Hollywood and Vine
Walt Disney World has so many dining options that it is absolutely impossible to have just 1 favorite. There’s even so many different types of dining, anything from basic theme park quick service to elevated AAA Five Diamond Award dining, that it’s hard to even have 1 favorite type of dining experience. Actually I lied, I do have a favorite type of dining experience at Walt Disney World, and that is character dining. I will pick a character dining experience over a standard restaurant every.single.time. For me when you are at Disney, everything should be themed and magical, including your meals! So that’s a pretty roundabout way to say that I really really like character dining at Disney, and have been to A LOT of the character meals through the years! I have such a hard time picking my favorite though. To me all of the character meals I have been to at Disney have been special for one reason for another. I also think that different character meals are perfect for different reasons. Cinderella’s Royal table is perfect if you are looking for a quintessential magical meal with the princesses. Garden Grill is small and cozy and always has the best character interactions! Tusker house was my kids’ first character meal so it will also be special to me! So I can’t have a favorite, you can’t make me choose! Now ask me what my favorite character meal is around the holidays…and I might actually have a winner!
Hollywood and Vine- Minnie & Friends Seasonal Dining!
Hollywood and Vine is character meal that serves American comfort food and is located in Echo Lake at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This restaurant used to be a buffet but since it reopened after the closure due to the COVID pandemic it has been converted to a prix fixe plated entrée meal. Hollywood and Vine has both a character breakfast and a character lunch/dinner. At breakfast the characters are Disney Jr. favorites- Fancy Nancy, Vamparina, Doc McStuffins, and Roadster Goofy. The meal features shared pastries as well as individually-plated entrees. But the meal that I really want to focus on for this review is the Minnie & friends seasonal dining, which is served for lunch and dinner. At this character meal enjoy shared starters along with a choice of individual plated entrees and desserts. The characters at seasonal dining are Minnie (the star of the meal), Mickey (her main man), Pluto, and Goofy! So let’s get into what makes this character meal so special for the holidays.
The Stars of the Show!
The characters you can see at Hollywood and Vine are some of the fan favorites that you will find at most of the popular “fur” character meals-Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto. But at this meal, the best part is that their looks change every season! In the winter they are in their glamorous Hollywood finery for Silver Screen Dine. In the Spring/Early summer they are in bright and beautiful spring outfits for Springtime Dine. In the fall they rock their Halloween costumes for Halloween Dine. Finally for the holiday season they dress up in their holiday finery to celebrate Holiday Dine. Since my family usually visits Walt Disney World during the holiday season and we love to do EVERYTHING holiday themed, this meal is a must for us! I mean how can resist Santa Goofy or Pluto the reindeer!
Character Interactions!
So what is interacting with these characters like right now while close interactions are still on pause? Honestly pretty dang incredible! When you first enter the restaurant there is a photo op with an adorable holiday seen. CM’s were not allowed to take our photo with our phone, but we got pretty good at selfies so it wasn’t a problem! Then throughout the meal the characters walk around the restaurant and will pause at each table and work really hard to pose for a selfie! Since they are not stopping for an extended period of time at each table like they used to, we saw them come around several times! They also do a sweet little holiday parade/dance periodically to a holiday song that was so much fun. The characters really do try to interact with the kiddos as much as they can at a distance! Minnie had a socially distanced twirling contest with my daughter and Pluto had so much fun showing off his reindeer dance moves. At the end of the meal you get an autographed post card which is such a perfect little memento of your character dining experience. I honestly love this so much more than having to juggle 2 autography books and the super large special autograph pen and finding the right page for each autograph all in between bites of food that has gone cold. Did we miss hugging Mickey and Minnie….yes…but overall it was a fair trade off to not have to interrupt our meal 4 times to scramble to get into position for a photo. My kids (4 & 7 at the time) didn’t seem to mind this modified character interaction too much, and it was just as memorable for me as a mom.
The Food!
Now what about the food? Character meals can sometimes have a bad rap due to bad food. After all families are primarily going to these meals for the character interactions, so why even put effort into serving really good food? Also keep in mind a lot of character meals were buffets, and let’s face it buffets are generally uninspired. First of all no one is going to put really quality food under a heat lamp and if they do, no matter what it started out like, it’s going to pretty subpar by the time you get to it. Which is why I was so excited when I heard that Hollywood and Vine was coming back as a plated entrée meal! Not only does it mean I don’t have to juggle 3 plates and multiple trips back and forth, but it also means that the food quality can be a lot better! I was cautiously optimistic when I saw the menu that it had some sophisticated but still approachable and family friendly options. The current lunch/dinner menu is in a photo below. It has changed slightly from when we went, they have replaced the Prime Rib with Tenderloin. For our choices, we had the chopped salad as our starter. For our entrees my husband went for the Prime Rib, I ordered the Mac and Cheese with Shrimp, my son got the Turkey and my daughter got the Mac & Cheese. For dessert, the adults enjoyed the S’more’s Pie and the kids got ice cream sundaes with sprinkles. My optimism was generally rewarded! The food was actually really good and super filling. The salad was pretty good, it came pre-dressed so I was worried it would be soggy but it was actually pretty fresh, the smokehouse ranch dressing was really tasty. The prime rib was pretty standard but it was a very generous cut. The Mac & Cheese with shrimp was so rich, that cheese sauce oh my! My son enjoyed his turkey, and well my daughter just hates food in general but I think she at least licked a noodle or 2. The S’more’s Pie wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, it was kind of hard to eat without making a mess, but honestly we were so full from the rich meal that we just had a little bit of the ice cream and called it a day. We always do our “big” sit down meal in the middle of the day to give us a break from peak wait times and to refuel for the rest of the day and it was perfect timing for us. We had only snacked for breakfast and throughout the early afternoon so we were really hungry by the time the meal came around. The food was filling but not overly heavy that we weren’t dragging after our meal. For us it was just the right amount of food and the right amount of robustness (?) for a late afternoon meal.
So overall is Minnie & Friends Seasonal Dining a winner? That would be resounding YES!
Overall this is the perfect character meal when you are looking for something themed and seasonal no matter when you are visiting. The characters are classics that are beloved by all, and they do a fantastic job of interacting (especially with the kiddos) even given the circumstances. The food was tasty, family friendly but not boring, and super generous. As far as value is concerned, the meal is $55/adult $36/kid, not unlimited but like I said the portion were generous! Value is in the eye of the beholder, but I think for the experience alone, the price is worth it for my family. We had so much fun at this meal that it is at the top of my list of dining reservations to get for our next trip! Actually my family’s plan is to have an early dinner at Hollywood and Vine and then head over to Magic Kingdom for the Very Merriest After Hours event and just have a full day of holiday themed fun!
Hollywood & Vine-Minnie & Friends Seasonal Dining is always going to be a family favorite for us. The restaurant features beloved characters in their unique seasonal looks that do a phenomenal job of interacting with guests. It serves tasty family friendly food that is perfect “theme park fuel” to keep you full and satisfied for a full day at the parks. It is just such a special restaurant, and one of those character meals that my kids will remember and associate with visiting Walt Disney World during the holidays for years to come.
