Story Book Dining at Artist Point Reopening Reservations!
Just in time for Christmas, Walt Disney World has announced the reopening of two fan favorite restaurants–Storybook Dining at Artist Point in Wilderness Lodge and Boatwright’s Dining Hall at Port Orleans Riverside Resort! This post covers opening dates, Advance Dining Reservation timeframes, plus what else we can expect from WDW dining for the next few months.
Before we get started, let’s offer a brief recap of Walt Disney World’s restaurant reopening progress. The vast majority have returned, to the point that the number of locations that are unavailable is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of Walt Disney World. In fact, Artist Point was arguably the highest profile restaurant that had not yet returned up until now.
Additionally, restaurants that have been open for months—some since last summer—have continued to scale up operations. Walt Disney World turned a corner on its staffing shortage, at least for most dining locations. This was thanks to the return of the College Program and a hiring blitz, which brought in a lot of fresh faces and allowed for Walt Disney World to increase capacity at those restaurants…
Unfortunately, it seems like this has more or less plateaued in the last couple of months. Walt Disney World continues to hold job fairs, and is offering hiring bonuses and higher pay for certain roles. Of particular relevance, Walt Disney World has had ongoing and significant shortages for a number of culinary positions, including cooks, dishwashers, and more.
In an attempt to attract more employees, Walt Disney World has been offering hiring bonuses for those openings for the last several months. The bonuses started small, and have incrementally increased to as much as $1,500. That alone suggests that Walt Disney World isn’t having success, and is still short-staffed for a number of key positions.
Our firsthand experience in continuing to see a good chunk of tables go unfilled reinforces the reality that restaurants aren’t firing on all cylinders. In short, dining capacity is improved as compared to last year thanks to the dropping of physical distancing and hiring initiatives, but still pretty far from 100%.
During Disney’s fourth quarter earnings call, the company’s CFO Christine McCarthy corroborated this. She noted that Walt Disney World and Disneyland are still operating under “capacity constraints,” which are only due to staffing at this point. This has been a regular topic here, and we’ve seen the same thing play out with “sold out” hotels due to the same woes.
That explains why Advance Dining Reservation availability has been so limited, why the Disney Dining Plan still isn’t back, and the slow pace of scaling up the remaining locations that are still shuttered.
In other words, staffing continues to be an issue–and why this is Walt Disney World’s first major dining update since before the World’s Most Magical Celebration kicked off.
On a more positive note, Walt Disney World started bringing back individualized indoor meet & greets—in modified form as “sightings” earlier this month. Among these is Princess Fairytale Hall in Magic Kingdom, which is the first time for one-on-one interactions with face characters at Walt Disney World.
The return of modified meet & greets allows for selfies and posed photos, but not hugs and autographs. This also laid the groundwork for the return of princess dining at Walt Disney World, with the first such experience announced as returning in December 2021.
On that note, let’s turn to the latest Walt Disney World restaurant reopening news…
Boatwright’s Dining Hall at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort — Riverside will be serving up their Southern specialties for dinner starting December 14, 2021. This was largely expected once both French Quarter and Riverside reopened, and Cast Members are the hotels have advised that Boatwright’s would return during the heart of the Christmas season.
Advance Dining Reservations for Boatwright’s Dining Hall can be made beginning December 2, 2021.
Enjoy the flavors of the Louisiana bayou with the all-you-care-to-enjoy Chef’s Platter featuring ribs, Nashville hot chicken, smoked sausage, and barbecued beef brisket with mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, street corn, and green beans.
Have you been craving General Fulton’s Prime Rib or the Deep-South Shrimp and Grits? They are back as well as the signature Boatwright’s Jambalaya and the plant-based Boatwright’s Harvest Jambalaya. And for a touch of Southern sweetness, be sure to order up the Mississippi Mud Crème Brûlée, a decadent chocolate brûlée with a chocolate shortbread cookie.
Finally, Walt Disney World has announced the returned of Story Book Dining at Artist Point just in time for Christmas! This recently-reimagined location is inspired by the Disney animated classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and features characters from that film.
As part of Artist Point’s modified character dining experience, all guests will see Snow White, Dopey, Grumpy, and the Queen stroll through the Enchanted Forest, but the characters will not stop for posed photos, autographs, or hugs. As before, guests will be able to enjoy a bountiful prix fixe dinner with the choice of individually plated entrées, shared starters, and desserts. (It would also seem the name is changing, from “Storybook Dining” to “Story Book Dining” for some reason. That, or Walt Disney World made a typo in its release.)
Start your storybook adventure with a wickedly refreshing cocktail like the Enchanted Apple with a hint of sour apple. The Royal Prime Rib Roast and the vegetarian “A Stroll Through Nature” are both returning, as well as the decadent Poison Apple dessert with dark chocolate-apple mousse.
Here’s a look at the updated adult menu, with a few modifications and new items:
And the kids menu at Story Book Dining:
From the sounds of it, Storybook Dining at Artist Point will retain its title as the “best character dining dinner” at Walt Disney World if you’re judging primarily based upon food quality.
The Artist Point menu is far more ambitious and inventive than anything other character dining experience, but that’s unsurprising given that this used to be a Signature Restaurant.
Storybook Dining at Artist Point will reopen December 16, 2021 at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.
Advance Dining Reservations for Storybook Dining at Artist Point can be made beginning December 2, 2021.
This was one of the hottest ADRs pre-closure, and we expect that will remain true with reopening–especially in the likely event that Artist Point isn’t filling every table. If you’re wanting to book a Christmas or New Year’s Eve week meal, we’d strongly recommend being online early on December 2!
Several readers have asked what “early” means, and we don’t have a good answer. The timing for new ADRs to be released is inconsistent. Sometimes it’s right at 6 am, sometimes it’s an hour earlier, other times it’s later. (It’s never midnight.)
December 2, 2021 at 6:15 am UPDATE: About an hour after they opened for Boatwright’s (still ample ADR availability there, for what it’s worth), Advance Dining Reservations are now available for Story Book Dining at Artist Point.
These will go fast–if you’re reading this at 8 am, it’s probably too late already–so book ASAP and be flexible with dates and times. Good luck!
Ultimately, this is some very good news for character dining fans and guests staying at either of the two Port Orleans Resorts. We’re really looking forward to revisiting both, assuming we’re lucky enough to score ADRs.
At this point, very few “valued” restaurants remain closed at Walt Disney World. Now, if we could only get reopening dates for Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue, Victoria & Albert’s, Flying Fish, Jiko, Spirit of Aloha, Takumi Tei, and Monsieur Paul–we’d be all set!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Excited for the return of Storybook Dining at Artist Point or Boatwright’s Dining Hall at Port Orleans Riverside? 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? 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!
How about Crystal Palace for breakfast? We booked Crystal Palace for dinner, but would like breakfast instead. We’re going for New Year’s!
What about Akershus house?
What about Akershus in EPCOT?
When in the WDW will this ever open? ☹ï¸
Yay!! Thanks for sharing this. This is my favorite character Dinning experience. The food, drinks, the characters and the decor were all great. I only dislike that they changed the original butternut soup to mushroom. Lol . I think that change happened a long time ago but I’m still bitter about it
@Beth
Those empty tables are probably for the same reason your local restaurants have empty tables and lines of people waiting. Lack of staff. Around here many of the staff they do have have never worked in sit down restaurants before. So service is spotty and slow at best. Not their fault takes time and practice to get quality and speed up in any job. Better to keep tables empty than seat people without the staff to take care of them & cook for them.
When will they add more princess back to Cinderella’s Royal Table? Seems odd they’d open a second princess meal when the first one doesn’t even have all of it’s characters back yet?
My guess is that Disney knows Cinderella’s Royal Table sells itself by virtue of its location, whereas Artist Point won’t book up without characters (because it didn’t in the past–which is why Snow White and co. were added).
Thank you for posting this blog! I hope keep posting.
Are they bringing back the televised parade on Christmas Day this year
Would also like to know what time reservations will open on December 2. 12:01am ET?
Tom any insider info or rumors about the Flying Fish reopening? Its our favorite spot and I know you are a fan as well! With the Boardwalk now fully open, there were several rumors out there during the summer about it reopening in the fall but we have blown through those dates including Thanksgiving without any news. Really bummed because it looks like it wont be open in December for a quick visit….
I had it on “credible” authority that the reopening of Flying Fish was going to be announced on the same day as Boma. That’s the last I heard anything, and that was…how many months ago? No clue whatsoever now.
Don’t forget Jiko!
I wish Cape May would re-open with characters
You forgot Turf Club among those that need to re-open.
Wow! You just about brought tears to my eyes. I am so excited to see that the Enchanted Forest is reopening! I most certainly will be snagging a reservation for my up coming vacation.
Ohhh, please review this when it opens. I want to know if Snow White, Dopey, Grumpy, and the Evil Queen will all be back. Most importantly, the queen. If the Evil Queen and all of her prey is there – i will be the happiest big kid there. It will most definitely make my day and be the cherry on top of my fairytale vacation.
So excited Artist Point is reopening. I’m still waiting on Hoop Dee Doo Revue and 1900 Park Fare to reopen. I hope they start scaling back up Character Dining at the restaurants that have already reopened, but without characters. I also feel they need to get more princesses back at CRT as well. At first, I figured that the fur characters were just more protected from covid due to the costumes and that made sense. But now that Artist Point is returning with 2 face characters, I feel they can start adding more princesses to CRT in the same modified format.
Don’t get me wrong, I had a great trip without all of these things, but the return of more character dining would definitely tip the scales for me regarding how soon my next visit would be.
Do you think staffing is the main treason BBB hasn’t come back? I know it is open in a modified format on DCL, so I can’t see why they couldn’t do the same at WDW?
If it’s still at $60/adult, not sure if it would be worth it.
Still waiting for 1900 Park Fare return
My understanding is that you can begin booking dining reservations 60 days in advance starting at 6:00am Eastern time on the 60th day.
Also, not sure if I would call Boatwrights a hidden gem. All six in our group had terrible experience there the last time. Here is hoping they made improvements to the food quality over the break.
When you say “early” on the 2nd, do you mean mid-night EST? Do you know the exact time the reservations will open? Thank you.
Thanks for the info as we are staying at Wilderness Lodge then and our ADRs aren’t great. And btw, we saw empty tables at so called sold out restaurants over the Thanksgiving week too. And does anyone know the time that ADR booking officially begins?
Yes! We are “impatiently” waiting for Hoop Dee Doo to reopen for our February trip!!! I’ll be glad to see our favorite character restaurants back in action! We’re bringing 4 first-timers and want them to experience our favorites!