More Character Restaurants Opening at Disney World in Summer 2021
Walt Disney World has just announced the reopening of a few fan-favorite character restaurants at Animal Kingdom, Contemporary Resort, and Beach Club just in time for Summer 2021. In this post, we’ll offer dates and details, plus what else we can expect from WDW dining for the next few months.
We love to eat at Walt Disney World, and the reduced restaurant lineup and scaled back menus have been among our biggest post-reopening disappointments. Physical distancing is the big “culprit” there, both in terms of seating for guests in the dining rooms and for Cast Members in kitchens and behind the scenes.
Walt Disney World’s dining woes have been exacerbated in the last few months. Advance Dining Reservations have become increasingly difficult to score as park attendance and hotel occupancy rates have increased. Adding insult to injury, venturing off-site for a meal isn’t a viable alternative for many guests, as Uber and rental car shortages can make the prices on both a non-starter. It’s thus great news any time Walt Disney World announces the return of additional restaurants. Here’s the trio that’ll soon be back…
Beginning May 16, Chef Mickey’s will offer an all-you-care-to-enjoy family-style dinner that will include “no touch” appearances like snapping a selfie or waving hello as Mickey Mouse and some of his favorite pals make surprising appearances in each of the dining rooms. Similar to other character dining locations, guests will take home a souvenir with character signatures and colorful artwork.
The Chef Mickey’s dinner menu will offer items for the whole family, including starters of Chef Mickey’s Caesar, citrus-poached shrimp salad, and assorted breads; main courses of gnocchi, roasted garlic potato gratin, plant-based faro wheat fried rice, prime rib, roasted turkey, and salmon; and an assortment of sweets to top off the meal. Kids can enjoy mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, turkey corn dog nuggets, and more.
Next up, Cape May Café at Disney’s Beach Club Resort reopens on May 18, 2021! This is a couple of weeks before the hotel side of Beach Club reopens (see 2021 Walt Disney World Hotel Reopening Dates), but with guests of Yacht Club and Beach Club Villas, plus those nearby at the Skyliner Resorts, we’d expect this to be a popular, hard-to-get ADR from the outset.
Guests returning to Cape May Café will find old favorites and new changes, along with its signature service and quality when the restaurant reopens for breakfast and dinner. Unfortunately, the Minnie’s Beach Bash Character Breakfast and the Seafood-and-More Dinner Buffet will not return to Cape May Café at reopening. (If you recall, Chef Mickey’s also debuted without characters its first couple months back–our expectation is that characters will return on a similar timeline at Cape May Café.)
The all-you-care-to enjoy family-style breakfast menu will feature popular staples like pastries (including the layered crispy, cream-filled “Lobster Tail”), omelets, and Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse waffles. Highlights from dinner will include house-made Parker House rolls and corn bread, a seafood boil with a variety of fresh seafood, The Turf Platter with steak and chicken, and lobster mac & cheese.
Advance Dining Reservations for both Cape May Café and dinner at Chef Mickey’s will open on May 7, 2021. We would highly recommend marking your calendars and booking ADRs for either or both immediately if you want to dine at these restaurants between now and July 2021.
Finally, Tusker House Restaurant will reopen at Animal Kingdom sometime this summer. No official date or menu specifics have been revealed, but Walt Disney World indicates they will share more about the menu and reservation information soon.
During the modified character experience, guests will enjoy delicious family-style entrees inspired by the flavors of Africa and can snap photos of Donald Duck and friends, dressed in their safari best as they promenade through the restaurant.
In terms of commentary, let’s start with the backdrop against which this announcement is coming. Earlier this week, Walt Disney World announced the College Program is returning in June 2021 and also released new discounts for Summer & Fall 2021. If you already read either or both of those articles, you already know where we’re going with this, but many fans likely skipped both, deeming the College Program or resort discounts irrelevant to them.
However, the implications and subtext of both pieces of news are incredibly relevant to all Walt Disney World guests, as well as this story. Walt Disney World still hasn’t reopened all of its resorts, restaurants, and other offerings. At this point, that’s primarily due to difficulties filling the necessary positions. This trend is hardly unique to Florida or Disney—you’ve probably seen similar stories on your local news about the hospitality industry having a tough time finding workers.
The issue is pronounced in Orlando since a lot of people are transplants, many of whom might’ve left the region when unemployment skyrocketed last spring and job openings dried up. Moreover, the student programs are still on hiatus, so those sources of “renewable” labor are absent. All of that presents significant issues for Walt Disney World, especially given the sheer volume of employees necessary to scale up operations, and Disney’s slower pace at hiring than local competitors.
That’s why the return of the College Program on an accelerated timeline is so significant. While Walt Disney World would find it nearly impossible to hire thousands of new employees from the local labor pool, the College Program sidesteps that predicament, enabling Disney to much more easily attract and hire tons of fresh young faces as part of a nationwide initiative.
The indirect consequence of the College Program’s prompt return will be enabling more restaurants, resorts, etc. to reopen at Walt Disney World, likely starting in July 2021. Going a step further, I’d fully expect almost all of Walt Disney World’s current staffing woes to work themselves out one way or another by mid-September 2021.
That’s great news for tourists planning trips in late summer or for the start of the World’s Most Magical Celebration on October 1, 2021. What about those with Walt Disney World vacations scheduled in the next couple of months?
In my view, this is decidedly less-than-stellar news. While we’ve been applauding every incremental step towards normalcy at Walt Disney World, it’s tough to be excited about the near-term prospects on the dining front. The reality is that Walt Disney World could reopen a dozen more restaurants today and it still wouldn’t satisfy all of the current demand. Advance Dining Reservation and Walk-up Waitlist availability have both gotten difficult, and that’s only likely to worsen this summer.
Reading between the lines of this announcement, it would seem that these are the only noteworthy Disney-owned restaurants scheduled to reopen in the next couple of months. That means nothing else at Yacht & Beach Club when the latter reopens, and likely no other in-park locations. (I was really hoping for a return of Yachtsman Steakhouse or even Casey’s Corner!)
The fact that Walt Disney World announced Tusker House will return at some point this summer, with no other details, suggests to me that there isn’t much else on the horizon. I’d love to be wrong about this, but if several more restaurant reopenings are tentatively planned, why not announce them in a similar substance-free manner?
Ultimately, this is progress and we’ll take any positive developments on the Walt Disney World phased reopening front. However, I am personally much more optimistic about this week’s earlier College Program news than I am this announcement. While this is direct dining news, that indirect update has far broader ramifications and much more significant upside for Walt Disney World operations, including the potential for many more restaurants to return.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of this news of restaurants reopening at Animal Kingdom, Beach Club, and Contemporary Resort? Excited for these options? Disappointed that more isn’t returning for early Summer 2021? 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!
Do you forsee any of the character dining returning by the end of August? We have reserved a few different restaurants in hopes that there may be distance character sightings from our tables (Crystal Palace, Cinderella Royal Table)
Do you think they may open up the number of tables at places like Chef Mickey’s?
We have been trying to get a table for 7 , including 2 two year olds for weeks for dinner.
I really wish Arkeshurus would reopen I would love to be able to dine with more princesses than just Cinderella
Can we talk about the fact that crab legs, which used to be included in the Cape May buffet, are now a $30 supplement per 1 pound? Yikes, so basically, doubles the price of dinner.
Wow, I had not seen the new menu until you mentioned that…
For Cape May Cafe, can each party choose between the Turf platter and the Seafood boil? Is it unlimited servings? I only ask cause I used to go to the buffet for the crab legs but I don’t care for anything else in the seafood boil and I don’t want to waste all that food.
May 7 @ 7:00 am. I tried to get a ADR at Chef Mickey for dinner and there was only ONE time available at 8:50. How can that be if it just opened at 7am????
I was able to make both a dinner and breakfast reservation at Cape May in June. Using the MDE website, I had to scroll down to the “temporarily unavailable” restaurant listings. Cape May showed up there but it was not in the regular list of restaurants nor did it show up in a general search using just date and time. Now, if Disney would open Trail’s End in a similar fashion, I’d be very happy.
I’m hoping I can get reservations for chef mickeys! When booking opened a couple weeks ago I only could get Hollywood and vine. I’ve been searching every day, middle of night, and can’t get any other character dining I wish they would make more reservations available.
@Tricia, Brad, Laurel
Not Tom (obvs) but in my experience, reservations go live at 5:45-6am when booking a restaurant 60 days out, so I’d assume it’ll be the same for this.
What time will advanced reservations open for chef Mickey on 5/7?
I’d love to return to some of these restaurants as soon as I can buy an annual pass as a new Floridian.
What time on May 7 will we ADR be available for Chef Mickey?
Tom, do you know what time the reservations will go live on May 7th?
Question: why can’t I (and apparently anyone else except Tom) reply to comments on here? The site used to allow that, but it appears it has been disabled. I am guessing because some reply chains became political debates. Just curious.
It was not an intentional change, although it has resulted in the unintentional positive of cooling down the temperature on some of the political debates.
Here’s an explanation from a post a couple weeks ago:
“A quick website housekeeping note before concluding this Walt Disney World news & rumor roundup. I’m aware that the “reply” feature in comments is not working. This happened last weekend while making a range of other improvements to the site. On the plus side, the site should now load faster and content shouldn’t shift around, among other less noteworthy enhancements. It wasn’t immediately evident to me since my reply option still exists on the backend, so I’m not sure which upgrade broke it. Two steps forward, one step backwards.
Unfortunately, I’ve tried to remedy this and have hit multiple dead-ends. The site needs an ‘aesthetic overhaul’ that would also fix this and other lingering issues, but that won’t happen until this summer at the earliest. For now, preface a comment with “@username” if you’re trying to reply to someone. Comment notifications work the same as before, so they’re equally likely to see your follow-up as they would’ve been previously. Sorry about that!”
I’m glad Tusker House will re-open, but I can’t imagine it back when we visit in August. It’s our mainstay breakfast/lunch place!
I’m making a list of places we’d like to go that we’ve not eaten at yet like Garden Grill or Biergarten. Any other recommendations?
I wish Yachtsman would open. I love that place. It’s our Disney date night restaurant. 🙁
I’m kind of perversely glad Disney is feeling the repercussions of their own “bottom line”’ mentality. As soon as they knew the timeline plan for reopening, they should have recalled the majority of furloughed Cast Members.
Take a page from Nintendo and other cooperation with integrity: let the CEO and upper level management take a hit from this recover any salary for a couple years to absorb the cost of returning a full ready and available, well trained and wonderful staff even before their “use” was fully needed on the day-to-day.
Disney’s selfish and short-sighted outlook on this deserves to bite them in the behind.