The Crystal Palace is one of three Magic Kingdom character dining options and definitely the cutest! This is where you’ll find the cuddly and adorable characters from Winnie-the-Pooh.
We are big fans of Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and Winnie-the-Pooh, especially after seeing the wonderful Christopher Robin movie, and were keen to revisit this fun character meal on our most recent trip.
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Magic Kingdom character dining
Located just off Main Street before you reach Cinderella’s Castle, The Crystal Palace is a beautiful building surrounded by lovely gardens. Reminiscent of a conservatory or greenhouse, the windows on all sides and greenery throughout creates a light-filled, attractive environment.
The convenient location makes it an ideal spot for a rest, so break up your day, enjoy the lovely air-conditioning and get away from the crowds. Indulge in a delicious meal and get some super cute photos.
The other Magic Kingdom character dining options are the spectacular Cinderella’s Royal Table (our experience here) and meeting the Beast at dinner at Be Our Guest.
Crystal Palace
All meals are buffet-style with a very relaxed attitude to how long you stay. Most people have a busy schedule around the park, but you are welcome to stay a while and relax.
Bookings are offered almost continuously all day, starting with breakfast, then a half hour break before lunch and a half hour break before dinner.
On our first visit we loved having a booking around 10.30am, which meant a couple of hours of rides beforehand while the park is quiet. Breakfast was being served when we arrived, but it changed to lunch while we were there. The best of both worlds!
This time we chose a lunch time booking at 12 noon to get all our rides in during the quieter morning, take our time over lunch, then had one FastPass and some souvenir shopping on the way out of the park. This plan also worked really well.
Crystal Palace characters
You will definitely meet Winnie-the-Pooh at this Disney World character meal. Disney gives no promises about the other characters, but you are almost certain to meet Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet.
The characters will come to your table one at a time and every half hour or so they will lead a parade around the restaurant. Great fun for smaller children!
The atmosphere at Crystal Palace is friendly and inviting. All meals are served buffet style, which adds to the relaxed environment.
Crystal Palace breakfast
The buffet breakfast offerings are similar to what you will find at many Disney World restaurants – scrambled eggs, Mickey waffles, breakfast potatoes, bacon, sausage, pastries and cereals. Breakfast is always a good choice for the kids, who seem to find something they like more easily than at other meals.
Crystal Palace lunch and dinner
American/Western food is the focus of the lunch and dinner buffets. You will find a soup, a selection of salads and bread, seafood, vegetables, chicken, a couple of roast meats and an array of desserts.
So nothing particularly adventurous, but quite delicious just the same.
Crystal Palace prices
Prices are variable depending on which meal you attend, but it is one of the more affordable character meals available at Disney World.
We found in early 2019 that breakfast was about US$40 per adult, and lunch and dinner were about US$55 per adult. Kids under 10 years are around 2/3 the adult price.
More information and reservations on the Disney site.
Bookings open 180 days in advance and I recommend diarising to make your booking at that point. Remember that you don’t have to pay anything until you have your meal and you can cancel bookings up until 1 day in advance without penalty. If you’re not sure when you want to go, then make a few bookings and cancel the ones you don’t want at a later time.
Having said that, I found the Crystal Palace character meal to be one of the easier bookings to get.
Three Crystal Palace tips
1. Have the kids sit on the outside of the table closest to the characters so they can easily jump up for a hug.
2. Get your autograph books open at the page you want signed. And don’t forget a pen! A texta or Sharpie is easiest for the characters to hold and write with.
3. There are no Photopass photographers, so be ready with your camera or phone when the characters are getting close.
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