Casey’s Corner, Plaza Ice Cream & Trail’s End Restaurant Reopening at Disney World
Walt Disney World has announced the reopening of fan-favorite restaurant Casey’s Corner, plus Plaza Ice Cream Parlor at Magic Kingdom, Trail’s End at Fort Wilderness, and Disney Family Night Dinner. 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.
It’s good to see more dining locations returning at Walt Disney World, which has become a weekly occurrence. If you look at our recently-updated List of Open & Closed Restaurants at Walt Disney World, there really aren’t a ton of noteworthy ones still shuttered. It’s mostly a mix of less popular locations and high-profile Signature Dining at this point. To us, it “feels” like more is closed than is actually the case, in part because several spots we love have yet to reopen.
The other reason the closures feel more significant than they are is because capacity remains depressed. As coved (yet again) in What’s Returning to Walt Disney World in 2021 & 2022, it’s almost entirely a matter of staffing at this point. There’s more than enough demand to bring back every single closed restaurant—and to fill more tables at the locations that are already open. The biggest impediment is that operational locations are short-staffed and ones that have yet to reopen need to hire and train new Cast Members. We go into more detail there, but we won’t further rehash that here since we bring it up in almost every dining post. Suffice to say, fresh-faced College Program participants are now all around Walt Disney World and hiring/training continues. Things are getting better!
On with the good news in this week’s Walt Disney World restaurant reopening update: Casey’s Corner on Main Street, U.S.A., will reopen June 30, 2021 with their classic all-beef hot dogs. Just in time for the return of the Happily Ever After fireworks, you’ll be able to order a Chili-Cheese All-Beef Hot Dog or those legendary Corn Dog Nuggets with cheese sauce.
The shockingly good plant-based Loaded Slaw Dog (plant-based sausage topped with pickled slaw, barbecue vegan aïoli, and roasted corn relish) is also back at Casey’s Corner! Additionally, there will be a Frozen Mint Julep Lemonade to go along with your hot dog. Mobile Order will be available at Casey’s Corner.
It’s been an open secret that Casey’s Corner would reopen this week, so not really a huge surprise there. It’s been closed for such a long time not due to lack of demand, but because of the difficult for Cast Members to physically distance behind the counter and backstage.
With physical distancing dropped, Happily Ever After returning, and the Fourth of July right around the corner, bringing back Casey’s Corner was the distinctly patriotic thing for Walt Disney World to do. Sam Eagle Approved!
The following week, hand-scooped ice cream will soon be served again on Main Street USA, as Plaza Ice Cream Parlor hosted by Edys will open. Plaza Ice Cream Parlor will return on July 7, 2021 with all your favorite flavors on a cone or in a cup. Fat-free and no sugar added, as well as plant-based non-dairy options, will also be available.
Additionally, Barq’s Root Beer Floats and Coca-Cola Floats are back. With all this writing, I’ve worked up quite a thirst. I think I’ll take one of those new-fangled trolleys down to the Main Street soda fountain and meet the boys for a cold sarsaparilla on July 7. Sam Eagle *and* Progress Dad Approved!!!
Over at Animal Kingdom, Eight Spoon Café is now open and offers their delish Baked Macaroni & Cheese (with or without pulled pork). Apparently, the Pulled Pork Jelly Donut Sandwich is back. Never had it, but that sounds intriguing.
Also at Animal Kingdom, Dino Diner will reopen July 4, 2021. You can grab a Dino-Rama Chili-Cheese Dog or a Corn Chip Pie. You can even get your churro fix at Dino Diner. What the heck, Sam Eagle and Baby Sinclair Approved!
Before we get to our last location, Walt Disney World has announced a new summer offering for the entire family starting June 30, 2021:Disney Family Night Dinner. This family-style dining bundle includes a take-out shareable meal that serves 3-4 people, sweet treats, and an original card-type game inspired by Disney characters.
Disney Family Night Dinner is available nightly from 5 to 10 pm through Mobile Order at Caribbean Beach Resort and Grand Floridian Resort. Here are the two resort locations offering Disney Family Night Dinner:
Centertown Market at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort:
- Roasted Jamaican-style Chicken
- Fried Yucca
- Cilantro Rice
- Seasonal Vegetables
- Caribbean Pull-apart Rolls with Onion Jam and Guava Butter
- Decorate-your-own Mickey and Minnie Cookies
Gasparilla Island Grill at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa:
- Garden Salad — Tomato, cucumber, carrots, and a duo of dressings
- Savory Lasagna — Three cheese lasagna with tomato sauce
- Two Mickey-shaped Cheese or Pepperoni Pizzas
- Minnie Cheesecake with strawberry sauce, whipped cream, and fresh berries
This actually sounds potentially promising, with the Centertown Market option being especially intriguing–it sounds like a partial version of the new family-style meal at Sebastian’s Bistro about which we recently raved.
Finally, Trail’s End Restaurant at the Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort will reopen July 17, 2021 with family-style skillets for breakfast and dinner.
You’ll be able to start your morning with an oven-fresh pastry basket and berry granola yogurt parfait for the table, followed by a family-style skillet with Mickey waffles, smoked brisket and eggs, bacon, sausage, and cheesy potato casserole. Adults can order Moonshine Morning Cocktails, a Pioneer Mimosa with passion, orange, and guava juices and a Mountain Mary with moonshine.
Dinner at Trail’s End will start with hushpuppies and skillet cornbread with a chopped garden salad for the table. The family-style Smokehouse Skillet comes with pecan-smoked brisket, rotisserie chicken, andouille sausage, fingerlings potatoes, green beans, and buttered corn on the cob. Dessert is the Covered Wagon Sundae, with ice cream, toppings, brownies, cookies, and chocolate-covered bacon.
Pork spare ribs, peel n’ eat shrimp, and cornbread-crusted salmon are available as add-ons to your meal at Trail’s End for an additional charge.
Excuse me?
Rotisserie chicken? Fingerlings potatoes? Ribs at an additional charge?! I’m sorry, this is absurd. I feel like I’ve had a lot of patience with Walt Disney World modifying menus and serving styles given staffing shortages, supply chain woes, and other operational realities, but this is just too much.
In this case, I also know that it’s not necessary to give the new menu a pass for circumstances outside Disney’s control because the good stuff is still available at P & J’s Southern Takeout! One of the things we’ve been hyping for months is the Glorious & Great Value Feast at Walt Disney World, even recommending people taking a midday break from Magic Kingdom to head over to Fort Wilderness to order it.
This dinner menu for Trail’s End honestly feels like it was created by someone who had never been to Trail’s End and has no idea what made it popular among diehard Walt Disney World fans and Fort Fiends. We usually give things the benefit of the doubt, and try them before passing judgment. Not here. We’ll be putting our money where our mouths are, skipping the new menu at Trail’s End, and doing P & J’s Southern Takeout instead. Most definitely NOT Sam Eagle, Progress Dad, Baby Sinclair, or Big Al approved.
Ultimately, we have several items of great news for Walt Disney World dining, and one piece that’s so perplexing, it’s honestly unbelievable. It feels like an awful (and unfunny) late April Fools’ Day joke. I was surprised when the new menu for ‘Ohana came out and left off the noodles, because it seemed like low hanging fruit.
However, I didn’t think it was a huge deal since ‘Ohana has such name recognition, popularity, and momentum behind it that Walt Disney World fans and first-timers alike would make ADRs hard to come by regardless. ‘Ohana is the Le Cellier of a decade ago–it could rest on its laurels and coast on its reputation for a while. (I might even argue that had already started to happen pre-closure.)
Trail’s End is a totally different story. With this, Disney has essentially gutted the iconic menu, removed what people love, and put other items behind a paywall. Not only that, but Trail’s End is not ‘Ohana. Casual guests aren’t making the trek out to Fort Wilderness–it’s just fundamentally a different audience.
Even though dining demand far exceeds available capacity, I’m not convinced that Trail’s End will book up with this new menu. While Trail’s End has its own diehard fanbase, we’re the type that is more hardcore and less likely to tolerate changes like this. My suspicion and hope is that fans reject this menu, and force Walt Disney World’s hand into bringing the familiar favorites–and the buffet itself–back. This new menu at Trail’s End is an abomination. What’s next, is the majestic mural that graces the gallery in Fort Wilderness being removed, too?!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of this news of restaurants reopening at Walt Disney World? Excited for the return of Casey’s Corner and Plaza Ice Cream Parlor? Thoughts on the new menu options at Trail’s End? Disappointed that they’ve totally gutted the beloved menu there, or do you not care about Trail’s End? (It’s okay, not everyone is a fan.) Hoping for more ‘restored normalcy’ announcements in the near future? Planning on going to Walt Disney World this summer, or holding off until 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!
No Akershus makes this poster a saaaad panda. I want obscure caramel-flavored cheeses and smoked fish and a big helping of Swedish meatballs! Oh well, I guess I will get my Scandinavian food fix on the Disney Wish next summer.
I am interested in Caseys but on the fence about whether to cancel my Tony’s reservation. I love a good specialty hot dog, but Ton’s has prosecco…
Eh, on the flip side, the longer a particular restaurant takes to come back, the greater the chances it’ll have a more normal menu. I fear that some of these new menus won’t be undone quickly at locations that get them.
I’m not surprised at all by the Trail’s End and Cape May Cafe developments. I own an AYCE seafood buffet in Panama City Beach. We’re a pretty big buyer of crab legs and our price has DOUBLED in the last four months. Our buffet price has gone up twice in the last month and might go up again soon. However, we’ve been crazy busy since the middle of May about I honestly can’t believe Disney hasn’t reopened any of their buffets yet.
Citricos was the biggest news of the day. It’s the first signature reopened since Narcossee’s or CRT back from September. The retheme sounds great too.
Hoping Flying Fish and Yachtmans Steakhouse on deck.
I’m actually surprised Citricos reopened before either of those. With every Crescent Lake resort back two days from now, Flying Fish or Yachtsman Steakhouse make more sense to me. Of course, I also love both, so there’s that.
I agree with your assessment of the revised menu at trails end. The same thing seems to have been done at my family’s favorite buffet Cape May Cafe. No more all you can eat seafood buffet. Extra charge for crab legs?? Disappointed for sure. I hope these are only temporary changes.
Love Casey’s corners return I sure hope they don’t shortcut things ike fort wilderness.
I just want my Boma! Please Bring Back Boma!
Agree- this new Trails End menu is a joke. We will just keep getting P&J’s although I will miss being able to eat it inside like we have been able to since reopening. Back to the porch we go! My husband has been camping at the Fort since make your own pizza with cartoons was a thing and he loves Trails End but it will be hard to justify it with this new setup unless they drastically lower the price from their “standard” buffet price.
Tom, as usual thank you for your great information. Who can we contact at Disney to get our point across about these things. Replacing the Buffets with family style is getting old. The cutbacks we are seeing are beyond cost saving they need to know how we feel.
I read the menu and was really surprised! Doesn’t sound like they know what they’re doing. I get it, let’s try something different, but if it ain’t broke…. We liked to go there periodically, I feel,sorry for people who used to go their regularly. Sad state of affairs.
What is the deal with all the sausage?!! I’ve never eaten at Trail’s End so maybe it was on the menu before the closure, I don’t know. But reading this reminded me of the new sausage menu item at ‘Ohana. Disgusting! And a completely unnecessary and lazy offering for ‘Ohana. Come on Disney! We don’t want to eat sausage for dinner!
“Dessert is the Covered Wagon Sundae, with ice cream, toppings, brownies, cookies, and chocolate-covered bacon.” Is this like the Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream that everyone eats out of one big bowl and it turns to slop after about 15 minutes?
Unless there’s an upcharge for it (and I doubt that, but honestly, nothing would surprise me at this point), I doubt this will be anything as elaborate or large as the Kitchen Sink.
Any idea when Harmony Barber shop at Magic Kingdom may reopen?
I’m curious what the price at Trail’s End will be, I’m sure it won’t be reduced. Paying more for less. Seems to be a recurring theme for Disney lately. But, there are people who will pay so I don’t see any reason to stop the trend. I won’t be eating there. And what’s up with sausages and rotisserie chicken on every menu now??? Wait, it’s cheap. I am very happy about Casey’s!
If this dinner is anything over $20 (and I’m sure it will be), I honestly don’t see the point of dining here over P & J’s.
What do the new family-style dinner creators have against macncheese?? It’s being left off everywhere!
There’s mac & cheese on the menu at both Tusker House and Cape May Cafe. Not sure where else, but definitely those two, as we just dined at both.
(Agree it belongs on the menu at Trail’s End, if that’s your point!)
All o can say is that it is beyond obvious that WDW is understaffed. Staying in the parks now and most of the help appears to be new and are not familiar with things yet. The workers that are here are trying but it’s going to be a while before it is back to normal. I’m not looking forward to increased capacity crowds later this week.
Also FYI I have a friend who is a team leader and they said park passes are definitely staying for the future when things are back to normal.
100% on board for Battle Fried Chicken. That’s not something I can make at home for a couple of dollars! Ha.
Curious as to what used to be at trails end?
Does Trails End get a Fried Chickengate to match Ohana’s Noodlegate? And if so, will Disney cave as they did on the noodles!?
We agree with every word you said about the Trails End menu! What are they thinking?! We will not be going there until the powers that be come to their senses! Trail’s End has always been in our top 3 or 4 Disney restaurants. Just another reason to spend our vacation dollars else where.
Glad all 3 of these r Reopening!!! Especially CASEY’S CORNER. That place was a Fireworks tradition when I was a Kid.
Hopefully Next on the Announcement list will b the DINING PLAN Returning