Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom is one of the most sought-after dining experiences in Walt Disney World. Being able to dine with Cinderella herself and eat in the Cinderella Castle Restaurant is every girl’s dream. Who doesn’t want to dine in Cinderella’s Castle, right?!?! The sheer idea of it makes many swoon. While we’ve resisted dining here simply due to the expense and its 2 dining plan credit price tag, this year we just had to see what all the fuss was about! Is Breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table worth it? Does it live up to the hype? With Disney Princesses all in one place, it can help you make the most of your time at Walt Disney World. But, it is EXPENSIVE! So to get our feet wet we decided to try breakfast at Cinderella’s Table. A little cheaper, a little less risky. Here’s everything you need to know about dining in the castle at Magic Kingdom.
Contents
- 1 Cinderella’s Royal Table Breakfast at the Disney Castle
- 2 Meeting Cinderella at Cinderella’s Royal Table
- 3 What’s so Great about Dining at Cinderella’s Castle?
- 4 What Princesses do You Meet at Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom?
- 5 Cinderella’s Royal Table Breakfast Menu
- 6 Is Cinderella’s Royal Table Worth 2 Dining Credits?
- 7 Cinderella’s Royal Table Atmosphere
- 8 Would We Recommend Cinderella’s Royal Table?
- 9 How Much Does Cinderella’s Royal Table Cost?
- 10 Cinderella’s Royal Table at Walt Disney World TIPS
- 11 Cinderella’s Royal Table Review
Cinderella’s Royal Table Breakfast at the Disney Castle
It’s a well-known fact that Cinderella’s Royal Table Disney pulls out all the stops! You get several princesses, great food, amazing views, and royal treatment. We decided to try breakfast at Cinderella’s Table for two reasons. First, we love getting into the parks early, especially Magic Kingdom. No crowds in front of the Castle means it’s the perfect time to take photos. And there is just a nice calm in the air. This was always the case before the new Rope Drop Ceremony. To really maximize this experience we recommend everyone make a breakfast reservation before the park opens at least once during their vacation.
How Much is Cinderella’s Royal Table Breakfast?
Second, breakfast is the least expensive meal here. At $65 per adult/ $39 dollar for children 9 and under, it’s still very expensive but still much cheaper than dinner. If you’re looking for the highly coveted experience of a Disney World Castle Dinner we haven’t done that yet, due to the $79/ $47 dollar a plate price tag. But if it makes our bucket list, we’ll be sure to share. Nonetheless, we were super excited to try out this magical place! We’ve been inside the castle before for the Bippity Boppity Boutique, but we’ve never seen the inside of the dining area. Or the second floor!! Surely, the inside of the castle would be the perfect place to call home.
How Does Dining in Cinderella’s Royal Table Work?
Believe it or not, you may completely miss the entrance to the castle restaurant if you aren’t looking for it! It’s directly in the back of the castle to the right-hand side. The experience starts at check-in, like all of the table service restaurants at Walt Disney World. Once you receive your “invitation”, you are called back to wait in line for Cinderella herself!
While you wait, notice all of the details as you are waiting. The castle is beautifully decorated and really quite regal. We loved glancing up and seeing details like this adorable Jaq and Gus just watching from the rafters.
Meeting Cinderella at Cinderella’s Royal Table
Meeting the princess of all Disney princesses is a big deal. So, Cinderella makes a grand entrance down the spiral staircase and interacts with guests for a meet and greet and photo ops. The backdrop is a large fireplace just as you would find in the castle. It’s a similar experience to dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway at Epcot. That breakfast experience is another great opportunity to meet all the Disney princesses in one place. While Akershus is slightly cheaper, only 1 dining credit on the Disney Dining Plan, and much easier to get into, the food there is much heavier as per the Norway culture.
What’s so Great about Dining at Cinderella’s Castle?
Cinderella’s Royal Table has Extra Magic everywhere! After chatting it up with Cinderella, it’s time to eat! Guests are led up the spiral staircase and are seated in a beautiful rotunda space. Which you will recognize because this is the part of the castle you see from the back. With floor-to-ceiling arched windows. The dining room is much smaller than we had anticipated but it IS beautifully decorated for royalty. We loved that during this meal you get to eat on the second floor and you do feel like you’re inside a real castle. Which is so cool. Since we were here at breakfast, they brought out a plate of pastries to enjoy while waiting for our server. It’s similar to the pastry plate at Be Our Guest with a few variations.
Each child is also given a magic wand and a wishing star as a souvenir for the wishing ceremony that occurs during the meal. Keep them handy! You will need them to make some magic. While this is by no means a free Disney souvenir, we love that it’s a special way to commemorate the experience for little ones.
What Princesses do You Meet at Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom?
One of the biggest draws is so many princesses in one place! The princesses come around, sign your autograph book, and pose for pictures. So, what princesses do you meet at Cinderella’s Royal Table? At our breakfast, we met Cinderella, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Jasmine. It sure beats waiting in several different princess character lines just to get the photos. But do keep in mind that these are the dining room, and restaurant pics. So if your autograph book is more your concern, you’re golden. If you really want the perfect pictures in front of a nice backdrop, you should probably wait in those meet-and-greet lines. Because every pic with the princess could easily have the dining room or other guests in the background.
Cinderella’s Royal Table Breakfast Menu
Ok, now down to the nitty-gritty truth. The Cinderella’s Royal Table Menu is actually quite lacking for breakfast! It’s also important to keep in mind that all of the items are the same price, except the kid’s menu items. Let me repeat that… All The Items Are The Same Price. So, choose wisely. We ordered the Beef Tenderloin with Broccolini and Egg, the Caramel Apple-Stuffed French toast, and Royal Avocado Toast.
Sadly, while the steak was fantastic, the other two dishes were meh. G actually didn’t like the caramel apple stuffed toast at all and only maybe ate a few bites. And you can see from the pic below how small it actually is too. The French Toast here is more like a bread pudding, and not the delicious one you can find at Ohana at The Polynesian either. While we all thought the french toast sounded delicious, both Rochelle and I tried it as well and it just wasn’t to our liking. Rochelle’s biggest complaint was that the meal itself, the Royal Avocado Toast, while delicious, would have probably cost less than $5 to make at home and was definitely not worth the $65 price tag. And since we recently tried the same dish over at Trattoria al Forno for like $17, was a little disappointed in this one. If you’re here for breakfast, hoping to get your money’s worth and enjoy meat, we highly recommend the Beef Tenderloin and Egg as it is most likely the best value for the money and was pretty tasty.
Is Cinderella’s Royal Table Worth 2 Dining Credits?
Obviously, the food is not the only reason we came here. Being able to meet all of the Disney Princesses in one, the air-conditioned setting is always a plus if it can be managed. The princesses come out one by one, announced every few minutes, and make their way around to the tables. So, have your autograph books and cameras ready! As for being worth it, we’d have to say, the food wasn’t WOW! enough for us to spend 2 dining credits. And we could find better options at Ale and Compass, and Be Our Guest for much cheaper. But, if you really need all the princesses in one place to help maximize your day, then $65 dollars may feel ok to you.
Cinderella’s Royal Table Atmosphere
If you’ve been wondering what makes the Cinderella Restaurant at Disney special, it’s supposed to be the atmosphere. But, actually, the ambiance of this restaurant was a little chaotic. And we were rather shocked by that. We had sort of expected soft music, a royal setting, and all the families adhering to what we consider appropriate Cinderella castle restaurant behavior. But, obviously, that wasn’t the case at least not on a Saturday morning.
As a children’s-focused dining experience, there were many small children who were undoubtedly very excited. So it was very loud and also very crowded mostly just due to the size of the dining room. What made this worse was that the servers and princesses also felt harried. Even in other similar settings, take Crystal Palace for example. Our waiter there came by, sat down, chatted with us, and didn’t remove our plates before we were done eating off of them. Here, we felt rushed, which was not a great feeling when spending 180 dollars on breakfast. Again, this could have just been our experience, so take it with a grain of salt. And hopefully, it’s the case for dinner when the meal price is even higher. The service overall was also slightly lacking, but again, that’s not a concrete statement. The overall hectic atmosphere probably just had everyone on edge.
The Wishing Ceremony at Cinderellas Royal Table
We did get the adorable plastic star for G, which was a perfect “free” souvenir. But, we were unable to even hear the wishing ceremony taking place due to the loudness in the restaurant. Overall, we imagine this would have been fun. As part of the ceremony, there are lights that flash all around the castle which is kind of cool so at least we were able to experience that much of it!
Would We Recommend Cinderella’s Royal Table?
Hmmmmm…..It really depends. We would hate to discourage anyone from trying this restaurant for the mere fact that it is an experience you can only have at Walt Disney World. The castle is iconic and dining here should be on your Disney Bucket List, to visit at least once. Being inside the castle and seeing the view from here is something that can really only be done if you dine at Cinderella’s Royal Table Restaurant.
Just keep a few things in mind
- First, you need to decide if you’re willing to pay that much for one meal. Keep in mind that lunch and dinner are more expensive. You can view the Cinderella’s Royal Table Menu here and decide for yourself if it’s worth the splurge. Prices can fluctuate with peak periods as well, so keep that in mind.
How Much Does Cinderella’s Royal Table Cost?
- First, let us just say the food is OK.
- Breakfast will cost you $65 for adults and $39 for children
- Lunch is $79 for adults and $47 for children
- Dinner is $79 for adults and $47 for children
- Second, realize that you’re not paying as much for the food as you really are for the experience.
- Third, every family has their own tastes and budgets. So, we can’t say that we recommend it, it’s important to weigh the cost vs the experience and make your decision based on that.
Cinderella’s Royal Table at Walt Disney World TIPS
If you’re using the Disney Dining Plan, this reservation will cost you TWO entitlements. Yep, 2 Table Service meals for this dining experience. Since we go often and usually on a budget, we aren’t really willing to give up that extra entitlement for one meal, when we can actually get two meals later. On the flip side, it’s pretty expensive to eat here as well. So if you’re dining with your family, consider this quite the splurge. We would definitely say this is a restaurant you want to book when you’re lucky enough to get the Free Dining Plan deal, at least then you aren’t technically paying for the food, so using 2 credits for 1 meal is a little easier to swallow.
Cinderella’s Royal Table doesn’t seem to be as difficult to score a reservation. There have been multiple occasions when we would have been able to get an Advanced Dining Reservation here and simply chose not to. That being said, however, you will still want to stick to the 6-month reservation timeline if possible. Other reservations will open up, but it’s much easier if you simply plan well ahead.
What We Really Think
Ok. So what’s the verdict for our Cinderella Royal Table review? While we did enjoy this breakfast, the portion sizes were considerably smaller than we’ve grown accustomed to at Walt Disney World. And that’s coming from girls who normally eat less anyway. But for many, the smaller portions may be disappointing. Especially if you’re used to the buffet all-you-care-to-enjoy dining found elsewhere.
We also wouldn’t recommend this restaurant as a way to get a head start on your Magic Kingdom day unless you can get the 7:55 am time. Even that could be cutting it close. It took an hour and a half for us to meet Cinderella in line, meet Jasmine, Ariel, Snow White, and Aurora at our tables, and be served our breakfast. So by the time we were done with the whole experience, we were really no more ahead than anyone else. As it was close to 10 am at that point. If you’re looking to get an early breakfast and an early start at the parks, we recommend the 8 am buffet at Crystal Palace or as early as you can get a quick-serve at Be Our Guest. Both will get you into the parks much faster.
Cinderella’s Royal Table Review
Overall, we did like dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table simply for the experience of being inside the castle. It’s been a Disney bucket list item for us for a while and we’re glad that we were able to do it. Seeing how we spent almost half of a normal month’s food budget in a single setting for one day, we doubt we will return any time soon. But we were glad that it was something we were able to experience, even if it is just once.
If you do not have a dining plan applied to your account upon booking, you will be required to pay for this meal in full with your credit card on file when booking. Definitely keep that in mind if you are booking for a large number of people. Have you been to Cinderella’s Royal Table? Do you think it’s worth the splurge? Let us know!