Character dining to return to Liberty Tree Tavern

According to Mr. Hill, characters are schedule to return to the Liberty Tree Tavern:

jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2009/03/12/disney-food.aspx

I hope it is true!

Here's the news! How reliable? Don't know!

… Many Magic Kingdom fans were saddened when the Liberty Tree Tavern stopped serving its Goofy’s Liberate Your Appetite Character Dinner back on January 4th. So much so that a significant number of them actually stopped going to this WDW eatery.

Consequently, the Liberty Tree Tavern went from being a restaurant that literally did turn away business to becoming one that wound up with almost 100 empty seats every night. Which then translated into a $250,000 drop in revenues for both the months of January and February.

In the face of those sorts of losses … WDW officials had to admit that they’d made a mistake. Which is why – just last week – Magic Kingdom managers quietly okayed the return of character dining at the Liberty Tree Tavern.

Mind you, Goofy and his friends won’t be returning immediately. These managers first had to amend that theme park’s global schedule bid. In essence put in a staffing requisition for the proper number of Zoo Crew members necessary to staff a character dining venue like Liberty Tree Tavern.


Please raise your hand if you're happy to hear that character dining will soon
return to the Liberty Tree Tavern. Copyright Disney. All Rights Reserved


Then – given that there are Cast Members who literally performed as characters at this Magic Kingdom eatery for years – WDW officials would like to give these veteran performers first crack at their old jobs and then fill any vacant positions.

Anyway … Long story short, what with all of the staffing issues and scheduling changes involved with bringing character dining back to the Liberty Tree Tavern, it may take as long as the second weekend of April (To be specific, Easter) before Goofy’s Liberate Your Appetite Character Dinner is up and running again.


And just so you know, this news has not been officially announced yet. So if you call (407) WDW-DINE today and then tell them you're looking to make reservations for character dining at the Liberty Tree Tavern, that call center rep is not going to know what the heck you're talking about. But trust me, folks. These WDW Cast Members will be brought up to speed shortly. So if you're looking to Liberate Your Appetite anytime soon, you'd best make some reservations ASAP.


Anywho ... Given that all Disneyana fans seem to do online these days is complain about high costs and/or cutbacks at the Parks, I just thought it might be nice to share some news about something that had once been cut but is now on its way back.

That is good news and helps alleviate pressure on other character meals.

This was our favorite place to eat with characters!I am glad we can add it back to our list.

I'm glad they are returning, I'm dining there at the end of April for my honeymoon. They should be back by then. :)

i was so upset when our waitress told us this, and she was too! i knew it was a bad idea from the start

Yay! I'm glad they're bringing back character dining there - it was so much fun and the food was awesome.

Just remember the source. Hill is not the most reliable out there.

That being said, this sounds plausible. I'm sure our fearless leader (Lou) will get the dish on this soon.

If its true I'm pretty happy. We ate there once for the character dinner a few years ago and it was really good.

I wish they would return the character lunch at the Garden Grill at Epcot. That was always are must do every trip.

I must say, very very pleased if this is true. The food there was awesome last year, I hope they're really doing this for when we go down in November.

I agree I hope it comes back,I really enjoyed it. It is one of my favorite places to eat.

Still no official word on this, but hopefully they will come to their senses and bring back the characters. This was always a favorite of my clients!!