Are Disney World Buffets Changing It Up? Here’s What We Know.

Select Disney World hotels are getting ready to welcome back guests next week and the theme parks are gearing up for their July 11th and July 15th grand reopenings!

Magic Kingdom

And according to a recent post on Unite Here Local 737’s Facebook page, we’ve just learned of a few more groups of restaurant Cast Members that are being asked to return to work.

We’ve been combing over this list of restaurants, and picking out a few areas of interest. First, we noted Epcot’s Festival Cast Members were being asked to return — although Disney hasn’t released any official information about the Epcot festivals yet.

Disney World

Also, Be Our Guest Restaurant’s Cast Members are getting recalled — but potentially only for its table service dinner option at this time. Will its fast-casual breakfast and lunch be temporarily discontinued? We’ll have to await the official word from Disney World regarding the status of this restaurant, but we’ll be super-curious until we learn more!

Be Our Guest Ballroom

But that’s not all we found out today, we also spotted a sidenote which read, “Family Style” next to Biergarten Restaurant in Epcot’s World Showcase and Chef Mickey’s at Disney’s Contemporary Resort! This may be an indication that these restaurants will be offering platefuls of help-yourself offerings instead of their standard serve-yourself buffets for the time being. 

Chef Mickey’s

Based on what has been shared, Cast Members at other restaurants such as Magic Kingdom’s Crystal Palace or Animal Kingdom’s Tusker House Restaurant have NOT been called back yet. So we don’t know Disney’s plans for these buffet locations just yet.

Buffet at Crystal Palace

And keep in mind, while Chef Mickey’s normally offers character dining Disney has shared that character dining will be unavailable for the time being, and at this time the only confirmed character meal that’s returning is Topolino Terrace’s breakfast which you can learn more about here.

Click here to learn more about the ONE character dining meal we know will be returning to Disney World here!

What do you think about the possibility of some Disney World buffets switching over to family-style? Let us know if you’d still dine at one of these restaurants in the comments below!