservation or be charged a $10 per person no-show fee. In 2022, Disney changed this policy, allowing guests to cancel up to 2 hours in advance. Because of this change, guests have a greater ability to make changes to their itinerary on the fly, meaning more guests may cancel each day, opening tables for those who were unable to score an ADR before leaving home.
Impromptu Walt Disney World Character Dining
While booking an ADR will guarantee that you will dine with the Disney stars, you do have the option at certain times and restaurants, to get in for a meal as a walk-in. While this strategy is less likely to work for a character meal, it’s worth a try if you’ll be in the area. When restaurants anticipate availability on a given day, they open a walk up line.
We’ve found that the My Disney Experience app offers the simplest way to find out if a restuarant is taking walk in guests. At the bottom of the app, tap the location icon. You’ll see a map of the park and a variety of wait times.
To see only wait times at restaurants, at the top of the screen, click the down arrow and select dining. Wait times will then be displayed at restaurants with availabiliy. The post time is how long you’ll wait for a table if you decide to join the walk up queue.
If you decide you’d like to join the wait list, simply tap on the wait time dispalyed and follow the prompts to join the queue. Keep in mind, that you will need to be within a certain proximity to the dining location before the app will allow you to reserve a spot in line.
Once you’ve entered the virtual queue, you will receive a text message when a table is available.
To avoid having to get up early and book ADRs, many guests choose to work with a travel agent instead. Dedicated travel agents will make your Walt Disney World Disney Character meal ADRs for you, and while they may not be able to get all of the reservations you want, some of the bigger agencies have access to special tools that notify agents when reservations open up. This allows an agent to capture the ADR on your behalf, even if there was no availability when the reservation system first opened at your 60 day mark.
Need Help With Character Dining ADRs?
If scoring a table at a charcter meal at Disney World in 2023 sounds like too much of a hassle, you can always book your vacation with us. We’ll make your reservations when your booking window opens (60 days before youre trip), and if spots for your favorite meal are full, we’ll continuously monitor for new openings.
Best Character Meals in Disney World
With so may Walt Disney World character meals to choose from, it can be hard to decide where to book your time.
Here are our picks for some of the best experiences.
Most Raucous Good Time: Chef Mickey’s
With singing, dancing and plenty of hugs, you’ll be sure to have a good time with Mickey, Donald, Goofy or Pluto at Chef Mickey’s right now. And with so much movement, you’re certain to see more of the characters as they continuously revolve around the restaurant.
PRO TIP: Book Chef Mickeys on a day you plan to visit the Magic Kingdom and hop on the monorail from the hotel lobby for easy transportation to the park.
Most Unique Eats: Tusker House
Serving up the flavors of Africa and beyond, Tusker House offers some of the more unique menu items of any of the Disney World character dining options. Jungle juice is one of our favorites and big draw for this restaurant. Plus, it’s one of the only places where Donald is the main star and characters dress in safari garb.
PRO TIP: If you plan to utilize the morning at Animal Kingdom to enjoy rides like Flight of Passage with lower wait times, book a character breakfast at Tusker House for 10:00 am. You’ll make the most of the morning and also combine lunch and breakfast into one meal. To keep little ones from getting fussy from waiting so long to eat in the morning, we would offer a snack in the hotel room before heading out to the parks.
Best Fine Dining: Cinderella’s Royal Table
A dinner in Cinderella’s dining room is always a lavish affair. After all, where else can you enjoy premium dishes while visiting with royalty?
Offering great food and several gracious hosts, the only drawback to dining at Cindrella’s Royal Table is the price tag. For our party of 2 adults and 2 children under 10, the check will be close to $200 with tip.
Character Dining with a Twist: Garden Grill
The Garden Grill in EPCOT invites you to dine family style with Pluto, Chip, Dale and all of their pals. It’s a place where the food is good and so is the company.
Garden Grill, located in The Land Pavilion at EPCOT, has a few advantages over some of the other options. For one thing, it’s one of the smallest of the Walt Disney World character dining locations. That means, you’ll have a better view of the characters as they make their way by.
Another interesting twist to this dining location is the fact that it’s revolving. Even if the characters aren’t visiting your table, you’ll always have something new and interesting to look at as you move through some of the scenes of the Living with the Land ride.
How Much is Character Dining at Disney World?
Disney World character dining prices can differ dramatically. The top prize for high-cost meal would go to Cinderella’s Royal Table. Expect your bill to top out at over $84 per adult at dinner.
To save some money while dining like royalty, opt for a meal at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall located inside EPCOT’s World Showcase. A dinner dining experience here drops to under $70 per adult.
Most Disney Character meals top out at $66 (Chef Mickey’s) and often feature an all-you-care-to-eat buffet meal.
Saving Money on Walt Disney World Character Dining
Walt Disney World Character meals are among the most expensive dining experiences offered. If you’re doing Disney World on a budget, or if you simply don’t want to bet the bank on Disney World dining, there are a few opportunities to save money on a Walt Disney World character dining experience.
- Book a Disney World vacation package. Your package comes with a discount good for many restaurants, and while it won’t cover character dining, you could save money at other locations to help offset the cost of your character meal.
- Disney Visa cardholders are also eligible for discounts at select dining locations
Our complete Disney World dining guide has more tips for saving money when dining at Disney World.
