Some swear by the castle, whil others swear by DTD. I think no matter what it should most likely be a very special magical event for DD. We are doing the castle in 2 weeks. We had an appointment for DTD last year, but DD got sick and we ended up not doing it, but they were very nice there and tried to coax her in, but saw she wasn't going to and didn't push it. It looked like the castle was jammed packed last year, and that DTD was still able to take walkins.