1900 Park Fare Character Restaurant Reopening Date & Details!

Walt Disney World has announced the reopening of 1900 Park Fare, the character dining experience at Grand Floridian Resort. This post will share dates, details, and our expectations about what’s going to change at this spot that used to offer two different character options for breakfast and dinner. (Updated February 10, 2024.)

For reference, 1900 Park Fare previously served up the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast in the morning (obviously). This was a fabulously festive, all-you-care-to-enjoy breakfast buffet! “Popp in” for custom-made omelets, fluffy mini pancakes, Mickey-shaped waffles, carved ham and more. Disney characters at 1900 Park Fare for the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast included Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter, Tigger, and Winnie the Pooh. It was quite the eclectic crew.

In the evening, the character dining experience at 1900 Park Fare transformed into Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner, an enchanting buffet dinner hosted by Cinderella and Prince Charming. The Princess’ storybook friends joined in the festivities as guests had a ball dining on delectable seafood, salad, pasta and beef specialties. The culinary selections are representative of several “kingdoms” from around the globe and include such kid-friendly fare as chicken, cheese pizza, and macaroni & cheese.

These were the two options served up until March 2020 when 1900 Park Fare closed…for what has turned out to be over 4 years.

Fast-forward to 2024, and Walt Disney World has announced that 1900 Park Fare is reopening on April 10, 2024. This iconic restaurant will feature returning guest favorites along with a newly refurbished dining room and other special touches.

Here’s what else Walt Disney World has shared about the return of 1900 Park Fare:

Because meals are best enjoyed alongside friends, a few familiar faces will stop by throughout breakfast and dinner — some for the first time at this location! In this refreshed character dining experience, you’ll be joined by new royalty: Aladdin in his Prince Ali attire, Cinderella, Mirabel and Tiana in her new costume for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, as they all celebrate the power of a wish.

An enchanting buffet will be served for breakfast and dinner at 1900 Park Fare, featuring some returning guest favorites — yes, that includes the strawberry soup! — along with new menu offerings dreamed up by Walt Disney World’s talented chefs to pay tribute to some of the characters and stories you’ll encounter throughout the restaurant.

Fans of 1900 Park Fare will remember Big Bertha, an antique organ that has called the resort home since 1988. Look for her in the main dining room, where she’s on display as its grand centerpiece!

Just like before, carousel theming is woven throughout 1900 Park Fare. This starts with the impressive new mural, which will serve as the focal point of the restaurant’s entrance. In one of the adjoining dining rooms, you’ll find drawings of carousel animals inspired by classic Disney films like “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Little Mermaid.”

The artistic touches continue throughout the main dining room, where you’ll also find twelve new portraits created exclusively for the restaurant by Disney artists. Each one, inspired by the impressionist art style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, features a different Disney character as they hope, dream and wish upon a star (or even a magic lamp or a wishing well).

Over the years, 1900 Park Fare has been the backdrop of so many guests’ favorite vacation memories. At the heart of this unique restaurant is the magic and whimsy of turn-of-the-century gardens and fairgrounds, where people of all ages came together to enjoy each other’s company. The spirit of those carefree days spent outdoors is brought to life with each detail big and small, making it the perfect place to create new memories with loved ones.

Advance Dining Reservations for 1900 Park Fare open on March 5, 2024, so mark your calendars!

Along with this announcement about 1900 Park Fare, Walt Disney World has also teased that there’s even more to come as they continue to refresh and enhance Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, and that they can’t wait to share more with you in the future.

I feel like that isn’t true. If they actually “can’t wait,” they already would’ve shared. This project has been talked about since 2022 and it has always been vague and open-ended. At this point, it’s pretty late in the game–after most guests have already booked stays–to finally be revealing the scale and scope of the project in the main building. We literally don’t know whether this is a light refresh (a la BoardWalk) that will be accomplished in the overnight hours, or if portions of the lobby will be walled-off for months.

Aside from the lobby, the outer buildings are already finished and look fantastic. The new guest rooms (see Grand New Rooms at Walt Disney World’s Flagship Resort for a look inside) are a night-and-day improvement over the old mid-tier Marriott-inspired guest rooms they replaced. The lobbies and hallways also look nice and fresh, using “Enchanted Gardens” as the unifying visual style.

If you’re not sure what that means, it’s essentially Victorian meets modern meets Mary Poppins motifs. We actually like this aesthetic a lot, and think it delicately balances themed design with the expectations of regular guests dropping a ton of money to stay at Walt Disney World’s so-called flagship resort, and not expecting it to look like “grandma’s house” (a very common complaint). It’s certainly not perfect, but it does as well as possible satisfying demos with preferences that are often at-odds.

Along with the guest rooms and common areas, most restaurants at the Grand Floridian have also been modernized. This includes Enchanted Rose Lounge, Citricos, Narcoossee’s, and Victoria & Albert’s. It would be a colossal stretch to claim that there’s any unifying style among these restaurants–they’re all over the place. But the point is that they’ve all received major refreshes in the last few years.

The official page for 1900 Park Fare doesn’t yet offer menus or any other details (“Check back on March 5, 2024 for more information”), but it does state “Dining Plans Not Accepted.” We wouldn’t necessarily put too much stock or read anything into this. It’s possible this indicators is left over from a previous version of the page. It’s also possible that this is a sneak peek of what’s to come, and this is going to be a fancified experience.

None of this should be hugely surprising. After a 4-year closure that started right as Walt Disney World’s character dining scene–especially at Deluxe Resorts–was in the process of being transformed, it seems inevitable that there will be some changes to 1900 Park Fare. That probably would’ve been true if comparing 2019 to 2024 had the closure never happened.

Look at Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno, Storybook Dining at Artist Point, and Breakfast à la Art with Mickey & Friends at Topolino’s Terrace–all relatively recent additions as of late 2019. Then look at all of the restaurant reimaginings at the Grand Floridian in the last 5 years–Enchanted Rose Lounge, Citricos, Narcoossee’s, and Victoria & Albert’s.

Previously, we speculated that 1900 Park Fare could be redone in the style of Royal Banquet Hall, the brand-new restaurant at Disneyland Hotel in Paris or the one inside the castle in Shanghai Disneyland (see our Royal Banquet Hall Review). Clearly part of that was wrong, as it won’t feature fur characters in regal attire.

We had also heard rumblings that the new meals at 1900 Park Fare would be among the most expensive character dining experiences at Walt Disney World. It appears this will be inaccurate, as journalist Scott Gustin has confirmed that 1900 Park Fare will still be only 1-credit on the Disney Dining Plan. That almost guarantees the out-of-pocket price will be less than Cinderella’s Royal Table or Story Book Dining at Artist Point, both of which are 2-credits.

It’ll still be expensive, and Walt Disney World will almost certainly raise the prices at 1900 Park Fare to some degree over what it cost before (4 years of inflation tends to do that!). However, we’re now expecting prices in the ballpark of Chef Mickey’s ($34 for kids and $54 for adults at breakfast; $41 for kids and $66 for adults at dinner).

Maybe dinner will hit the $70 mark for adults at dinner, but if the 1-credit DDP news is accurate, 1900 Park Fare won’t be in the $85+ ballpark we previously predicted. (The 1-credit DDP news should be accurate given Gustin got confirmation from Disney; but the official restaurant page still hasn’t been updated. Until that happens, the DDP status and pricing is subject to change.)

For a final thing, this grabbag of characters is odd. That’s not just me, is it? The premise here is “wishing,” which is one of those vague Disney things that could mean anything or nothing. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this concept was dreamt (sorry, wished) up back when Wish was expected to be a smash success. But it wasn’t, so swap out Asha for (*checks costuming*) Tiana in her new bayou explorer look.

Personally, it doesn’t bother me that this is no longer very British characters. Although the interactions were a hoot, I think that was thematically a stretch. Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins might be from the same country, but so are Hamburglar and Robocop. Would a meal featuring both be well-themed? (Scratch that, it’d be glorious. Let’s add Terminator, Rocky, Captain America and Hannibal Lector for good measure.) If you’re going to do princes and princesses, it needs to either be royal couples or have some other logical through-line. This does not.

On a positive note for the characters, this not featuring Rapunzel & Flynn Rider from Tangled or Ariel & Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid strongly suggests that the plan is still to bring back Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno. Those royal duos are/were incredibly popular, and not having 3 of the 4 at any character meals at Walt Disney World is a glaring omission that you have to figure will be remedied sooner rather than later.

If I’m not mistaken, there’s also no character dining at all that features Moana, Pocahontas, Anna and Elsa. I’m somewhat surprised none of those princesses have a presence anywhere, and think a meal with that lineup (or a variation thereof) would be quite popular. I get that Walt Disney World probably wants to include a token prince to give it more appeal, but is that really necessary?

Ultimately, we’re excited for the return of 1900 Park Fare at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort featuring familiar favorites and new princes and princesses starting on April 10, 2024. We’re still debating what to choose for Megatron’s first character meal, and now there’s a new contender in the running. (1900 Park Fare probably won’t be it–especially if the pricing is as bad as expected–but I haven’t consulted with Sarah yet to assess her hype level for this.)

Regardless of cost and other details, expect 1900 Park Fare to reopen as one of the more popular Advance Dining Reservations at Walt Disney World. We’d expect those ADR slots for Summer 2024 to fill fast, as there will be a lot of pent-up demand and excitement among both fans and guests of the Grand. The bottom line is that the reopening of 1900 Park Fare is a big win for families looking for princess dining Walt Disney World.

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YOUR THOUGHTS

Will you be booking an ADR for 1900 Park Fare once it reopens on April 10, 2024? Have you dined here in the past? Excited that new meals are debuting, or will you miss the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast and Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner? Will you be booking breakfast or dinner with the princesses here on an upcoming stay at the Grand? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!