Crystal Palace

Another one of Walt Disney World's in park character dining experiences is Crystal Palace. This one is in the Magic Kingdom and features all your favourite Winnie the Pooh characters. You can either book breakfast or lunch in Crystal Palace. The day we went to Crystal Palace we booked an early lunch there for 11.35 and it was actually the first lunch of the day which turned out great for us.

Once you check in at the reception area they give you a pager and then you wait until your table is ready:

Since we had an early lunch and they were just clearing the place after breakfast and since we only had a party of two when our pager went off we were the first ones into the seating area for lunch which was pretty cool. Our waitress in Crystal Palace was Cindy and she explained how it was buffet style and she would only bring drinks. She wasn't as pushy as the guy we had in Tusker House so my mother liked this one better.
Because we were first in it also meant we got to see the characters quicker and more often as they kept passing our table to go to new comers. Our first visitor was Piglet:

The day I went to Crystal Palace I wore a Winnie the Pooh t-shirt and if you can I would recommend wearing something to the theme of the characters where you are eating because they do pick up on it and although they can't talk they do interact with you about what you are wearing. Piglet made it known he loved the fact I was wearing a t-shirt of his best friend:

Eeyore followed closely after Piglet:

How cute is his little tail dragging behind him:

After Eeyore our waitress was able to confirm for us that we now had time to visit the buffet and we wouldn't miss any characters if we did. We both grabbed a small selection of everything we saw that we thought we would like to try:

The meatballs and mac and cheese I got were from the kids section but I liked them better than most of what was out on the adult section when I went up. I did get rice, chicken nuggets, pizza and broccoli from the adults section though.
My mother went up a few minutes later than me so they had more meat choices on the adult section when she went up. She got potatoes, steak, salmon and salad as well as some of the things I got:

This meal was a big hit with my mother because it was "proper" food as she deems it. She doesn't like the fast food type meals like burgers and chips and would much prefer potatoes and vegetables with all her meals. This place had that and plenty of it.
While we were eating our main the place started to fill up a bit more and we got a second visit from Piglet and Eeyore. Tigger did come around eventually and he made it known he was not happy that I had Pooh bear on my t-shirt and not him so I told him that I would get one of him later in the week and he was happier then so posed for a photo:

Our last visitor was the Tubbie little Cubbie himself and he of course loved my t-shirt:

Once we had seen all the characters we went up for dessert. My plate:

My mothers plate:

The chocolate filled brandy snaps were the best!
While we were eating dessert I was watching some of the character interactions around the restaurant. Winnie the Pooh sat down beside some guy who was on his own waiting for his family to return. Tigger robbed some mans baseball hat and started walking around the restaurant with it on him.

As we left then I took pictures of the toparies at the entrance area. These were all Winnie the Pooh characters and all made from fresh flowers. The all had Christmas hats and scarves on for the holiday season as well and they looked amazing:

Crystal Palace was a big hit for both myself and my mother. My mother thought it was worth the money alot more than the breakfast at Tusker house. The meal and character interaction was less rushed and the food was great so win win all round.