Buffets & More Coming Back to Disney World!
Walt Disney World has announced the return of select buffets, reopening of restaurants, more Cinderella Castle dining, and early debut of added Epcot Food & Wine Festival booths. In this post, we’ll offer opening dates, Advance Dining Reservation timeframes, plus what else we can expect from WDW dining for the next few months.
As always, you can refer to our List of Open & Closed Restaurants at Walt Disney World to track where the dining scene’s return to normalcy stands. Even before today’s announcement, things were looking pretty good, with mostly minor locations left in the closed column, which is a pretty significant shift as compared to even a month ago.
Earlier this week, Walt Disney World announced the reopening of Boma — Flavors of Africa at Animal Kingdom Lodge for breakfast and dinner via a Tweet rather than the normal “Foodie News” updates. As we noted, that was an odd move that was inconsistent with past practice–it was already an open secret that Boma would be returning (today!) as a buffet.
As we teased in that Boma announcement, that was one of several dining updates (all of which are improvements that will be well received among fans!) that are slated to be occurring in the very near future at Walt Disney World. Another was the mostly-restored menu at ‘Ohana.
Several more changes have now been announced today–this time via Walt Disney World’s normal “Food News” update…
We’ll start with what might be the biggest news of this roundup for families. Breakfast is coming back at Cinderella’s Royal Table inside the castle at Magic Kingdom!
Cinderella’s Royal Table breakfast resumes on August 27, 2021. Advance Dining Reservations will be available beginning August 24. (Now, if we can just get counter service breakfast and lunch back at Be Our Guest Restaurant!)
Over at Animal Kingdom, Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery reopens on August 29. The eatery will have new entrées–here’s a look at the menu additions:
- Spiced Potato Hand Pies — Vegetables and potatoes wrapped in pastry served with harissa aïoli and coriander chutney
- Marinated Chicken Flatbread Sandwich — Marinated chicken topped with cucumber—tomato salad, tahini sauce, and greens served with house-made chips
- Red Chili Hot Dog — Spicy hot dog topped with cucumber—tomato salad and harissa aïoli served with house-made chips
Next, Dockside Diner at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will open August 22, 2021. This walk-up counter service restaurant has plenty of outdoor seating along Echo Lake and is a convenient, centrally-located option.
Check out the new offerings at Dockside Diner:
- Shrimp Salad Roll — Shrimp, arugula, tomatoes, pickled shaved fennel, and sliced radish tossed with rémoulade sauce on a brioche butter bun served with seasoned house-made chips
- Chipotle Chicken Salad Roll — Roasted pulled chicken salad with red onions, celery, tomatoes, and watercress tossed with chipotle aïoli and topped with fried onions on a brioche butter bun served with seasoned house-made chips
- Smoked Fish Dip served with seasoned house-made chips, celery, carrots, jalapeños, and pickles
- Seaside Brownie — Chocolate brownie topped with white chocolate ganache and seaside garnish
- Blue Sea Margarita — Tequila, blue Curaçao, and sweet-and-sour
As previously shared, the 2021 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival runs longer than ever before–a total of 129 days. Because of this, Walt Disney World is effectively splitting the event into two phases, with the festival kicking into high gear on October 1, 2021—which is not coincidentally the start of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.
In day’s announcement, Disney indicated that the Festival Team decided to open seven marketplaces early–Ireland, Spain, the Alps, Kenya, Lobster Landing, Mac & Eats, and India. This isn’t due to “popular demand” among guests–Epcot is pretty quiet right now. It’s another fruit of Walt Disney World’s aggressive efforts to hire and train more Cast Members. (Again, something covered in the Boma announcement.) We should see many more fruits of this in the weeks to come.
Finally, the main news–more buffets will be gradually returning around Walt Disney World.
Beginning August 29, Biergarten Restaurant in the German pavilion at Epcot will offer a buffet experience for lunch and dinner. Enjoy your favorite German dishes: pretzel rolls, bratwurst, spätzle, schnitzel, and a variety of desserts, including apple strudel, and black forest rolls.
Following that, the Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom will return to its buffet service starting September 12 for lunch and dinner. You can feast on Parker House rolls, create-your-own fresh garden salad, seared pork tenderloin, fire-roasted prime rib, braised beef short ribs, and more.
This is some great news, especially as Crystal Palace was widely regarded as the worst modified meal of the last year at Walt Disney World. Opinions vary widely on the buffet quality at Crystal Palace (our personal experiences there have run the gamut), but we’re very pleased by this news. Expect these to be among the first of many buffets returning to Walt Disney World in the next ~2 months.
Not everyone is happy about the return of buffets, which is likely why Walt Disney World’s announcement of Boma’s reopening occurred without fanfare earlier this week. Given the optics of Disney continuing its steady march towards normalcy in the face of current circumstances in Florida, that makes some sense.
To be sure, there are legitimate concerns about buffets that predate last spring. However, when it comes to current risk assessments, surfaces are not a major source of transmission. Indoor dining itself poses a significantly higher objective risk, making it difficult to grant online hand-wringing about buffets much weight when coming from those who are dining indoors. (If you’re only dining outdoors, this is a moot point–there are no outdoor buffets at Walt Disney World.)
Unfortunately, humans are notoriously poor at objectively judging comparative risks, something that the last year-plus has laid bare. We often overestimate certain types of threats–including ones that are visible or draw from our recollections. It’s thus unsurprising that tangible things like “serving utensils” would generate more of a response than an abstraction like “air in a poorly ventilated room.”
It’s like swimming in the ocean, and being fearful of shark attacks but not drowning. It’s true that sharks pose a non-zero threat to humans, but the danger they present is often given outsized emotional weight because sharks are big and scary. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t fear sharks or buffets–Chef Mickey’s still haunts my nightmares. It’s just an attempt at perspective.
Ultimately, this attempted “perspective” is unlikely to change many minds, so this is the last time I’ll bring up the comparative risk of buffets. You’re all adults who are going to assess your circumstances, risk tolerances, and other information to make your own personal decisions. Whether you feel comfortable dining indoors, eating from a buffet, or even visiting theme parks is your own prerogative–unlikely to be predicated on what some random blogger says.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Looking forward to more buffets returning at Walt Disney World or think it’s still “too soon” for them to come back? Or, would you be fine with buffets disappearing altogether, for other reasons entirely that predate the last year? What do you think of this news of restaurants reopening at Walt Disney World? Any restaurant reopening announcements that you’re still anxiously awaiting? Hoping for more ‘restored normalcy’ announcements in the near future? Planning on going to Walt Disney World for the start of the 50th Anniversary celebration? Does this have you optimistic or pessimistic for more dining to reopen at Walt Disney World? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Does the Biergarten German employees as they always had prior COVID. The replacement staff was American and the food was really bad. When I complained, the server was apologetic.
The German looking American band played Sound of Music songs, which are not German.
Any news on the Hoop Dee Doo Revue?
Thank you so much for the valuable information. I learned about the Boma buffet through your blog and immediately jumped on it for our September vacation. It is a favorite! Also, we were notified that our Biergarten reservation was no longer a table service, but now a buffet! Another bonus as far as I’m concerned. Here is the email we received from Disney after that conversion was made.
We are making adjustments to the dining experience at Biergarten Restaurant and will now be offering a buffet experience on the date of your reservation. Favorite menu items will remain available including Pretzel Rolls, Bratwurst, Schnitzel and a variety of desserts including Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce and Black Forest Roll. Biergarten Restaurant will offer family-style dining for reservations through August 28, 2021.
FYI – I HAD THE SAME EXPERIENCE AS GAIL WHO REPORTED A WEIRD RESERVATION GLITCH WHEN MAKING A BOMA’S RESERVATION: THEY DIDN’T REMOVE THE “TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE”, YET WHEN SELECTION DATES, TIME PERIODS SHOW UP. SO, IGNORE THE “TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE”. (Looks like they need to re-hire web site people 🙂
Tom, buffets increase the movement within a restaurant by guests. Buffets increase surface touching, and the speed of touching. While surface spread wasn’t as high as originally expected, surface spread still exists.
Disney choosing to have 500 guests touch the same tong per hour is risky.
BTW: Most Covid is spread like every virus. Poor hand washing and touching your face. The virus doesn’t last as long as original projections, but it still lasts 90 minutes outside of the sun (up to 48 hours per science).
Hi! Do you know what time Cinderella’s table reservations will go on sale on the 24?
My wife and I have always loved the buffets. A hybrid option would also be welcome – something akin to a cafeteria where staff spooned out which selections you wanted for you. My wife is diabetic and the buffets usually have options that better meet her dietary needs.
Will Cinderella be part of breakfast at the castle?
I’m happy for the somewhat return to normalcy with the buffets opening. We are fully vaccinated,I assume masks indoors for the next couple months,along with carrying hand sanitizer..I am ready for Boma! I get some people aren’t thrilled about buffets being open but the good thing is they have so many great places to eat at instead of the buffets. I live in N.J. which was one of the last states to allow any type of indoor dining. When indoor dining opened up, 1 of the restaurants with a huge salad bar took certain precautions. A place setting was already at the table, each table was called up individually, obviously masked we went to the buffet. 2 servers with rubber gloves stood behind a rope and we told them what we wanted/how much and they put it on our plates. Hand sanitizer was on tables. It wasn’t ideal,but felt great to finally sit and see other people out. Around Easter we visited family in PA. and went to a buffet. Hand sanitizer and gloves had to be used prior to getting your plate, utensils were already on the table. Pretty much everyone was respectful of not being right on top of another person and keeping a distance. I am excited Disney is bringing them back.. hopefully the characters return soon.
I’d assume that they will have hand sanitizer stations and require masks while obtaining food at the buffets, so that should mitigate some of the risks. I’ll hold off on deciding if we do any buffets during our January trip until after they are back open. It would be helpful if you could report on these measures if you get a chance to go to any buffets in the coming months. It would be greatly appreciated!
Because of your blog I was able to book Boma for our trip, even though it’s only ten days away! I was unaware of it opening, so thanks for the info! I was stoked, as I have tried to book that on every single Disney vacation we’ve been on, (to be fair, we’ve only been to Disney a couple times), and have been unsuccessful. Same with Be Our Guest, which I also got! I’m not normally lucky, so that made me happy, lol! I hope they’re as good as I’ve read. I tried to be stealthy and book Boma at 9pm our time, midnight Disney as it said reservations opened on the 18th. But it said no availability. The website was acting up in general though. It gave no mention of it opening Aug 20th, it still said unavailable. Although it did let you look up dates and times, so kinda odd. I thought I missed out, but went back on the morning and noticed it now stated it was opening Aug 20th, so I tried again and there were two slots 🙂
Are there actual Germans at the Biergarten, as they have not ben there and the fare was terrible as a result.
Also, I’m glad to see “prime ribs” return at buffets as for some time cheaper meats were substituted and I did complain in writing.
Park Fare breakfast is our absolute favorite-characters and the food! I really hope it opens back up by January for our trip. Things are looking promising 🙂
And what about the characters??
No word yet on characters.
Tom, What is your take on Club Level’s at Disney? AKL opens on Aug 26th, with 3 Club Levels opening in Sept, and 2 scheduled for Dec of this year. Aren’t they kind of a buffet service? Just like You , We thoroughly LOVE Club Level at the Deluxe Hotels and will be at the Contemporary ,14th Floor for the 50th Celebration:)
My guess is individual portion and containers at Club Level. We’ll find out when we stay at AKL next week and report back then! 🙂
Will the Biergarten buffet include soup, sauerbraten and unlimited desserts?
I assume so, but we won’t know for sure everything that’s on it until the official online menu updates. My guess is it’s pretty close to the old normal buffet.
I love buffets because I am a very picky eater and am very happy they are coming back however, I wouldn’t hate it if they would require plastic gloves to be worn while serving and for adults to serve their children.
More variety and less food waste than family style. Win-win!
I may be “poor at objectively judging comparative risks,” but I’ll still take the word & recommendations of the CDC over non-medical people. And the CDC says buffets aren’t a good idea during the COVID pandemic (it’s even on their web site). But, I can’t say this surprises me, considering it’s Florida. Any state that will penalize schools for having a mask mandate to protect children who aren’t old enough to be vaccinated seems like the most obvious state to start serving mass amounts of foods to people who will congregate in a close line to get it. Hard pass.
Agree or disagree with my perspective, that’s fine–I can accept that.
The second half of your comment kind of feels like an unnecessary shot aimed at the people of an entire state when it’s one business making said decision (and the government making the one with which you disagree). Disneyland in California brought back buffets first, and that’s about as far from Florida as you’ll get. I’d hazard a guess that you’ll now find operational buffets in every single state in the US.
Here’s hoping Crystal Palace and Cape May Cafe breakfast buffets are back by the end of December. We’re going for New Year’s and these are our favorite buffets.
Still waiting for a date for Victoria and Albert’s to open. Any rumblings on this yet?
The tentative plan is “sometime in 2022.”
I have no clue whether that’s spring, summer, etc.
Is there any news on the Luau dinner show returning in the fall?
I have not heard anything whatsoever.