Akershus Royal Banquet Hall Breakfast Review
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall is a character dining restaurant in the Norway Pavilion at Epcot. It is one of the few places to dine with princesses at Walt Disney World. Princesses at Akershus rotate and usually include up to five of the following: Ariel, Princess Tiana, Princess Jasmine, Princess Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, and Mulan. Ariel wears her land dress, and Belle wears her gold dress at this location.
Anna and Elsa are not part of the character breakfast at Akershus. However, they meet nearby at the Royal Sommerhus, their summer home. So, if you’re hoping to meet them, you might want to do so before or after your meal, depending on timing.
Breakfast at Akershus combines a Norwegian smorgasbord-style buffet with an all-you-care-to-enjoy family-style breakfast platter at the table. The platter paired with the buffet makes for a reasonably substantial breakfast. But the real reason most guests visit Akershus is to dine with princesses. You’ll meet five princesses during breakfast. While the meal is expensive, you might save hours waiting in line to meet characters later in the day.
The restaurant is immediately on the right as you enter the pavilion. You’ll need to have reservations well in advance. Guests are typically seated in staggered groups, so after checking in, it might take a few minutes for your group to be called. The table groupings ensure that everyone meets all the princesses promptly while dining. But, occasionally, they do get behind or miss someone. If that happens, you might wait longer to meet a specific princess.
Belle wears her yellow ballgown at Akershus. She was the princess who greeted guests at the entrance. She was kind enough to sign her autograph. But these days, you’ll likely receive an autograph card with their signatures.
Breakfast at Akershus costs $55.00 per adult and $35.00 per child (ages 3-9). So, before you order this meal, understand that the price is high because of the characters. Akershus Royal Banquet Hall is a pleasant setting. You’ll feel as though you’re sitting inside a castle.
When you first enter the restaurant, you will stand in the foyer and wait to meet the greeting princess. One princess will be available to greet you in this area, and this will likely be your only opportunity to meet this specific princess. A cast member told me that Belle greets guests at the entrance ninety percent of the time.
Belle is not always easy to find in the parks, so this is a somewhat rare opportunity to meet with her. Additionally, she does meet some during the day in France at Epcot. But long lines form for her rather quickly when she is out. You can also find her at Magic Kingdom’s Enchanted Tales with Belle, but that’s not a real meet and greet.
Related: Meet Belle at Disney World
Since Akershus is a buffet with additional offerings brought tableside, you won’t have much of a need to review the menu. After being seated, the server will take your drink order and direct you to the breakfast buffet. The buffet at Akershus is nothing to write home about but has some interesting items like fruits, yogurt, cheese, and a few Norwegian-style smorgasbord offerings.
Buffets tend to have one or two items that everyone looks forward to trying. I didn’t find anything that special here. It wasn’t bad, but rather mediocre. As you can see, there are bananas, grapes, pineapple, and several melons.
Strawberries with yogurt and toppings are also included in this portion of the breakfast buffet.
Here is a closeup.
Then, you will find a few bread selections. There were bagels with cream cheese. You can pair them with the smoked salmon from the smorgasbord.
Mickey waffles are available on the Akershus breakfast buffet. Other offerings include Danishes, cinnamon rolls, and a croissant with berry compote on the side.
Here are a few of the select Norwegian items for breakfast.
Salami and Gjetost cheese are in the back center. My server told me it was a unique caramelized cheese popular in Norway. To the far side of the cheese, smoked turkey slices were available. Smoked salmon and the usual accompaniments were available.
You will find a platter of breakfast items at the table. Below, we have the all-you-care-to-enjoy platter.
It comes with bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and potato casserole. Since we last dined here, Norwegian waffles have been added to the breakfast lineup. They are supposed to be pretty good.
Thankfully, I have saved the redeeming factor for last, and that’s the Akershus princesses. The characters are the endearing part of the dining experience. Having breakfast with princesses roaming the room is a fun experience. It also gives children, who might be shy, a much less pressured experience meeting characters.
Cinderella was the first to visit the table. We discussed what her stepsisters had been up to recently. I asked her about the Nightingale song, and we giggled over their not-so-melodic singing voices. This is the look that I, too, get on my face anytime someone asks for my autograph. Or at least I think this is the look I would get. No one has asked for my autograph.
Cinderella does sign autographs. Below is a photo of the one I received that day.
Ariel is my favorite princess, and she meets at the Akershus Princess Storybook Dining. She is “land” Ariel here, and she’s not easy to find.
Our conversation was about Prince Eric taking her dancing later that evening.
I mention these conversations to give you some ideas for starting the conversation when a character visits your table. Be aware that they do stay in character. Here is her autograph. I like the bubbles.
Snow White, the fairest of them all, is quite friendly. She loves to talk about anything related to dwarfs and moods. Snow White is sure to have a friend who is grumpy, happy, or bashful.
We laughed when I told her my nickname was Sneezy because of all my allergies.
Here is a look at Snow White’s autograph. She dots her “i” with a heart.
You can also find her at Princess Storybook Dining at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. Last but not least, we have another princess awakened by love’s true kiss. Aurora is fun and of good nature.
She signed her autograph with “Princess” in front.
During the Akershus breakfast, a song was played twice. The music alerted the diners and princesses of a special occasion. Every so often, a royal Princess Procession is performed.
The princesses grab a basket and gather all the children in the room to form a line.
Then, the music plays for about three minutes, and they parade around the entire banquet hall. It’s probably not as odd as it sounds.
The children felt like they participated in the experience. Everyone there seemed to enjoy the procession, which was a nice touch, especially after seeing the children’s enjoyment.
Since I’m not a morning person, I scheduled my breakfast for later. I wouldn’t recommend this if you plan to eat a large breakfast. You see when I had finished, it was approaching the time for the lunch turnover.
When I returned to the buffet to take a few more pictures with fewer crowds, they had completely changed to lunch. These lunch items were roped off, and a few breakfast leftovers were pushed to the end.
As someone who tries to make lemonade out of life’s lemons, I decided to give you a photo preview of the lunch buffet at Akershus. However, since I didn’t eat any of these items, I can’t comment.
After seeing this spread compared to breakfast, I’m sure I would have found much more favor with lunch as well. But lunch comes with an actual entree selection instead of a generic platter on the side. The salad bar did appear to have excellent, fresh options.
I was disappointed because all the lunch items looked delicious. I’ll have to return eventually to compare.
Overall, breakfast at Akershus is perfect for those with a princess character priority! Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it for the food. The food isn’t bad by any means; it’s just somewhat generic.
However, the Norwegian smorgasbord buffet hits a few high notes, but not enough to justify the cost of the meal. It was also disappointing to see the lunch buffet look much better than breakfast. I wished I had researched a little more and gone to lunch instead.
On a positive note, I don’t feel you can beat the character interaction. I also received outstanding service during my visit. For more character meals, you might enjoy the following reviews:
- 1900 Park Fare Breakfast Review
- Tusker House Restaurant Breakfast Review
- The Crystal Palace Breakfast Review
- Cape May Cafe Breakfast Review
If you plan to meet characters, you might enjoy browsing our Epcot Characters Guide. Additionally, we have an article about meeting Disney princesses at Epcot. Many of them meet in the countries around the World Showcase.
Lastly, our character dining guide provides an overview of every character dining experience at Walt Disney World. I hope this Akershus breakfast review provided enough information to help you decide whether a meal here suits your family. If your little ones are fans of the princesses, I don’t think you’ll begrudge the expense.
In the comments:
What are your thoughts on Akershus? Do you think dining with princesses is something your family will enjoy?
