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magic kingdom restaurant

Best Restaurant for Adults in the Magic Kingdom

While most visitors to Walt Disney World are families of some sort, there are quite a few adults that travel without kids to the parks. It is true that everyone loves a good character meal, but if you are without kids, it usually isn’t the first option for most adults, they are more likely to choose a place that has decent food and is a relaxing experience.

Disney has done a nice job of adding a few more dining options in the Magic Kingdom that don’t feature characters as the main attraction. Both Be Our Guest and Skipper Canteen have opened recently, as well as the dining options added to The Diamond Horseshoe. These restaurants are great for adults and kids alike, and I would love to see more of these as the Magic Kingdom and other parks expand their dining options. But which of the Magic Kingdom restaurants is the best for adults in the Magic Kingdom?

I couldn’t narrow this down to just one, so here are my top three Magic Kingdom restaurants for adults

be our guest

  1. Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen – If you are a big fan of the Jungle Cruise, this option may jump up the list for you. Skipper Canteen is open for lunch and dinner, both have similar menus and both lunch and dinner are considered a table service credit on the Disney Dining plans. Skipper Canteen features some unique food for Walt Disney World including Rice Noodle Bowl with Duck, Curried Vegetable Crew Stew and an adult macaroni and cheese (Skip’s Mac & Cheese) that  includes spicy ground beef, pasta and béchamel sauce. Yum! Along with your delectable meals, you also get awesome Jungle Cruise decor and an ample supply of cheesy jokes. Skipper Canteen has only been open a few months, so expect the menu to change as some entrees are weeded out and others are added, but expect Skipper Canteen to always be a great place to eat.
  2. Liberty Tree Tavern – Lunch is a la cart from the menu, and dinner is served family style and includes Pot Roast, Roasted Turkey and Ham with vegetables and mashed potatoes. From the decor to the food, everything about Liberty Tree Tavern screams “comfort”, it is just a nice, fun, relaxing place to eat. Both lunch and dinner are considered a table service credit on the Disney Dining Plans. While some old timers might remember that characters were once a staple of Liberty Tree Tavern, that has not been the case for a few years, so colonial goofy won’t be hanging over you while you try to finish off that third serving of ham.
  3. Be Our Guest – OK, this may seem like a strange choice, but bear with me. Even adults can dream of dining with Belle in the Beast’s castle, and now you can. Breakfast and lunch are considered a quick-service restaurant and dinner is considered a table service restaurant on the Disney Dining Plans. Reservations are REQUIRED for all meals. For adults, dinner is the best option, as it doesn’t seem as rushed and the food is better, though if you can’t get in for dinner, lunch is awesome. Be Our Guest features roasted lamb, braised pork coq au vin style, grilled strip steak and an awesome ratatouille, though I wish it was double the size. And don’t miss the grey stuff for dessert, it is delicious. Be Our Guest features three rooms, a huge ballroom that is a replica from Be Our Guest, complete with falling snow outside the window, a second room that is the castle gallery that is nice and bright, and then the West Wing, home to the Beast, is very dark and foreboding, complete with lightening, paintings that change from the beast to the prince and back and the enchanted rose. I always try to sit in the West Wing, but it is tiny and hard to get. You can even stop by and see the Beast near the entrance if you desire.

What is your favorite restaurants for adults in the Magic Kingdom?

character meals

Too Many Character Meals

I plan a lot of Disney vacations. While you think you may go to Disney a lot, and do a lot of planning, I plan over 500 Walt Disney World vacations a year. I see every possible scenario you can imagine, everything from people on a tight budget to unlimited budgets, adults traveling by themselves to large groups of 50+ family members, you can’t imagine a scenario I haven’t seen. I am usually pretty flexible on requests, but there is one thing that clients insist on that I do not agree: character meals. While I am not against character meals, I do them with my family all the time even though my kids are teenagers now, I do have a problem with too many character meals.

Why I am not a fan of Walt Disney World character meals

  • Character Meals take a lot of time. The standard character rotation at most character meals is 60 – 90 minutes, meaning that if you want to see all of the characters, you have to wait at your table for 60 – 90 minutes. Most of the time that means wasted time just sitting around in order to Eeyore and Piglet.
  • Buffets. Just about every character meal at Walt Disney World is a buffet. For the most part, the food offerings at buffets are sub-par, you typically get much better food at non-character meal restaurants. If I can avoid a buffet, whether at Walt Disney World or at home, I do.

I have quite a few clients that insist on booking one or two character meals each day of their trip. I can’t imagine anything that will ruin your Disney vacation faster. Almost universally, every client that insists on doing that, does not do it on their next Disney vacation. They realize that after one or two character meals, their kids just don’t like it. Both adults and kids burn out pretty quickly on character meals. Meal time is a great time to take a break from all the over stimulation of the theme parks, but by adding characters to every meal, you never get that mental break.

My suggestions on Walt Disney World character meals

  • Make 1 or 2 character meals during your stay. If you don’t have little kids, you can skip them all together, but I do still think they are worth doing. Even though your teenage daughter will throw a fit at the mention of dining with princesses, deep down they still love it, and will have a blast, though you may never know it the expression on their face.
  • Spread your reservations out. Do one character meal early in your trip, maybe the first day as a start to your vacation. If you are doing a second, try to schedule it at the end of your trip, as a farewell to Disney meal.
  • Make your reservations for a late breakfast or early lunch time, that will give you a few hours in the parks to get things done, and you won’t feel rushed to eat and get back to the parks. That will also cover both breakfast and lunch for you in one stop.
  • Everyone loves Cinderella’s Royal Table, but consider doing Royal Akershush Banquet Hall Storybook Dining instead. It is half the price (when on the Disney Dining Plan), you still get to see all the princesses and I think the food is quite a bit better. You can meet Cinderella at dinner at 1900 Park Fare. Hollywood and Vine is doing some awesome seasonal themed dinners, and offers Star Wars themed meals during some months.
  • Don’t follow the sheep. While everyone loves Chef Mickey’s and Cinderella’s Royal Table, there are other character meals that offer better food and are more interesting.
  • Please note, Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom IS NOT a character meal. While Beast is there at dinner time, he only hangs out in a little alcove, and does not go table to table. If you didn’t know he was there you probably wouldn’t even notice him.
  • Make reservations at restaurants you wouldn’t normally do at home. Walt Disney World, and especially Epcot, offer some very watered down version of restaurant that you may not visit when at home. Not many people have a Moroccan restaurant near their home, but Epcot has 2 (3 including Tangierine Cafe, the quick-service restaurant). Just about every restaurant at Walt Disney World is kid friendly, it is Disney after all, the place is crawling with kids. I have taken kids as young as 5 to California Grill, Flying Fish and other nice restaurants. They expect kids on a daily basis, and know how to deal with them. Expose your kids to nice places or different cuisines at Disney, it is the perfect place to do so, and makes it much easier do to so at home as they have already had an easy experience at Disney.

Do you do character meals on your Disney vacation?

disney things

5 Disney Things You Should Know This Week – April 15, 2016

Each Friday, I provide 5 Disney things all Disney fans should know from this past week, just in case you missed them. Here are the super important Disney news items for this week:

 Fastpass+ Changes

fast passes

This week, Walt Disney World made some significant changes to their FastPass+ system. While not all the issues are resolved with the system, these changes go a long way towards making it much more guest friendly.

  • You will now be able to choose individual FastPass+ experiences and times, and will no longer need to make all selections for the same day at the same time.
  • While you will continue to be able to select up to three experiences in advance, they now will be able to book fewer than three selections, if desired.
  • In addition, when you have used their first three FastPass+ selections, you will now be able to make an additional FastPass+ selection via the My Disney Experience mobile app, in addition to in-park kiosks. You will no longer be forced to find one of the kiosks in the park. Once you have used the fourth, they will be able to select another, and so on.

For more information on these new FastPass changes: FastPass+ Changes

2017 Summer Disney Cruises

2017 Summer Disney Cruises

Disney Cruise Line released additional 2017 Cruise itineraries and dates for all four Disney Cruise ships. Bookings for cruises are not available through September, 2017. Disney Cruise will be sailing to both Alaska and Europe during the Summer of 2017, and some great cruises have been added from Florida as well, including 4 and 5-night cruises on the Disney Dream with 2 days on Castaway Cay, as well as a 10 and an 11-night Southern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy.

Check out the details: 2017 Disney Cruises

An update on Disney After Hours

Several weeks ago, Walt Disney World announced Disney After Hours, a new night time event hosted in the Magic Kingdom. The cost is $149 per person, and grants you 3 hours in the Magic Kingdom after the park closes (the ticket also gets you into the Magic Kingdom 3 hours before closing, so you do get 6 hours in total in the park). Last night, April 14, as the very first night of Disney After Hours. We had an agent in the park, she sacrificed herself for the cause. While very little details were released when announced, you can see from the image below that basically all attractions are open during the event. Last night, it was reported that there were less than 1,000 people in the park for those three hours. Lines were completely nonexistent, and our agent was able to ride every single ride in the Magic Kingdom in less than 3 hours. I think she is still asleep.

While $149 per person is a lot of money, there are some situations where it may be worth it. Disney After Hours isn’t for everyone, but it may be great for some, which is the whole idea.

Disney After Hours

Amorette’s Patisserie Opens May 15 at Disney Springs

mickey cake

If you have a bit of a sweet tooth, this may be right up your alley. Amorette’s Patisserie is set to open in Disney Springs on May 15, 2016. Classic and contemporary cakes and pastries are the stars in this high-end pastry shop where guests can watch pastry chefs decorate signature cakes in the on-stage finishing kitchen. Even the beautiful boutique-style packaging, inspired by old-fashioned hatboxes, lends to the sophisticated feel of the location. I can’t wait!

Night of Joy Tickets now on Sale

night of joy

The annual Christian Music festival is coming to Walt Disney World again in 2016. Tickets are now on sale. This 2 day event features many of the world’s best known contemporary christian artists. One big change this year, the festival will be held at Disney’s Wide World of Sports rather than in the Magic Kingdom.

There are a few different ticket options:

  • A single-night, concert only ticket for Friday, September 9 – $39 plus tax (in advance); $45 the day of the show (if available).
  • A single-night concert and one-day Disney theme park ticket (valid for one of the four Walt Disney World Resort theme parks) for Saturday, September 10 – $99 plus tax (in advance); $114 plus tax the day of the show (if available).*
  • A two-night concert ticket (which includes both nights’ concerts and one-day Disney theme park ticket (valid for one of the four Walt Disney World Resort theme parks) – $119 plus tax (in advance).*

And, if that weren’t enough, guests who purchase the two-day ticket on or before August 9, 2016 will also receive one (1) admission to their choice of Disney’s Blizzard Beach or Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon valid from September 6 – September 12, 2016.

Check out NightofJoy.com for more information and to purchase tickets.

Did I miss any Disney news this week that should have been included?