Garden Grill Lunch Ends 10/08 & Liberty Tree Tavern Character Dinner Ends 1/09

[Pop Centurion]

I can see that for MK. Tony's and the miniscule Plaza Restaurant are the only dinner options without characters. And Tony's is not a stellar place to dine (unfortunately). Their service and food need a big upgrade!!

But for Epcot??? Garden Grill is one of only 2 places you can dine with characters in all of Epcot! Outside of Norway and Garden Grill, you have 10 TS restaurants in World Showcase (none in America, 2 in France), and another TS in the Seas pavilion.
How could anyone say they can't find a non-character meal in Epcot??

I couldn't agree more.

Sometimes I have to wonder where they come up with the "Guest preferences."

I've wondered the same thing myself. They must survey older couples that go to WDW and basically stroll the parks and like to eat in a quiet atmosphere. Which also makes you wonder....why they even go to WDW.

[Bethis26fan]

That's sad, by time I have kids and they are old enough to take there won't been anything left.

["SULLEY "RULES!!]

My husband and I will be eating at LTT on December 2nd during MVMCP. Sorry to see the characters go. We'll definetly take lots of photos.... As for the Garden Grill, my husband and I are eating there for the first time for dinner. I'm glad we didn't schedule a lunch or we would have had to change it.. Can't wait to see "farmer mickey "

Next trip: November 24th thru December 5th

[Mickey91]

Does anyone have a good email and snail mail address we can all write to? I am getting angrier about this more and more as each minute passes. You would think that the fact that you have to make LTT reservations pretty early to even get one would be enough of a positive to stay the way they are. And why take away the only character meal at MK with the original Disney gang?? In my opinion there aren't enough character meals. They have already made the princess meals too expensive for an average family to enjoy. Now they take away the best dinner character meal at WDW. Anyway, if anyone knows an address please send it my way! Thanks!!

[Momof2boys]

We've eaten at Garden Grill many times for lunch and love everything about it - the characters, the atmosphere, and the food. This October trip we decided to forego GG and book LTT for dinner before MNSSHP as we did this a few years ago and really enjoyed it. The food is similar so we figured there was no need to do both. Now I'm glad we did and that we're able to enjoy LTT character experience one more time.

And as far as customer complaints being the souce of this, I've been complainining for YEARS about the lack of character meals for BOYS and nothing has been done so far. I hate to see 2 more of our options leaving us.

[DisneyFan1979]

Just to add my thoughts, I do understand some people's views that there may be too many character meals in a sense. I don't think the answer though is to take them away, but maybe to make some adjustments.

For example, I'm in my 20's and visit Disney with my parents every year (this year twice!). When I was young sit-down meals weren't really in our vacation budget and character appearances in the park were much more rare. Consequently, we enjoy going to character meals and visiting the characters now because I never got the chance as a kid. Unfortunately, however, we've noticed that the characters don't pay our table of adults as much attention as they do the kids and occasionally we feel a bit out of place. I think the answer from Disney is not to cut out character meals but maybe to readjust how they present the characters and balance out fun time with the characters and eating time in order to create an experience that appeals both to adults and families with little kids.

[DisneyFan1979]

I couldn't agree more.

I've wondered the same thing myself. They must survey older couples that go to WDW and basically stroll the parks and like to eat in a quiet atmosphere. Which also makes you wonder....why they even go to WDW.

I feel I need to respond to this. Is there a rule that adults can't go to Disney without kids? I don't think taking away character meals is the answer, but I do understand Disney's overall interest in keeping the parks interesting and accessible to persons of all ages.

[Lizzie]

As a parent LTT was one of our favorite meals. My whole family loved the food and its so nice to see charachters while you are eating so we don't have to take time in the day to stand in line.

[brownie]

I'm sort of glad they're removing some character meals. I'd like to be able to eat at the Garden Grill with a non-character meal. We ate there on our first trip in 1994, and it was a nice meal. We've never eaten at the Liberty Tree Tavern, but I might consider it now for lunch.

I enjoy character meals, but I only need 1-2 during a trip.

[Aggie97]

I can see that for MK. Tony's and the miniscule Plaza Restaurant are the only dinner options without characters. And Tony's is not a stellar place to dine (unfortunately). Their service and food need a big upgrade!!

But for Epcot??? Garden Grill is one of only 2 places you can dine with characters in all of Epcot! Outside of Norway and Garden Grill, you have 10 TS restaurants in World Showcase (none in America, 2 in France), and another TS in the Seas pavilion.
How could anyone say they can't find a non-character meal in Epcot??

Sometimes I have to wonder where they come up with the "Guest preferences."

I agree. I feel that MK really falls short on TS options. (I'm not sure that eliminating character meals is the best solution to this, though.) But Epcot???

As far as where they come up with "Guest preferences," on our recent three-day weekend trip to WDW, we were approached by survey takers five different times. We are a couple in our early 30s, no kids.

[WorldTraveler]

Maybe a slight different thought on the subject.

Do any of you remember when the LTT was just a restaurant without a character meal? When they added the character meal for dinner and I for one was dissapointed and have only been going there for lunch since and still enjoying the great menu. Even though my DD has also grown up going to WDW (she is now 18), we enjoyed LTT as it was.

If they keep the characters at Garden Grill for dinner, I think that it will be okay becasue World Showcase does not open untill 11 and most guest are still in Future World at lunch time. Therefore the need for non character dining at lunch is possible. At dinner, there are all the locations in World Showcase to choose from and families with small children will most likly still be enjoying the attractions of Future World (Finding Nemo etc) Therefore, there is a choice for the guest.

We do not like changes. But, sometimes change is necessary and sometimes it brings on better things.

And finally, we try to make each visit to WDW different. If you keep going to your favorite restaurant, you have to be ready for the one time it does not meet your expectations. We always are eager to try new things.

Trust that we all will be able to ajust just fine.

[Pop Centurion]

I feel I need to respond to this. Is there a rule that adults can't go to Disney without kids? I don't think taking away character meals is the answer, but I do understand Disney's overall interest in keeping the parks interesting and accessible to persons of all ages.

I hope you didn't take my post the wrong way. I guess I should have worded it better. What I meant was they probably got complaints from older people who go there but don't want to be bothered by characters or even ride the rides. They basically go to walk around and keep to themselves. To me you miss out on a lot of the magic that way. That's why I said why even bother going if you don't want to be bothered.

[Mike96]

We will miss the Liberty Tree character meal!! That was one of our favorites.

[Texas Tinkerbell Too]

Why don't they stop having fireworks so that guest can have a fun-free night.

Please...Let's not give them anymore BAD ideas. It's already tragic enough that we are losing our LTT character meal.

[Goes4FastPass]

...
But for Epcot??? Garden Grill is one of only 2 places you can dine with characters in all of Epcot! Outside of Norway and Garden Grill, you have 10 TS restaurants in World Showcase (none in America, 2 in France), and another TS in the Seas pavilion.
How could anyone say they can't find a non-character meal in Epcot??

Sometimes I have to wonder where they come up with the "Guest preferences."

You're entirely right. I think believing everything the Disney Company tells us comes from 'We've listened to our guests...' is a real trip to Fantasy Land.

There can be only reason for dropping character dining at GG for lunch: Some bean-counter determined families take exactly 11.23 minutes longer to turn a table when characters stop to visit and pose for pictures and character CMs make an average of $x.xx per hour and Soarin' has moved The Land from empty to busy so according to my chart we can save $x per day eliminating characters from GG at lunch.

They've forgotten the look on a child's face when Farmer Mickey comes around the corner is priceless.

[merlinmagic4]

Well, we'll never experience either meal. Now I wish we had gone to LTT on our P&PP night!

[jillluvsdisney]

I guess we go against the grain and I'll get flamed for this but we avoided LTT at dinner because it was a character meal. WE would only go there for lunch. I avoid character meals now because of two bad experiences. That doesn't mean I am a non Disney Person.

There are other dining options at the Magic Kingdom and resorts for character dining fans. I'll think everyone will survive.

[5fromabove]

Wow, this is a bummer. I haven't done GG yet, but guess we'll maybe try it for dinner sometime. The catfish on the menu had scared me away LOL As far as LTT, we have reservations for dinner this Aug...I had booked that on a whim. Now I'm glad I did. I think it's really unfortunate anyway that you can't see Mickey Mouse at a TS restaurant in the MK. Seems odd to me. I also agree that the MK needs more TS restaurant options in general.

[Jared]

1) Regrettable, but I do like the idea.
2) It was getting to be that you couldn't eat except at character meals.
3) I know of lots of people who complained that they wanted less character meals.

I completely agree. I suppose I'm in the minority, but I was thrilled to read this news. I love Liberty Tree Tavern, but my family has avoided dinner because it is a character meal. It is now a must-do for next trip if the menu remains the same.

[Figment!]

**Original Post Updated with Important Clarification**