The post-Christmas origin of character dining at Walt Disney World

Jim Hill

13 years ago

It's one of those must-do aspects of a Walt Disney World
vacation. Especially if you've got young kids. Character dining. That pricey breakfast,
lunch or dinner which is periodically interrupted as Disney characters come by
your table, pose for pictures and sign autographs.

Given that character dining is such a hugely popular – more
importantly, profitable — component of
the WDW vacation experience nowadays (Don't believe me? Then just check out those
lines of Guests outside of the Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom, Akershus
Royal Banquet Hall at Epcot, Hollywood & Vine at Disney's Hollywood Studios
and Tusker House Restaurant at Disney's
Animal Kingdom. Likewise that queue of customers outside of Chef Mickey's at
Disney's Contemporary Resort, the Cape May Cafe at Disney's Beach Club Resort
as well as 1900 Park Fare at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa), it
might surprise you to learn that the Disney World version of character dining
didn't get its start inside of a theme park and/or at one of the resorts. But –
rather – over at Lake Buena Vista in the shopping village.

Or – for that matter – that the first "character" which WDW
visitors had the chance to dine with wasn't Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh or
any of the Disney Princesses. But – rather – Santa Claus.

It's kind of an interesting tale. But in order to properly
reveal the origins of character dining at Walt Disney World, I must first give
you a bit of backstory on that corner of the Resort which used to be known as the
Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village.

You see, back in the early 1970s, the folks in charge of
Walt Disney Productions wanted to make sure that the "Florida Project" truly was
an all-inclusive vacation resort. So it wasn't enough that Walt Disney World
had the Magic Kingdom, three themed hotels, two championship golf courses, a
campground, horseback riding, boating, water-skiing, bass fishing and the like.
The WDW Resort also had to have its own stand-alone retail & dining
district.

Mind you, construction of the Lake Buena Vista Shopping
Village didn't go forward just because the Company was looking for new &
different ways to get tourists to open their wallets. No, back in the early
1970s, Mouse House managers still had hopes that they'd someday be able to
deliver on Walt's last & greatest dream (i.e. pull a genuine city-of-the-future
up out of the swamps of Central Florida). And by constructing some sort of
commercial center out by what was then-known as Motor Inn Plaza … Well, that
seemed like kind of a smart intermediate step towards the Company's ultimate
goal of building Epcot-the-city.

Still, Disney being Disney … The Lake Buena Vista Shopping
Village couldn't just resemble the mall that folks had back at home. It had to
have a distinctly different take on the shopping experience. Much is the same
way that a Disney theme park was distinctly different from your average
regional amusement park.

Which is why – rather than go with the standard indoor mall
floor plan — the Imagineers opted instead to build WDW's retail & dining
district outdoors along the shores of Lake Buena Vista. More to the point, that
this complex of 32 boutique and handicraft shops would be built out of
weathered wood & brick. And as shoppers wandered among these cedar-shingled
structures, they could then peer in through windows and watch as old-world
craftsmen cut crystal, shaped clay pots and engraved gold.

You get the idea yet? What Disney was trying to with the
Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village was build the anti-mall. Create a unique
dining & retail experience that would not only appeal to WDW visitors but
also draw in leisure shoppers from all over the Central Florida region.

That was the plan, anyway. But when the Lake Buena Vista
Shopping Village opened on March 22, 1975, it quickly became apparent that
something was amiss. For while the Guests who were actually staying at the
Dutch Resort Hotel, Howard Johnson's, The Hotel Royal Plaza and Travelodge
Tower would schlep across the street from Hotel Plaza and then for check this
place out … That wasn't exactly the case for people staying at the
Contemporary, the Polynesian Village, the Golf Resort and Fort Wilderness
Campground. Or – for that matter – most of the day guests who were visiting the
Magic Kingdom.

In fact, the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village was capturing
such a small share of WDW Resort guests and day visitors to the theme park that
– in late 1975 / early 1976 – the Company commissioned a survey about this
shopping & dining district. And what they discovered back then really
startled them.

The biggest problem that the Lake Buena Vista Shopping
Village faced was that most tourists didn't link the Buena Vista name with Walt
Disney World. So when they heard "Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village," these
people thought that it was just another off-property attraction like SeaWorld
or Church Street Station. But worse than that, those WDW Resort guests who did
make a special trip over the Shopping Village to experience these artfully
designed collection of boutiques & restaurants said that they wouldn't be returning
anytime soon because – to be blunt – it just wasn't Disney enough.

So to quickly address these issues, the suits in Burbank
first decided to change the name of WDW's dining & retail district. Which –
in late 1976 / early 1977 – went from being the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village
to the Walt Disney World Village. They also made sure that every new ticket
book sold for the Magic Kingdom then featured an ad that urged theme park goers
to " … Visit the other side of the World … You haven't seen the whole World
until you've visited Walt Disney World Village at Lake Buena Vista. Open daily
10 to 10."

And to counter Guest complaints that " … this shopping
village just isn't Disney enough," the Imagineers then decided to build an
iconic piece of Disneyland Park and WDW's Magic Kingdom. Which was a recreation of a three-decked Mississippi River
stern-wheeler that would then be parked right along the shore of Buena Vista
Lagoon. Which – the wizards of WED hoped – would become the new focal point of
the shopping village.

And Disney spared no expense when it came to the
construction this 150-ton vessel (which – truth be told – wasn't a steamboat at
all. But – rather – a restaurant complex designed to look like a boat which
then sat on this submerged concrete foundation). With two 84-foot smoke stacks,
its 22-by-36-foot churning paddle wheel as well as its gingerbread railings, this
steamboat – at 220 feet long by 62 feet wide – was twice the size of the
paddle-wheelers which cruised around the Rivers of America at the Magic Kingdom.

And as for those " … this shopping village isn't Disney
enough" complaints … Well, that's why the Imagineers opted to name this faux
steamboat the Empress Lilly after Walt's wife, Lillian. In fact, on May 1,
1977, Lillian herself took part in the gala private christening ceremony for
this new WDW restaurant complex. And as she toured this building with Donn Tatum,
Mrs. Disney Truyens supposedly commented on the antique 24-foot-table inlaid
parquet table that she found in the Texas Deck Lounge. Which had reportedly
been chosen by Walt himself to serve as the dining table for the Disney family
suite that was supposed to be built over "Pirates of the Caribbean" in
Disneyland's New Orleans Square area.

And while the name change as well as the addition of the
Empress Lilly did compel more WDW Guests to go visit the Walt Disney World
Village, this retail & dining district still struggled to catch on with
Central Floridians. So to draw even more leisure shoppers from the region,
Disney was then forced to start staging all sorts of special weekend-long
events down along the shore of Lake Buena. The Boat Show, The Car Show, The
Festival of the Masters. Anything that Mouse House managers could think of as a
possible way to lure in additional local customers in.

And given that – at least back in the mid-1970s, anyway –
the weeks leading up to the holidays were an especially slow time for the Walt
Disney World Resort … Well, that's why the folks who ran WDW's shopping village
began staging the "The Glory and Pageantry of Christmas" there. Which was this
Renaissance-style, live Nativity scene that was staged right under the
Captain's Tower right at the very heart of this shopping & dining district.

Given that we now live in an age when people will actually go
to court to prevent a crèche from being placed on public property, it must seem
kind of bizarre to hear that – right up until the mid-1990s – that this
traditional retelling of the Christmas story was staged during the month of
December right on WDW property. And the "The Glory and Pageantry of Christmas"
was a pretty elaborate affair, featuring 39 cast members and live animals. Not
to mention the Dickens Carolers from the Magic Kingdom, which – between scenes
– performed such decidedly non-secular tunes as "O Little Town of Bethlehem,"
"Away in a Manger," "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" and "We Three Kings."

The finale of "The Glory and Pageantry of Christmas" living Nativity at the Walt Disney
World Village. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

"The Glory and Pageantry of Christmas" became so popular
with Central Floridians that there were nights where – in order to deal with
the crowds – the Walt Disney World Village was forced to present three
performances of this living Nativity nightly, once at 6, 7:30 & 9 p.m.

Which was great when it came to bringing nighttime shoppers
into WDW Village during the month of December. But as for the early morning
hours, Disney World's shopping village genuinely struggled when it came to
bringing in customers. Or at least it did until one enterprising Mouse House
manager decided to borrow a bit of holiday magic from the local mall.

As Disneyland president George Kalogridis recounted at his
"A Word from the President" presentation at D23's Destination D: Disneyland '55
event in September of 2010, one member of the WDW Shopping Village's management
team noticed that several Orlando area malls were doing extremely well with
their "Have Breakfast with Santa" promotions. So why couldn't Disney stage a similar
sort of event to convince shoppers to come out to Lake Buena Vista during the
early morning hours?

As this image capture from "Holiday Time at Disneyland" (i.e. the "Wonderful World of
Color" episode that originally aired on December 23, 1962) proves, Walt and Santa
go way back. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

So – just as a test in December of 1977 – the Walt Disney
World Village put together a "Have Breakfast with Santa" promotion. Where kids
& their parents would come on board the Empress Lilly (which was completely
open and available at that time of day. Given that – at this point in its
operating history, anyway – this riverboat restaurant wasn't serving breakfast.
It only served lunch & dinner) and enjoy some scrambled eggs, bacon and
pancakes while Santa slowly worked his way around the Promenade Deck and
visited with every child at every table.

To hear Kalogridis tell this story, the "Have Breakfast with
Santa" promotion was a huge seasonal success. Resulting in huge foot traffic
through the stores. More importantly, an overall increase in sales at the Walt
Disney World Village at a time of day when this retail & dining area was
usually dead.

But then December gave way to January. And as the morning
foot traffic and per-store sales slumped to their usual pre-holiday levels,
Walt Disney World Shopping Village managers wondered if there was a way that
they could perhaps replicate the "Have Breakfast with Santa" phenomenon by –
say – giving WDW Guests the chance to dine with some of their favorite Disney
characters.

Which is why – in February of 1978 – the WDW Shopping
Village began offering a "Have Breakfast with Snow White and Friends" event aboard
the Empress Lilly. Which immediately became hugely popular with Resort
visitors. So much so that – at the height of its popularity – the
eventually-renamed "Breakfast a la Disney" was selling out three seatings
daily.

Which is why – in order to deal with demand – Walt Disney
World then began offering character dining at other venues around the Resort.
Among them the Minnie's Menehune Breakfast at the Papeete Bay Veranda at the
Polynesian Village and Melvin the Moose's Country Breakfast Jamboree at Fort
Wilderness's Pioneer Hall. And with the success of these spin-off character
breakfast events, it was only a matter of time before the Parks got involved.

And now that character dining is a standard feature at every
WDW theme park and at virtually every Resort on property … Well, to me, anyway,
it just seems a little less special.

But – then again – the entire Walt Disney World Resort has
seemed like a less special place since the Empress Lilly was closed on April
22, 1995 and then gutted to make way for Fulton's Crab House … If you ever got
the chance to dine in the Empress Room with its glimmering chandeliers, as the attentive
staff there served gourmet fare on special made-to-order china … Well, that was
an evening that you'd never ever forget.

Likewise the great Dixieland music that you used to be able to hear played nightly
inside of the Baton Rouge Lounge. Or those Monday Night Huddle events. Where Tampa
Bay Buccaneers players would — every Monday evening from early September through
late December – come on board the Empress Lilly riverboat restaurant and then review
the previous day's football game, showing play-by-play films as well as responding
to questions from the crowd.

Yeah, the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village / Walt Disney
World Village may have not been hugely successful as Walt Disney Productions
officials had hoped that it would be in the mid-to-late 1970s (And one wonders
what would have happened if Card Walker had ever followed through with his
post-Epcot-opening plan. Which was to add a third loop to the Resort's monorail
system, which would have then allowed visitors to that futuristic theme park to
travel over to the Walt Disney World Village & Hotel Plaza area and then
disembark for a bit of shopping & dining).

A model of the future expansion of WDW's Hotel Plaza area. Please note the proposed
monorail loop that would have not only serviced these hotels but also the Walt Disney
World Village. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Anyway … So if you or your family has ever enjoyed a bit of
character dining while vacationing at the Walt Disney World Resort, you have
the managers of the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village / Walt Disney World
Village to thank. Who were only looking for additional ways to make the cash registers
ring at WDW's dining & retail district after the holidays when they then
came up with the idea of charging Guests to eat breakfast on board the Empress
Lilly with Snow White & friends.

Which seems like a suitable post-holiday story, don't you
think?

Anyway … How many of you out there also have fond memories
of the Empress Lilly and/or have stories to share about memorable character
encounters that you & family members may have had at a "Breakfast A La Disney"
?

Your thoughts?

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