Disney World Ending Brunch at Olivia’s Cafe, DVC’s Family Kitchen Restaurant

After the controversial changes removing family photos from generations of guests at Olivia’s Cafe, it’s another end of an era for the DVC Family Kitchen. Walt Disney World will soon end brunch and start serving separate breakfast and lunch menus at the hidden gem table service restaurant. Here are full details, dates, why this change is likely happening and more.

As basic background, Olivia’s Cafe is located in the Hospitality House at Disney’s Old Key West Resort. It’s one of our top hidden gem restaurants at Walt Disney World, right across the way from Papa’s Den, which is one of my favorite not-so-hidden quiet spots in all of Walt Disney World.

Disney’s Old Key West Resort was originally named Disney’s Vacation Club Resort when it opened back in 1991. As in, it was the only one and seemingly intended to stay that way given the name. That quickly changed, and it was renamed to Old Key West in 1996 as DVC embarked on a period of explosive growth, which still has not really ended. In any case, OKW still has a different vibe than most other resorts, and longtime DVC Members are quite protective of it and any changes made to their sprawling home resort.

Today’s news is that brunch is ending at Olivia’s Cafe, and being replaced by distinct breakfast and lunch meal services. Disney’s Old Key West Resort restaurant will serve its last brunch on October 5, 2026, then switch to three separate meals starting October 6, 2026. Although in all likelihood, it’ll be two separate menus: breakfast and lunch + dinner.

Olivia’s Cafe currently serves up brunch from 7:30 am to 2:00 pm, followed by a gap and then dinner from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. The online hours indicate that Olivia’s is open from 7:30 am until 9 pm before and after October 6th, but that’s not accurate.

Here are the three meal services starting October 6, 2026 per Walt Disney World’s Advance Dining Reservation system:

• Breakfast: 7:30 am to 11:00 am
• Lunch: 11:30 am to 2:00 pm
• Dinner: 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Walt Disney World hasn’t released the new breakfast or lunch menus yet. While a menu change is possible, our expectation is that the current dinner menu simply becomes the “new” lunch menu. This changeover is entirely possible without a menu refresh. If you want to try the current brunch dishes, make an ADR before October 5, 2026.

Along with the website update, Walt Disney World added this description of the meal services:

• Breakfast: Rise and shine with favorites like Buttermilk Biscuits and the Crab Cake Eggs Benedict.
• Lunch: Sail in for coastal cuisine, like Conch Fritters. Plus, enjoy hearty options, like the Bacon Jam Cheeseburger or Southernmost Buttermilk Chicken.
• Dinner: Feast on Crab Cakes, Jerk Spiced Grilled Pork Chop and other delicious dishes.
• Craving something sweet? Cap off your lunch or dinner with Key Lime Pie or Olivia’s Bananas Foster.

Walt Disney World has not revealed a reason for the change.

Since the hours are unchanged, it seems unlikely that this is due to staffing or the popularity of Olivia’s Cafe. I actually just did brunch a couple of weeks ago at Olivia’s on a random off-season weekday, and it was surprisingly busy. Suffice to say, I now understand why there was not a discount at Olivia’s for DVC Welcome Home Weeks!

My brunch wasn’t for review purposes. I was just extremely hungry after Early Entry and felt like it was important to do some quality control on the Southernmost Buttermilk Chicken. The good news is that it passed my tests with flying colors, maintaining its standing as the #2 fried chicken in all of Walt Disney World, and the dish to order at Olivia’s. I also wanted to check out the interior post-refurbishment; it’s fine.

If I recall correctly, brunch was added at Olivia’s Cafe around 2017-2018 and first started as a weekends-only offering. It expanded to encompass weekdays by popular demand, and helped fill tables because it’s easily one of the best brunches at Walt Disney World (I’d rank it #1, above even Homecomin’ at Disney Springs). Prior to this, I remember doing breakfast at Olivia’s and it not being busy at all, despite a fairly large captive audience (albeit one that has kitchens in their rooms).

Of course, Walt Disney World isn’t making this change for no reason.

Given the popularity of brunch with guests and DVC members alike, I cannot imagine that this rollback of brunch is also “by popular demand.” There’s just no way people are complaining that the “menu has too many options, it’s so hard to decide!” My steak is too juicy; my lobster is too buttery. 

My best guess for this is simply that breakfast is a higher-margin meal. That a simpler menu will make Olivia’s more profitable, at least on paper. The only problem with this thinking is that Olivia’s is popular in the morning because brunch offers such a wide range of dishes. We’ve done breakfast there before–it was one and done.

Profitability doesn’t increase if you suddenly have more unfilled tables and have to revert to offering 40% off to Cast Members or during DVC Welcome Home Weeks. Then again, I assume the leadership from back in ~2017 when they decided to add brunch is totally gone, so the current OKW management doesn’t realize why brunch is offered at Olivia’s in the first place.

Or maybe they do, but are hoping that the underlying demand is different, and breakfast will be sufficiently popular this time. It’ll be interesting to see whether they’re right. They very well could be, especially if they leave a couple of fan-favorite dishes on the breakfast menu.

This isn’t the first material change at Olivia’s Café in 2026. Earlier this year, the restaurant did a phased routine refurbishment to its dining rooms.

As part of this work, the photo collection at Olivia’s Café was relocated to new albums at Conch Flats Community Hall, the resort’s gathering place. According to Walt Disney World, this transition will help ensure these special memories are preserved and remain accessible for Members and Guests to enjoy for years to come.

One of the very visible ways that Disney’s Old Key West Resort differed from other properties was this large “Family Album” of DVC Member photos from over the years (but mostly the 1990s and early aughts), which were largely located inside and outside Olivia’s Cafe. This is a big part of the reason why I consider Olivia’s Cafe to be Disney Vacation Club’s Family Kitchen. The food is part of it, as is the backstory about Olivia Farnsworth, but it’s mostly those photos.

Unfortunately, some of these photos have aged and begun to fade over the years, which was likely at least part of the motivation for Walt Disney World moving them to photo albums for perusal. It’s also possible that Walt Disney World is planning to give the interior a different layer of thematic window-dressing. Disney has dubbed this a routine refurbishment, but there’s a decent amount that could be changed fairly simply.

This news was highly controversial with about 5% of you. From the other 80%, it was met with a collective shrug. The remaining 15% liked the new dining room, finding it to look less cluttered and chaotic, and/or more inviting. (These percentages have been revised since seeing reader reactions.)

I was somewhat surprised there wasn’t a greater backlash to the change. I guess enough fans figured the writing was on the wall, realized the times had changed, and also that many of the photos were badly faded.

Although we didn’t have any photos on the wall, there was something about the gallery of family photos that I loved. They tug at my heartstrings, personifying the abstract concept of nostalgia. They make me think of the trips my family took, and emphasize the “club” side of Disney Vacation Club, making it feel less like a massive timeshare apparatus for a multinational conglomerate.

At times it feels like Walt Disney World is really adept at emotional manipulation, but this comes across as real. Like something some long-since-retired manager of Old Key West decided to do on a whim, without layers of bureaucratic meetings and approvals. They just did it.

Much like the resort itself, Olivia’s just exudes old school Walt Disney World. And it probably is, as I’d hazard a guess that the decision to display a Family Album was back in the early 1990s, as most of the photos on display are at least 20 years old. Maybe it’s just the ones my eyes gravitate towards, but I’d say the majority of the Family Album predates the Millennium Celebration.

These photos of random families on the wall really resonates with me. It sets the tone for the ambiance at Olivia’s Cafe, and is a touch that I appreciate. It makes Olivia’s Cafe feel personal, giving DVC Members a literal and figurative seat at the table. It’s the antithesis of some of the newer, more “corporate” spaces around Walt Disney World.

Otherwise, the interior of Olivia’s Cafe feels a lot like the neighborhood greasy spoon that you might find somewhere in the Conch Republic, right down to the collection of nautical and ocean-inspired bric-a-brac adorning the walls.

On the other hand, I could also understand Walt Disney World’s decision to remove the photos. Many of them were decades old. I don’t know the background of the collection, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it started in 1991. That’s 35 years! Disney isn’t lying–many have aged, are discolored and badly faded.

From Disney’s perspective, that’s probably a bad look that makes the restaurant look dated to first-timers. And I’d hazard a guess that “dated” is already a common complaint about Old Key West among casual visitors. (Remember, it’s not all DVC owners; Disney rents out a lot of rooms at OKW, too.)

When it comes to the new-look restaurant interior at Olivia’s, I don’t have a ton to say. Aside from the removal of the family photos, there aren’t that many noticeable changes. To my eye, it appears that the pictures have been swapped out for an increased collection of nautical and ocean-inspired bric-a-brac. So basically, the exact same idea as before. The dining room has not received a wholesale retheme or reimagining.

It’s perfectly fine, albeit a tad on the generic side. Certainly better than something like Ale & Compass, although that’s not exactly a high bar to clear. I didn’t dislike it, and it fits the theme of being a local greasy spoon being owned by Olivia. It’s a tasteful modernization that doesn’t lean too heavily towards modern. Pretty good, all around.

Circling back to the brunch discontinuation, this is actually a bigger deal to me, personally, than the photo removal. I’m guessing this news will likewise be met with a collective shrug by Walt Disney World fans, most of whom will assume breakfast replacing brunch is a fairly 1 for 1 lateral move. Maybe it will be!

Based on our experiences of breakfast at Olivia’s Cafe back in the day versus brunch more recently, the latter is the far superior meal offering. Breakfast will probably be more basic, in which case we simply won’t eat there. Not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things, but I’ll miss being able to order my beloved Southernmost Buttermilk Chicken at 7:30 am or any hour of the day. Unless it’s on the breakfast menu (it’s served with eggs or biscuits & gravy–it’s a breakfast food!), in which case we’re all good!

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YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think of Olivia’s Cafe at Old Key West? Did you enjoy the brunch service? What do you think is motivating the switch from brunch to breakfast? 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!