Tusker House or CP Character dining

[d0naldduck123]

My BF and I are planning a trip for December 2017. Although we haven't booked yet, the dates are looking like it'll be Christmas week. I've never done character dining before, so I really want to do one this trip!
We'll only be there for four park days - one for each park - so I'm torn between Tusker House or Crystal Palace.

If we do CP, it'll probably be a really late lunch or just a dinner because we want the morning hours to do rides, and it'll give us a nice break to just sit down to eat and relax during the day before Happily Ever After. Or I guess we could also do a late dinner, but I'm not sure how the pictures will turn out inside the restaurant at night? I guess my main concern for CP is if we would have enough time to do MK AND CP during the peak holiday season.

For Tusker House, we're looking at the "dinner" package for RoL. We figured it would be a good way to meet characters and make sure we have seats to RoL. If we do this, we're looking at doing a late breakfast or early lunch. I figured AK generally takes less time to tour (although with Pandora, I'm not sure how this will change), so we wouldn't feel like we were missing out on park time by doing character dining.

I'm so torn between these two...

 

[tyandskyesmom]

In your situation I'd do the Tuskerhouse ROL package.

The best strategy for MK at that time will be getting in as early as possible (usually 7am) and hitting a lot of the big line rides early with little wait. Then use your fast passes mid day. I am not a fan of most of the buffets for lunch and dinner (Tuskerhouse being one of the exceptions) so I would not do Crystal Palace for any other meal than breakfast and if you did that, you'd miss out of the best touring times.

Tuskerhouse would be great for a breakfast ADR (charged for a breakfast, saving a little bit of money) at very near the last breakfast seating and then they will slowly start turning over for lunch so you'll get to enjoy both...plus already have seats for ROL so you don't have to waste a FP on it.

I'd get there for opening and hit Everest first and then the safari (although, I've found either way would work about the same) and then do other things as they fit in...I'd save fast passes for after brunch.

 

[dpswift]

I would do Tusker. We love their breakfast so I booked a ROL breakfast

 

[ChasingLeslie]

Tusker late breakfast! Breakfast price, two meals in one, and RoL FPs.

 

[d0naldduck123]

Thank you for the advice! Breakfast..er..brunch, sort of, at Tusker House sounds great! I'm so excited for RoL