Character Dining
We did a lot of character dining on our trip!
The restaurants we went to were:
- Tusker House at Animal Kingdom – unique African inspired flavors and safari outfits for the characters
- Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom – Winnie the Pooh classic characters
- Akershus at Epcot – princesses
- Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary – Fab Five
All of our character interactions were wonderful. I thought the food was good at all of our meals, but none of it was outstanding. With character dining, it’s important to remember you are paying for the experience with the characters. The meals are more expensive, but it beats waiting in line to meet the characters.
My kids loved taking pictures with the characters, getting their autograph books signed, and we all appreciated the chance to sit down. All of our sit down meals took place between 9:45am and 11am. This worked perfect because we could get into the park in the morning and start using our lightning lanes, get a couple other rides done, and then sit down to relax and eat.
Quick Service
The quick service restaurants we ate at were:
- Columbia Harbour House at Magic Kingdom – quiet, air conditioned, and tons of seating
- Satu’li Canteen at Animal Kingdom – not the most kid friendly options even on the kids menu
- Connections Cafe at Epcot – huge space with tons of indoor seating
Tips:
- Mobile order whenever possible! You can order hours in advance and pick an arrival window, which can be changed. Click “I’m on my way” when you are close by. You will receive a notification when your food is ready and information about where to pick it up. We never waited in line to order.
- If you are using the dining plan, all meals include a drink, which can be alcoholic for adults.
We used the Disney Dining Plan which included 1 table service credit, 1 quick service credit, 1 snack, and 1 refillable drink mug per person (3 and older) per night. Infants do not receive credits under the dining plan, but do eat “free” at buffets and family style meals. In 2026, kids can get a free dining plan under the promotion currently available, if all adults on the reservation are also on the dining plan. For our family of 5, this was absolutely worth it. The cost per adult is $99 per day, which meant most of our meals were covered for our entire trip at just $198 a day (our Chef Mickey’s meal alone would have been about $220 if we paid for it rather than using the dining plan).
We paid for very little food outside of the dining plan because we did not eat 3 large meals each day. Most mornings we grabbed some muffins and fruit on the way out the door to the bus, and saved our appetites for our sit down meals. We utilized our snack credits on items such as ice cream bars, french fries, Mickey pretzels, and iced coffees. There are plenty of options throughout the parks that could be shared and will hold you over between meals. Look for the symbol on the menu to indicate a snack credit can be used.
It’s important to let your servers know you are using the dining plan. They always asked us when taking our drink orders, but it would be important to let them know if they do not ask. When using mobile order, you can easily pick if you want to use dining credit meals or pay for the items you are ordering. It’s also important to remember that when using the dining plan, you should still tip your servers as you typically would at a restaurant.