News 1900 Park Fare at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort reopening in April 2024

[flyerjab]

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.

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?

 

[Chef idea Mickey`=]

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.

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!

 

[TrojanUSC]

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?

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.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

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!

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.

 

[Chef idea Mickey`=]

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.

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.

 

[KDM31091]

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.

 

[wdwmagic]

Here is a look at the dinner buffet

1900 Park Fare Character Dinner 2024

1900 Park Fare Character Dinner 2024

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[Grandma Katherine]

When will they bring back the Perfectly Princess Tea? It was always the highlight of our trips for the granddaughters. We love Rose Petal.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I saw in another Disney Facebook group that Cinderella was absent one day recently and Snow White took her place. So it seems Snow White is the back up for everyone.

 

[WorldExplorer]

I saw in another Disney Facebook group that Cinderella was absent one day recently and Snow White took her place. So it seems Snow White is the back up for everyone.

Snow White at least makes some sense with their "theme", but it's still very disappointing since she's the most easily meetable character outside of Mickey and friends. She's regularly available at Storybook Dining, Askersus, Cinderella's Royal Table, on Main Street, and in Epcot in Germany (plus is a potential "visiting princess" in Fairytale Hall).

Which, I guess, means it makes sense why she's such an easy to grab backup.