{"id":76547,"date":"2020-06-23T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/?p=76547"},"modified":"2022-02-21T11:54:36","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T16:54:36","slug":"magic-kingdoms-crystal-palace-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/magic-kingdoms-crystal-palace-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic Kingdom’s Crystal Palace – A Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Magic
Some of the best fireworks viewing is found on the porch of the Crystal Palace. The good food is just inside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Editor’s Note: This article was written prior to the parks closing due to COVID-19. We are not sure how dining at Crystal Palace will be changing moving forward.<\/em><\/p>\n

Stu and I had a great time eating at the Magic Kingdom’s\u00a0 Crystal Palace<\/a>. A character buffet<\/a> was a bit of a stretch for a 32-year-old and his dad.\u00a0\u00a0 But we wanted to be close to the castle at fireworks time so we thought we\u2019d try it. It turns out that the food, characters and locations were all fantastic.<\/p>\n

Stu and I are not buffet people. Buffets are not big in New England.\u00a0\u00a0 Plus, Pat and Stu both have dietary restrictions and buffets can be difficult to negotiate. Add to that big bouncy characters and lots of kids and the Crystal Palace seemed like an odd choice.<\/p>\n

The Crystal Palace and the Nighttime Spectacular<\/h4>\n

Still, we had a theme to our week; dinner with fireworks. We had already eaten at Topolino\u2019s Terrace<\/a>, California Grill<\/a> and Spice Road Table<\/a>. All excellent fireworks viewing restaurants. The lone location in the Magic Kingdom<\/a> that seemed to fit this bill was the Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n

\"Magic
To view the fireworks during dinner just tell your server and head to the porch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The original Crystal Palace was built mostly of glass in London\u2019s Hyde Park in the 18th<\/sup> century. The glass ceiling in the original would have been perfect for fireworks viewing. Disney\u2019s Crystal Palace kept the Victorian design but has a solid roof, porches and awnings. You can\u2019t view fireworks from inside the restaurant except for a few seats.<\/p>\n

\"Magic
Crystal Palace’s elegant Victorian decor makes for a pleasant oasis in the Magic Kingdom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The porch has a great view of the Magic Kingdom\u2019s Happily Ever After<\/a> nighttime spectacular. To view the fireworks just tell your server and wander out to the porch. There, leaning against the rail you have an unobstructed view of the show. We ere even luckier as it was overcast so Disney operated a \u201clow show\u201d which took place to the left of the castle (or right in front of us).<\/p>\n

Crystal Palace\u2019s Food is worth it too.<\/h4>\n
\"Magic
I don’t eat at a lot of buffets because I tend to eat too much bad food when I do. There is no bad food at Crystal Palace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For a buffet, Magic Kingdom’s Crystal Palace has an amazing variety of properly prepared foods. There was a table of food for kids, a salads, hot dishes, cold dishes, carving station and desserts. Past experiences with buffets provided piles of overcooked and bland foods. Disney got it right. The green beans were cooked but crisp. The carrots were roasted but firm. The shrimp were large (on the edge of jumbo). Everything we had was done well.<\/p>\n

\"Magic
The desserts at Crystal Palace feature small bites as well as an ice cream bar and cookies. I’d go for the small bites sampler – you can’t go wrong.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A highlight for us was the carving station\u2019s pork slices with peach barbecue sauce and desserts. The sauce was not an out of the bottle sauce; it was rich, complex and a bit spicy. The variety of desserts was an issue. An issue only because my wife was not there to stop me. I think I had six. Due to lactose intolerance Stu had one. One dessert multiple times. Had we not eaten our way through Disney for the last couple of days this could have been our new home.<\/p>\n

Winnie The Pooh and Tigger Too<\/h4>\n

When we made the reservation there were a lot of reasons we were leery about attending a character meal.\u00a0 With no kids to bring we felt a little odd.\u00a0 We thought we might stick out like sore thumbs.<\/p>\n

\"Piglet
Stu and I were worried about being the rare adult guys at a character meal. We needn’t have worried. You can tell by Stu’s smile that we had a great time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet, as we walked to the restaurant I was quietly singing \u201cThe Wonderful Thing About Tiggers\u201d by the Sherman Brothers. The Paul Winchell version. Complete with vocal modulations. The way I sang it to my little sister when she was four to make her laugh. What happened to the cold, old consultant? I was pumped to visit Pooh\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

How could you not love Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger. Stu and I both went to Magic Kingdom’s Crystal Palace with ulterior motives. Having listed to me imitate Tigger since he was a child, Stu wanted to get a picture of me with Tigger. I wanted to get a picture of him with Pooh to recreate a picture from when he was a child.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we missed the character parade while we were out watching fireworks. As Eeyore would say, \u201cOh, bother.\u201d. We had to eat until they came around again. By the time they did Tigger had headed off to bed. I did get a great picture of Stu and Pooh. His smile says it all.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll just have to return to get the picture with Tigger. Based on the fun we had I think that\u2019s a no brainer.<\/p>\n

Have you tried Crystal Palace? What did you think of the restaurant? Let us know in the comments<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

Did you like this article? Make sure to share it with your friends! Check below for easy ways to share!\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Want to visit a Disney Destination? Contact\u00a0The Magic for Less Travel<\/a>\u00a0for more information and a free, no-obligation quote.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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    Editor’s Note: This article was written prior to the parks closing due to COVID-19. We are not sure how dining at Crystal Palace will be changing moving forward. Stu and I had a great time eating at the Magic Kingdom’s\u00a0 Crystal Palace. A character buffet was a bit of a stretch for a 32-year-old and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":76554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6975],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magic-kingdom-dining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76547"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78140,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76547\/revisions\/78140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}