Walt Disney World

[ZombeaArthur]

We’re planning a trip to Walt Disney World in a couple of years, it will be our first with our daughters, who will be around 5 and 7 when we go. We’ve shown them some videos on YouTube of the kind of things we can do and our oldest is particularly keen to eat at Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast. I’m having trouble justifying the cost and the hassle of booking it, especially to DH who really doesn’t want to pay that much money for a mediocre meal.

Has anyone been before? Is it worth the money?

I think you have to discount the food and see it as the princess experience. It seems worth it to me to bypass the queues for meet and greets (looking at DLP for next year). No doubt the meal itself isn’t worth it but it is about the experience.

By the time you get there, it would have been ages since you paid and it will feel free.

My DD was 6 when we went in 2019 and she loved, so we did too. Plus you get lots of signatures without having to queue.

It's definitely the experience that you pay for, but the food isn't too bad imo.

That’s what I keep reminding myself. I’m also pretty certain we’d regret not booking once we were in the park.

It’s just hard to commit so much money to one meal .

I’ve not done that particular experience but I have done other character dining and love it. Yes, sometimes the food can be a little rubbish but it is the experience you are paying for which, when you see your kids faces, will make it more than worth the money. As the poster above said, treat it as an experience rather than a meal.

Keep an eye out on the Disney website. They may bring back free dining which would help if you are going to stay onsite.

We went but only because we were on the dining plan. DD had been to bibbidi bobbidi boutique that afternoon & wore her aurora dress so the photos were great and the food.was nice but I don't think I could bring myself to pay for it

If you want the princess experience without the price tag then have a look at Akershus in Epcot ... much cheaper than Cinderella's Royal Table :) x

If you look at it from a value perspect there’s no point going at all. It’s not really about the food. It’s about being a princess at Disneyland. You need to think of this from a child’s perspective

Have never done Cinderella’s, but the Akershus breakfast with princesses is great - really nice food and if you are lucky and get an early slot you are in the park early too

Have a look at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian - Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner. It’s good fun with the ugly sisters and the food is good.

Having said that, I’d never do character dining without being on a dining plan.

It is expensive, but its one of those holidays where you just have to forget about how much you spend (to a large degree).

The water parks are good for kids, with loads to do there (can spend all day there)
Harry Potter World is good
Discovery Cove is good too

Thanks everyone. We’re working on the assumption that there’ll be no free dining when we go, if we get it, it will be a lovely bonus, but we’re assuming we’ll be paying for all of the meals .

We’ll be doing one character meal at the most, I just can’t bear to spend the money on more than one and I have a long list of restaurants I’d rather spend the money on! 50’s Prime Time Cafe is our absolute favourite.

Sadly I don’t think we’ll be doing Discovery Cove this time, I’m not sure the kids will get enough out of it. DH and I however absolutely love it. We spent a wonderful day there the day after we got married.

It really depends where you are coming from on this. I appreciate some families are massive Disney fans and it will always be worth it for them. For us we did it with our eldest a couple of times and it just wasn’t worth it for us. The food really is poor wherever you go. I have done Akershus at Epcot and it was ok, agree better value than the castle dining, but we had a more fun experience with our youngest when we were early and at the front of the line when Elsa & Anna came from the character breakfast (which we weren’t at), they took her by the hand and walked her into the meet and greet area and both had a good chat with her and the themed area was lovely. So I’d say get a FP for those you can, or get there early and you won’t miss anything.

We’ve eaten in the castle. I loved it. Food was nice enough but you are meeting the princesses IN THE CASTLE. That is what you are paying for and for me it was totally worth it. I was there with dh and 2 ds’s so we were definitely there for my benefit! It was a once off though that we probably wouldn’t do again as it is pricy and there is nicer food available! Of course you should also bear in mind that the experience we had may not be the same as what will be there post pandemic.

My absolute favourite character dining experiences (including the food!) are 1900 Park Fayre, Tusker House and Crystal Palace.

We have done it too.
It is expensive but you're paying for the experience, that said the food was okay too.
And watching their faces is priceless.

Even I got excited when Ariel came over Haha.

DD enjoyed it, we didn’t take DH and the boys. I thought fir the two of us it was fine. Your DH can eat elsewhere!

Btw we don’t even take DH to Disney anymore, he doesn’t enjoy it at all - and it’s so expensive. My mum still loves going though.

We did the princess breakfast at Epcot last year and met 5 princesses, because we were in early we were also right at the front of the queue for the Anna and else meet and greet before we went in to breakfast so got 7 princess for minimal queueing. My daughter's loved doing the princess parade where they pick one to talk around behind waving at all the adults.

The food was actually pretty good, but as people have said, we were paying for the experience not the food anyway.