How long Character Meals take?

[NJFabFour]

We have PS for Cind's Royal Table on Wednesday 8/27 at 10:10 am - not the greatest time for our itinerary, but you have to take what you can get! Can any experienced CRT diners out there give me an approximate idea of how long to plan for breakfast? An hour? Longer? Just wondering so I can plan whether or not to stay at the castle afterwards for the Surprise Celebration show or head over to Adventureland and return later for the show. Thanks!

 

[becka]

I have never been to CRT but my understanding is that it is a small place so that may help. I would plan a minimum of an hour but depending on how fast the characters are at the tables it could be longer. We usually plan on an hour and a half at a character meal just to make sure.

 

[BevS97]

I would give yourself plenty of time, budget for a couple of hours and if you are done quicker than that, you can always do something else afterwards.

We spent at least 20 minutes downstairs before we were seated, we were waiting to see the Fairy Godmother, but unfortunatly the line was long and we were called upstairs, so we left her. We had our meal which took an hour or so, and then came back downstairs, and the Fairy Godmother was still there, so we waited a while longer to see her. The family behind us were trying to run to a strict schedule and after waiting 5 minutes or so, they got impatient and left - what a shame for those kids - we waited a while, maybe 10 minutes, and then had the most wonderful visit with the Fairy Godmother. The reason the wait was so long was because she was talking quite some time to talk quietly to each child, they all had a really lovely personal visit, a photograph, and then she gave them some pixie dust. It was probably one of the most magical experiences of our vacation, and if we had been worried about being somewhere for a particularly time, then we would have missed it.

Bev

 

[NJFabFour]

Thank You! Bev, what great information about waiting to see the Fairy Godmother! I had not thought of that when I was planning our breakfast! Now I know to keep our afternoon plans open and flexible and not worry about getting somewhere soon! How cute that she gave them pixie dust! (We just made a page for her in our autograph books - sure hope we catch her!)
P.S. Is Prince Charming always present?

 

[jel0511]

Actually I've been to CRT 5 times and have never seen Prince Charming. Usually only the female princesses make the breakfast, and only once in a blue moon will one of the princes make an appearance. So, don't count on him being at CRT. If you really want to see Prince Charming, he appears every night at 1900 Park Fare for the Cinderella Dinner there.

 

[disneydebi]

We did CRT in July, and I was amazed at how fast they got us in and out! There were no characters in the lobby (we had an 8:25 ps, so maybe it was too early). Our breakfast, including a visit by all the princesses lasted maybe 35 minutes. (i actually felt a little rushed by the waiter). When we left we did see the fairy godmother in the lobby, but there was quite a line, and my DD didn't have any real interest in her... just the princesses, so by 9:00 we were out and heading for the rides....

 

[tink30]

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[tink30]

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[CamColt]

Last year we had 8:25 PS. We were in the castle and seated by 8:15. We saw all the princesses & Aladdin, got plenty of pictures and autographs, got 2 (maybe 3 for some of us)helpings of food, made a bathroom break, and were out of the castle before 9:00 for park opening.
We are quick eaters so we never felt rushed.

On the other hand we had 8:10 PS for Donalds, werent seated until quite a while after that, and we werent allowed to go up for food until we waited for all the characters to come by. This meant we werent eating until well after 8:30 and we felt incredibly stressed since our plan was to be done by 9:00 for park opening.