Character Dining

Character Dining is a great experience for everyone young and old. Reservations are almost always required and can be made 3 to 6 months in advance. Certain character dining reservations are difficult to get so again, plan ahead.

Cinderella's Royal Table.
CRT is smaller than most character dining restaurants and the four princesses you'll meet make it the toughest reservation to get. It's located on the 2nd level of Cinderella's castle in the center of MK.

Part of the cost per person includes a professional photo of your kid with Cinderella. You can also take your own pictures. While you are eating, a total of 4 princesses make their way around each table for a meet and greet.

CRT serves lunch and breakfast. We have only tried the breakfast. It was a very nice sampling of eggs, sausage, bacon, cinnamon buns and fruit. The kids had yogurt and granola. This event is very pricey, at $30-$47/pp, but you're not there for the food. You are there for the kids to meet Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, and my favorite... Jasmine.

We've done CRT several times, but for the price, we don't need to do it on every trip. It's too much work to get a reservation and it eats up a good part of the morning when we could be riding rides.

Reservations at CRT require prepayment with a credit card. Most other reservations do not.

Akershaus, Epcot, Norway.
Often, when attempting and failing to get a reservation at CRT, the reservation agent will try to point you towards the Akershaus Storybook Dining located at Epcot in the country of Norway on the World Showcase Lagoon. We've tried this too. Breakfast is great, typical eggs, bacon etc... But lunch should be avoided unless you like genuine Norwegian food which is raw fish, cold meat balls and pickled everything.


Crystal Palace.
We've eaten here many times. CP is in the center of MK at the end of Main Street USA. It's a pretty good buffet with characters from Winnie the Pooh. Reservations are tough to get during busy times.


Hotel Character Dining
All Disney hotels have some form of Character Dining experiences. We have only tried the Cape May Cafe which is part of the Beach Club and Yacht Club Resorts. The breakfast buffet is great. And Minnie, Pluto, and Chip n Dale come around to the tables.


When it comes to any type of dining reservations, people regularly cancel days ahead of time, so last minute opportunities are always available and your tenacity will be rewarded. Plan ahead and call for openings regularly. Your concierge can also sometimes get special access to cancellations before the regular public. So ask them to see what they can do for you.

If you have a 9am breakfast character dining reservation at the park opens at 9am, you are allowed access to the park prior to the rope drop. Just look for the specially marked turnstile. This is kinda a neat perk walking through an empty park, although everything is closed.

Even with a confirmed dining reservation, and pre-registration, waiting in line for your table is still required. This is Disney.

A good alternative to meet characters without paying for an unnecessary meal, is going to a character meet. Each park has character meet locations which remain open most of the day, as well as locations where characters come out for 20-30 minutes at a time 4 to 6 times a day. Try this FAQ for more info.