5. Hollywood & Vine: Minnie’s Seasonal Dine

Image: DisneyHollywood & Vine was once a thoroughly mediocre all-you-care-to-enjoy with little else of note. A while ago, Disney fundamentally altered the perception of the place by changing the character meal. Today, Minnie Mouse is in charge of the place, and she’s not a fan of status quo. Every three months, she changes the look of the place, celebrating each new season. The end result for diners is that the character meet-and-greet opportunities are phenomenal.

In winter, you’ll find Goofy in a Santa Claus outfit with Daisy Duck dressed as a Christmas tree. In summer, Minnie throws a beach party with Donald doing his finest Baywatch impersonation as the lifeguard on duty. In the spring, everyone wears their Sunday best. And in the fall, the best season at Hollywood & Vine, all the characters dress up in their Halloween outfits. It’s amazing. No matter when you visit this restaurant, you’ll have a ton of wonderful photo ops with Disney’s most beloved characters. The food’s still not great, but who cares? Donald Duck wears an astronaut suit!!!

4. Whispering Canyon

Image: DisneyI have a love/hate relationship with Whispering Canyon. The food is amazing, and the setting is breathtaking. It resides to the side of the lobby of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. While you wait to be seated, you gaze up at the majesty of one of Disney’s greatest architectural triumphs, the wooden interior of the building.

Once you begin your meal at Whispering Canyon, you’re all-in. That’s good and bad in that the dining experience is unforgettable. It’s also unholy loud. Like, you may not be able to hear the person sitting right beside you at times. That’s also good and bad, presuming that you like talking to the person right beside you. On the one hand, it’s annoying, but the explanation for why is that everyone else is having such an amazing time that the entire place is raucous. In other words, it’s the breathing definition of fun. And that goes triple when you order ketchup.

3. Sci-Fi Dine-In

Image: DisneyAny of the top four restaurants is a valid choice for the most fun one at Walt Disney World. Out of everything listed here, Sci-Fi Dine-In is actually my favorite, but I also understand that it’s not for everyone. For classic movie lovers like me who grew up in the three-channel television era, cheap sci-fi movies were a basic part of television viewing. In a post-Netflix world, that’s difficult to understand, though.

The appeal of this place certainly isn’t for everyone. If you’re like me and love cheesy science fiction films about 50-feet tall men and women terrorizing the locals or outer space vixens seducing noble but virile astromen, this place is heaven on Earth. Disney’s run the same film loop of drive-in movie entertainment since the restaurant’s inception, and it still works perfectly today. My favorite is the competent secretary who saves Earth from a Martian invasion while her boss sits perfectly still and blithely smokes a pipe. It’s perfect fun, as is sitting in a fake car while ordering a meal.