Day 1: Winding down with Dinner at CRT
Whew! What a day that shaped up for us. After waking up at 2:00am, I hit a wall about an hour before our dinner reservation. We walked around in Fantasyland, poking in at Castle Couture, where DD6 fell in love with an insanely overpriced Belle dress. I did NOT think that we were going to make it out of that store in one piece. The kids had a generous amount of spending money for the trip, but I was afraid she'd blow it on our first day. I managed to talk her down and we continued throughout the shop, finding a giant wall of ears. I didn't think hoarding all of the ears would have been a thing for me, but it totally is. I want ALL OF THE EARS.
DD6 chose a pair of bride ears (I know, she walked around in a veil for the rest of the week), I chose Maleficent ears, and DS9 chose a Mickey's Sorcerer hat.
It was finally time to check in for dinner!
We were called inside the entry foyer of the castle. I turned the corner and let out a squeal. Like, a loud squeal and I just started tearing up (I'm tearing up again as I write this); Cinderella was just standing there and I managed to choke out "Oh my God, you're just right there!"..the Photopass photographer got a good chuckle out of my reaction to meeting Cinderella for the first time.
(sorry for the various sizes of photos - the forum keeps yelling at me that my files are too big!)
After our photo op, we were seated in the lobby as we waited for our name to be called. There were more families coming in with their daughter's all made up from BBB, it was absolutely adorable to watch them come through and meet Cinderella.
We were finally seated at our table upstairs, not directly by a window, but close enough for a decent view of Happily Ever After. After several moments, we were greeted by our server. The kids chose soft drinks and I ordered a glass of the Beso Del Sol Sangria
I thought that the Sangria was very good! It wasn't overly sweet and just what I needed after a long day.
Our Server was very attentive and he collected our orders after delivering our drinks. The kids opted for mac and cheese (as you continue to read this trip report, you'll see that my kids basically ate mac and cheese the whole time), with a side starch, so basically carbs on carbs. But, they did select the kids salads as their appetizer.
I ordered the Castle Salad as my appetizer. I thought that the salad was very good, my body was craving something fresh and I wasn't disappointed in the freshness of the greens. However, after finishing my salad, I noticed that the table next to us had balls of mozzarella on their salad (hence buffalo mozzarella on the menu..) and my salad didn't come out with that! I didn't say anything to our server about it, I already ate the whole thing, but I thought it was a funny thing to forget. For dinner, I chose the Beef Tenderloin with shrimp. My dinner was good, I ordered my beef cooked to medium and it was cooked perfectly. I was disappointed by only having two shrimp, but that's a case of my eyes being bigger than my stomach. The one thing I wasn't a fan of were the roasted potatoes, I wish they were mashed, but it's not a big deal. Overall, I thought the food was nicely seasoned and beautifully presented.
Both of my kids enjoyed their dinners, but you really can't go wrong with mac & cheese. For dessert, DS9 ordered the decorate your own cupcake.
DD6 ordered the raspberry sorbet, which she enjoyed. I ordered The Clock Strikes Twelve, which was ultra rich and oh so perfectly decadent. The texture of the mousse was on point, the dark chocolate made it not overly sweet, and the raspberry coulis was the perfect component to the dish to really elevate a wonderful plate.
Throughout dinner, we were greeted at our table by Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, and Aurora. I felt that we got the best character interaction from Snow White and Jasmine, but really, all of the princesses were wonderful. My favorite princess is Ariel and I, again, got emotional when she came to our table for a quick meet and greet. We DID get the Ariel picture, but her eyes were closed and I didn't notice it until too late!
Hands down, the most magical part of our evening was watching the fireworks from inside of Cinderella's Castle for Happily Ever After. Honestly, eating inside of the castle with princesses walking around with fireworks going on outside? That can not be topped. Everything that led me to this moment was so incredibly worth it and, again, I was overcome with emotion.
So, yeah, Disney makes me weepy.
My overall thoughts on Cinderella's Royal Table? For this two-credit, signature restaurant, I feel like it's something everyone has to experience once. Obviously the theming is out of this world and is hard to top, the character interaction was great, the food was just fine. I've had better and I've had worse, but I have zero regrets about eating at Cinderella's Royal Table.
What a magical end to the most perfect day.
Up next: Day 2: Magic Kingdom (aka this is the happiest place on earth, why are you grouchy!?)