Tusker House or Hollywood & Vine?

[mastermind307]

I have ADRs at both places, but I need to drop one.

Tusker House - we've eaten here before
I have a 10:50am ADR on a Friday when AK has EMH. I'm hoping to have breakfast, but maybe get some lunch items too.

Hollywood and Vine - we've never eaten here
Minnie Mouse is my favorite character and I'm inclined to eat here since it's called Minnie's Seasonal Dine. And it would be the only character meal we have that has Minnie. I have an ADR at 1:20pm on a Thursday.

Since the Tusker House reservation is for breakfast, it should be about $40 cheaper than H&V. However, I wouldn't mind trying a new place to eat, but I haven't heard great reviews about H&V.

It will just be me and DD11. We're doing 2 other character meals, Garden Grill on our arrival day (it's our tradition) and 1900 Park Fare for breakfast on our departure day.

 

[ThePrincess&TheJohn]

Tusker House would be my choice to keep and then plan to see Minnie in the parks. (I always get a FP for character spot in EPCOT for this reason) Tusker House is awesome (my second favorite behind breakfast at Garden Grill) and H & V just gets such horrible reviews, I can't imagine it's worth it at all.

 

[Hopefully]

H & V is the only restaurant in all of WDW I will NEVER return to. We definitely would do Tusker House

 

[nkereina]

We did both on our trip last August. First time at H&V for us, repeat visit to Tusker House.

H&V was breakfast but we really enjoyed it - the food was good, hot, fresh, and character interaction was good. I had heard many bad reviews of H&V so was hesitant but pleasantly surprised. I can't speak to lunch, though.

At TH, we had a 10:45 reservation I believe. We checked in about 15 minutes early and it took a good 20 minutes for us to be seated. They had already done the lunch switchover and the remaining breakfast items were placed on the center island of the buffet, mostly muffins and tater tots remained. So we were bummed we missed breakfast. In the past, we had only done pre-park opening breakfasts at TH so during this meal we noticed how much busier and louder the restaurant was since it was full. We didn't enjoy it as much as we do our early morning breakfasts there.

 

[mcurran]

H&v because we had such a terrible experience at th last aug.

 

[MountainMouse]

TH is better overall for food in my opinion, really like the juice they serve at breakfast and their lunch is really good. The time you picked is excellent for TH. It’s a step above HV.

 

[disneyeek]

Overall the food is better at TH, and we love having a late breakfast like that to get in on both breakfast and lunch.

With that said, we did H&V last fall for the seasonal dine(lunch). The food was fine, I didn't think it was horrible, but not really memorable. Service was horrid though to try to get plates cleared or more drinks. I don't know if it matters to you, but Minnie doesn't come to the tables. She is at the front with a photopass photographer. All the other characters come to the tables.

 

[karrit2000]

In my opinion H & V food is decent but nothing spectacular. I'd much rather eat there than Chef Mickey's. But I think it's a bit overpriced. Then again all the character meals are. I think the Seasonal change of costumes for the characters is a nice change of pace. You didn't say when you are going but from the pictures I've seen the Halloween & Holiday outfits are wonderful. I also think it depends on which season what character is with the Photopass Photographers up front. I thought I heard Santa Goofy was there for the Holiday one. I haven't had a chance to do the seasonal dine yet but am hoping to at some point. I have to plan it for a solo trip as my sometimes traveling companion doesn't care much for the character meal experience.

 

[mastermind307]

I wonder if I should try to get an earlier ADR for Tusker House to make sure we are able to get some breakfast items. DD wants to go back for breakfast because of the tator tots, does anybody know if they serve tator tots during lunch as well?

 

[mastermind307]

Our ADR for H&V is on May 31, does anybody know what attire the characters will be wearing then? And if Minnie greets at the front or visits the tables?

 

[Betty_Baylor99]

Before reading anyone else’s responses, I would choose Tusker House hands down over H&V any day. Tusker House food variety and quality were far better for us. H&V foodis just “meh” for us. There was nothing wrong with the food, but for us it was standard/predictable buffet food that wasn’t really special. I found both character interactions great at both locations. At Tusker House, the characters made the rounds and came to us at our table. At H&V, we got to pose and take a picture with the seasonal character (it was Daisy for us because it was billed as Daisy’s Spring Dine) and the other characters came around to our table– we were given a card that was autographed by all the characters before we sat down and each character came to our table. If I were you, I’d keep your Tusker House reservation- it’s perfect because you’ll be charged the breakfast rate, but you’ll have breakfast foods and some lunch options as well. Depending on how long you’ll be at Animal Kingdom, you can easily catch both Mickey and Minnie at the Adventurers Outpost before/after your meal. You can fast pass the photo op, but we honestly have never needed to FP it and we’ve waited maybe 15-20 min standby for them.

 

[ewasilau]

We ate at Tusker House for a late breakfast about 9 years ago and remember loving it, but can't remember much else!! Which characters are there? What's the ideal time to eat there?