Minnie’s Halloween Dine Character Dinner – A Review!

This week, we’re reviewing Minnie’s Halloween Dine at Hollywood & Vine!

Hollywood & Vine is a table service restaurant located at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  The Art Deco-inspired space is described as a “Cafeteria to the Stars” which hosts a casual family buffet accompanied by character meet-and-greets.

During breakfast, guests interact with popular Disney Junior pals.  Lunch and dinner service, however, switches to seasonal dining parties with Minnie and the gang. 

During the fall months, Hollywood & Vine is home to Minnie’s Halloween Dine!  Guests of Minnie’s Halloween Dine get to celebrate the spooky season with Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto wearing their best Halloween attire.

Advance Dining Reservations are highly recommended.  To get a leg up on the competition, check out our Guide to Securing the Most Popular Dining Reservations!

Price/Cost

Character dining always has a hefty price tag at Walt Disney World.  For this dining experience, expect to pay $63 per adult, and $40 per child (ages 3-9) plus tax and gratuity.  Nonalcoholic beverages are included in the cost, but there are also alcoholic beverages available for an additional charge. 

Because my son was under the age of three, he was able to eat for free!  This was a saving grace for us, and a motivation to check this place out before things get real expensive for us. 

The meal is certainly pricey at Minnie’s Halloween Dine, but because it’s a buffet you can certainly try to get your money’s worth! 

Atmosphere

Right when you enter the restaurant, you’ll find a great spooky photo op to celebrate the occasion.  Cast members asked if we’d like to snap our photo before or after we dined.  Knowing food equals messes with my two youngest, I opted for the photo before!

As I mentioned before, the interior of the restaurant is Art Deco-inspired, and the layout is meant to resemble a studio commissary.

The venue was very noisy and somewhat hectic, but that tends to be the case with character dining.  My kids are also noisy and hectic (ha!), so the atmosphere wasn’t a problem for us.  If, however, you are looking for a quiet meal, I recommend avoiding this experience.

The Menu

Salads and Starters

An assortment of breads kicked off the meal followed by a salad bar with numerous greens, dressings, and accompaniments to build your own salad.

Other chilled starters included fresh fruit, seasonal salad offerings, and peel-n-eat shrimp with cocktail sauce.  I particularly enjoyed the shaved fennel, kale, and seasonal fruit salad as well as the tomato and mozzarella salad.

Main Courses

The hot side of the buffet had an overwhelming number of delicious options including sour cream and chive whipped potatoes, caramelized brussels sprouts, and marinated chicken. 

The salmon with miso glaze, wasabi cream, and wasabi peas was absolutely amazing!

Further down the line, there was roasted mushroom farro risotto (a hit with my family), broccoli and carrots, crispy tofu with Asian glaze, and cumin rice. 

I was a big fan of the tofu and rice.  Theme Park food tends to be bland, but these dishes were packed with flavor!

The final leg of the buffet had pot roast, Mexican street corn, roasted butternut squash, macaroni & cheese with shrimp and bacon, and barbecue meatballs. 

The pork and spicy mustard sauce was the standout dish for me here.

At the carving station, they served roasted beef strip loin with horseradish cream.  We made sure to get extra helpings of this dish!

For the Kids

The kid-friendly side of the buffet served staples such as chicken nuggets, mini corn dogs, potato barrels, and macaroni & cheese.  My little ones had no trouble finding something they liked here. 

I had to try the macaroni & cheese myself, and it earned all our stamps of approval!

Desserts

The dessert buffet had several platters of treats including sugar cookies, carrot cake cupcakes, peanut butter and jelly tarts, and seasonal bread pudding.  There was also an ice cream station where you could create your own sundae!

My teenager loved the crème brûlée cheesecake, while my 7yr old went wild over the Mississippi mud pie.  My 2yr old loved everything, and somehow ate more than half of the desserts on my plate!

Overall, the food was very good here.  There was something available for all palates, and we each found a favorite dish we couldn’t get enough of.  Seriously, that salmon and cumin rice were fantastic!

The Characters

Now let’s be honest, you don’t book these experiences for the food – you book them for the characters!  Getting one-on-one time with these beloved pals is what helps justify the high price point of the meal. 

As I mentioned before, at Minnie’s Halloween Dine guests interact with Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto donning their special Halloween attire.

Minnie wears her fashionable spider-witch costume trimmed with orange butterflies and flowers.  My son loved pointing out the spiders on her gloves.

Mickey dons his spider-vampire costume complete with spider buttons and a dashing cape.

Goofy is dressed as a Cowboy and wears skeleton hand gloves. 

And finally, Pluto makes appearances wearing his bat-shaped collar.

The character interactions were fantastic!  Each character came around multiple times, which allowed my toddler to develop a report with them.  It was fun to see him get more and more playful with them each time they came by.

I’ve never attended a character dinner with as much character interaction as we had at Minnie’s Halloween Dine!

At the end of the meal, each guest received an autograph card signed by each of the characters.  Such a great keepsake!

Final Thoughts

Overall, we really enjoyed our experience at Minnie’s Halloween Dine.  We were very happy with the quality and variety of food options, and the character interactions were fantastic!  The only negative was the high price tag, but not having to pay for our son really helped us out.

If you are expecting the food and atmosphere alone to justify the cost, you will be disappointed.  The food was very good, but not as good as what you would find at signature dining locations for the same price point.

Minnie’s Halloween Dine is really about the characters, and it’s extra fun to see them donning their seasonal apparel.  If meeting characters is a priority for your family, then you should consider booking this experience! 

I hope this review was helpful in deciding if you should book Minnie’s Halloween Dine!

Looking for other Disney Dining Reviews?  Check out our Character Breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace Review and our Sanaa Dining Review!

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