PHOTOS: Character Dining Has CHANGED in Disney World

If you’ve been to Disney World in the last year or so, you know that a lot of things are different right now than they were before the closure.

Some things are very different!

Although some things have returned to “normal” (like some buffets, reduced social distancing, etc.), we’re still seeing a lot of modifications. One big difference that’s stuck around is that characters at character dining experiences have stayed further away from guests instead of coming up close to take pictures. Until NOW.

We had breakfast at Tusker House this morning, which is a popular character dining spot in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Tusker House

This restaurant was a buffet before, but now the food is served family-style (although it’s still all-you-care-to-eat). You can get a breakfast platter with Mickey AND Simba Waffles as well as Durban Chicken & Egg Curry. This is also a great place to find the famous POG juice.

Tusker House Pastry and Fruit

But these delicious offerings aren’t the main attraction at Tusker House. Mickey, Minnie, and the gang are here in their safari outfits (some of which have a holiday theme right now!), walking around and greeting guests during the meal.

Hey, Mickey!

Since Tusker House reopened, the characters have all stayed pretty far away from the guests. When the entered the room, an overhead announcement asked guests to please remain seated and not approach the characters. This instruction to remain seated was enforced, and servers would ask guests to please have a seat if they got up. Our friends would parade through the rooms, sometimes stop for a dance party or to wave hello, and then exit.

There’s Daisy!

But today, all of that was different! When Donald Duck entered the room, there was no overhead announcement telling guests to stay in their seats. In fact, Donald (and his attendant) called guests up by table to take pictures and say hello. 

Donald taking pictures with guests

Like the other character meet and greets in Disney World right now, you could get pretty close to the characters (maybe 6 feet away), although you still can’t hug them or ask for autographs.

Look how close we are to Goofy!!

We went up to say hello to Goofy, and our server even offered to take the picture with our phone. As a reference, here’s how close we got to Mickey before this change…

Our selfie with Mickey in June

…compared to today!

We <3 Mickey

We’re checking at other character dining locations in Disney World to see if this change is happening everywhere, so stay tuned with AllEars for more updates!

Click Here to See Our Ranking of the Current Character Dining Options in Disney World

What’s your favorite character meal in Disney World? Let us know in the comments.

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4 Replies to “PHOTOS: Character Dining Has CHANGED in Disney World”

  1. Can you check out Cinderella’s? We’re going in may with my 3 and 6yo. I’d love it if they have more princesses!

  2. This is ridiculous you can’t hug a character yet you can stand in a freaking line with a thousands of other people and walk the Park that is jam-packed with people. None of it makes any sense. Like the fact that during the meet and greets you have to wear a mask yet the princesses don’t. That doesn’t make sense. You have to wear a mask to meet Mickey in the town hall yet you don’t have to wear a mask to meet Mickey because you’re at a restaurant. None of it makes sense