Two popular restaurants recently reopened and the fantastic Cast Members are celebrating. We previously shared the news that Tusker House reopened on June 20, with Casey’s Corner not far behind on June 30. Well, Cast Members returning to these restaurants are all smiles about the reopening!
As shared via Walt Disney World Cast and Community Facebook: “From swinging baseball bats to swinging through the jungle, our Cast are keeping busy! Recently, they welcomed guests back to two of our favorite dining locations, Casey’s Corner and Tusker House Restaurant. We can’t thank these awesome Cast Members enough for all the magical moments – and delicious food – they serve up each day.”
With Tusker House Restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom scheduled to open on June 20, Disney has now released the full menu and pricing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. While the buffet at Tusker House is officially gone for now, the family-style menu is brimming with African-inspired flavors. While you dine Donald Duck and friends will visit the dining room and greet guests from afar with this modified character dining experience.
Breakfast
Tusker House Restaurant Breakfast Pricing: $42 per adult, plus tax and gratuity; $27 per child, plus tax and gratuity
Breakfast Offerings include:
Pastries Basket with Safari Bread, Multigrain Croissants and Cornbread served with Whipped Butter, Nutella, and Strawberry Preserves.
Fresh Fruit with Honey Yogurt sauce
Breakfast Platter with Potatoes, Scrambled Eggs, Mickey and Simba-shaped Waffles, Bacon, Sausage, Durban Chicken-Egg Curry with Jasmine Rice
Lunch & Dinner
Tusker House Restaurant Lunch & Dinner Pricing: $55 per adult, plus tax and gratuity; $42 per child, plus tax and gratuity
Starters:
Assorted House-made Breads served with Hummus, Coriander and Mango Chutney
African Inspired Salads: Kachumbari and Arcadian Green Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette Dressing
Entrée:
Moroccan Spiced Beef
Cape Malay Green Curry Shrimp
Spit-Roasted Herb Chicken
Berber Marinated Pork
Sides:
Green Beans with Carrots and Corn
Roasted Potatoes
Jasmine Rice
House-made Macaroni and Cheese
Desserts: Animal Inspired Mini Desserts
Several mocktails, cocktails, beer and wine are available as well. Check out the full list here.
Ready to book your breakfast, lunch, or dinner? Bookings start Friday, June 4. Don’t wait to make your reservation as we suspect Tusker House will be as popular as ever with its return!
Exciting news for all those Tusker House fans out there! The dining experience will be slightly different from the previous buffet, and the character experience will be modified. Today, Disney has released the reopening DATE!
As shared via Disney Parks Twitter: “Just announced: Tusker House Restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park will be reopening on June 20! Bookings start Friday, June 4. Graze on a bountiful family-style menu brimming with African-inspired flavors and see the host, Donald Duck—along with his Disney Friends!”
We’re so excited to have an official opening date! Are you making plans to dine with Donald Duck and friends at Tusker House? Be sure to snag those reservations as soon as possible when they open bookings this Friday, June 4.
Dining at Walt Disney World has been a challenge since many table and quick-service restaurants remain closed around property during the phased reopening. Thankfully, Disney has announced new table service options that are returning to Walt Disney World.
Starting May 16, Chef Mickey’s will offer an all-you-care-to-enjoy family-style dinner that will include “no touch” appearances like snapping a selfie or waving hello as Mickey Mouse and some of his favorite pals make surprising appearances in each of the dining rooms. Similar to other character dining locations, Guests will take home a souvenir with character signatures and colorful artwork.
Seeing your favorite characters isn’t all you can look forward to at Chef Mickey’s! The dinner menu will include items for the whole family, like starters of “Chef Mickey’s Caesar,” citrus-poached shrimp salad, and assorted breads; main courses of gnocchi, roasted garlic potato Gratin, plant-based faro wheat fried rice, prime rib, roasted turkey, and salmon; and an assortment of sweets to top off the meal. Little ones in your family can enjoy mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, turkey corn dog nuggets, and more!
Cape May Café
If you ever dream of escaping to the beach and enjoying all the delicious food of an oceanside town, you’ll be happy that Cape May Café at Disney’s Beach Club Resort reopens on May 18! The New England-style restaurant is a perfect location to refuel before and after a day of adventure at Walt Disney World.
Guests returning to Cape May Café will find old favorites and new changes, along with its signature service and quality. The restaurant will serve breakfast and dinner, but Minnie’s Beach Bash Character Breakfast and the Seafood-and-More Dinner Buffet will not return at reopening.
That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of treats in store! The all-you-care-to enjoy family-style breakfast menu will feature popular staples like pastries (including the layered crispy, cream-filled “Lobster Tail”), omelets, and Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse waffles. Highlights from dinner will include house-made Parker House rolls and corn bread, a seafood boil with a variety of fresh seafood, The Turf Platter with steak and chicken, and – my personal favorite – lobster mac and cheese.
Bookings for Cape May Café and dinnertime at Chef Mickey’s open on May 7.
Tusker House Restaurant
The guest-favorite character dining location at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, Tusker House Restaurant, will reopen this summer! During the modified character experience, guests will enjoy delicious family-style entrees inspired by the flavors of Africa and can snap photos of Donald Duck and friends, dressed in their safari best as they promenade through the restaurant. We will share more about the menu and reservation information soon.
Since going to Disney with our daughter who was 2 at the time, we have always enjoyed going to Character Dining experiences. There is nothing I maybe have enjoyed more than watching my kids get their autograph books out and wait for the next character to come by.
Most of these dining experiences are buffets, so it is important to understand what foods you and your family will enjoy better when making a decision on what experiences to reserve and what meal to attend.
Because of this, most of character experiences that we do attend are breakfast meals. I am not sure I have ever had a bad breakfast at WDW.
When deciding that you are going to reserve a spot at some of these places, having a Disney dining plan is beneficial as some of these meals are a little pricey due to most of them being buffets and the extra benefit of seeing the characters.
There are 15 total character dining destinations that you can chose from. We have experienced 8 of the 15.
For all of these dining experiences, one thing is clear…Bring Your Autograph Books!
Here are our Top Five, in no particular order;
Crystal Palace
Located at the Magic Kingdom just off of Main Street USA, The Crystal Palace resembles England’s Crystal Palace, which was erected in Hyde Park. The restaurant’s white steel supports, arched ceilings, and glass roof (especially the atrium) are tributes to its namesake, built to house London’s 1851 Great Exhibition—the first world’s fair—and among the first structures to use plate glass in large quantities.
Crystal Palace
Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Crystal Palace offers some of the best buffet food on property. It’s a great place to start your day in the Magic Kingdom or close out a wonderful day of rides and fun. While we normally eat here for Breakfast, the dinner here is also really good.
The food is consistently good, but eating seems secondary to the desire to get lots of photos with Pooh and his pals. If you time dinner right and can snag a table away from like-minded diners, there is a great view of Main Street parades in the conservatory.
Breakfast prices are average for WDW standards, breakfast is cheaper to visit if you do not have a Disney Dining Plan (DDP).
Who to Meet:
Winnie the Pooh
Tigger
Piglet
Eeyore
Tusker House
Tusker House is located in Animal Kingdom inside the Harambe Village square— is plainer than Disney’s promotional photos would indicate, especially after dark. The food is surprisingly good, with spices and taste combinations you won’t find at other spots.
Tusker House
This buffet style meal is inspired by African and Indian dishes with the classic American dishes as well.
One of the highlights of the meal is the Jungle Juice that is served. It is a mixture of orange juice, guava juice, and passionfruit juice. It is one of those things that you either love it of hate it, I think it’s really good.
The food is priced very reasonable for the quality
Who to Meet: (all dressed in expedition gear)
Mickey Mouse
Goofy
Donald Duck
Daisy
Chef Mickey’s
Chef Mickey’s is located at the Contemporary Resort in an open air restaurant. The food take a back seat to the atmosphere that is created by the characters and the resort. Before you are even seated, a picture with the Chef Mickey statue is a must.
Chef Mickey’s
In all of our experiences at Chef Mickey’s, the place has been a zoo, but that’s absolutely to be expected of a restaurant like this. Kids get excited, parents let them run around…it happens. Don’t eat here if you’re not keen on the idea of someone else’s rugrat jumping around your table.
The food is pricier than most on this list but the experience is well worth it.
The food is all American comfort food. While this is not the most exciting, the food tastes really good too. Anyone can find something to eat on this buffet.
The layout of the restaurant and the whole resort level creates a loud, busy experience. The monorail can be heard whirring into the resort overhead.
This is a must visit for every WDW trip.
Who to Meet: (all in chef attire)
Mickey Mouse
Minnie Mouse
Donald Duck
Goofy
Pluto
1900 Park Fare
This restaurant, located at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa that has 2 separate character meals. The Supercalifragilistic Breakfast and the Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner gives you a chance to meet some characters that it is tough to find elsewhere.
This is another one of those dining experiences where the atmosphere overshadows the food and decor. The characters play their part fantastically from the Mad Hatter to Cinderella’s Stepsisters. The interaction that you can have with the characters is much more personal due to them actually being allowed to talk to you.
The food is much better at breakfast than dinner but still a solid buffet. It is also reasonably priced for being in an extravagant hotel like the Grand Floridian.
Who to Meet:
Breakfast
Mary Poppins
Alice (Alice in Wonderland)
Mad Hatter
Winnie the Pooh
Tigger
Dinner
Cinderella
Prince Charming
Lady Tremaine
Anastasia
Drisella
Cinderella’s Royal Table
The only character dining experience on this list that is not a buffet, this is located in Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom.
Cinderella’s Castle
Although the food is decent, this experience is all about the nostalgia.
The atmosphere is all castle and royalty. When you are allowed in, the initial picture with Cinderella feels like you are in a real life castle. Once the photo session is complete, you are called upstairs to your table.
If you don’t take the elevator, the winding staircase up to the dining hall just adds to the castle like feel.
Once at your table, all “princes” are given swords and all “princesses” are given fairy wands
Music introduces each Princess and they begin to make their rounds to each table. One of my favorite Disney memories was when our daughter was 2 and we experienced this for the first time on Christmas morning. All of the Disney Princesses took time with our daughter and you could tell she loved the experience.
This meal is probably pricey but it is so worth it if you have little kids or simply love nostalgia.
