Today marks the first day that the “Disney Family Night Dinner” and original card game is available at select Walt Disney World hotels. We decided to head out to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa to not only review the meal, but also take a look at the original card game that comes included with the family-style meal.
Disney Family Night Dinner Review
Current Menus and Pricing
We’ll start by acknowledging that there are currently two meals offered at two separate resorts. While we went to Gasparilla Island Grill at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, an offering of the same name is currently available at Centertown Market at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. The original card games are the same with both offerings, but the food differs.
Centertown Market – Disney Family Night Dinner ($79)
- Caribbean Pull-apart Rolls with Onion Jam and Guava Butter
- Roasted Jamaican-style Chicken
- Fried Yucca, Rice and Seasonal Vegetables
- Decorate-Your-Own Mickey and Minnie Cookies
Gasparilla Island Grill – Disney Family Night Dinner ($89)
- Garden Salad
- Three-cheese Lasagna
- Two Mickey-shaped Pizzas (cheese or pepperoni)
- Minnie-shaped cheesecake with strawberry sauce, whipped cream and fresh berries
Grand Floridian Disney Family Night Dinner Review
Guests who wish to try pizza and lasagna for their Disney Family Night Dinner will want to head to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. The Disney Family Night Dinner is offered at Gasparilla Island Grill for $89.
Many of the items are not available a la carte, so you can’t compare direct value, but we’ll try to speak to that a little later in the review.
As is the case in many quick service locations, Disney is building these orders as to-go orders, so here’s a look at how you can expect the meal to be presented once taken out of the oversized paper bag.
Each of the items pretty much falls into the “as expected” category as far as taste is concerned, but it’s important to keep in mind that this is a quick-service offering that is meant to feed 3-4 people (more on portions in a bit).
Perhaps the best part of the Grand Floridian offering is the shape of the food. While the Caribbean Beach offering is more standard as far as appearance goes, just about everything is Mickey-shaped at Grand Floridian. When mobile ordering, you’re given the option of “Pepperoni and Cheese”, “Pepperoni”, or “Cheese” options. We went with “Pepperoni and Cheese”, which offers both a Mickey and Minnie pizza!
Everything was served hot, and the pizzas were pre-sliced and ready to go. It’s not going to be the best pizza you’ve ever had, but it was good enough and what you’d expect for a quick-service offering.
The centerpiece of the meal is the over 3lb lasagna. If there was one thing that surprised us most about the meal, it was the portions. Officially, Disney says that the meal serves 3-4 guests, but we can easily see it feeding 6 people. Between a 3lb lasagna and a more than 1lb cheesecake, there is plenty on offer here and there is probably even some value.
There were two issues with the lasagna – a lack of a cutting/serving tool, and less marinara than we would’ve liked. Thankfully, the managers we spoke with have already ordered plastic cake/pie servers and meals will be a little easier to serve in the near future. We also provided feedback on the light offering of marinara in the lasagna and there might be a change there too soon.
Other than that, the cheeses were wonderful in the lasagna and it was served piping hot!
Keeping with the theme of Mickey-shaped food, we were really impressed with the touches made to the salad. Our salad was fresh and contained all the fun Disney touches you would hope for.
A side of bread was also provided. The bread was soft and, just like the rest of the meal, warm.
Moving onto dessert, we have a more than 1lb cheesecake. The cheesecake was actually wonderful, and almost had a cookies and cream flavor towards the end of each bite. And, as we’ve come to expect, Mickey-shaped!
Overall, the meal was a lot. The portion size was much more than what we were expecting and can’t stress enough how this will easily feed a family of four. For a post-park resort meal, this is unbelievably simple and certainly hits the mark. It’s not something that we’d suggest locals or day guests go out of their way to experience, but it’s a smart meal for resort guests. One of the examples on how this meal might fall short for a local or day guest is the exclusion of drinks.
Of course, when you actually look around a resort, you’ll see that a good majority of resort guests already have refillable mugs. This was especially true over at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort and Centertown Market.
There is one more aspect of this meal that puts it over the top and earns a recommendation from us – the “card game” element.
Disney Family Night Dinner Original Card Game
Ok, so what exactly is the Disney Family Night Dinner original card game? Here’s a look!
This isn’t a traditional “card game” in the slightest, but it’s a cute addition to the meal that works perfectly for a family visiting Walt Disney World. What this game really amounts to is a series of prompts that are designed to create a family bonding moment.
Here’s a look at the front and back of the cards.
At the end of the games, Disney sprinkles a bit of magic on the end of your Family Night Dinner with a sort of a puzzle! Flip over the title card and you’ll have to work to find a phone number that you can call from any resort phone.
Here’s a look at the solution, followed by a listen into the response when you call the number.
Is “Disney Family Night Dinner” Worth It?
If you think that any of the offerings look interesting, we’d recommend Disney Family Night Dinner. This offering is very much targeted to the family that has just finished their long day at the theme parks or a day at the pool and are looking for something easy and fun.
This is actually quite a smart addition by Disney and while we were told that this could be a 1-2 month test, if guests enjoy it, the Disney Family Night Dinner could become a more permanent, or at least seasonal, offering.
The food does the trick, and the game has the potential to create some wonderful family memories! To read our review of the Disney’s Caribbean Beach spin on this concept, check out our review below:
