Happily Ever After Character Dinner

[specialmemory]

Looking for opinions on the Grand Floridians Happily Ever After dinner. We will be in Animal Kingdom that day and will be going to Downtown Disney after dinner. I was told its not worth the distance we need to travel and that the food isn't very good. We may just stay at AK and eat at the Rainforest Cafe. What do you think?

 

[Jeanieblue114]

If you want a character meal, then it might be nice to go to. They sometimes (last i checked) have the evil stepmother and stepsisters there so they are super fun....if you like that kind of interaction.

You will have at least an hour of transportation time from AK to the GF and then another hour to DTD after that.
I think that Rainforest cafe is a lot of fun and has some great food (HUGE portions and NO DINING PLAN ACCEPTED).
Just for sanity reasons, I would recommend enjoying dinner at Rainforest Cafe. There is a location at Animal Kingdom Park AND another location at Downtown Disney.

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

I don't know if I would do the Happily Ever After Dinner if I was going to have to travel all the way from AK. We are doing the dinner on our MK day, take the monorail to and from MK. On our AK/DTD day we are eating dinner at Raglan Road, love that place!

 

[Hootch]

the biggest complaints I hear about Disney transportation is the time between DAK and MK and the monorail resorts to DTD.

My son and I do DAK the morning before our CRT lunch. I would say 35 minutes is our average travel time to the Contemporary. The issue with the monorial resorts is that the DTD bus makes several stops.

Looking at the table in my 2006 Unofficial Guide the time for DAK to GF on Disney transportation is listed as 34 - 46 minutes. For GF to DTD it is 59 -78 minutes. (These times include waits in line.) If you have your own car each leg is less than 20 minutes.

 

[kaybird]

This was one of our favorite meals. Lots of choices and some clever dishes for a buffet. Probably the best dessert buffet we have seen. Lady tremaine and the stepsisters were hilarious, and Cinderella was delightful. Easy enough to get to GF from AK, take either the GF bus, or the MK bus and then the monorail.

 

[kaytieedid]

We ate there last Halloween. I don't know if it was an exceptionally busy night since it's close to the MK and everyone may have been going to MNSSHP. It was pure chaos. We were lead back to the dining room, the double doors opened, and I stood there staring. There were people everywhere, waiters running around, kids up out of their seats. I have been to many character meals and it's always "busy" but not pure chaos. I inhaled my dinner and couldn't wait to get out of there. The food wasn't good and it was probably the most stressful situation of the trip. The characters were good we got some great pictures of our kids with the step sisters, cinderella etc. It was just the atmosphere I found less than desirable.