Oct 2011
It’s confession time. The only reason I made an Advance Dining Reservation (ADR) at Epcot’s Garden Grill this past spring was for research for my book, Beyond the Attractions: A Guide to Walt Disney World with Preschoolers. It was a character dining experience that my family never really gave a second look. With Disney fans gushing over Chef Mickey’s and Crystal Palace coupled with all the delicious dining options in Epcot, we passed over this restaurant trip after trip. I’m here to tell you this restaurant is underrated and is one of my family’s new favorites.
The Restaurant
This unassuming restaurant is located on the top floor of the busy Land Pavilion in Epcot’s Future World. The slow rotation of the restaurant sets this eatery apart from other Walt Disney World dining experiences. High above the Living with the Land ride, diners will move through the different sets and enjoy parts of their meal in different climates and landscapes. It took about an hour for the restaurant to complete a full rotation during our meal.
I suffer from motion sickness and was a bit concerned that I would be queasy in this moving restaurant. However, my worries were unwarranted. The restaurant moved so slowly that the motion was undetectable until you noticed that the foliage outside the restaurant was different than it was a few minutes ago.
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Beginning December 4, 2011, the buffet lunch at Animal Kingdom’s Tusker House is becoming Disney’s Dining Safari Lunch with Donald, Daisy, Mickey, and Goofy. The menu seems to be similar to what is offered today- the real difference is the introduction of characters. As the mom of small children you would think I would embrace this change but I’m just not excited about it.
Here are the three main reasons I’ve adopted a wait-and-see attitude.
1. Limits Choices. Before we traveled with the kids, my husband and I made it a habit to have a sit-down lunch and dinner at Walt Disney World. Back in the day, one of my husband’s chief complaints about Animal Kingdom was the lack of table-service restaurants. We applauded the conversion of Tusker House from a counter-service restaurant to a buffet and the addition of Yak and Yeti. Still, there are only three table service restaurants in Animal Kingdom. By adding characters to lunch at one of these restaurants, choices for a full-service restaurant become more limited for guests who aren’t interested in a character dining experience.
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I’m always trying to get the most out of my family’s Walt Disney World vacations. This can mean different things for different years. Some trips it’s about experiencing the most new attractions, other times it’s eating at the most popular restaurants to see what all the fuss is about, and other years, it’s trying to make our vacations as economical as possible. We’ve never tried to hit as many special events in a single trip as possible. Looking at the calendar this year, it seems the first week in November may be the perfect week to give this lofty goal a try.
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