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Guests Forced to Leave Their Plates and Evacuate Magic Kingdom Restaurant

cinderella castle
Credit: Disney

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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cinderella castle

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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.

cinderella royal table restaurant disney world

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.

cinderella royal table disney world

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.

About Becky Burkett

Becky's from the Lone Star State and has been writing since she was 10 and encountered her first Disney Park when she was 11. It was love at first Main Street Electrical Parade. Joy is blank lined journals, 0.7 mm pens, and all things Walt, Woody and Buzz, PIXAR, Imagineering, Sleeping Beauty (make it blue!), Disney Parks history and EPCOT. At Disney World, you'll find her croonin' with the birdies at the Enchanted Tiki Room or hangin' with Woody and the gang at Toy Story Land. If you can dream, you really can do it!