1900 Park Fare or Crystal Palace Dinner Buffet?

[momtwoboys]

Crystal Palace gets out vote! Right there in the park, and the food is delicious!!!!! Husband always requests this one, and even though my boys are now 9, 11 they enjoy it there too! We tried 1900 Park faire and the food was not very good at all

[Mrs D]

We did both CP for lunch and 1900 for dinner just a few weeks ago.
While I thought the food at CP was very good and the character interaction from Pooh & friends was good it couldn't hold a candle to 1900! The food was good but the character interaction was out of this world!

DD2.5 wore her Cinderella dress and received many compliments and lots of commentary (from the Tremaine Ladies) but what really put it over the top for us was how involved they got with DS4! I had read on the boards of a boy giving the step sisters plastic rings, so I picked up a few at the party store. DS gave a ring to all ladies at the dinner. Cinderella loved it and gave him a kiss. Lady Tremaine (who was actually very nice, only behaved a bit snooty) accepted it but wished for something bigger. The sisters went over the top about the rings!

When the time for the waltz came, Cinderella walked directly to DS and asked for the first dance! The whole evening was magical!

We asked to be seated in the center (thanks SAH95 for this good advice). We were seated near the buffet and ended up being the 2nd table all characters stopped at! They often said Hello again on their way back in for their break. We were finishing up dessert when they went through their second round and said Hello again and if my kids interacted with them, they stopped to spend time with them.

And OT- the Glass Slipper dessert was worth pre-ordering and the $15!
Here are just a few of the 30 pics we took!

[iteach7th]

Crystal Palace has always been my favorite restaurant and I would book it on our last night at WDW as the final place to eat - something to look forward to all week long. We have eaten there multiple times and each experience was wonderful !!!

This past trip (Oct 2009), CP was not as good as it has been in the past. We had to wait for our table even though we had ADR's. The meat was on the dry side and other normally favorite dishes just weren't as good as I remembered. For some reason, we missed being visited by several characters and had to ask the waiter several times to get them to visit for pictures and autographs. It was like they just went around our table when they made their normal stops. The waiter was hard to find for refills and extra napkins. The entire experience was not as good as it has been in the past and I am one of the most easiest persons to please. Sadly, we decided at the end that it would be off the list for a few years because there were other restaurants we enjoyed much more.

1900 Park Fare, on the other hand, was wonderful. We did have to wait for our table a little but in the Grand Floridian - you are inside and can enjoy the live music and excitement of the lobby. We couldn't see who it was but "someone" arrived. Couldn't actually see who the person was in the middle of all their security and limos but it got the attention of every CM on duty.

The food was great. The stepsisters targeted my 13 year old son as a prospective "prince", asked him to dance etc.... They also "hated" my daughter and nieces Cinderella outfits - said it was a waste of money. I had made autograph books with the characters pictures on each page. Drucilla (sp??) LOVED her page - she was so excited. She made the girls turn their books to "her" page and position the book over the Cinderella on their outfits when she took her picture with them. The food was excellent - much better than when we visited several years ago.

[avamadison]

1900PF all the way. We are not CP fans here.

[HNT2419]

Crystal Palace. The food there is really good, and you don't have to leave the park to get there.

[emmiesmom]

My vote would be 1900 Park Fare -
We have done both but I found CP lunch and dinner to be very crowded with long lines at the buffet and the food was ok but not fabulous (I did love their breakfast though!)
At 1900 park fare we were there at opening and found minimal waits, the characters were hilarious and all the food we tried was good and hot.

[Southerndisney]

1900 Park Fair was more fun and we liked the food better, the dinner food at CP was too different for us. But if your family would rather see the characters at CP you can find something to eat.

[Chelley00]

Originally Posted by disneymath

By "fun" did you mean "interactive" or "nice"? Because, not interactive would be a bummer, but not nice would not be good.

Not interactive. At. All. I read all these reports about how everyone had such a great time, and we were just plain disappointed. So was everyone else in our section. I'm sure we were just there on an off night or something, or maybe it was just because it was DD and I, but really, the only one who talked with DD at all was Cinderella. Prince Charming was okay, but the stepfamily was pretty boring, and breezed right by in seconds.

[ubermama]

Without a doubt I would go tp the Crystal Palace. We have done both several times and the food at 1900 Park Fare was no where near as good this last time. About three years ago we thought the food at 1900 Park Fare was awesome. We were utterly shocked at how limited the selection had become. The food was average at best. We love Crystal Palace. The presentation of the food and variety are better and we just found that things tasted better there. We are booked for the Crystal Palace this coming March and we not be heading back to 1900 Park Fare.