Disney character meals are a great way to meet characters, and there are a variety of character dining experiences at Walt Disney World Resort. In this post, I’ll be sharing our family experience at the popular Crystal Palace Winnie the Pooh Character Lunch in Magic Kingdom. Read more about the Pooh and Friends Lunch in this Crystal Palace Character meal review.
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Crystal Palace Disney World Reservations
The Crystal Palace is a stunning buffet restaurant located on Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom Park. Crystal Palace offers Disney character dining, featuring Winnie the Pooh and Friends, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
You can book Walt Disney World dining reservations up to 60 days in advance using the My Disney Experience app or the Walt Disney World Dining website which are straightforward and easy to use. You will be asked for your telephone number and credit card, and you can cancel or amend your dining reservation up to 24 hours before.
Tip for UK guests: When booking your dining reservation through My Disney Experience, phone numbers must be 10 digits, so to enter your UK number, drop the first ‘0’.
I made the booking for the Crystal Palace about a month in advance via the My Disney Experience app, originally for lunch at 1pm. Little T was unwell the day before we originally had planned to go to Magic Kingdom, so I logged in to modify our booking and managed to reschedule our lunch reservation for the following day at 12pm. I was lucky to find a time available the next day at such short notice, otherwise I would have had to cancel the booking altogether.
Related: Cape May Cafe Character Breakfast
The breakfast buffet at the Crystal Palace is on from 8am to 10:45am and costs $45 per adult and $29 per child (3 to 9 years old) plus tax and gratituity. Delicious breakfast offerings at the buffet include pancakes, waffles, bacon, fresh fruit and biscuits and gravy.
Related: Ohana Character Breakfast
The Crystal Palace lunch buffet is between 11am to 2:55pm, and costs $59 per adult and $38 per child (3 to 9 years old) plus tax and gratituity. The dinner buffet is available to book from 3pm to 9:30pm and also costs $59 per adult and $38 per child (3 to 9 years old) plus tax and gratituity.
The lunch and dinner offering includes carved prime rib, country fried chicken with gravy and Creole shrimp. Read on for more details and photos from the lunch buffet experience. View the Crystal Palace menus
Crystal Palace Lunch with Winnie the Pooh and Friends
The design of the Crystal Palace was inspired by Victorian greenhouses of the late 1800s and features topiaries, tropical palms and lots of natural light.
Locations that are thought to have influenced the design of the Crystal Palace include the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers and, a favourite of this blog, Kew Gardens in London.
Crystal Palace Disney Characters
Our family loved having the chance to meet Winnie the Pooh and Friends and watch them make their their way around the Crystal Palace restaurant. The Crystal Palace Disney characters you will see at the buffet dining experience are Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore.
The Crystal Palace Character Lunch turned out to be a wonderful Disney character experience for our pre-schooler. I would highly recommend the Crystal Palace Disney Character Lunch for families with young children especially.
Piglet was the first of the Crystal Palace characters for us to meet. I think Little T was taken off guard at first since we had just sat down to eat, but he soon warmed up to Piglet and was laughing as the character gently poked his nose and rubbed his tummy. We then took some photos with Piglet before Little T asked for an autograph. It was a sweet moment and a great start to our first Disney character meal experience at Walt Disney World!
The next character for us to meet was Tigger, and it was again lovely to have photos taken with him. Little T loved interacting with Tigger and sneaking a peek while he signed the autograph book.
Little T was thrilled to meet Winnie the Pooh, and it was so sweet to see him giving Pooh a great big hug! Our photos from Crystal Palace Magic Kingdom are some of our favourite photos from our family holiday in Orlando.
Crystal Palace Lunch Buffet
In this part of the Crystal Palace character meal review, I will share more about the Crystal Palace lunch buffet selection which exceeded our expectations. It was a good spread that had pretty much something for everyone. There was a great selection of seasonal salads, like Greek-style tomato salad, roasted beet salad, roasted potato salad, and fruit salad.
Other favourites in the salad and starter section were Peel-n-Eat shrimp, carrots and apples.
The Children’s Buffet consisted of chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, corn and peas and chicken drumsticks.
There were a variety of side dishes on the Crystal Palace Disney World menu, including mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, fire-roasted corn spoon bread, steamed rice and sautéed green beans.
Other dishes in the lunch buffet were ham and pineapple, oven-roasted chicken, honey glazed carrots and collards and ham.
Mr. G liked the fish options, which were honey soy-glazed salmon and herb-crusted tilapia. There was also jambalaya, cheese perogies and artichoke cream pasta.
Home-made New England clam chowder was the soup of the day at the lunch buffet.
The roasted carved meats were grilled flank steak with demi-glazed and horseradish whip and roasted turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce.
The dessert selection at Crystal Palace was very tempting, with S’mores tarts, raspberry tarts, banana cream pie, chocolate chip cookies, honey pots, sugar cookie and spiced cannoli. The dessert selection continued at another counter with toffee molten brownie bites and warm caramel apple tartlets.
Make a dining reservation or see the most recent the Crystal Palace Magic Kingdom menu.
Character Meal Customer Service
The customer service at the Crystal Palace character meal was excellent throughout our experience. We checked in at the restaurant’s front desk and only had about a ten minute wait until we were seated.
Our server was kind and helpful, regularly checking in on us about our drinks, our experience with the characters and anything else we might need. The manager was also helpful and prompt in arranging for us to meet with Eeyore when it was possible.
The Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom
The Crystal Palace character dining experience at Magic Kingdom Park was my favourite out of the three character meals we booked for our Orlando family vacation. Our 3 1/2 year old pre-schooler absolutely loved meeting Tigger, Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore.
I would highly recommend this restaurant, especially families with young children. The Crystal Palace character meal is a fun experience and a great way to meet Disney characters. There was a good selection of food at the lunch buffet, the service was great and the restaurant itself has a good atmosphere and is beautifully decorated.
Crystal Palace Disney Phone Number
All guests may now make dining reservations online up to 60 days in advance. The easiest way to make or change a reservation for Crystal Palace Magic Kingdom is through using the My Disney Experience app or the Walt Disney World Dining website.
Walt Disney World Dining Reservations phone number for UK-based guests is 0800 16 90 748 and (407) 939-3463 for US-based guests.
https://www.disneyworld.co.uk/dining/magic-kingdom/crystal-palace/
Orlando with Kids
I hope you have found this post helpful for planning your own family holiday in Orlando. Read on for more details on visiting the Orlando theme parks, booking Walt Disney World character meals and a resort review for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge;
Hotel Review: Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Visiting Magic Kingdom with a Preschooler
Universal’s Islands of Adventure with a Preschooler
Visiting EPCOT Walt Disney World with a Preschooler
Day Trip to Clearwater Beach, Florida
Review: Ohana Character Breakfast at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
Review: Disney Character Meal at Cape May Cafe, The Beach Club Resort
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Guide to Disneyland Paris Attractions
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Disneyland Paris Trip Report 2022
Disneyland Paris Trip Report 2021
This post was updated on 8 October 2023 with more photos and most up-to-date information about booking the Crystal Palace Character Meal with Winnie the Pooh and Friends at Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Park.
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