Storybook Dining review

The next part of our Magic Kingdom day takes us over to Wilderness Lodge to finally experience a dining spot we had cancelled as part of our May 2020 trip cancellation.

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In the weeks leading up to our trip, I saw a Disney Parks Blog Twitter post indicating Storybook Dining at Artist Point in the Wilderness Lodge Resort. Reopening was set for December 16th with reservations available in a couple days. I set my alarm and… Overslept! I scrambled awake and found a 5pm timeslot, clicked, no available, found 4:30, clicked and secured! I kept searching for a different time, but that’s all I could get.

Turns out with our touring style for the trip, it was a good time to break for dinner. We did decide on leaving the park early, around 3pm. My wife thought we had to take the monorail to the TTC and tram to our car, I was like, no, we just take the Wilderness Lodge bus. Fortunately for us, one had just arrived and the trip was quick.

We had never been to the Wilderness Lodge before, so we were pretty amazed by the beautiful architecture inside:

As well as the outside:

For Christmas, the Lodge sells Christmas cookies, other treats and hot chocolate. You can see the set up to the right of the fireplace in the indoor 360 picture above. We bought a couple snacks, but the gingerbread snacks were pretty rich, so hard to eat. Overall they weren’t bad and it’s a fun setup to have available in your resort hotel if staying there.

Finally it was time to head to the restaurant, which is near the lobby just behind the fireplace area. We checked in and they took us right to our seat which was located in the first part of the dining room, just before the middle section where they have a large tree all lit up and a book for background picture. I think the queen used to stay there in the before times, so you’d go to her for a picture with the book as background, now it is just there and you have to time your own pictures to get the book as a background.

The character interactions here are so much fun. Snow White of course is sweet and kind and talks a lot with the kids. Grumpy is, of course, Grumpy. My daughter asked him what would make him happy, but obviously only Happy can be Happy. Dopey was silly. He was so fun to watch as he made his way around the room. And of course the Queen.

Apparently right before our visit, character dining was updated to allow for kids to move closer to the characters while maintaining distance, so it was fun to get the pictures of my daughter in front of Snow White and the Queen.

Part of the fun of these characters is their interaction with each other. The best was the video above where Dopey just wanted a friend and Grumpy was unhappy about it. Then below, all the characters take part in singing the Silly Song.

As part of a dining review, I should probably talk about the food a little bit. The appetizers are set up as sort of shared, though some of the items are individually portioned. Each of the items is plated together and delivered to the large leaf centerpiece. It spins, so everyone can grab what they want and spin the leaf to get the next item.

The appetizers included Wild Mushroom Bisque. This was a creamy soup with a crispy mushroom inside. This was very good. The flavor and texture worked together nicely. Next was called Hunter’s Pie. This was a black truffle with chicken and turkey inside a crispy shell. This item wasn’t too exciting to me. Kind of a plain taste. The third item was Wicked Shrimp Cocktail. This was served in a glass container and sealed shut. It looked like a fog was floating inside the container. When you open it, the fog escapes and dissipates. It’s really cool and unique. The salad and shrimp both had a really good flavor to them.

For the main course, I selected the Royal Prime Rib Roast. This plate had 2 large slices of prime rib and several carrots resting on a helping of mash potatoes and a large dinner roll on the side. The dinner roll was light and airy and had a surprisingly good flavor to it. The Prime Rib was cooked just right. It was so juicy and the flavor was perfect. The carrots and potatoes were a really good addition to the plate.

After dinner, the desserts were delivered similar to the appetizers. The quintessential dessert here, of course, is the Queen’s poison apple. This dessert has a fun little surprise inside and it’s the flavor. It was so good and I guarantee, the best poison apple you’ll ever eat! The second dessert is called Miner’s Treasure. This is a cookies and cream dessert that includes dropped gems from the mine. The third option is Fairy Tail Gooseberry Tart, which is a meringue based dessert with a bit of Gooseberry flavor. I’m not a big meringue fan, so this was just ok for me.

The food here is definitely worth the trip to Wilderness Lodge, but if you like character dinners, this one does not disappoint, I would argue the best character dinner at Walt Disney World. Everything about this experience is a major win in my book. If you have an upcoming trip, I highly recommend checking it out, but you have to be quick, this restaurant is only open for 5 hours during dinner time, so reservations are extremely limited.

Have you been to Storybook Dining at Artist Point yet? I’d love to hear what you had for a main course and your overall experience.

If you’re ready to start exploring a Walt Disney World or Disneyland family vacation, I recommend checking out Undercover Tourist for your ticket options. I’ve already used them twice, once at Disneyland and once at Disney World and will plan to continue comparing their prices with other sites, however I usually come back to UT because they have the best deals and their instructions make it easy to add your tickets to the Disney apps.