Big changes are coming to one of Walt Disney World‘s most popular restaurants as a new “special dining experience” is coming to the California Grill restaurant at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
It looks like the California Grill will be closing starting October 2, 2021, to prepare the restaurant for this special dining experience in celebration of The Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary.
One look at The Walt Disney World website shows that bookings are no longer available after October 2:
“California Grill is currently unavailable for bookings after October 2 as we create a special dining experience for the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World Resort.”
Another recent announcement from Disney stated: “Upstairs at California Grill, a new dining experience will also be available later this year, featuring a limited-time menu with items inspired by the restaurant’s history.”
Any rumors as to what these new changes will be are only speculation at this time as Disney has not commented any further on the matter. We do like the idea of a limited menu inspired by the restaurant’s history. Will we get some throwbacks to when it was “Top of the World?”
At this time we don’t know how long the restaurant will be unavailable for, it obviously depends on how extensive the work is.
We also don’t know if the restaurant is changing names into a completely new restaurant, or if it will remain the California Grill just with some modifications, perhaps only temporary ones.
It’s risky to make changes to one of the best restaurants at Disney World, but we have seen Disney wanting to change a few of its restaurants recently, usually by adding characters or IP from one of the films.
For example, it looks like The Wave, which is downstairs at the Contemporary Resort is being converted into Steakhouse 71. Could this restaurant get some theming from The Incredibles too? It would be in line with the hotel rooms also being refurbished to The Incredibles.
We’ve seen this also happen at Artist Point at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge a few years ago when they added Snow White, the dwarfs, and the Evil Queen which is now “Storybook Dining” and made the restaurant much more of a draw for families.
It would make sense Disney wants to do something special here for the 50th since the space itself which is occupied by the California Grill was originally called “Top of the World” and has been used by Disney for the last 50 years.
Just what changes are coming to the California Grill we’ll have to wait and see. Stay tuned for more announcements on the project soon.
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Your Thoughts
I want to know what you think about a special dining experience coming to the California Grill…
- Are you looking forward to this change?
- What would you like to see included in the experience?
Let us know in the comments section below!
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My name is Ziggy and I love Disney, everything Disney! I grew up on Disney and it has and continues to be a huge part of my life. I started young when my parents took me to Disney World when I was 18 months old. Little did they know that would be the first of an uncountable number of trips we would take. I have so many amazing memories going to Disney with my family and friends and it has been interwoven into my DNA.