Walt Disney World charcter dining has returned! Following a rather lengthy absence, Mickey and his pals are once again enjoying some of the Magic of Walt Disney World dining with their favorite park guests. 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 in 2023 and beyond.
Table of contents
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
- Be Our Guest
- Characters include Beast
- Meals: Lunch, Dinner
- Price: $67 adults, $39 children
- Cinderella’s Royal Table
- Characters include Cinderella
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
- Price: $60
- 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 $35-$59.99
- 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 $35-$59.99
- 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: Breakfast is $35-$59.99
- 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: $35-$59.99
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
EPCOT
- Garden Grill Restaurant
- Characters include Mickey, Pluto, Chip ‘n’ Dale
- Meals: Lunch, Dinner
- Price: Breakfast is $35-$59.99
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
- Characters include Disney Princesses, including Belle
- Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Price: $35-$60 adults, $41 children
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes, will use 2 credits per guest
- Rated 4.5 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
Character Dining at the Resorts (Restaurants open now)
- Cape May Cafe
- Characters include Minnie Mouse and friends
- Meals: Breakfast
- Price: $35-$59.99
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- Chef Mickey’s (Disney’s Contemporary Resort)
- Characters include Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pluto
- Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
- Price: $35-$59.99
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes
- Rated 4.5 out of 5 by guests on TripAdvisor
- O’hana
- Characters include Lilo and Stitch
- Meals: Breakfast
- Price: $35-$59.99
- 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: $35-$59.99
- Available with the Disney Dining Plan: Yes, requires 2 credits per person
- 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: $60+
- 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 Disney World Character Meal in 2023 and Beyond?
Character dining at Walt Disney World in 2023 returns to normal character dining. If you’re wondering what that means, let’s explain character dining in the age of COVID-19. At this time, to maintain social distance, characters would walk into a room, wave and walk around, but wouldn’t approach guests. If you were lucky, you might get one of these Disney All Stars to stand 6 feet or more behind your chair for you to grab a photo op, but there were no hugs, not autographs and no up close selfie shots. In 2023, characters are once again allowed to come to your table, pose for photographs and even sign autographs.
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 Yankees 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, and fortunately, they’re back for 2023. 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.
Another big difference with character meals at Disney World in 2023 is the return of the buffet dining experience. During the pandemic, buffet meals were served family style, with a select sampling of options brought to your table. In 2023, all buffet meals will be served traditionally, allowing guests the chance to peruse menu items and make selections for themselves from a counter of available choices.
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, hover over “things to do” in the top navigation, and then 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.
The Downside of Character Dining at Disney World
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. Often guests will 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.
Another option is to show up at the restaurant as a walk-in and see if they have availability. While this strategy is less likely to work for a character meal, it’s worth a try if you’ll be in the area.
Many guests navigate the issues above by working with a travel agent. Dedicated travel agents will make your Disney Character 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.
Best Fine Dining: Be Our Guest
Dining at Be Our Guest is the only way to see the Beast’s dining room. It’s also one of the few places within Disney parks where the Beast makes a visit.
While his appearances are scant and consist of a few stately bows, you’ll be compensated for his lack of presence by the quality of the food. It’s seriously some of the best we’ve had at Disney World.
Offering great food and a gracious host, the only drawback to Be Our Guest is the price tag. For our party of 4, the check totaled out at close to $300 with tip.
For more information, visit our brief Be Our Guest review.
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 Be Our Guest or either of the meals where princesses make an appearance. At these restaurants, expect your bill to top out at over $60 per adult.
While we loved our meal with the Beast, we’ve also found equal enjoyment from meals that are priced less. Most Disney Character meals top out at 59.99 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.
- If you are a Florida resident, an annual passholder or a member of the Disney Vacation Club, you can save up to 20 percent for yourself and up to 9 guests by joining Tables in Wonderland.
- 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.
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