Cinderella's Royal Table breakfast: 8:15 or 9:55?

[Crystal2732]

Our trip is coming up in just over two weeks and my daughter (8) really wants to eat at CRT. (She doesn't know there used to be princesses at the meal, so she's just excited about seeing the inside of the castle and eating there. We're not mentioning Cinderella greeting downstairs in case she's not there).

We're staying off-site so I thought we were out of luck, but with regular checking, I managed to get a reservation for us at 8:15 on Tues 1/24. Tues isn't the day we were planning to go to MK, but we can adjust our plans and do the morning at MK and then hop to Epcot (we have an ADR there in the afternoon). Since Tuesday wasn't our preferred day, I've still been checking regularly and just got a reservation for Thurs 1/26 at 9:55. I'm going to cancel one of these soon, but now I'm having trouble deciding which one. I'm posting this in theme park strategy because my question is really about how our ADR affects the rest of our park strategy.

We don't want to rush through our experience, so I figure the Tuesday morning breakfast puts us at a bit of disadvantage relative to our regular (off-site) entry at 9am, but maybe not too much? We'd prob buy genie+ but book an Epcot attraction first. The advantage is that most of our breakfast time is time we wouldn't have been in the park on rides otherwise, but it means an early morning after we're planning to stay at HS until close the night before. (We had been planning to do Epcot that day, trying to arrive at 8:30 for regular entry at 9). It also puts two of our special meals on the same day (unless I can manage to move the Epcot one -- still trying on that).

What time would we need to arrive at the TTC to make sure we could get to our 8:15 ADR? We don't need to be at the front of the Fantasyland rope drop crowd, but do need to make sure we're through security before too long when they open at 8. (I think I read that PPO reservations don't get us into the park earlier anymore).

On Thursday, are we likely to have time to rope drop Jungle Cruise and get to our 9:55 ADR? We'd definitely buy Genie+ but I was hoping to use it for Peter Pan and I figure as off-site guests we're not at a disadvantage for rope dropping Jungle Cruise. I have touring plans and they said to expect at 40 minute wait on Jungle Cruise at rope drop, which would leave us a little late for the ADR. But I'm not sure if that time is overly cautious.

Alternatively, we might decide to do a longer day Wednesday and sleep in a little on Thursday, start stacking LL at 7 and head to the park a bit later for our ADR. But then I'm a little worried about traffic and the wait at the TTC. Our goal would be to check-in at CRT around 9:40. Any thoughts on when we'd need to leave our resort (Sheraton Vistana Resort) via Uber/Lyft to make it?

We have 7 day tickets and not a lot of other firm plans so we can adapt around whatever we decide.

I know that's a lot of options/scenarios, but any advice or experience with CRT at either time would be super helpful!

 

[soniam]

I like late in park breakfasts. We arrive at park opening, do rides while lines are relatively short, and then have a late breakfast. If you don’t care about rides first thing, then it’s up to you. Not really sure what waits are like if you aren’t doing Early Entry. I do know that Jungle Cruise has had an abnormally long line since the movie and changes. Not sure about the TTC either. Monorail and boats should be up and running for the Early Entry guests. Security doesn’t take long. Waiting for the MK transportation will probably take the longest. I don’t know how long it will take you to get to TTC from your hotel. I would allow more than an hour, especially since you have to wait for an Uber. Hopefully others with more offsite experience will have more accurate info.