Disneyland Making Change to Restaurant Dinner Buffet to Add Characters & More

There are a few different character dining meals offered at Disneyland, but one in particular stands out as our favorite due to the quality of the food, atmosphere, and characters that are featured in the experience. We just learned that there will now be a new character dining dinner experience coming to this location for the first time.

Storyteller's Cafe at the Grand Californian has recently been offering some new themed experiences including a holiday pajama party during the most recent Christmas season, autumn-themed dining during the fall, and coming up soon this year, a special Easter dining experience and Mother's Day brunch. Now, for the first time, there will be character dining during dinner at this location!

Keep reading for more details on the new dinner character dining experience that will be featured at Storytellers Cafe…

New Disneyland Character Dining Dinner Experience

READ MORE – Totally Unique Front-Row World of Color View That Comes With Dinner

On the Storytellers Cafe page, a new character dining experience has been announced called “Donald's Tales of Adventure Dinner Buffet.” This character dining meal will begin on May 16, 2025, the same day as the start date of the Disneyland 70th anniversary celebration. Bookings will begin on March 25, 2025.

At Donald's Tales of Adventure Dinner Buffet, guests will be able to “swap adventure stories over a bountiful campfire-style barbecue buffet” and “pose with Donald, Daisy, Clarabelle, Goofy or Pluto dressed in their new explorer outfit.” Mickey's Tales of Adventure will continue to be available for breakfast and brunch. See the concept art for the character outfits below!

Dinner will be served from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM. What is also noteworthy about this change is that this menu will feature barbecue-style food, which Storytellers Cafe does not do currently.

The menu includes the following:

• Baby back spareribs
• Slowroasted prime rib with creamy horseradish
• Fried chicken
• Creamed corn
• A variety of vegetables and salads
• S’mores bread pudding
• Sweets and confectionaries
• An array of beverages

The price of this experience is not too much higher than it was previously for the non-character dining dinner buffet here. That experience is currently $58 per adult plus tax and $30 per child plus tax.

READ MORE – Unlisted Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel Perk You Have to Try

See the pricing for the new Donald's Tales of Adventure Dinner Buffet below:

• $62 per adult (ages 10 and older)
• $36 per child (ages 3 to 9)
  Prices do not include tax and gratuity.

You need to cancel at least 2 hours prior to your reservation to avoid a per-person cancellation fee. If you do not cancel timely or are a no-show, the credit card provided at the time of reservation will be charged $10 per person.

This seems like a reasonable move on Disney's end to add characters to the dinner buffet here, as it looks like they are hoping that the addition of characters will pack the restaurant more. This location always had a lot of availability for dinner and was still quite pricey even without the presence of characters. We're interested to see if this new experience increases demand for the dinner offering here.

Read More Disney Planning Advice

For the best resource and helpful information for planning your Disney trip, make sure to subscribe to our FREE Deals newsletter​. We’ll provide you with helpful planning information, exclusive Disney deals, and access to the lowest-priced Disney tickets anywhere.