Over the weekend, Guests at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom found themselves in a very un-magical situation when they were forced to evacuate one of the park’s most sought-after restaurants.
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Whether you’re a kid or a kid at heart, when you visit Disney World, you can usually count on a few character interactions here and there–even when you’re not seeking them out. But some Guests relish the challenge of meeting as many beloved Disney characters as possible, and some don’t mind saying hello more than once to the same character.
To increase the number of characters they meet during a visit, some Guests used to try to score as many character dining reservations as possible. Since the parks reopened following the COVID-related closures in 2020, that’s a bit more challenging, as there have been multiple changes to the availability of character dining experiences, though there are still some opportunities to have an exchange with a character as part of a dining experience.
Among those places is Cinderella’s Royal Table Restaurant inside Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom, where the former character dining is not available, but Guests can still meet the Disney Princess herself.
Disney World invites Guests to “enter the majestic Grand Hall and ascend a spiral staircase to the banquet hall above. A gilded elevator is also available to transport you to the festivities. Then, dine in a storybook setting surrounded by soaring stone archways, majestic medieval flags, and spectacular stained-glass windows overlooking Fantasyland.”
The beautiful restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but it’s pricey, and reservations at Cinderella’s place are hard to come by. That’s what makes a forced evacuation during a visit all the more un-magical.
On Sunday, Guests were forced to evacuate during their meal, making for a less-than-spectacular experience, we’re sure. While reports of the evacuation don’t give copious details, they do state that the reason for the evacuation was the activation of a fire alarm–one that reportedly has an extreme aversion to burning food.
Here’s hoping the Guests–who were forced to leave the restaurant for which scoring a reservation might have taken them several tries over a long period of time–weren’t gone for too long and were compensated in some way, even if it was only with more time to enjoy their meals once they returned to their tables.