Magic Kingdom’s The Crystal Palace has one of the most unique Disney World character meals. Dine with Winnie the Pooh and other Hundred-Acre Wood friends at this solarium inspired Magic Kingdom restaurant just off Main Street, USA.
Crystal Palace Location
The Crystal Palace is styled like a Victorian-era greenhouse with soaring ceilings and walls filled with windows. Walk past Casey’s Corner toward Adventureland to find the check-in desk and entrance into The Crystal Palace.
Winnie the Pooh Character Meal Overview
Entering into The Crystal Palace a seemingly handwritten sign is haphazardly hung between posts welcoming guests to a “Friendship Day Celebrashun”.
On either side of the sign find two adorable sets of faux topiaries. Pooh and Eeyore on one side and Tigger and Piglet on the other. These colorful character topiaries provide a cute photo op before or after your Winnie the Pooh character meal.
The Crystal Palace is a surprisingly large restaurant with two complete dining areas and a center buffet. The dining room reminds me a lot of Plaza Inn which is a fabulous character meal at Disneyland.
When seated, cast members should give you an idea of how to best time your buffet runs. Since Crystal Palace is so large it takes the characters about 90 minutes to rotate through the restaurant. Missing them because you are at the buffet can be a huge time waste or leave you disappointed about missing a beloved character.
The Crystal Palace Character Meal Menu
This Winnie the Pooh and friends character meal serves a breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet each day with lunch and dinner having the same menu.
We decided to book dinner on an arrival day to add some extra fun before Extended Evening Theme Park Hours began. Our dinner was fine, but I think breakfast would be a better food to price ratio.
Lunch and Dinner Buffet
The lunch and dinner buffet has traditional fare like a salad bar, country fried steak, green beans, mashed potatoes, broccoli, fingerling potatoes, and grits. The carving station freshly slices pork tenderloin and prime rib for guests.
The kids buffet station has kid-friendly options like chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, mini beef quesadillas, and cheesy pizza bread for families with picky eaters.
After dinner stop at the dessert table which has an assortment of character themed treats. Despite no one in our group being vegetarian, our server recommended we try the Plant-based citrus cake. Our group agreed it was the best dessert on the whole table!
Crystal Palace Breakfast Buffet
Choose from bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, fruit, yogurt, pancakes, Mickey waffles and more during breakfast. Sometimes there’s even the yummy churro Mickey waffle which we’ve only seen on Disney cruises.
Characters At The Crystal Palace
Expect to meet Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore at The Crystal Palace. Each character rotates through the large restaurant in an organized pattern so you can get a sense when a Hundred-Acre Wood friend will arrive at your table.
Cast members give each person in the group an “autograph” card which has a cartoon drawing of the four friends on one side and their autograph on the other.
If you have your own autograph item, for example our DIY autograph pillowcase or character ornament, they will sign it at your table.
Our Crystal Palace Hundred-Acre Wood Character Experiences
Even though we are not huge Winnie the Pooh fans our character interactions were very good. The characters did an excellent job of including everyone, even my reluctant mom, and made our night a great one.
Piglet
Not long after we were seated Piglet arrived and sweetly greeted each of us. He posed with all of our group individually before moving on to the next table.
Winnie the Pooh
A friend brought her Winnie the Pooh popcorn bucket from Tokyo and Pooh was overjoyed to have a “taste” of the honey while visiting with us. He also loved her Winnie the Pooh inspired accessories and attire.
Before moving on Winnie the Pooh hugged and posed for photos with all of us.
Tigger
True to form, Tigger bounded over when it was our turn and peeked around a post before excitedly interacting with us. Then when we were done he bounced off to the next excited group.
Eeyore
Although Eeyore isn’t the most energetic Hundred-Acre Wood friend, he is unbelievably sweet. Big hugs and a wonderful demeanor made our Eeyore character interaction one we really enjoyed.
The Crystal Palace Character Meal Cost
Breakfast at The Crystal Palace is $48 per adult (anyone age 10 years and older) and $30 per child (3-9 years).
Lunch and dinner at The Crystal Palace are more expensive. Expect to pay $61 per adult and $40 per child.
When budgeting for The Crystal Palace, remember tax and gratuity are added to the per person cost.
Final Thoughts on Hundred-Acre Wood Friends at The Crystal Palace Character Meal
We love Disney World character meals, but since we aren’t big Winnie the Pooh fans The Crystal Palace kept getting postponed.
The Hundred-Acre Wood friends did a surprisingly good job with interactions and I left liking Winnnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, and Piglet more than ever.
Our dinner buffet was fine, not nearly as bad as some reviews claim, but still unimpressive. If it had worked with our schedule I would have preferred The Crystal Palace breakfast. I think breakfast is probably tastier and less expensive, but with similar character interactions.
In addition to the food being unremarkable, The Crystal Palace is a large time commitment. Budget 90 to 120 minutes to meet all the characters at Crystal Palace and eat your meal.
I booked our reservation two hours before Magic Kingdom fireworks thinking that was plenty of time. However, by the time we checked-in, were seated, ate and interacted with characters we had only a few minutes before fireworks started.
Book your reservation time with plenty of cushion to avoid a meal running long and missing fireworks or Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointments. The good news is since The Crystal Palace is large, booking dining reservations is much easier than other Disney World character meals and you can often adjust times relatively last minute.
