90 days from WDW

So today marks the 90-day milestore before we go to Disney World. How do I know this? The crazy world of the "ADR" -- the advance dining reservation system.

See, with the popularity of the Disney Dining Plans, one basically has to book reservations months in advance in order to ensure that one can actually dine. So 90 days ahead of your arrival date, you are allowed to book your reservations. Wil and I sat down last night with our list of choices and figured out what we'd like to eat when. Yep, that's right. We have essentially decided what food we're going to eat three months from now.

The one thing I really really wanted was an early morning reservation for the Crystal Palace, which is inside the Magic Kingdom. See, the restaurant opens before the park does, which means that you get Main Street USA all to yourself (well, and about 100 others). This makes for some beautiful photo ops. We really enjoyed our breakfast there last January (did I mention it's a "character breakfast" with Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, and Pooh?) and I wanted to book it again.

So when I called to make our reservations this morning, I was very sad to learn that the Crystal Palace is going into refurbishment starting January 3. Boo. I asked the agent if there was anywhere else to get an early morning breakfast inside the Magic Kingdom. She said, "Um, well, I do have an 8:30 for Cinderella's Royal Table..."

I should point out for those who don't know, that Cinderella's Royal Table is the single most difficult reservation to get at Disney World. It's a medieval-themed restaurant inside Cinderella castle, and there are princesses. Crazy numbers of princesses. And of course, little girls dressed as princesses. Little girls, dressed as princesses, so excited that they can barely eat. Pandemonium.

ADRs for Cinderella's Royal Table tend to sell out within minutes of the date opening up. There are websites dedicated to information on how to score a reservation for "Cindy's". And here was a cast member just casually offering it up?

I hesitated -- surely there's a little girl somewhere who really needs to meet Cinderella?

But it was the right time, the right day.... so we took it.

So on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, we're having breakfast in the castle. Scary. Funny.