Minnie’s Halloween Dine Review

If you’re considering Hollywood & Vine for character dining during Minnie’s Halloween Dine, we’re going to discuss what you can really expect. This meal offers classic characters in playful Halloween costumes, a wide buffet with plenty of options, and a few drawbacks that are worth noting. Overall, we were kind of surprised at how much we enjoyed the experience, including most of the food.

Hollywood and Vine has been on my radar for several years. As regular readers already know, when my son was younger, we didn’t frequent anywhere with a buffet because of food allergies and cross-contamination concerns. For that reason alone, we missed quite a few character meals. Over the past few years, we’ve tried to incorporate those meals and experiences into reviews as time allows. So when the opportunity to have dinner with friends at Hollywood Studios came up, I immediately suggested Minnie’s Halloween Dine. We were able to secure a reservation for that very evening.

Of course, it’s not always that simple to secure same-day dining reservations. Here are the details for making reservations in advance, which Disney strongly recommends.

• Guests with a Valid Disney Resort Hotel Reservation: Make reservations for your entire length of stay (up to a 10-night stay) up to 60 days before your arrival.
• All Other Guests: Make reservations up to 60 days in advance. (If you’re staying off-site, you must do this day by day.)

Hollywood and Vine sits in the Echo Lake area of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s near the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. A cast member mans the podium outside the restaurant where guests check in. You’ll wait outside until you receive the text that your table is ready.

When your table is ready, a hostess will escort you inside. A seasonal photo backdrop is set up immediately inside the restaurant. You can stop and have your photo made if you like. In our situation, the cast member was happy to take our photo. However, you’ll want to know that PhotoPass photographers are not available at this meal or at character dining, in general, with a few small exceptions.

Here is an overview of the restaurant. The interior reminded me of Mel’s Drive-In in West Hollywood.

If you’re a fan of vintage Hollywood, you’ll love the decor. It fits right in with the theme of the park. It is, however, essential to note that the restaurant is one large open room. Character interactions are happening all around, and guests are coming and going every which way. It’s noisy. On the positive side, this works great for small children. You don’t have to worry about them being too loud and a little over-excited about seeing all the characters. On the negative, it could be over-stimulating or possibly even overwhelming if you prefer quieter dining experiences.

Once we were seated, a server came by and took our drink orders. We then went to check out the buffet. Instead of taking pictures of the buffet, I prepared a few plates and made notes about the available items. We were impressed with the number of salads, appetizers, sides, and entrees. I started with a garden salad, a selection of olives, pasta salad, some fruit, and the autumn harvest salad with beets. I also sampled the butternut squash soup. I enjoyed everything I tried with this first course. The beet salad and pasta salad were among my favorite things for the entire meal.

When I returned to the buffet, I tried to sample as many items as possible. I had the Sweet Chili Aïoli Salmon, the sour cream and chive potato, peel-n-eat shrimp, caramelized Brussels Sprouts, Shepard’s Pie with ground beef, sauteed green beans, flank steak with chimichurri, fried rice, street corn casserole, and a macaroni and cheese with bacon. A carving station offered both flank steak and smoked ham. A children’s station was also available. It had items like chicken nuggets, potato barrels, carrots, and macaroni and cheese.

For this round, I enjoyed the salmon, veggies, and potatoes the most. Nothing really stood out like the salad bar, but we didn’t dislike anything either.

Then it was time for dessert. Unfortunately, this course was just mediocre. They had a couple of cupcakes in different flavors, an apple pie that really was just baked apples, and bread pudding. Disney’s website lists Mississippi Mud Pie as one of the signature desserts, but it wasn’t an option on the evening of our visit. An ice cream machine with vanilla, chocolate, and swirl soft serve was also available.

Throughout the course of our meal, the various characters would stop at the table. Pluto was first on the list.

His dog tag was in the shape of a bat to celebrate Halloween.

Next, cowboy Goofy stopped by the table. He wore a cowboy hat, a red bandana, skeleton gloves, and had a huge spider-shaped belt buckle.

Mickey Mouse was the next character to greet us. He was dressed like a vampire and had a cape that resembled a spider web. He also had a spider bow tie and buttons on his purple and green outfit.

Minnie Mouse was the last character we saw for the evening, which was fitting since this is Minnie’s Seasonal Dine. She was wearing a witch’s hat and a black and orange dress with purple accents. Her cape resembled Mickey’s.

For the record, Minnie hosts her seasonal dine all year long. The meal period changes to Minnie’s Holiday Dine after Halloween, the Silver Screen Dine after New Year’s, and the Springtime Dine and Summertime Dine will debut afterward. This meal is available for lunch and dinner, and the breakfast period will be added in mid-October.

Therefore, if you go outside of the Halloween period, which runs from mid-August through early November, you’ll see the characters in different outfits. You’ll also likely see a few seasonal items change on the buffet.

Overall, we enjoyed our dinner at Hollywood & Vine, and I was happy that I finally had the opportunity to check it out. Highlights of the meal were the salad options and the fact that you could put together a fresh, healthy meal that wasn’t carbohydrate-heavy. (That surprised me.) We also had an incredible server who took the time to get to know us a little better throughout the meal. You can’t beat good service.

As noted above, the clamor of the restaurant could work for you or against you. If the idea of a loud restaurant with characters and a buffet sounds like chaos, this probably isn’t the best option for you. If, however, you’re dining with children who act like, well, children, you won’t be so worried about excited outbursts or drawing attention to yourselves. Almost everyone else dining in the restaurant will be preoccupied with their family.

The only real negative for us was the lack of dessert options. We expected a larger variety of items and a few things that were a little better quality than cupcakes that looked like they were bulk-purchased at a Sam’s Club or Costco. I’m not sure if things on the dessert station were lacking on our visit or if this is the norm. We are used to typically seeing a few more items on most dessert bars.

As far as pricing goes, Hollywood and Vine is expensive, like most character meals. You’ll want to ask if any discounts are available. We were privy to a 40% off Welcome Home Weeks with Disney Vacation Club discount that was only offered for a limited time. That made a huge difference in the price for our party of three.

So you’ll want to consider what characters are at a meal and how timing fits in with your schedule. If you would like to compare the meals, our Disney World Character Dining Guide is a good place to start. It provides an overview of every character meal at Disney World with pricing, meal periods, and characters. We also offer some guidance on how to choose the experience that will work best for your party. Some of our favorite character meals are as follows:

• 1900 Park Fare Breakfast Review
• Topolino’s Terrace Breakfast Review
• The Crystal Palace Breakfast Review
• Cape May Cafe Breakfast Review

This review of Minnie’s Halloween Dine is also part of our seasonal coverage. If you would like to know more about visiting in the Fall, see our complete guide to Disney World at Halloween Time.

More Planning

Resorts Gal specializes in Disney World Resorts, Characters, and Dining. Explore our resources, including our Disney World Resorts Guide. It provides an overview of everything you need to know about the Disney Resort Hotels. For dining, our Disney World Dining Guide is an excellent place to start. Our Disney World Transportation Guide is a wonderful resource for planning your routes. It’s one of our most popular resources. If you plan to meet characters in the parks, we have an updated list of Disney World Characters. It includes every available character meet-and-greet in the parks and where to find rare characters throughout the year. Lastly, our Disney Parks Guide provides a complete overview of all four theme parks and water parks.