Really torn about doing Cinderella's Royal Table... and not spending outside of DDP.

[brooklynnbaby]

Bleh. Ya know, if CRT didn't eat up 2 dining credits, this wouldn't be an issue!!! LOL! I know my girls would LOVE CRT, but they'd probably equally LOVE Akershus. Have read every review, good and bad, about both... breakfast, lunch, dinner, yadda, yadda. It's sixes. We've just got to try CRT once, and see if it works for us, right? I just hate that CRT means we'll have to buy a meal somewhere in the week, and we're really trying to just stick to our DDP. Which we could make affordable. And I think we'd regret letting the ADR go. I do have Akershus booked at the end of our stay, so they won't be deprived, in the least, of characters. If they get too much character stuff, we cancel it.

Is that realistic? To go an entire week without straying from the DDP? Aside from a stocked cooler we're packing, we really don't want to spend extra money on food if we don't have to.

Tell me it can be done!

 

[MommyRobin]

That's what we're planning on doing. We don't get to WDW until mid-afternoon on our first day. We're skipping our TS that day (just doing QS in the park - everyone will be too excited to eat, anyways). That gives us our extra credit for CRT.

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

CRT really is worth it.

Even though you get the same number of princesses at both CRT and Akershus, and both have a photo package included... Many people say (including me, about DD9) that it is CRT that the kids (both boys and girls) really remember. Just something about eating at Cinderella's castle. Akershus (while GREAT) is another meal, CRT is HAVING DINNER IN A CASTLE. And the castle really is beautiful inside.

 

[jofo]

I don't have first hand experience with the dining plan, but I think there's a decent chance based on what I've read on here that you won't miss the TS credit. You might end up sharing other meals (not using a full credit per person) or make a meal out of snacks on a day when you're just not that hungry due to all the food that's included in the plan.

 

[Moms]

We have had the dining plan several times and have always stuck to the plan (once we even left with 2 CS credits ... drats!). We are going in September and will stray from the plan as we have an ADR at California grill which takes 2 TS credits. We additionally added a night to our trip (moving to another hotel for the one night) so we will have to add a meal there as well. That being said, it is certainly possible to stay within the plan!

 

[brooklynnbaby]

Thanks all... and since I'm still learning, it looks like we won't have to use a TS credit for every single person with each TS ADR, so that may work out well! I've been back and forth, but I just can't bring myself to drop the ADR for CRT. Might as well do it once and then in the future, can decide if it's for us.

And in my mind, I've been so worried about making sure we use up our TS credits that I forget we have just as many CS and snack credits - that's oodles of food! Don't imagine we'll really have to supplement that unless we have a day we're not in the parks at all. But we'll be on resort, so we'll still have options.

 

[MMS1125]

Yeah I'd keep CRT..there's plenty of CS places where you get enough food to share (one has ribs/chicken forgot the place lol but it's enough for 2 people..Flame Tree BBQ (AK) has a 1/2 chicken option that can be split as well) You can stretch your counter service to make up for not having a TS one night to save for signature

Have fun!!

 

[sndral]

We did CRT and HDDR in '08 on the dinning plan. Our arrival night we paid OOP for pizza to be delivered (not from disney - $30-35 for 4 including garlic bread and sodas) since we were arriving late and no restaurants were open. Then we did Wolfgang puck express, which is cs, one night instead of a TS when we went shopping @ DTD.
In '09 we did HDDR again, and again substituted a cs for one nights TS dinner. Many of the cs meals are huge and easily shared - the roast chicken @ Flame tree barbicue in AK comes to mind.
This year I have the opposite problem, I'm paying OOP for a special tour w/ a meal, so I'll either need to change to a 2 ts dinner one night or add a lunch or brunch to use all my ts.