How much time w/Cinderella at CRT?

[PalVal]

We are having lunch at CRT and I'm worried that all my grandaugher is going to get is a minute for a picture with Cinderella and no interaction with her. If that's the case, don't you get the same thing in Toon Town? Is this what you have experienced? We are going to have 9 in our group to celebrate my granddaughters 5th birthday. What can I expect?

 

[TDC Nala]

Are you going after Feb. 7? It's my understanding that as of that date Cinderella will not circulate at CRT, she'll only be available for the photo op. If she's your priority, you might check on 1900 Park Fare's dinner which is completely Cinderella themed I believe. I think she might circulate at that one but I'm not really sure.

 

[PalVal]

We will be there in May for lunch. Does she walk around now? I thought the photo only thing was going on now.

 

[TDC Nala]

She walks around at breakfast and lunch and has the photo op at dinner, which has no circulating princesses and a Fairy Godmother show. The change, apparently, is that for all three meals she will be at the photo op, and other princesses (her "royal friends") will circulate.

See the "Fairytale Dining" article under November 2009 on this page:
http://allears.net/din/restnews.htm

 

[graceesmom]

We've been to CRT twice for lunch and Cinderella was only available for the photo op downstairs. She did not make an appearance upstairs.


Upstairs we saw: Snow White, Belle in regular Clothes, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty.

She did circulate both times for our lunch and dinner at Akershus. There we had photo op with Belle in ballgown(but Belle did not circulate) then Ariel in Ballgown, Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in the dining room.

 

[djp0630]

We've been to CRT twice for lunch and Cinderella was only available for the photo op downstairs. She did not make an appearance upstairs.


Upstairs we saw: Snow White, Belle in regular Clothes, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty.

She did circulate both times for our lunch and dinner at Akershus. There we had photo op with Belle in ballgown(but Belle did not circulate) then Ariel in Ballgown, Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in the dining room.

I agree. We went for lunch in Oct. and she was just available for photo. I'm pretty sure she is never circulating upstairs. Yeah, you only get a minute or so with her, enough time to take a picture, autograph. But that's pretty standard at the character meals. Upstairs at CRT, we had Jasmine, Snow White, Aurora & Belle (in blue dress) At Akershus, we had Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Ariel & Belle (in yellow dress greeting).

 

[Tink415]

We are having lunch at CRT and I'm worried that all my grandaugher is going to get is a minute for a picture with Cinderella and no interaction with her. If that's the case, don't you get the same thing in Toon Town? Is this what you have experienced? We are going to have 9 in our group to celebrate my granddaughters 5th birthday. What can I expect?

We've been to lots of princess meals. A minute with a princess is about all you get, except sometimes something more special happens. Sometimes. More than a minute is not something you can count on. So yes, it is like Toon Town, except in a more relaxed setting where you're seated, have a meal, and don't have to stand in a long line waiting to see a princess. Much better and worth the $$ IMHO. If your granddaughter has a birthday button she'll get birthday wishes from the princesses. Have fun!

 

[Dr. M]

We've been to princess character meals at CRT, Akershus, and 1900 PF. The CRT character interaction seemed rushed, and so did the meal. It was obvious that our waiter could not wait to get us out of the way so the next set of diners can be seated. We got our entrees before we finished our appetizers and our dessert after we finished half of our meal. The check came early, so we could "get it out of the way". They might as well have put in a drive thorugh window. The princesses very quickly got their picture done and were on their way to the next table. Very disappointing. Our experience at Akershus and 1900 PF was much more pleasant. The step-sisters at 1900 PF were especially entertaining. To meet Cinderella, I would highly recommend 1900 PF. The buffet is pretty good too. Do try the strawberry soup

 

[TheRustyScupper]

We are having lunch at CRT and I'm worried that all my grandaugher is going to get is a minute for a picture with Cinderella and no interaction with her.

1) I am not sure what your are expecting.
2) Cindy does not circulate.
3) You time with her is only about 1-2 minutes for the photo.
4) As mentioned before, you get a tad more interaction at 1900.

 

[Sweetpeamd]

It depends on when you are visiting, too. We travel in the slow(ish) season when the waits at Toontown are relatively short. We have found the interaction at Character greetings to be better there than at meals. Besides, for some reason our kids seem to clam up at meals when the characters visit our table. We have decided that it's better for us to wait in the lines at the greeting areas for character time than to do the meals.
Also, if you are interested in other characters besides Cinderella, we have found the World Showcase to be an excellent area for character interactions. They are more spontaneous and also seem to be more interactive.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

We have done breakfast and lunch at CRT in the past year and Cinderella did not circulate in the dining room either time -- she was just in the lobby for a photo OP. Honestly, none of the princesses at CRT (even the ones that came around to the tables) interacted that much with DD but with Cinderella it really was no interaction at all -- just standing together for the photo. Both times I found the PhotoPass photogs to be borderline rude in the way they rushed us through the process. The handler asked if we wanted a photo with our own camera and then practically tore the camera out of my hand when I said yes. The minute the picture was done it was definitely a "okay, please move it along" type of vibe.

 

[graceesmom]

We have done breakfast and lunch at CRT in the past year and Cinderella did not circulate in the dining room either time -- she was just in the lobby for a photo OP. Honestly, none of the princesses at CRT (even the ones that came around to the tables) interacted that much with DD but with Cinderella it really was no interaction at all -- just standing together for the photo. Both times I found the PhotoPass photogs to be borderline rude in the way they rushed us through the process. The handler asked if we wanted a photo with our own camera and then practically tore the camera out of my hand when I said yes. The minute the picture was done it was definitely a "okay, please move it along" type of vibe.

I must agree that we had the same experience at CRT with the photographer and the person in charge of moving the line. The last time we were there, they were borderline rude. We have no plans to return to CRT mainly for that reason even though I do so enjoy Major Domo's Favorite Pie and the Chocolate Raspberry Buckle for dessert.

BTW - I also experienced a rude photopass photographer in Adventureland to see Lilo and Stich in Oct. Very rushed we didn't even get in pose before he snapped one picture and said "next". A couple of days later when we were back at MK we happened to be around when Lilo and Stich were there again and did the photos again. That day the photographer was super nice. It wasn't more crowded one day than the other. I think that even at WDW, people have bad days, and unfortunately you may be the person unlucky enough to run into them when they've hit their breaking point.

 

[MLCLovesDisney]

We are going to CRT for breakfast next week and it's my niece's first trip to Disney. She's 3 years old and my daughter is 4, and they both will want to ask her questions and they talk a little slow since they're only little girls.

Have any of you come up with a polite "back off and give us a minute" phrase to say to the photographer/line mover when you feel like they're rushing your daughter's magical moment?

I want to be prepared in case this happens with something that I can politely and quickly say to give my niece time to finish her thought. I found that Cindy, being in character, is usually extremely polite with the guests, and it's kind of the photographers role in the whole scenario to play "bad cop" to keep the process moving...

I'm not trying to take 20 minutes with the princesses and hold up the line or anything, I just want to prevent the girls from getting disappointed.

For instance this year seeing Santa, I asked my daughter afterward what she asked Santa for, and she started crying and said "Santa only listened to Matthew, and he didn't listen to me, so I didn't get a turn." because we were kinda rushed along by the photographer (not at Disney), and I, not paying attention, didn't say anything, because our time was up. :-( I'd just like to avoid a repeat with the princesses and want to be prepared for being "rushed" by another photographer looking to keep the line moving.

TIA for any suggestions.

Michelle

 

[aubriee]

When we took my grand daughter there a few years ago there was a family ahead of us who had like three little girls, the parents, and one set of grandparents. They tried to insist on a picture with each child individually, then one with all three girls in it, then one with just the grandparents, then another with the whole group, plus the girls had autograph books to sign. They made them take the girls as a group, then let them do another entire group picture. The photo person did get a little rough with them and told them there were other people waiting and they had to move along. They spent more time arguing with the photographer than they did with Cinderella.

 

[ses1230]

It depends on when you are visiting, too. We travel in the slow(ish) season when the waits at Toontown are relatively short. We have found the interaction at Character greetings to be better there than at meals. Besides, for some reason our kids seem to clam up at meals when the characters visit our table. We have decided that it's better for us to wait in the lines at the greeting areas for character time than to do the meals.
Also, if you are interested in other characters besides Cinderella, we have found the World Showcase to be an excellent area for character interactions. They are more spontaneous and also seem to be more interactive.

I agree. We have had much better (more time) Princess interaction in Toontown and, to my surprise, Epcot as well.

 

[shawnh199]

Our daughters got to spend much more time with Cinderella at the meet and greet in Toon Town than they did at the Princess Breakfast at Epcot. When we were there in early December (with decent sized crowds) the wait for the Princesses was quite short (less than 15 minutes), especially compared to Pixie Hollow which was atleast 60 minutes every time we saw it (except when we arrived at rope drop and were 6th in line - when we finished the line already had a 60 minute wait time, but less than 15 for the Princesses.)

At the meals, the Princesses basically say hello, sign autograph books and pose for a quick picture. At the meet and greet in Toon Town, each Princess took time to ask about the girls days/trip, sign autographs, hug & hug some more with my DD2.5 who loves them so much, take as many photos as we wanted (girls only, family, etc.). The same was true of Pixie Hollow. With 3 Fairies, it took us atleast 10 minutes to get done with all 3. We spent a little more time in the Princess area (mainly because the line was not as long).

The Princesses you can find at Epcot spend a fair amount of time with them as well. We had a wonderful experience with Jasmine and Aladdin. My DD2.5 hugged Jasmine and wouldn't let her go for a good minute or two. We didn't get to see Belle and Beast, but did see Mulan and Snow White.

We did 6 character breakfasts on our trip, and I do agree that it's much better and worth the money to meet the character there rather than standing in long lines to meet them. We met so many different characters at meals, that if a line was long, we were able to skip them and catch another ride or meet a different character! We met 42 different characters in all - went through 3 autograph books!!

Have a great trip.