Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall

Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall at EPCOT is an amazing experience for every Disney Princess fan! This beautiful dining location offers guests a fun interaction with their favorite princesses and a fabulous menu. Akershus offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so it’s somewhat “easy” to get a reservation-and your family will love it!

Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, located at EPCOT in the Norway Pavilion of World Showcase, is an impeccable Disney Princess dining experience.  You can see all your favorite princesses, enjoy a good meal, and take some time out of the busyness of the Disney Parks.

Today, I want to share with you why it’s the PERFECT experience for your princess when visiting Walt Disney World.  The moment our family was announced and entered the dining hall, we knew we were in for a magical treat! Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall is worth considering on your next trip to Walt Disney World.

When you enter the royal banquet hall, you are greeted by a princess-usually Belle. Belle was our hostess princess during our experience, which I loved because she is my favorite!  This means that when we entered, she greeted our family.  During this time, very similar to Cinderella’s Royal Table, guests have the opportunity to meet Belle, get an autograph, and a photo with her.

There is a MemoryMaker photographer in this area, ready to take your family’s photo with Belle.  The MemoryMaker photographer will also use your phone to take photos-so be sure to get a lot of pictures! Since Belle is the hostess, she won’t move from table to table during your meal, like the princesses. This is really the only time you can get up close with Belle in her yellow ball gown.

Akershus is served family style. That means they bring you plates of food to share amongst your table, and then refill them upon your request. For breakfast, that means bagels, fruit, pastries, etc to begin. Then, they will bring you serving dishes of hot foods such as eggs, meats, potatoes, and Norwegian waffles!  Breakfast is, in my opinion, the most kid friendly meal, particularly if you have picky eaters.  The fare is pretty “normal”, whereas lunch and dinner have quite the Norwegian flair to them.  The lunch and dinner menus consist of Norwegian meatballs, salmon, Norweigan Chicken and Dumplings, and salads.

While you are dining, various princesses will make their way around the room to visit your table. They will sign autograph books and pose for photos. Princesses may vary-but we saw Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, and Sleeping Beauty.

Be sure to have something fun for them to sign! We used Little Golden Books-since we knew we’d see each princess, and they made a super cute souvenir! The princesses loved signing their “storybooks”.  After the princesses had made their way to each room, they lined the little princesses up for a Princess Parade throughout the dining hall.  I love these special touches at Disney character dining locations. We have had a similar experience at Chef Mickey’s and Crystal Palace.

Akershus makes a great alternative to Cinderella’s Royal Table. Akershus is so regally decorated, and you really feel like you are in a royal banquet hall.  We chose Akerhaus over Cinderella’s Royal Table for several reasons.  First, the breakfast menu appeared to be something that all of our family would enjoy.  Also, they had more times available, and it was an excellent way to see the princesses up close and personal.  It was also priced slightly less than Cinderella’s Royal Table. This makes a great alternative to Cinderella’s Royal Table, and I do not think that one is necessarily better than the other.  I also appreciate that Akershus is booked via a credit card guarantee, and not paid in full at time of booking like Cinderella’s Royal Table.

I think that Akershus is the PERFECT experience for your princess!  If you are planning a “first princess meal”, this one is great. It gives you princess interaction, is easy to get to, and is a bit more cost effective than the Royal Table.

With Akershus and Cinderella’s Royal Table being the options for “princess meals”, I don’t think you can go wrong with either one.  But, if you can’t get into Cinderella’s Royal Table, or you’re paying out of pocket for meals and want to choose a slightly lesser expensive option, Akershus is wonderful.