On my first full day in Disney I woke up early because I had an early 8:05 breakfast ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table.
The 8:05 time was the earliest available, and that was almost a full hour before the Magic Kingdom even opened. I got to the Magic Kingdom at 7:25, and had to wait a little while before being allowed in the park.
After being allowed in the park I walked up Main Street to Cinderella Castle.
I was so happy to see the castle again after a year of not seeing it. I can't really explain it, but seeing the castle lets me know I really am in Disney.
I checked in, and was giving a ticket to have my photograph taken with Cinderella.
The one on the ticket means I was entitled to one photo package. For those of you who don't know, when you eat at Cinderella's Royal Table, before eating, you go in Cinderella's throne room, and meet Cinderella, where you have your picture taken with her. For every four people in your party, you get a lovely folder of your picture, with four more 4x6's of the same picture.
A few minutes after I checked in I was allowed into the lobby a.k.a. throne room, where Cinderella was. There was a short line already to meet her, but it moved rather quickly. When I did meet Cinderella, she commented on my shirt, which was a white tank top with a sequined glass slipper.
I then went up the stairs to the restaurant. I forgot what a long climb it was up.
When I did finally get to the top of the staircase I was seated immediatly at a table by the window, to the left side of the room. This was my view from the table.
After I was seated I was greeted by my server, Jay. He was a very pleasant server, who gave some good tips to me and his other tables about making sure to go to Dumbo first, since we'd be the first people in Fantasyland if we finished our meals by 9:00.
I had a glass of orange juice and ordered a diet coke, since I needed a caffiene fix, and I don't drink coffee. The lady who seated me actually asked me something as I was being seated, and I can't recall what it was, but I hadn't really been listening to her, and she joked that I needed caffiene. How right she was! I was given a choice of a traditional breakfast plate or a healthy alternative, and while the healthy choice sounded fine, I went for the traditional, since I was on vacation after all.
Before being served my traditional breakfast I was given a large bowl of fresh fruit;
and a basket of fresh pastries.
The fruit was a mixture of mago slices, strawberries, kiwi, honeydew, cantaloupe, and blueberries. I ate quite a bit of the fruit as I figured even if I didn't get the healthy breakfast, I could at least eat some fruit.
I only tried two of the pastries, a cinnamon roll, and half of a crossiant. The cinnamon roll was very nice, and the crossiant was good, but nothing special. One thing I don't like about eating at the family-style served meals solo is that I know whatever I don't eat will be thrown away, but there is no way I could eat the whole basket of pastries myself. I really wish they would serve smaller parties less food, since you are always able to ask for more. I think a lot less food would be wasted that way.
I was then served my traditional, hot, breakfast, which included, eggs, sausage, bacon, potato casserole, and cream cheese-stuffed french toast with blueberry topping.
I tried a bite of the eggs, but I am picky when it comes to eggs, and found them too undercooked for my liking. The bacon was good, but not quite as crispy as I like, still, for being mass produced as it is, it was good bacon. The sausage was good as well. But my two favorite things were the potatoes and the french toast.
The potatoes had a nice cream sauce, and while it wasn't very fancy, it reminded me of Stouffer's potato casserole, I enjoyed it. The cream cheese-stuffed french toast reminded me of Crystal Palace's puffed french toast, except with cream cheese filling. I thought that was very yummy indeed, and the blueberry sauce made it even yummier.
As I was eating the characters came around to my table. The characters that day were Belle, Aurora, Snow White, and Mary Poppins. I was pleased to see that most of the characters present were actual princesses, as it is a pet peeve of mine when Disney calls their meals princess meals, but then characters who are not princesses are there.
All of the princesses, and Mary Poppins were very nice, and a nice gentleman at the table next to mine took my picture with each one, except for Aurora who I didn't see because I wanted to get in the park exactly at 9:00, and she was taking too long coming to the table. I figured I'd see her later in the trip, so getting in the park was more important at that point.
Right before I left they had the wishing ceremony, which I thought was rather lame, but the children in the room seemed to be excited by it.
I left shortly after the wishing ceremony, which ended about five minutes before nine, so I was able to rush downstairs, and make rope drop for my first day in the parks!