Tusker House at Disney's Animal Kingdom to introduce a character dinner

Dec 11, 2014 in "Tusker House"

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Posted: Thursday December 11, 2014 1:00pm EST by WDWMAGIC Staff

Tusker House at Disney's Animal Kingdom will begin offering character dinners from March of next year.

Beginning March 8 2015, character dinner will be offered in addition to the character breakfast and lunch, which will make the restaurant character dining only.

Reservations can be made from tomorrow, December 12 2014 for arrivals from March 8 2015 onwards.

Donald's Safari Dinner will continue to be a buffet, including meet and greets with Donald and Daisy Duck. Dinner will begin at 4pm.

Tusker House has undergone a number of changes since its opening with the park, where it was originally a quick service restaurant. It later changed to a table service restaurant, with gradual inclusion of character dining, first at breakfast, then later adding lunch.

A new table service restaurant will open on Discovery Island in 2015, which along with Yak and Yeti and Rainforest Cafe, will provide three non-character dining experiences.

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Figments FriendDec 14, 2014

True, but it was a 'wilderness' setting that the film took place in. I included the friends from Brother Bear as they have previously been seen at DAK and used to do Meet & Greets.

networkproDec 14, 2014

I'm an early morning person so lunch is at 11, dinner about 6 hours later. Breakfast is about the time young urban/suburbanites are going to bed.

Matt_BlackDec 14, 2014

Brother Bear didn't take place in a jungle.

Figments FriendDec 14, 2014

Indeed. It seems such a natural fit for DAK. There are plenty of 'Character Meal friendly' animal friends that could appear for such a thing. I am not really seeing the point of why those in charge of such things are insisting on offering pretty much the SAME two dozen or so characters at all WDW Character Meals. No matter where you dine, you see pretty much the same ones. I would think offering differently themed character meals, with truly 'different characters' would not only encourage Guests to spend out for a meal they might not have been enticed to otherwise, but encourage MORE then one Character Meal per visit. We of course already have that in place to some degree with the Princess themed Meals at MK and Epcot...and Pooh & Friends over at the Crystal Palace. But i am referring more to mixing up the 'standard' Character Meal offerings. If DAK had something unique, that would be a plus. Guests can already dine with Donald and other 'Fab Five' tied friends in several other locations already. Would enjoy seeing something...'different' added to the mix. How awesome would a 'Jungle Adventure' type of meal be...with friends from the Jungle Book, Tarzan, Brother Bear, etc. That would be worth experiencing.

ToTBellHopDec 12, 2014

4:30 sounds more like "Parents with Toddler-style"! We eat dinner early because the kids do (and go to bed early) and because we don't want the boys to annoy those who eat later, when restaurants are more crowded.

networkproDec 12, 2014

Retirement style ? Not everyone lives the same time schedule and normal is subjective.

sshindelDec 12, 2014

I guess that means that things like my 5:30pm "lunch" reservations I have on Sunday will just officially be renamed dinner, and likely cost more.

asianwayDec 12, 2014

No. No, you may not. A speshul snowflake might not get Thumper on their visit and throw a fit

doctornickDec 12, 2014

Interestingly, DLR has far few character meals than WDW (naturally given the respective sizes) but one of them is an animal themed one at Storytellers Cafe at the Grand Cali. It does seem that something similar that would make sense at DAK (or, alternatively, at AKL at least)

Gabe1Dec 12, 2014

While it is great they are building more restaurants, keeping them open longer but to what end. Avatar is still years away. Break some more ground, build some more attractions and then maybe there will be a reason to stay in the park long enough for night time dining.

Thumper 32Dec 12, 2014

While I love the basic idea, there's no way that Meeko or Thumper should be in a Jungle themed anything. They are forest animals. :) I've always thought that Baloo and Louie (and heck even Mowgli if we're going crazy here) would make for a great new character breakfast at Sanaa. It already has the India flair to the menu so they'd be a natural fit.

wdriveDec 12, 2014

I'm almost certain it will be the same characters as breakfast and lunch.

BigTxEarsDec 12, 2014

More options are a good thing to us, good stuff :)

Figments FriendDec 12, 2014

Drew's idea would make this a truly nice addition ...a 'Jungle Friends' themed character meal. Perfect setting. Something unique is really needed, and the place setting at Tusker House would be a great spot to try out such a thing. Mix it up a little. I bet with a few 'alternative' jungle/adventure associated characters added here, it would make this location one of the most popular character meals on property. Despite that being a good idea....it is a little disappointing to hear that Tusker House is doing character meals now for dinner, too. Tusker was my fave dinner spot at DAK. Good food, fair price, and a nice variety of options. I purposely avoided it as a breakfast/lunch spot because of the character meals happening then. Sorry to hear it is going 'character' for all meals now.