A day at Magic Kingdom could be fast-paced and tiring. That’s placing it mildly, and doubtless goes with out saying to Walt Disney World trip planners studying a useful resource about avoiding crowds, racing round at rope drop, prolonged hours, Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. This is very true at Christmas, when there’s nearly nowhere to go to flee the ocean of holiday-time humanity.
While we stress the significance of savvy technique, that’s largely to allow you to attenuate time wasted ready in line so you may decelerate and benefit from the ignored particulars, elaborate design, and fantastic thing about the various lands. Sure, the rides are nice, however these alone don’t make a theme park.
One of the keys to savoring a day at Walt Disney World is taking the time to decelerate and decompress. Literally and figuratively digest issues, as our favourite enjoyable respite from the crowds at Magic Kingdom is definitely tucked away in a counter service restaurant encountered whereas leaving Fantasyland that gives an ideal antidote to that frenetic land…
Columbia Harbour House is one thing particular. It’s one of many largest counter service eating places in Magic Kingdom, on par with Cosmic Ray’s and Pecos Bill. Yet, it by no means feels that means. Even the principle entrance is tucked away across the nook from Haunted Mansion, and there are a number of doorways that enable for Columbia Harbour House to be found by visitors from different approaches within the two lands it straddles.
Inside, Columbia Harbour House is nothing just like the cacophonous Cosmic Ray’s. Whereas that’s an expansive meals court docket basically consisting of 1 uninterrupted house with Sonny Eclipse because the (rightful) point of interest, Columbia Harbour House is cleverly damaged up and has the sense of being a number of separate rooms.
The menu can also be not like Cosmic Ray’s, with Columbia Harbour House serving up objects from the ocean–plus a number of from land. There are combo platters, comforting fried favorites, healthy-ish grilled seafood, and even stable vegetarian choices.
Our favorites from the Columbia Harbour House menu are the Lobster Roll and Grilled Salmon. Both are far greater high quality than you’d count on from a counter service restaurant in Magic Kingdom, and are constantly good in our expertise. (Although I’ve gotten unlikely with the mayo to lobster ratio a pair occasions.)
I’ve additionally been pleasantly shocked by the New England Shrimp Boil, which incorporates Shrimp, Potatoes, Corn, and Andouille Sausage cooked in a Spiced Broth served with heat Parker House Rolls.
The corn has by no means been good, however maybe that’s the Midwesterner in me. (I’m not a meals ‘snob’ about a lot, however corn is a kind of issues. And is it actually attainable to be snobbish about corn?!) The shrimp have been shockingly good and sizable, and the entire dish is normally good. My success in getting Parker House Rolls which are truly heat has been about 50/50.
One of my greater responsible pleasures at Walt Disney World is the Hushpuppies at Columbia Harbour House.
I really feel like this one goes to get me into hassle, and may be akin to somebody praising Red Lobster. I’ll be the primary to confess that I do know subsequent to nothing about hushpuppies, and have solely had them a number of occasions exterior of Magic Kingdom. So take my opinion right here with a grain of salt. These may very well be middling at greatest, and I simply lack expertise with actually good hushpuppies!
I’m additionally a sucker for the Trio Platter, which is one other enjoyable indulgence.
Sarah likes the Lighthouse Sandwich (above), though that doesn’t look like on the menu proper now–it’s been (briefly?) changed by the terrible Doom Burger (under).
But this isn’t a restaurant evaluation, and protecting the delicacies at Columbia Harbour House just isn’t the purpose of this submit. It’s simply been some time since we’ve finished that, so I figured it may be price together with a meals replace.
I additionally needed to throw a bone to these of you who like no-nonsense planning posts, and would possibly in any other case stroll away from this questioning “what was the point” of the rambling that follows. Now I haven’t (completely) wasted your time. 😉
The ordering space at Columbia Harbour House feels no much less chaotic through the lunch and dinner rush, however its quirks are evident instantly, and disarming. An vintage brass diver helmet in a single nook, a banjo in one other. Several feminine figureheads, carved bald eagles, silver steins, and dishware on show. Columbia Harbour House jogs my memory a little bit of my grandparents’ home–in the event that they owned a publick home in New England.
As quickly as you step away and head in direction of a seating space, the ‘volume’ decreases dramatically. It’s whenever you head upstairs to the second-level seating that’s monumental–however simply ignored by visitors scrambling to shortly seize the closest and first obtainable desk–the place Columbia Harbour House actually shines.
The restaurant’s inside is imbued with the identical colonial sensibilities as the remainder of Liberty Square, however looks like heightened model of that. And a extra eclectic one. The core design is one in every of a New England publick home, and it’s styled as one which serves as a seaside refuge for outdated timey sailors.
The decor at Columbia Harbour House is unmistakably nautical, with efforts made to truly mimic or evoke a ship. There are picket steering wheels, knotted ropes, and dozens of work of ships and Cape Cod surroundings (however zero of Duffy & Friends, for these holding rating at dwelling). There’s an abundance of wealthy mahoganies, floral curtains, lanterns, and knickknacks adorning each single shelf.
If Columbia Harbour House had been opening right this moment and its design had been critiqued on-line, the phrases “overdone” and “visually busy” may be used. Yet Columbia Harbour House manages to skirt scrutiny because of its standing as a Walt Disney World Historic Landmark, and everyone knows something from that first decade is above reproach.
The “grandparents house” line above is (kind of) a joke, however the model of Columbia Harbour House is a component colonial, half American inside design of the Seventies. That’s not a knock, simply an admission that although it’s themed to a sure period, it was constructed throughout one other, and options the aesthetic sensibilities of every.
Frankly, I relatively like that about Columbia Harbour House. It evokes the identical calming visceral response as I’ve to my grandparents home. There’s a sure heat and decompressing high quality you don’t discover in Walt Disney World areas right this moment, that are all too generally sterile. Even the eclectic ‘repurposed warehouse’ look that Imagineering loves lately doesn’t have the identical personable high quality as Disney’s areas from the late Nineteen Sixties and early Seventies.
Columbia Harbour House’s very existence additionally looks like an anomaly, a vestige of the Vacation Kingdom, and one which persists as a result of it has been forgotten by fashionable administration. In a way, the upstairs of Columbia Harbour House is the fast service equal of the Electrical Water Pageant, maintained completely by a dude named Earl who hauls the floats round behind his 1970 Sears fishing boat each evening. (Maybe Earl’s workplace is upstairs at Columbia Harbour House?!)
The concept that a lot helpful actual property in Magic Kingdom may very well be forgotten borders on absurd, however maybe the upstairs of Columbia Harbour House is a kind of “hiding in plain sight” kind of offers. It’s sandwiched between Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Hall of Presidents, with overlooking main thoroughfares in Fantasyland and Liberty Square.
There can also be no higher people-watching location in all of Magic Kingdom than one of many tables with views of the walkway resulting in Haunted Mansion in entrance of the Rivers of America.
This is our favourite part of Columbia Harbour House. You can see the tables themselves pictured within the two photographs above, the view of the the window (apologies for the random creeper within the shot) from the bottom pictured under, and the view out the window within the photograph under that.
There are 3 times of day when the scene is very serene within the upstairs of Columbia Harbour House.
First, when many of the photographs for this submit had been taken, which was nearly 11 am on the dot, proper after Columbia Harbour House opened for the day. At this hour, visitors are nonetheless bursting with vitality and pleasure, racing from attraction to attraction attempting to beat the crowds.
Second, within the late afternoon between the lunch and dinner rushes, when you may virtually have this upstairs to your self (once more). The precise time varies, but it surely’s when the solar has dipped low sufficient within the sky to shine by means of the home windows. This bathes the restaurant in a golden gentle, casting lengthy shadows, giving an added glow and texture to the woods and decor.
This is when the entire design quirks are, fairly actually, illuminated. The asymmetry of the rooms, sizing of the home windows, and a few seemingly peculiar room preparations and grading–till it dawns on you that Columbia Harbour House occupies house in Fantasyland and Liberty Square, and its exterior should transition to satisfy the theme of every. Then, appreciation of this idiosyncratic inside solely grows.
Words can’t do justice to the look and ambiance of the Columbia Harbour House upstairs in late afternoon. There’s a sure vitality, spirituality–no matter you need to name it–that the house takes on. Even for those who’re the one visitor up there, the house feels alive. Perhaps it’s being haunted by the ghost of a (magnanimous) mariner. Maybe Captain Culpepper Clyne escaped from the Haunted Mansion?
Finally, within the night after the dinner rush, because the final visitors are clearing out of Columbia Harbour House. Of my three favourite occasions, this ranks final–but it surely’s the one we’ve finished probably the most through the years. This is whenever you’ve misplaced all vitality, and want a spot to relaxation and recharge. (Or want the identical to your cellphone–the upstairs of Columbia Harbour House has energy retailers.)
During all of those hours, you’re washed over by a way of calm. The background music offers soothing seaside sounds (I may be notably biased in direction of this, because it’s the identical loop that performs in Tokyo DisneySea’s Cape Cod, which I am keen on) that might ease you to sleep. The blissful visitors racing round exterior provide you with a kind of secondhand hype, for lack of a greater time period. The aforementioned inside design is disarming and decompressing. All of that is like being swaddled in sentimentality–proper within the coronary heart of the busiest theme park on the planet.
As might be apparent from the foregoing, I really like the upstairs of Columbia Harbour House. It’s one in every of my favourite locations in all of Walt Disney World, and is really one thing particular. Yet, it’s not as a result of this upstairs is the top of themed design or as a result of I’ve any childhood nostalgia (my first reminiscence up right here is ~2008).
To the opposite, it’s an area I’ve slowly come to understand through the years, and largely take pleasure in for its humility, quirkiness, and tranquility. It doesn’t wow like a whole lot of Imagineering’s greatest work, however slowly wins you over and turns into a supply of fond recollections alongside the best way.
That’s kind of the story with the upstairs at Columbia Harbour House and us. I can nonetheless vividly recall our meals right here from October 1, 2011 (Walt Disney World’s fortieth Anniversary) and earlier than a number of Halloween and Christmas events. Fittingly, it’s additionally our go-to restaurant on stormy days, with one other standout meal a number of years in the past within the week earlier than Christmas when a veritable monsoon cleared the park of crowds.
Of course, these are my recollections and nostalgia for the upstairs of Columbia Harbour House, and are most likely meaningless to you. However, I’m sure that for those who give it a number of quiet mid-mornings, early afternoons or evenings, you’ll type your individual fond recollections within the upstairs of Columbia Harbour House. In the top, that’s what Walt Disney World is all about, and why so many people hold coming again.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Learn about accommodations on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To lower your expenses on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets submit. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips submit takes a novel have a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the very best place to begin is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for every thing you should know!
Your Thoughts
Have you loved a calming respite from the Magic Kingdom crowds within the upstairs of Columbia Harbour House? Or, have you ever by no means ventured to the serene second-level? Is it someplace you’ll make a degree of testing subsequent time you’re in Magic Kingdom? If you’ve dined up right here earlier than, do you likewise share sentimentality and nostalgia for this quiet nook of Walt Disney World? Alternatively, do you suppose it’s dated and dreary, and our fondness for it’s misplaced? Agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we can assist you reply? Hearing your suggestions—even whenever you disagree with us—is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!