Ahead of its highly hyped reopening, Walt Disney World has shared a first look inside at 1900 Park Fare, at the new characters appearing at the dining experience and the reimagined restaurant interior at Grand Floridian Resort. This sneak peek shares those and other details for the sake of those interested but still on the fence about ADRs. I swear this is the final update until our breakfast and dinner review. I’m about 1900 Park Fare’d out and haven’t even eaten there yet!
To quickly recap, 1900 Park Fare is reopening on April 10, 2024. Advance Dining Reservations for 1900 Park Fare are now available, and highly recommended…if you can find them anytime between now and summer! As with any reopening restaurant, there’s going to be pent-up demand for this specific location as fans flock to anything ‘new.’ With 1900 Park Fare, that appears even more heightened–especially as many other ADRs have become easier to book.
We speak from experience here, as we really want/need to change our 1900 Park Fare ADR for breakfast, but availability for what we want (and we’re fairly flexible) has been nonexistent. Our hope is that, like other restaurants when they first reopened, 1900 Park Fare is holding back reservations until management is ready to take off the training wheels, so to speak. Regardless, see our Guide to Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) at Walt Disney World for tips & tricks to score elusive ADRs, info about the 60+10 rule, and more.
As for basics about the return of 1900 Park Fare, the restaurant at Grand Floridian will feature returning guest favorites along with a newly refurbished dining room and other special touches. The new-look dining room pays homage to the late Victorian period, with art reminiscent of this golden era.
Just like before, carousel theming is woven throughout 1900 Park Fare, recalling carefree times spent in gardens and fairgrounds enjoying jolly times outdoors. This starts with a new mural that’ll serve as the focal point of the restaurant’s entrance. In one of the adjoining dining rooms, you’ll find drawings of carousel animals inspired by classic Disney films like “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Little Mermaid,” along with other carousel hidden details.
The reopening is the latest in a series of grand touches that have come to Disney’s Grand Floridian, as the flagship resort “continues to be transformed into a beacon of storybook charm” according to Walt Disney World.
Fans of 1900 Park Fare will also remember Big Bertha, an antique organ that has called the Grand Floridian home since 1988. Look for her in the main dining room of the restaurant, where she’s on display as its grand centerpiece.
Also in the dining room, you’ll find 12 new portraits created exclusively for the restaurant by Disney artists. Each one is inspired by the impressionist art style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and features a different Disney character as they hope, dream and wish upon a star…or a magic lamp…..or a wishing well.
Speaking of characters, gone are the fan-favorites from the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast (Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter, Tigger, and Winnie the Pooh) and Happily Ever After Dinner (Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella). Well, except Cinderella. She’s still here.
In this refreshed character dining experience at 1900 Park Fare, you’ll be joined by new royalty: Aladdin in his Prince Ali attire, Cinderella, Mirabel and Tiana in her new costume for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, as they all celebrate the power of a wish.
For both breakfast and dinner, Walt Disney World has revealed that 1900 Park Fare will each count as a 1-credit table service meal on the Disney Dining Plan. For guests paying out of pocket, the cost is $66 per adult and $41 per child for dinner; $54 per adult and $34 per child for breakfast. This is identical to Chef Mickey’s. It’s slightly more expensive than Story Book Dining at Artist Point, which is a 2-credit meal.
Based upon our calculations, a table service meal credit on the 2024 Disney Dining Plan is worth approximately $63 per adult or $15 per child. (Yes, there’s really that big of a gap between the values for adults and kids. The DDP skews heavily in favor of families with more kids and fewer adults.)
Dinner at 1900 Park Fare will be an excellent (top 5) use of a Disney Dining Plan credit.
This is notable, as dinner is the significantly easier ADR to score, at least for now. So if you’re on the Disney Dining Plan, without having dined at the reimagined 1900 Park Fare, we’d tentatively recommend dinner as the better value proposition and easier ADR. Of course, the first part of that could change once we, you know, actually eat the food. The second part will likely change during Free Dining ‘season,’ when a higher percentage of guests are using the DDP.
With that said, breakfast is also a pretty good use of a Disney Dining Plan credit, but only after alcohol is factored into the mix. When you take a $66 or $54 meal and add one of the $15-$17 drinks to the equation, that brings the total value up to between $69 (for breakfast) and $83 (maximum for dinner).
If you don’t drink–or don’t drink at character meals–the math is obviously different for you. Then again, if you don’t imbibe, the Disney Dining Plan probably doesn’t make sense for you at all. But even the zero-proof cocktails can get you above the break-even point for breakfast or dinner, assuming you want one of those and view them as offering $12 in value. (I do not–there’s no way on earth I’d pay that much out of pocket for those drinks, but to each their own!) Check out this post for full menus for breakfast and dinner at 1900 Park Fare restaurant at Walt Disney World.
While what Walt Disney World has released is just a small taste of the interior and character costumes, I actually like what I see of the redesign. (Jury is out on the costumes–I don’t have anything to add beyond what’s covered in Why Walt Disney World’s Changes to 1900 Park Fare Are Controversial Among Fans.)
What I appreciate is that, at least from these photos, 1900 Park Fare looks less like it’s been crammed into a window-less flex space that was carved out of a corner of the hotel. I was never a huge fan of 1900 Park Fare in large part because it gave me “convention space vibes.” In addition to the lovely character portraits, it looks like there’s more ornamentation on the walls that helps give depth to the design and open the space up a bit (I assume those are mirrors–not windows–but they still add a lot).
I’m sure there will be dubious design decisions to critique in person (have the carousel critters been removed, or just relocated?). It wouldn’t surprise me if they erred a bit on the side of ‘too modern’ and clean, as that seems par for the course. But the old interior looked stuck in the 1990s as much as it was from the Victorian era, so a refresh was needed.
I’m going to withhold further judgment until experiencing 1900 Park Fare in person, but I’m going in cautiously optimistic about the restaurant redesign and redone menu (Grand Floridian’s culinary team rarely misses), and pessimistic-but-hopeful about the character choices. As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, the existence and enduring popularity of Story Book Dining with Snow White at Artist Point alone refutes a lot of the potential arguments in favor of these changes to a grabbag of random characters.
Regardless, 1900 Park Fare is sure to be a popular character dining experience for the foreseeable future. Even if its longtime fans are out on the meal, anything new or returning at Walt Disney World is popular. Anything princesses and princes is popular. Every character dining experience is popular. Add all of that together and 1900 Park Fare is going to be a tough ticket for at least the remainder of 2024–potentially into 2025 since it’s a great value on the Disney Dining Plan and could be a fun character dining experience as well as a delicious meal. We’ll report back on all of that with full reviews in the coming weeks!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the first look inside 1900 Park Fare? What about the character choices or the “wishes” theme? Excited that new meals are debuting, or would you prefer a return of the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast and Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
