Crystal Palace

I always make it a point to schedule our advance dining reservations (ADRs) as close to the 180-day mark as possible. However, for our most recent trip, I got sidetracked and only started booking dining reservations about two months before our trip. Since Disney was offering a Free Dining promotion, we discovered that all breakfast reservations for the week of our trip had already been booked. Disappointed, we decided to check to see if other meal times were available. Luckily, we were able to find an available early dinner reservation for the same evening as our Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets. I had always read good things about their dinner buffet, so we went ahead and booked the reservation.

That day we made a point to have a big breakfast at Kona Cafe in the Polynesian Resort before entering the park, and then a small snack around lunch time in the Magic Kingdom. At 3:15 pm we were at the restaurant, ready to check-in for our 3:30 pm reservation. Our name was quickly called and we were amazed how fast we were seated. In fact, they took us a few minutes earlier than our scheduled dining reservation. This was a nice surprise, since at breakfast we often have to wait for at least 10 minutes after our scheduled reservation for our name to be called for seating.

As you enter through the beautiful glass doors of the restaurant you are greeted by adorable topiaries of Winnie the Pooh and his friends Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger. Even though our reservation was at the very beginning of dinner service, we were still a bit surprised to find Crystal Palace to be extremely quiet, with only a few tables occupied here and there. As we were seated, the cast member explained the path that the characters would follow around the room. Since our table was near the start of the character path on our side of the dining room, she advised us to watch for the characters as they pass through the atrium, so we would not to be out of our seats when the characters came by our table. Also, she reminded us that occasionally the characters would lead the children in a parade around the room, and assured us that if the parade starts while the characters are out visiting tables, they will return to the table where they left off, though first they'll go back to the kitchen for a quick break. The cast member then gave us a quick description of the buffet and took our drink orders.

Almost as quickly as we were seated, we saw Piglet crossing the atrium to the tables in our section. After a few minutes of photos and hugs with Piglet, we made our way to the buffet. We definitely were not disappointed; everything looked great and fresh. There was a nice-size selection including salads, vegetables, meats, and a large dessert section. There was even a “Pooh’s Corner” section with items that were kid-friendly like pizza and macaroni and cheese. I couldn’t resist getting a bit of the macaroni and cheese for myself. We quickly returned to our table and found everything we tried to be simply delicious.