Ellie Benitez
A very, very short time ago, in a galaxy not so far away (from me anyway), from May to June at the Happiest place on Earth we celebrate a few of the most beloved movies of all time: Star Wars.
Whether you’re a member of the Dark Side, run with the Rebel Alliance or even if you’ve never seen these movies before, if you happen to be visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios on a weekend between May 16th and June 15th, you are sure to be consumed by all of the wonderful events going on within the park for Star Wars Weekends. (Cue the theme song in your head).
This year for the first time ever, Disney decided to add character meals with the beloved Star Wars characters. They offered a Character Dinner aptly named “Jedi Mickey’s Star Wars Dine at Hollywood & Vine, “ which was held at Hollywood & Vine at Hollywood Studios. Dinner is served from 4:15pm til 9:00pm, reservations are required and sorry kids, they were booked SOLID within hours on the first day reservations became available. If you don’t have reservations already, call to see if they have any cancellations, it’s always worth a try.
As soon as I saw the announcement, I knew I just HAD to book this as a surprise for my husband, who is a HUGE Star Wars fan and I mean a HUGE SW fan! After several attempts calling 407-WDW-DINE, I finally got through and was lucky enough to get reservations not only for this character dinner, but also the Dine in Galactic Breakfast, which I lovingly refer to as “Breakfast with the Dark Side”. *Whew* talk about LUCK!
So let me tell you about what it’s like at Jedi Mickey’s Star Wars Dine at Hollywood & Vine. When you arrive at the restaurant you will have to check in at the Host Booth which is conveniently located outside Hollywood & Vine on the right hand side. Once you’ve checked in, you will be directed to the line for your picture with Ewok Chip & Dale. This dinner includes a Photo Pass with your photos and a cast photo of all the Disney Star Wars characters which you can download for Free. Awesome right!
Anyhow, once we finished taking our picture we were directed to the patio area to wait to be seated. I must be honest, we got caught up on a ride and arrived at check in about 15 minutes late & were totally ok with it cause they were running about 20 minutes behind. So we waited out in the patio area for about 15-20 minutes. However, we were stoked looking at our very cool Photo Pass Card, cause on it is who else? Jedi Mickey and he is absolutely adorable.
Finally we hear our table is ready, we are all excited and of course we follow the hostess to our table, once we are seated we are given 2 double sided papers – one side is blue and the other is red. Within nanoseconds we realized they were LIGHTSABERS, all we had to do was decide whether we wanted to be part of the Alliance or the Empire and roll them up accordingly for use at our leisure!
So our waitress comes over and gives us the run down, which is basically “Welcome to Jedi Mickey’s Star Wars Dine at Hollywood & Vine, we are an all you care to enjoy buffet, please help yourself to dinner and the characters will be stopping by your table for pictures and fun while you dine. The whole experience takes approximately from an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.” Pretty straight forward and helpful, this way we know exactly what’s going to happen and how long it’s going to take. Perfect! Hardest decision we had to make was, who’s going to grab dinner first versus who’s going to stay at the table to wait for the characters.
This was smart because as soon as my husband headed for the buffet, Storm Trooper Donald came to visit our table! I had to call my hubby back so we could get our photo ops in with this cutie, Storm Trooper Donald is all decked out in Storm Trooper Armor over his fluffy feathers and boy is he funny – the hubs and I were both decked out in ST shirts and Donald was loving it, giving us high fives and pointing to our shirts and telling us he’s #1; he’s something else.
So finally, it’s my turn to see what’s cookin’ over there at the buffet line because it sure smells delish. I make my way over to find a beautiful array of intergalactic yumminess. Even the food is Star Wars Themed, the chefs put in some work coming up with quirky names to make dinner even more stellar and on Star Wars themed displays as with everything else Disney – this is on point.
You can help yourself to the following: Spice Mines of Kessel Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Naboo Bean Cassoulet, Skywalker Ranch Chicken, Princess Leia’s Penne Pasta with Meat Sauce, Kamino Maple Mustard Glazed Salmon, Tusken Raider Chicken, Qui-Gon’s Quinoa and Brown Rice Pilaf, Solo’s Sweet Plantains, Salacious Crumb’s Crusted Pork, Lando’s Lobster & Shrimp Macaroni and Cheese, Mos Eisley Barbecue Meatballs, C-3PO’s Cream Corn Spoon Bread, Greedo’s Green Beans with Garlic & Tomato, Luke’s Chipotle Citrus Barbecue Chicken Thighwalkers, Cantina Corn, Udon Noodle Salad, Jar Jar Gungan Style Potatoes, Stormtrooper Shrimp & Cocktail Sauce and Mussels with Champagne Vinaigrette. I can’t forget the Carving Station, serving up fresh Seasoned Turkey and Carved Strip Loin or the Create your Own Pasta Bar!
If you’re more of a soup & salad person, they’ve got you covered too. Serving up some Beef & Barley or Tomato Florentine Soup alongside an impressive Create your own salad bar, along with a classic offerings like: Caesar Salad, Greedo’s Fresh Green Mix, Roasted Corn and Edamame Salad and Beet Apple & Goat Cheese Salad ,all of which you can top with Low Fat Italian Dressing, Balsamic Vinaigrette or Ranch Dressing. Oops, I almost forgot there’s also a refreshingly delicious Fresh Fruit Salad, especially great on these Hot Florida almost summer days.
Let’s not forget the little ones, for Kids they have the Padawan Kids Buffet which boasts mouthwatering Wicket the Ewok’s Mac & Cheese, Chewbacca’s Chicken Fingers, Akosha Tano’s Tater Barrel and Yoda’s Steamed Broccoli & Carrots.
We tried to eat a little bit of everything and absolutely everything we tried was delicious, but our favorites by far were: Skywalker Ranch Chicken – which consists of a breaded chicken breast with a creamy ranch cream which was cooked perfectly: crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. Spice Mines of Kessel Garlic Mashed Potatoes – always a crowd favorite. Princess Leia’s Penne Pasta with Meat Sauce: so very good! Salacious Crumbs Crusted Pork: Mmm, Mmm Good. Mos Eisley’s Barbecue Meatballs were so good, we just wanted to pack up the whole tray – Seriously, they are THAT good. Luke’s Chipotle Citrus Barbecue Chicken Thighwalkers were succulent. Seafood is always a favorite in our book and I must admit that Wicket the Ewok’s Mac & Cheese from the Padawan Kids Buffet was soooo delicious! The Herb Turkey from the carving station was to die for!
While we were having dinner, we were visited by Princess Leia Minnie, Jedi Mickey and Darth Vader Goofy, we had excellent experiences with them and photo ops galore.
I could barely eat another bite, until I looked over to the Dessert Buffet and knew without a doubt that I had to take at least a nibble out of every dessert to give you guys a complete review. So once again, I made a huge sacrifice for you, our loyal Orlando Fun & Food readers and made my way over to the Dessert area.
I arrive there to find it all decked out in Star Wars Cakes, Cookies, Fruit & so much more, if you can think of it they had it and it all looked scrumptious! On the all you care to enjoy dessert buffet, you will find: Chocolate Dipped Sith Strawberries, Boba’s Brownies & Marshmallows, Red Velvet Cake, Carbonite Carrot Cake, Darth Vader Cupcakes (mini), Yoda Cupcakes (mini), Key Lime Tart, Green & Blue Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, No Sugar Added Cheesecake, Sugar Cookies, Aunt Beru’s Blue Milk Ice Cream, a Chocolate Fountain and lastly, Chocolate & Vanilla Soft Serve Ice Cream.
Oh. My. Goodness! If you need to have your sweet tooth satisfied, this is the place to be. Not only can you get two of the most sought after desserts in the park during SWW, but you can pick from so many other delicious items – they literally have something for everyone!
So, as I’m sure you may have heard, the Darth Vader cupcakes are one of the most sought after sweets during Star Wars Weekends and they always sell out! At the buffet, you can get a mini version of the infamous Darth Vader Cupcake: chocolate cupcake, peanut butter icing topped off with a Darth Vader head & a Red White Chocolate Lightsaber . Yoda’s Cupcake is also incredibly popular: chocolate cupcake, topped with Nutella frosting and a Yoda Head with a Green Lightsaber. Red Velvet Cake was so incredibly good, fluffy & the cream cheese frosting was perfection. I’m not a fan of Key Lime, but the Tart was very tasty. The No Sugar Added Cheesecake was great with a picture of R2-D2 on it. Carbonite Carrot Cake was soft and creamy with a cute chocolate Star Wars medallion on top. Boba’s Brownies & Marshmallows were excellent, as was Aunt Beru’s Blue Milk Ice Cream – which reminded me of when I ate Fruity Pebbles as a child, kind of tastes like that. The Cookies were one of the most popular items, featuring C-3PO, Yoda, Darth Vader, Storm Troopers and Chewbacca – they were flying off the trays.
So you want to know whether it’s worth it and what it will cost right? Of course you do! My opinion is Yes, you will definitely get bang for your buck at Jedi Mickey’s Star Wars Dine at Hollywood & Vine; especially with a price tag of $55.99 per adult and $32.99 per child. If you’re interested there is also a Fantasmic Package which will run you $4.00 more per person, but you are guaranteed reserved seating for a viewing of Fantasmic. Plus, how often do you get to hang out with your favorite characters all decked out in Star Wars gear? The kids will love it & the not so little kids will too! 😉
If you’re heading over there soon, be sure to say hello to Chef Eddie, he is one of the Chefs that put this all together and he’s very informative and funny! Thanks Chef for telling me all about the yummies and for your hard work, it is greatly appreciated.
That’s all for this article, be on the lookout for my other out of this world experiences at the Dine in Galactic Breakfast and my Star Wars Weekend Round-Up which will be coming up at Light Speed.
Ellie Benitez
Hi my name is Ellie & I'm a Disney-holic! Born & Raised in Sunny South Florida where I reside with my husband still to this day. My Disney addiction started when I was young, I blame my parents as we were Seasonal Pass Holders for most of my childhood & well into my teen years. We'd take a drive up every two or three months just to disconnect, now as an adult I totally understand what my parents meant by that. My husband & I are proud Pass Holders and probably will be for a long time, we can't get enough of the House of Mouse! Whenever I'm not Park Hopping or Disney Dining, you can find me crunching numbers and dealing with all kinds of crazy finance people. ;) Hence the need to disconnect! If you see me out at the parks feel free to stop me & say Hi! C'ya Real Soon!
