Crystal Palace Review: A SWELL Choice at the MK

[Goes4FastPass]

I've seen mixed reviews on Crystal Palace and I just don't understand them. Here's our 6pm dinner Fri Oct 16 take:

We were seated 2 minutes after our ADR time.

The restaurant is attractive, lots of light and space. There are fresh flowers at the entrance.

Characters. All kids are different. My usually fearless GrSon found the 7 foot tall dancing candy bar at HersheyPark terrifying. But Winnie and his pals as CP are, think about it, giant stuffed animals. Our little guy went from hiding behind Dad to waving to hugging piglet in about 2 minutes. CP is a great character intro for small children.

Food. It's a theme park. That means hotdogs and popcorn, right? We found more than a half a dozen prepared cold salads, turkey being carved and served with mango cranberry relish along with roast beef and other entrees including the very good salmon recommended to us by our server. Pooh's Corner, the child's buffet had a good selection including better than usual meatballs and mac and cheese.

All of our group ate well, rested, played with characters and left ready to continue our visit to the MK.

[barbiegirl314]

I've always had a great experience when dining at CP. We've eaten lunch and dinner there several times and have never been disappointed.

The food has always been very good,there's a wide variety, the staff has been pleasant, the characters have always interacted well with my 2 DS's and the place was always clean and welcoming.

When we go next year we are planning on trying the breakfast there.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

We found this to be our favorite buffet...it is buffet type selections but the quality was much higher than the other buffets we visited...thanks for the input:thumbsup:

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We've always loved CP too! Glad you had a good dinner :pooh:

[BigThunderFan]

Our experience at CP was great as well! The characters are perfect for the young ones and the food was pretty good. I wouldn't say it was the best food we had, but was not even close to as bad as people on here say sometimes. We love the look of CP, especially at night when it is lit up. The building is very light with lots of windows and plenty of room. We definitely recommend it! :thumbsup:

[scootch713]

It was one of our worst dinners, maybe we should try again??

[Princess'Mom]

It is one of our favorites! There is something for everyone in our family.

[darthmacho]

I also love Crystal Palace, and it seems to be becoming one of our "must do" experiences. It was our first character dinner ever at WDW in 1998, and we've been hooked ever since. We did breakfast in 2003, and hope to do that again in 2010! :pooh:

[GoldenDreams]

We really loved it too. One of my favorite things was how my young son was impressed by the fancy restaurant. I never, ever thought he would notice something like that, but it really struck him as something special. It was very cute.

[PETE FROM NYC]

DW and I are like big kids. We love Crystal Palace and last month we ate 2 bfsts and 1 lunch there.
Character interaction is great even without kids at our table.
The food, not too many complaints. I even went to the kids buffet for some mac and cheese. The only thing I found lousy was the meatballs, and their excuse for pizza, but being Italian, I am super fussy.
I even got our server to scrounge up some genuine real butter for us. I hate margarine.
This is one place we eat at several times each trip.

[Sylvia]

The Crystal Palace was always our favorite breakfast spot (and sometimes dinner) when it was a Buffeteria.

We were disappointed when it became a character meal location, which meant ADRs and having to plan a meal in advance. We don't eat there as often as we did in the past, but it's still a favorite.

The Pooh characters suit the decor and are perfect.

[rubato]

It's our favorite as well. We are all bummed that it won't be open in January for us, but that just means it'll be better next time!

[twinboyz]

Our experience at CP was great as well! The characters are perfect for the young ones and the food was pretty good. I wouldn't say it was the best food we had, but was not even close to as bad as people on here say sometimes. We love the look of CP, especially at night when it is lit up. The building is very light with lots of windows and plenty of room. We definitely recommend it! :thumbsup:

Totally agree about the lighting at night. It is spectacular. The food is always well received by us. Nice variety. The salads and carving stations are our favorite. Also very clean, and great CM's.

On the flip side. We had 8:30 pm reservations on our last visit and we had a bit of trouble getting in there. They seemed to have overbooked or something. Once we got in there, the food and atmosphere was everything that we had expected and experienced on previous vists. :thumbsup:

[Disney Doll]

We had a good experience as well. It's a buffet at a theme park not a gourmet dining establishment. I thought the food was good, the place was clean, and the staff was friendly. I've always been puzzled by the negative reviews.

[epceddie]

Glad to hear that you liked the CP.
We like getting an 8:05 a.m. breakfast reservation and being able to walk up Main Street USA while the park is just about empty. We've gotten some great photos!