Alex Coleman
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
Introduction
The Crystal Palace is a large table service character meal restaurant in The Hub at Magic Kingdom. This restaurant is one of the most popular on-property for several reasons (which I will outline below). The Crystal Palace holds a special place in Sarah’s heart because of the characters that call this restaurant home. It also happens to be where one of our good friends currently works!
During our November 2017 trip, Sarah reconnected with Anna after not seeing or speaking to one another for seventeen years. Sarah is slightly older than Anna and they ended up reconnecting through the love of Disney!
It is amazing how Disney Parks tourism can be such a small world. Anna saw us posting on Facebook and Instagram (go follow us!) and she asked if Sarah wanted to meet up after her shift was done. Sarah agreed and we spent about half our trip with Anna. We had so much fun!
Our trip concluded with an early morning breakfast at Crystal Palace and we got the chance to visit with Anna while she was working. We had an incredibly memorable visit. The food was excellent, the characters were fun, and all the Cast Members we encountered were unbelievably engaging. I am not even saying that to give Anna a pat on the back, we were so well taken care of while we were eating. We could have stayed all day!
Atmosphere
Given the location, you can understand Disney going all out on The Crystal Palace - and they certainly went all out. As you approach the restaurant, you can see that it is spectacular. Supposedly, the Victorian design was intentionally created to bridge the gap between Main Street, USA and Adventureland.
The architectural inspiration for Crystal Palace comes from several other buildings. According to The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, the design of the Crystal Palace includes: the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, England's Kew Gardens and the Crystal Palace in New York. According to other sources, this architecture is inspired by Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London.
Regardless of the source of inspiration, I can certainly say that it is inspired architecture. Sarah and I walked in and we entered a different world.
The only downside to entering this alternate world was that it was incredibly noisy. My assumption as to why most families come to Crystal Palace is to see the characters. This means that you can be greeted by (understandably) excited screaming from the young and the young at heart several times during your visit. Just look at how excited Sarah is!
Speaking of Sarah, I was surprised I was ever able to tear her away from Crystal Palace. For anyone who is curious, she LOVES Winnie the Pooh and all his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood. I am more ambivalent about characters in general, but I put up with it for Sarah (yes, I know, husband of the year!).
Hot tip: try to snag a seat by the windows! This can be a tough ask, but it is worth it to get to look out at the castle while you dine. Also, make sure that you budget a decent amount of time to eat here. The characters make a rotation and this can take longer than some parties predict. Don’t be that person that swoops in on another group’s fun because you planned poorly and are trying to get to a Fastpass+ return time.
I would also be remiss not to mention our server. He was INCREDIBLE. I am not sure whether this was because Anna has personally seated us and made sure that we were introduced to our server or because he was just wonderful. Either way, he was really great. We talked about how he had moved from Australia and has worked at Walt Disney World ever since. He brought orange juice, after orange juice, after orange juice and we sat and chatted for what seemed like an eternity. I do not normally comment on service because it can be so inconsistent, but I wanted to make sure to give a special shout out to the Cast Members here.
Food
The Walt Disney World website categorizes The Crystal Palace as American Cuisine. This restaurant has three different menus: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For the purposes of this review, I am going to be reviewing only breakfast. Not only was this the meal we ate there, but it is probably the most popular meal (I would assume).
The Crystal Palace is an all-you-care-to-enjoy buffet for all its meals. For breakfast, it includes a kid’s station with Mickey waffles and delicious deep fried doughballs that are covered in cinnamon sugar. I protest that these options are universally popular amongst children and adults, but I digress.
The next station is somewhat akin to your traditional breakfast buffet. It includes fresh fruit and some fresh baked pastries. You can probably just skip this station.
Then came a station that I have a really hard time categorizing. It feels like a “what else are we missing at this breakfast?” station. It included hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, smoked salmon with capers and onions, and cheese. Maybe this is a Continental approach to breakfast? I don’t know. For good measure, there is also jam, butter, and cream cheese.
Next up is where I started to engage with the buffet. They had delicious cheesy potatoes, roasted potatoes, breakfast meats, and biscuits and gravy. Sign me up for a bit of all of that!
There is also a scrambled egg and omelette station and a pancake and waffle station. As you can tell, Sarah and I both went ahead and took advantage of a little bit of all of that. Overall, I think the food was good, but not great. For a breakfast buffet, it was a good meal.
I LOVE breakfast and there was not anything I was hoping would be included in the buffet that it was lacking. I also think that the restaurant ironically benefits from the fact that it is so busy. This is a good thing for Crystal Palace because it means that the food is consistently being refreshed in order to keep up with the busyness. There is nothing worse than stale pancakes or soggy cheesy potatoes.
Cost
According to the Disney World website, The Crystal Palace is classified with “$$-$$$” which means adults should expect to pay roughly under $15-$59.99, per adult. If you are paying out-of-pocket, you can plan on paying $34 per adult and $20 per child for breakfast. That is a lot to pay for a good breakfast. The value comes from the fact that it is a character dining experience. You can also be tempted to compare it to Cinderella’s Royal Table, which is directly across The Hub. That meal costs $65.44 for adults and $39.61 for children. I know, you get to eat in the castle with princesses. But, wouldn’t you rather be looking at the castle? Sarah’s answer to that question would be fascinating.
For the Disney Dining Plan users, this restaurant requires one table service credit per person. This is a really quality use of a Disney Dining Plan credit. For the Tables in Wonderland users, this restaurant has a 20% discount for breakfast and lunch.
Who Should Eat Here?
There are several groups that will be drawn to The Crystal Palace for breakfast. The first group are people who want early access to the Magic Kingdom. Ok, so I intentionally ignored one of the major benefits of eating here. Are you still paying attention? If you snag an early breakfast reservation, you can gain access to the Magic Kingdom and walk down (mostly) empty Main Street and even get up and close to Cinderella’s Castle for pictures like the one above.
The second group that should book at Crystal Palace are people who want a character meal. This fact rings especially true for fans of Winnie the Pooh (like Sarah’s entire extended family). These characters are super fun and we had a great time meeting them while dining. Sarah could not contain her excitement.
The last group that would be interested are people who want to have a quality dining experience and are spending time at Magic Kingdom. The dining situation at the Most Magical Place on Earth is pretty hit-or-miss. This is especially true if you are looking to spend one Dining Plan credit. If you are looking to spend the day at Magic Kingdom and want to use a table service credit, consider Crystal Palace!
Have you eaten at Crystal Palace? What what your experience? Share your thoughts in the comments section! For other reviews including resorts and other restaurants, check out our Reviews page!
