Question on Cinderella's Royal Table

[alien_host]

I'm getting ready to book some ADRs and this time we want to eat at CRT, mostly for DD who still loves princesses, this maybe our last chance (she'll be 6).

We will be on DDP (I know that it doesn't work for everyone, but it worked for us last time), but we also like to eat at California Grille so maybe it's worth just paying cash rather than using 2 credits?

Generally we do breakfast in the room b/c we like to sit down for dinner and don't want to waste too much time at breakfast each AM or have two sit downs in one day.

Which meal do you recommend?

breakfast - we aren't huge breakfast eaters (well I am, DH and DD are meh about big breakfsts) and we are not great early risers. We make it to rope drops only about 1/3 of the time (I'm thinking I need to be more disciplined about this but we are on vacation).

lunch - is it a nice way to break up the day or does it "eat up" too much prime time touring?

dinner - honestly, DH prefers to be able to get a cocktail with dinner so I'm wondering if B or L is better.

If people try to do Bibbity Bobbity Boutique do you do both on the same day or does that kill the whole morning? We didn't do BBB last time and DH asked why I didn't book it.

FWIW we will probably spend 2 days at MK and the other 3 days at AK/DHS and maybe Epcot or let DD pick to repeat a park.

Other meals I'm considering are Tusker House breakfast so if you had to choose between CRT and Tusker House which would you pick and why?

We will be at BLT so we can get over to MK easily, but likely won't be park hopping.

Thoughts? TIA!

[egoldber]

I like to do the latest lunch seating, and just call that dinner. We eat a snack later, but that would be our heavy meal. By that time we're tired anyway and don't mind sitting down to a longer meal.

[Tinkerbell313]

We did CRT our last trip. However we did not do BBB. We have only done breakfast so I cant discuss other meals.

We did an 8:10 breakfast and we were still out in the park right before RD.

I chose breakfast mainly because of the many negatives I heard about the quality of food for lunch and dinner and I did not want to spend that money (we too use the DDP but we had two other signatures).

I also chose breakfast because it was the least expensive of the three meals.

I also chose it for the purpose, as mentioned before, getting into the park before the crowds. We went this past September. We, too, aren't morning people. However, even though Sept is supposed to be a slow time...I hate to see what crowded is...because it definitely helped us to be in the parks early. It was pretty crowded by 1O:30AM (with a 9AM opening). By 1pm..Main Street was crowded. I am going back with a girlfriend and our 2 daughters for a quick trip in January (doing some of the YES classes)...we are definitely going to get there at RD.

Back to breakfast...I was going expecting the worse, but pleasently surprised. The food was pretty decent. It is plated but it is also all you can eat. The table gets a decent size bowl of fresh, cut fruit. Also, you get a plate of warm pastries, crossants, cinnimon buns, etc. The kids get a plate of french toast sticks, eggs, bacon, sausage...and maybe home fries. The adults have a choice of three plates...stuffed fench toast, a fruit, granola, and yogurt dish, or a plate similar to the kids minus french toast sticks. If you don't like one you can order something different.

The princess interaction was OK...it was rushed. We found it to be slower at Akershus (in 2009). But, it could just be that the restuarants were pretty booked when we were there.

Most girls wore some sort of princess style dress but there were hardly any who did the BBB (even though we had an 8:10am breakfast...I would have expected to see a few girls who had done it the prior day...that glue gel stuff they put in the hair stays forever!!)

Its a cute experience and I would suggest every little girl eat at the Castle at least once..

[Tinkerbell313]

I just reread your post...if you go to Disney often or at least once a year...then I would do CRT this trip and do TH next trip. If you don't I would do both.

They are two completely different breakfasts.

TH is a great buffet breakfast. The food is wonderful, plentiful and warm,...it has alot of the traditional american breakfast foods as well as some foods with african spices. The jambo juice it great.

Again, the interaction with the characters was rushed...again, the restuarant was crowded.

We also had an 8:15 ADR for TH...and it worked out perfect. Since the park was only open until 5pm the entire week we were at DW, it still gave us a full day at the park...and we still did not get to do everything!!

I would go back to TH in a heartbeat.

[bubbaray]

I can't speak to WDW, but we have done BBB and then the Princess Lunch at DL. It ROCKED. This year, I did the BBB makeovers myself (which my girls also enjoyed).

I'm not sure how far from BBB the CRT is -- that would determine how long between the events you should have, KWIM?

[boolady]

We just did the BBB and CRT thing last week for DD's birthday, and we did BBB two hours before our dinner reservation. We ended up having time to go on a few rides between the two, because it wasn't crowded the day we were there. It worked for us, because we hung out at the hotel and went to the pool and just relaxed in the a.m., headed to MK around 2:00, DD's appt. was at 3:20, and dinner was at 5:20. We stayed that night for the Electrical Parade and fireworks. It was the only night we were at a park that late, but it was okay for us because we weren't there from open-close.