I recently got an opportunity to head down to Florida for two days, and I was really excited to visit the new Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen. I really enjoyed my experience at this new restaurant. The restaurant is very well themed, and the food is really interesting. So with a great theme, great food, and a great location, what could go wrong?
I walked up to the host stand, got my pager and walked into the first room where there is a round seat in the middle of the room and immediately was called back to my table. I sat down at my table, and looked around, and the restaurant was almost vacant. I counted everyone in the entire restaurant and there were 15 other people, and this was 7:30 at the Magic Kingdom, on a night where the park closed at 11 pm. So not exactly a dead night. I asked my server what was up, if it was a dead night or something, and he replied with an eye roll and said no. And not only no, but it had been dead in there since they opened.
But why? Well the reason is two fold. Lets start with the obvious. First off, ever since Walt Disney World implemented the My Disney Experience app, everyone who is coming to Disney World for vacation is planning everything months ahead of time. The Skipper Canteen is only offering walk ups and same day reservations, and according to my server that is not going to change at anytime soon. He also told me that guest services is using this restaurant as a “back up plan.” Meaning if you want a sit down restaurant and there is nothing available, by default they will send you over to Skipper Canteen. Also it shows on the app that no times are available, not that is walk up only, so that doesn’t help either. I just don’t understand why in this day and age of planning every major meal and attraction months in advance, they would add this one. Or at the very least explain that its a walk up restaurant.
Now lets talk about the other reason this place may not stay around for very long. The menu. Now I want to be very clear here, I thoroughly enjoyed my entire meal at Skipper Canteen.
I ordered a Schweitzer Slush, a Coke, and the Rice Noodle Bowl with Duck. I am a pretty adventurous eater which is why I was looking forward to eating there. However, I think the average theme park patron will be slightly turned off by the bizarre foods that they do offer, and that they don’t offer any “normal” food does not help either. They do offer a steak on the menu, but I am worried that that offering is not enough.
I am usually the first person to say that if you go to a place that serves exotic food, and you don’t like what they serve then don’t go. However this is Disney, some families, like my family for example, have a very diverse group of eaters. I love trying new things, and my wife would rather eat something she is comfortable with. I really like this place, and I want to see it do well. I think it has a lot of adapting to do. Let’s check back in a few months and see if anything has changed.
Have you tried Skipper Canteen? What are your thoughts?
I have to say I agree with you regarding the menu: the food offerings belong in a resort, or in Epcot. Not the Magic Kingdom. As a somewhat frequent visitor to Disney, there was nothing on there that appealed to me. The theming is great, but they need to dumb down the food and cater to mainstream American tastes.
Brad, we checked it as a place for lunch and quickly changed our mind. We felt the prices were way to expensive for lunch. We never do the dining plan. We do have Tables in Wonderland, but even with that, we don’t want to spend that much on lunch. My husband is more adventurous of an eater, I am not, but he wants a burger or similar for lunch and they had the same menu for lunch and dinner.
Great article! Very insightful and full of useful information for WDW goers!
Thanks for reading first off, secondly I agree with both of you! I love crazy food but the casual Disney fan doesn’t wanna try that stuff in Magic Kingdom. They need a healthy balance of crazy food and normal food.
This is a restaurant that would be thoroughly appreciated by a more experienced WDW fan, whose touring plans have been set months in advance, with all ADRs and fastpasses in check. Unfortunately, that is the main reason it probably isn’t doing well. Those who appreciate the back stories and details in the parks are also those who like to plan to the nth degree, and with no ADRs available; it doesn’t fit with the hyper planning involved with fastpasses, etc.
Interesting article! I thought the menu looked interesting but my husband really did not see anything he liked. When we walked up to take a look at the menu, the cast member never mentioned it was a walk up. We live in Orlando and use the My Disney Experience app to make dining reservations almost every weekend. I’ve noticed there are several restaurants which are listed as ” various locations.” What the heck does that mean? Do they suddenly set up a restaurant somewhere lol?! Would like to try Skipper Cantten sometime-guess I had better act soon!
While I don’t think that Skipper Canteen will be going anywhere (they did just re-build the restaurant) I do see them making tweaks here and there as time goes on. Whether that’s in menu offerings or availability, I’m not sure, but I can see a few small changes like that occurring as time goes on.
Ate there during our most recent trip this month. I had the steak salad-very good, and by no means too exotic or Adventerous for the average palate. My fiancé had the noodle bowl-a little spicy, and not your everyday fare but still delicious. Server was in character and very entertaining. Don’t like how they don’t accept tables or have a dedicated lunch menu but still worth visiting especially if you’ve never been.
This place is so perplexing. I think it’s great that they have an option for spontaneous guests or those without plans, except those people don’t seem to be filling the place. There is so much generic people-pleaser American food at MK that I think it’s exciting to have a more exotic option, especially given the location and theming! But somehow it seems to be missing the mark. I’m looking forward to trying this place next week but I have a BOG ADR just in case, coz I’ve heard of people waiting 45 seconds to 45 minutes for a table at Skipper, so who knows what our experience may be?! Maybe they could put this restaurant into the regular ADR system, and put something more people-pleaser-ish onto the spontaneous walk-up system?