Character Meal Distress

[MichRX7]

Well, we booked our vacation for WDW back in early August. At the time I was told that dining reservations for character breakfasts were 90 days except reservations for the castle breakfast which was 60 days.

My granddaughter is extremely excited about her first ever trip to WDW, and is most excited about meeting as many princess' as possible.

Needless to say, without when we call to check, policy changed without notification to 90 days so now the entire week (Dec 6(arrive)-13(leave)) we are there the castle is booked. Now I'm stuck calling 407-WDW-DINE daily hoping someone cancels their reservation.

I guess (hope) that the breakfast over in Norway will provide the same magic, but I'm sure that for my four-year old granddaughter there'll be a little tarnish on the castle as she's a bit dissappointed. I tried my best to explain to her why she isn't having breakfast there...

Anyone here give me some good words on the princess breakfast over at Norway? As long as they have Belle, I'm sure she'll be excited by that.

 

[Erika]

Don't feel too bad. The castle is extremely difficult to book and even waking up early and trying for 6 days straight right as the phone lines were opened, I was unable to get in. Same story for a lot of other people. We only lucked out once getting ressies at the castle and that was in '98 when it was King Stephan's.

I have not been to the Norway breakfast myself but I have heard a lot of good things about it.

 

[DisneyBound]

We went to both the Epcot princess breakfast and the cinderella's castle breakfast a couple weeks ago. Both were great! The castle has an amazing feel to it but Norway is extrememly beautiful too. The big difference in characters is no cinderella. At the castle, there was Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Aurora and Mary Poppins. At Norway, there was Aurora, Snow White, Belle, Mulan & Jasmine. The food was great at both places. I think your granddaughter will be very happy with the princess breakfast and even if you dont get into the castle, you can see Cinderella at ToonTown in the Judges Tent.

 

[mkt]

Cinderella has a dinner at the Grand Floridian :animwink:

1900 Park Fare, slated to appear are Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Suzy Mouse, Perla Mouse, and Prince Charming.

Now you... get offline and call WDW dining.. NOW!!

btw... i LOVE RX7's

 

[mkt]

Originally posted by MichRX7
Anyone here give me some good words on the princess breakfast over at Norway? As long as they have Belle, I'm sure she'll be excited by that.

good food, good price, and Belle is slated to appear there... and if you miss her there, the odds are in your favor that she will appear in the Share a Dream Come True Parade, Cinderella's Surprise Celebration, Her Storytime @ MK, or at the France Pavilion in Epcot (At Plume et Palette)

 

[WDWFanatic]

You can do the character dinner or lunch at the liberty tree tavern. there was no problem going right in there. We saw chip & Dale, Minnie, Pluto & The racoon from pocahontas i always forget his name. We had a great time.

 

[mkt]

Originally posted by WDWFanatic
The racoon from pocahontas i always forget his name.

Meeko.. lol

 

[DisneyPhD]

Originally posted by mkt
Cinderella has a dinner at the Grand Floridian :animwink:

1900 Park Fare, slated to appear are Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Suzy Mouse, Perla Mouse, and Prince Charming.

Now you... get offline and call WDW dining.. NOW!!

btw... i LOVE RX7's

We did this the last trip, food was VERY GOOD. We really enjoyed it. (strawberry soup alone was worth it for me.) We also ate lunch at the Castle as a walk in. (my hubby asked at around 11:00 am if there were any opening for lunch, we got right in at 12:00.) As we were getting on the elevator Cindy herself got off and talked to DD for 5 min or so. We saw her again on our way out. It was really nice. We liked this Cindy better then the one at 1900 park fare. She really was so sweet, friendly and the perfect princess.

I sugest doing the Epcot Princess breakfest or 1900 park fare then then the Castle for lunch. It really was nice.

 

[MichRX7]

Originally posted by mkt
Cinderella has a dinner at the Grand Floridian :animwink:
1900 Park Fare, slated to appear are Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Suzy Mouse, Perla Mouse, and Prince Charming.
Now you... get offline and call WDW dining.. NOW!!
btw... i LOVE RX7's

Thanks for all the help everyone, the Norway breakfast is shaping up to be a positive. Our last trip to Disney (without the grandkids, this is their first trip) we took our two boys to the Polynesian (with Chip/Dale, Goofy, and Mickey) and the Pooh one at the Crystal Palace (Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet).

Both had great food, but the one at the Crystal Palace was a bit better (maybe because we were on our way into MK for the day).

BTW, I love RX7's too I have a 94 and a 91 vert. I run a little event for them in Indy called the Rotary Revolution. If you have one send me a PM and I'll tell you all about it. (zoom, zoom)

 

[mkt]

Originally posted by MichRX7
BTW, I love RX7's too I have a 94 and a 91 vert. I run a little event for them in Indy called the Rotary Revolution. If you have one send me a PM and I'll tell you all about it. (zoom, zoom)

I love RX7's, but the price one goes for right now is keeping me away. I have a gas guzzling SUV right now, but if all goes well, in January i'm gonna get something fast... and a late model RX7 isn't off the list (it's on there with a tuned 97 M3 and a fixer upper Supra or 300ZX)

 

[MichRX7]

UPDATE 12/03/2003:

I just called Disney dining reservations for the umpteenth time this morning to see if by some miracle someone had cancelled their reservation at the castle.

Making my typical jokes over the phone I asked the CM to let me know that no one had cancelled for either 12/8 or 12/12 (our two days at MK).

After confirming what I already knew I asked them to please cancel one of the three seats I had booked for 12/9 in Norway. I am at work and didn't have my reservation # so they took my last name, popped it into the computer, and what do you think came out...

"Excuse me Mr Ewles, but I don't understand why you are trying to book a 2nd character breakfast in the castle on 12/8 when you are already booked that day at 8:15 am."

I about fell out of my chair, made her confirm the reservation and reservation # about three times and then promptly cancelled my Norway breakfast.

Unbelievable. And my granddaughter was just telling me last night how she was hoping Cinderella would be at breakfast in Norway.

Now for her first time in the MK I get to escort her down Main Street an hour before the park opens (taking many photos of her in front of the castle) to the Princess breakfast we originally wanted.

My only question is when were they going to tell me? I never heard anything back from my email I sent and had no idea this *magical gift* had been given to us. Nevermind, I don't need an answer, let's just call it the Magic of Disney!

We leave to start our drive in 27 hours and 55 minutes and now I am so totally geeked I can't get any work done.

 

[kal1484]

WOW! That is TOTALLY magical!! Have a GREAT time, and we will be expecting a report! hehe

 

[Ausdaddy]

Congrats! Wow, that's just a great story and example of the Disney magic (would have been nice if they had told you, but it was more fun the way it happened). I've had similar experiences getting into Cindy's breakfast and hotels that were booked. Gotta love it.

:sohappy:

 

[Disneyfalcon]

That is a great story but I'm confused. You mentioned email, did you send a email request for a reservation and that's how you got it? Were you on a waiting list that you didn't know about?
I'm so confused!
But congratulations that is great! We have reservations in February. We had to get up at 5 a.m. on thanksgiving morning to call. I think we were one of the few crazies calling on thanksgiving morning and my sister and I both got through. Now we have one ressie to cancel for February the 25 for 8 people. Someone will be very happy!

 

[pepsistar]

Awwwwwwww You brought tears to my eyes-- WOW!! What a wonderful happening-- The Disney Magic "is" still alive!! Make sure to take lots of pictures- We'll be waiting.

 

[garyhoov]

That's great!! I've hear so much about it, that I've thought about trying to get a reservation, but never wanted to give up a kidney to get it.

Have fun!:sohappy:

 

[MichRX7]

Originally posted by Disneyfalcon
That is a great story but I'm confused. You mentioned email, did you send a email request for a reservation and that's how you got it? Were you on a waiting list that you didn't know about?
I'm so confused!
But congratulations that is great! We have reservations in February. We had to get up at 5 a.m. on thanksgiving morning to call. I think we were one of the few crazies calling on thanksgiving morning and my sister and I both got through. Now we have one ressie to cancel for February the 25 for 8 people. Someone will be very happy!

I sent an email to Disney's customer service (mainly to just simmer down my temper at the time). As far as I know even to this date we never received any reply, but we just got back yesterday and the breakfast (a week ago today) was excellent.

 

[MichRX7]

Originally posted by pepsistar
Awwwwwwww You brought tears to my eyes-- WOW!! What a wonderful happening-- The Disney Magic "is" still alive!! Make sure to take lots of pictures- We'll be waiting.

I'll have to figure out what to do with the pictures, but I can tell you that I've never seen a 5 y/old have such a big smile at the same time her jaw was sitting on the floor in awe

On Saturday we took the boat over to the MK just to see some of the Mickey's and that was the first time she had even seen the castle, and it was hiding behind the train station. Two days later I took her and my 4 y/old son and we rode the monorail over and stood in line in front of MK than they let all of us breakfast people in, it was a very magical experience just being on Main Street with only about 20/30 other people. I saw a family of about 14 or so trying to take a group photo in front of the castle so I went over and offered to take the pic for them, next thing I knew I had four camera's thrust at me, but it was all good. I snapped a few photos for them, than they took my camera and snapped a few of us.

Than (since our reservation was still a good 20 minutes away) I waited around for the crowds to cruise past us and had the kids stand in front of the Walt/MM statue and snapped some photos with Walt and the Castle. Than more photos of them in the archway, and more photos, and more photos (you get the point, lol).

 

[Disneyfalcon]

That's awesome Michrx7. I agree with you, some of the pictures I took in October before the park opened with about 20 people on main street, were my best pics. My daughter was also five and the princess breakfast was her favorite thing we did. She did not want to leave.
That's why we're doing it again in February!

 

[KentB3]

Originally posted by WDWFanatic
The racoon from pocahontas i always forget his name. We had a great time.

Meeko, LOL! He's also a poster on the WDWMagic forums too!
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: