The ultimate princess-fan breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom
When telling friends about our Disney holiday, the first question I’ve had from several is: “Did you eat in the castle?”
For families with little princess fans, the opportunity to dine inside Cinderella’s Castle is one of the experiences I’ve realised many have heard about when it comes to visiting Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Orlando, and for us securing a table at Cinderella’s Royal Table –the table service restaurant in the castle – was a number one priority.
In fact, this was the only meal we pre-paid back in October–180 days before we visited, which seemed quite surreal to do for an expensive breakfast.
But at 7.55am on a Tuesday morning in April we found ourselves rushing into Magic Kingdom and half running down Main Street en route to Cinderella’s Royal Table.
After checking in, we joined the queue to meet Cinderella and there was a Photo Pass photographer to take our pictures with her. Our table was ready when we had finished with the photos and we were led straight up to the restaurant, which I think has an intimate feel compared to many of the large restaurants in the parks.
It’s also a bonus that this character meal is table service instead of a buffet, as I think this set-up makes for a more relaxed experience and no one in the party missed a princess visiting our table. It gave us more time to prepare autograph books, make sure they were open on the right page, the Sharpie autograph pen was ready, and we had the camera app open for taking videos and photos of the children with the princesses.
When we first sat down, Big Girl and Big Boy were also handed wands (sword was an option for boys) and wishing stars, which I think was another sweet touch in this restaurant, as they made for nice little holiday keepsakes for the children.
In terms of food, Daddy T and I had traditional breakfasts with eggs, potatoes, bacon and sausages, which we shared with the kids. Big Boy–who dined for free since he was under 3–had a Mickey waffle, as he had the choice of that or an egg portion, and Big Girl went for a Royal Children’s Breakfast with fruit, a flat turkey sausage and a waffle. There was also a tray with pastries to share, juices, coffee and tea.
I forgot to request a window table like I had planned to do when checking in with the hostess, but we had a table in the middle of the room, and there wasn’t too long to wait for the four princesses circulating on the floor to come to our table. In addition to meeting Cinderella upon entering, we got to meet Snow White, Princess Aurora, Ariel and Princess Jasmine (the princesses on the floor can vary).
They all chatted with Big Girl and Big Boy, and Big Girl asked some questions, such as “Have you seen Flounder recently?”. The princesses were really super charming and Big Boy got a big kiss from Snow White on his forehead. There was also a little ceremony when kids waved their wands around and held up their stars.
An hour after our reservation time, we were ready to hit the park, feeling great about having ticked off meeting many of the classic princesses and avoiding some character meet-and-greet queuing time.
If the park opening time hadn’t changed from 9am to 8am that day, this early breakfast reservation would have been pretty perfect in my opinion, as we would then have been able to make the most of the least crowded time in the park too.
Cinderella’s Royal Table was a great way to start the day for us and it was something we really wanted to do once with the little ones!
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