Crystal Palace Dinner?

[hawaiilife]

What are your thoughts on Crystal Palace for dinner? Our kids are 8, 4, and 6 months. Are the characters fun here? Is there another restaurant you would recommend instead for our MK day? We already have ADRs at 1900 Park Fare and Hollywood and Vine (both dinner). I have heard mixed things about Crystal Palace and would love to hear your experiences!

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

What are your thoughts on Crystal Palace for dinner? Our kids are 8, 4, and 6 months. Are the characters fun here? Is there another restaurant you would recommend instead for our MK day? We already have ADRs at 1900 Park Fare and Hollywood and Vine (both dinner). I have heard mixed things about Crystal Palace and would love to hear your experiences!

Crystal Palace is always a must do for my family (we're going again this August). We've been eating at Crystal Palace on every single trip (sometimes twice) We've had breakfast, lunch and dinner here. I prefer breakfast (Pooh's puffed french toast, Mickey waffles ...) but my DD's like dinner. The characters are fantastic. Our favourite has always been Eeyore, but now that the girls are older teens, we get more entertainment from Tigger- he is always high energy and fun! There is a parade (Friendship Parade) and your 2 oldest are a great age to march in the parade. It can sometimes take a while for all 4 characters (we've always seen Piglet, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore... wish they'd include Rabbit) to get around. Leave yourself 1.5 hours to eat here. I believe there is a sundae bar for dessert at dinner too. We were there once with my young nieces and the characters were careful when approaching, just to make sure the younger kids were receptive to them. They keep their distance if your child seems upset by them. Get your camera's ready for some fun photo's (especially with ). I'd keep this reservation. It's in a great location and we love the 100 acre woods crew. Maybe show your kids a few Winnie the Pooh movies before too? Enjoy!

 

[B-Ride]

I think the atmosphere and characters there are great. The food is standard buffet fare.

 

[DWillowBay]

The characters are great and CMs have always been top-notch. The food is good, but not AMAZING. But, it was never meant to be that. It's a beautiful atmosphere and and a fun dinner.

 

[kastoney]

The kids will love the characters, but for me I want to enjoy the food and we just didn't at Crystal Palace. Its certainly just dialed in buffet food, but truth in advertising we don't care for buffets in generally. We typically pick our restaurants based on the food and for us the favs at MK for dinner would be Skippers Canteen or The Plaza. The latter isn't much more expensive than counter service and a great place to sit down for a meal without breaking the bank.

 

[Pumbaa_]

We like a late lunch here, around 2 or 3. Food just as good and a nice off time.

Love pooh and friends

 

[DizneyMommy]

It’s been a few years since we dined here, but we did not like it and won’t be back this year. The food was ok, the characters were ok, but it felt cramped and chaotic to me. Very loud, so much hustling and bustling of people past our table and getting constantly bumped into. When the characters came it was hard to get photos because of the tight space. It was our least favorite character meal of the trip, we enjoyed the atmosphere at Hollywood and Vine better which isn’t saying much!

 

[Bostonbeans99]

Went there last night & the characters were fabulous!!!!!! My "kids" are 18-22 but the characters horsed around with them a lot. I have several "selfies" my daughter took of her & Tigger & Tigger kept "crowding" my daughter til by the 5th selfie it was just Tiggers huge face and a fraction of my daughters face...which was hilarious. I will post later if I can. My family are picky eaters and they loved the food too.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

What are your thoughts on Crystal Palace for dinner? Our kids are 8, 4, and 6 months. Are the characters fun here? Is there another restaurant you would recommend instead for our MK day? We already have ADRs at 1900 Park Fare and Hollywood and Vine (both dinner). I have heard mixed things about Crystal Palace and would love to hear your experiences!

We think it't great! Food is good and characters are awesome! We have had breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dinner while watching the fireworks is the best! Our girls were 3 and 6 last time we ate there last year. they loved it!

 

[Kevlar10]

We have done PPO breakfast and late dinner for the fireworks. The character interaction has been the best we've had. The only downside is that the food is average, not bad, just not as much variety as Tusker House which I would consider a comparable example.

 

[tinkerhon]

It’s been a few years since we dined here, but we did not like it and won’t be back this year. The food was ok, the characters were ok, but it felt cramped and chaotic to me. Very loud, so much hustling and bustling of people past our table and getting constantly bumped into. When the characters came it was hard to get photos because of the tight space. It was our least favorite character meal of the trip, we enjoyed the atmosphere at Hollywood and Vine better which isn’t saying much!

Exactly this ! It was wild in there ! A little too crazy for us ! We did enjoy the food, and it was chaotic!

 

[Lisa F]

I love breakfast there, I think the food is better than at dinner and also it's less expensive. Dinner food is just ok but you do get the great character interaction and atmosphere. I'd do dinner if nothing else worked but usually plan a breakfast.

 

[DisneyFive]

It's one of the more solid buffets. Nice interior. Pooh characters are great for that age. I wouldn't steer you away from it.

Dan

 

[jacknsally19]

This is my favorite character meal. I've done breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I think they are all great meals. And, I think its the best restaurant in MK. (Although that is kind of a low bar.)

 

[MomOTwins]

When we went for dinner, I did not care for the food, it was VERY crowded, and very slow to see the characters. We had a 6:15 pm reservation and were not seated until about 7:20, then waited over an hour at our table and saw only one character, and then gave up and left, so I guess that is consistent with others here saying dinner takes 90 minutes, but it was definitely more time than I wanted to spend and then to not even see the characters. It also left a sour taste in my mouth when our baby fell forward in his high chair and hit his head on the sharp table edge so hard that he was bleeding and started crying, and a CM immediately rushed over and told me I would need to step outside with him until he quieted down instead of offering first aid. I left, patched him up and soothed him and came back, but I did not care for their response one bit.

Another trip we decided to give them a second chance and we went for a PPO breakfast. The wait was better (about 20 minutes), and it was quieter when we arrived, though was packed by the time we left. The food was again a definite miss for us--the potato casserole had still-frozen, raw potatoes in it, and the french toast casserole was wayyyy too sweet for my taste--just a puddle of sugary mush. Everything else was pretty standard Disney breakfast.

This all could just be the usual disney inconsistency, but after two very clear bad experiences for us, we won't be back. For MK, BOG and CRT are our favorites, though hard reservations to get, followed by Tony's.

 

[Cinderella94]

We do dinner here every trip and like it very much. I will say that this is one of the longer character meals--for some reason it seems like these characters move more slowly. And I would put it second only to Chef Mickey's in terms of most chaotic--kids everywhere screaming. I'm not saying this as a complaint -- we know what we're signing up for when we make this ADR -- it's just much more prevalent here than any other character meal we've done (except, as I said, Chef Mickeys).