Disney's 1900 Park Fare reopening to feature new characters and fresh decor

Feb 08, 2024 in "1900 Park Fare"

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Posted: Thursday February 8, 2024 10:02am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

After a long closure, Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is set to reopen its fan-favorite 1900 Park Fare restaurant on April 10, 2024.

Here's what guests can expect from this highly anticipated reopening:

Character Dining Experience

Guests will dine alongside favorite Disney characters such as Aladdin in his Prince Ali attire, Cinderella, Mirabel, and Tiana, showcasing her new look for Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

Royal Buffet Offerings

The restaurant will serve a buffet for breakfast and dinner, featuring returning dishes like the strawberry soup and new culinary creations inspired by Disney characters and stories.

Heritage and Decor

The dining room will pay homage to its history with Big Bertha, an antique organ, and incorporate carousel theming, including a new mural and carousel animal drawings inspired by Disney films.

1900 Park Fare

The new mural shown above will serve as the focal point of the restaurant's entrance. In one of the adjoining dining rooms, you'll find drawings of carousel animals inspired by classic Disney films like "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Little Mermaid."

Exclusive New Artwork

The artistic touches continue throughout the main dining room, where you'll also find twelve new portraits created exclusively for the restaurant by Disney artists. Each one, inspired by the impressionist art style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, features a different Disney character as they hope, dream and wish upon a star (or even a magic lamp or a wishing well).

Reservations

Reservations will open on March 5 at DisneyWorld.com.

Discuss on the Forums

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KDM310911 day ago

For the prices Disney charges I think it is very reasonable to expect a backup to be in place, especially since we all know we aren't really going for the food in the case of most of these character meals.

Chef idea Mickey`=2 days ago

Ohh yeah totally! For (any) Prince at a Character Dining is the most unique! Makes me wonder if they don't have a backup in any case means they basically don't take the new* lineup of characters here seriously 🙄 or it doesn't matter really.

DisneyDreamer088 days ago

I more meant unique as he is currently the only male face character at a character meal. For female face characters, you have CRT, Akershus, and Storybook Dining. Aladdin is the one and only male face character currently available. Back ups should be in place.

TrojanUSC8 days ago

No, the DDP started well after 9/11. It's nearly always a money loser for guests and a huge money winner for Disney, but people like it as it allows them to feel like it's an all-inclusive trip. Sometimes Disney would offer "free dining" promotions, which came with a dining plan, but you'd be paying essentially the rack rate for the room, so there was little savings.

Chef idea Mickey`=8 days ago

Mmm. I don't see Aladdin as unique, you can easily find him or meet him at Magic Kingdom. The only unique thing is him wearing his Prince Ali outfit which that alone is unique here!

flyerjab9 days ago

Thanks for the reply. We only ever started going to WDW in 2009. My understanding however, is that the dining plan only started after tourism was negatively impacted by the 9/11 terror attacks. Is that accurate?

TrojanUSC9 days ago

The number of restaurants has improved overall, with Disney Springs adding quite a few good options. The quality of the food at the Disney-owned restaurants was decimated in the late '00s due to the emergence of the Disney Dining Plan. With it, they forced restaurants to cut down menus, use cheaper ingredients, homogenize the sourcing, etc. If people were paying in advance, they had every incentive to make the food cost as cheap as possible to save money. Famously the head of F&B, who had seen taking WDW from a burgers & fries resort to a world class food destination in the 90s/'00s with places like Citrico's, V&As, Jiko, etc left because he didn't like how they were no longer allowing restaurants to manage their own operations and menus, which was a key part to his effort. https://scottjosephorlando.com/dieter-hannig-leaving-walt-disney-world-co/ If you'd have gone to Chef Mickey's 15-20 years ago, for example, you'd have found that nearly every dish was made from scratch in-house (RIP to the homemade parmesan mashed potatoes). Now most things are either Sysco or prepped off-site.

DisneyDreamer089 days ago

Exactly. The only male character shouldn’t be absent on day 3. I stand by my 🤦🏻‍♀️ 😂😂

drizgirl9 days ago

The face palm was likely because it was only day 3. You'd think they'd have backups ready. It can't be a surprise that people get sick.

DisneyDreamer089 days ago

I do think the food looks good and it’s been getting good reviews. 1900 Park Fare used to offer unique characters that you couldn’t meet elsewhere or would be difficult to meet elsewhere. Now it just feels like a standard character meal. It’s not something I would necessarily prioritize.

DisneyDreamer089 days ago

Yeah I just feel bad for kids looking forward to meeting a somewhat unique character only to have him replaced with a character that is relatively easy to meet. Especially on day 3 when people are all hyped up for the grand opening. You would think they would have backups in place.

pigglewiggle9 days ago

I watched that. The character breakfast actually seemed to be pretty cute. The wishing interaction part was fun, the characters were engaging and the food looked pretty good.

James Alucobond9 days ago

While potentially disappointing for guests, I’m not sure it’s worth facepalming over. If the actor was unexpectedly ill or otherwise suddenly unavailable, you kind of have to do what you can to make it work, and I imagine Aladdin is a role with fewer people available to fill in on short notice.