The Best Character Dining Options Currently Available At Disney Parks

When booking a vacation at The Walt Disney World Resort, there are many character dining options at the parks. Whether it’s to meet your favorite characters from Disney Jr. or to see a princess, we have the best of each park’s character dining listed below for you.

What Is Character Dining?

Character Dining experiences are many guests’ favorite ways to meet classic Disney characters in a time efficient way. While visiting the parks, you may notice that regular meet and greets at locations such as Princess Fairytale Hall or Town Square Theater usually have lines averaging over 30 minutes. If your goal is to meet as many characters as possible, you’ll learn it’s can be time-consuming. When you dine at a select character dining location, you can enjoy your meal while skipping the lines for the character meet and greets because the characters rotate to your tables. At the same time, you have the comfort of sitting down and enjoying a delicious meal.

Magic Kingdom

At Magic Kingdom, it’s no surprise that Cinderella’s Royal Table is the top choice for character dining. Entering the castle alone makes this a central magical spot for any Disney lover. As you enter the castle, you will be greeted by Cinderella herself. Once you go up the castle’s spiraling staircase and enter the royal banquet hall, you’ll see a prix fixe menu. While dining, you will be greeted by Cinderella’s royal friends, such as Snow White, Ariel, Princess Aurora, and Princess Jasmine. Children also are gifted a wishing star and a sword or magic wand to enjoy after their dining experience. Dining here would save you time if you were planning to wait in those long princess meet and greet lines at EPCOT’s World Showcase or throughout the Magic Kingdom.

EPCOT

While enjoying your time at EPCOT, we recommend dining at The Garden Grill, where Mickey is hosting a family-style meal with his friends Pluto, Chip, and Dale. Out of all the dining locations on The Walt Disney World Resort, this is the only dining experience featuring Chip and Dale for dining meet and greets. Garden Grill is also an immersive experience as this restaurant is a physical 360 rotating restaurant located above the Living With The Land attraction. Some of the food you will enjoy is fresh to the table from the gardens of Living With The Land.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios is a great way to meet various characters. In the mornings, Minnie Mouse hosts a breakfast buffet with her Disney JR. friends. This is one of the best character meal options because it’s the only dining location where you can meet characters such as Doc McStuffins, Vamparinia, Fancy Nancy, and Roadster Goofy. Hollywood and Vine has a seasonal Character Dining experience hosted by Minnie Mouse where you can meet Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Mickey Mouse in seasonal costumes you may not be able to find wearing anywhere else in the parks. These dining experiences are unique and truly one of Hollywood Studios’ best offerings.

Animal Kingdom

Tusker House restaurant is the only character dining location at Animal Kingdom Park, so it is a must-do. You’ll find Donald Duck himself hosts this experience, and his pals Mickey and Goofy are there to join. Depending on your visit, you may see other familiar characters such as Daisy Duck, Pluto, and Minnie Mouse. Additionally, this location is one of the only places where Donald and the gang wear their special safari outfits while they meet guests inside the restaurant. Currently, this restaurant is family-style and will return to being a full-service buffet on November 1st, 2022.

No matter where you choose to dine with the characters at The Walt Disney World Resort, you are sure to have a magical time. Character dining allows you to maximize your times in the park while truly having those immersive and memorable meet n greets.

Featured photo by Bobby Asen