Review: Princess Breakfast at Akershus in EPCOT
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall is a character dining experience in the Norway pavilion of World Showcase in Walt Disney World. This review covers breakfast at the restaurant, with food photos, a look around inside, and thoughts on the Disney Princess Storybook Dining adjacent to Frozen Ever After at EPCOT.
Let’s start on that last note. Although it’s located right next door to Frozen Ever After in the Norway pavilion, Akershus Royal Banquet Hall does not feature Anna and Elsa from the Frozen franchise. Those princesses appear in the nearby Royal Sommerhus meet & greet location. That’s an excellent experience, and efficient way to get hugs, autographs, and so forth with Anna and Elsa.
So if you’re looking for a Frozen-themed princess meal, Akershus is not for you. Conversely, if you’re eagerly anticipating taking your kids to Akershus to have a memorable character meal with the (non-Frozen) royalty, and are motivated more by the princess component than the food, all you probably need to know is that the character interactions at Akershus are great. It’ll be a fun experience for you and your kids.
If you have a pre-parking opening Advance Dining Reservation here and are excited to walk through an empty Future World and World Showcase and then getting in the front of the line for Frozen Ever After before the hordes of crowds–and those experiences also override the food–you also probably do not need to read any further.
However, if you are like me and a restaurant that will end up costing $50+ per adult better deliver excellent food to go along with its ambiance and experience, this review is for you. Not since we dined at Chef Mickey’s a couple of years ago have I felt so disappointed by a Walt Disney World dining experience as I did by our meal at Akershus.
Before that, let’s start with the positives. First up is early access to Epcot if you make a pre-park opening ADR. We cannot recommend this highly enough, and if you make a pre-park opening ADR–whether it’s 8:00, 8:15, 8:25, etc., you’ll be allowed to enter the park at around 7:45 a.m. This stroll through Future World and/or World Showcase as Epcot wakes up for the day is lovely, and a great opportunity for empty park photos.
Then there are the character interactions for breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.
They are exceptional–even for awkward adults like us who typically are not good with face characters–as the princesses go out of their way to personally “connect” and spend time with each guest. Obviously, every table adjacent to us was filled with kids; we noticed a lot of time being taken for personal interactions.
This is something parents are going to cherish, and probably one of the reasons Akershus has fans. If you look at Chef Mickey’s reviews (or comments defending it in response to our review), you’ll notice a lot of this same sentiment.
There’s no denying that both restaurants typically offer really positive character interactions, and if that’s your priority, Akershus does well; hence my recommendation to skip the rest of this review.
The ambiance is a bit of a mixed bag. Strictly in terms of architecture and design, the interior is really interesting, and reminds me of classic EPCOT Center caliber detail. (I’m guessing it’s relatively unchanged since the Norway pavilion opened, which is a good thing.) The experience of dining inside a castle is always cool, albeit not as cool here as in Cinderella Castle.
The restaurant is modeled after the medieval Akershus Castle and Fortress in Oslo, Norway that was built to fortify and defend the city from Prince Hans Westergaard of the Southern Isles…or maybe Earl Alv Erlingsson of Sarpsborg. (Sorry! I have such a hard time keeping real history and make-believe history straight.)
The downside of Akershus’ ambiance is the restaurant is loud and hyper-active. There’s not much to dampen sound, and there’s a lot of sound. Then there’s the chaos of having a packed restaurant (the table density here seems higher than at most other character buffets) with princesses meeting guests as people head towards the buffet.
I consider this a ‘nature of the beast’ type of thing, as it’s something you’ll find at most of the character meals at Walt Disney World. I don’t really knock Akershus for any of this, save for the table spacing.
Now we get to the food for breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.
This works a bit differently than other character breakfasts in that hot items are brought to the table family style, and cold items are served on a buffet. The hot items include scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and potato casserole.
The good news there is that the potato casserole is ridiculously–addictively, even–awesome. I ate way too much of this. The bad news is that the other three hot items are passable at best.
I think the scrambled eggs are actually made of egg here, but that’s about their only redeeming quality. These 3 are all standard Disney breakfast quality.
As far as the buffet goes, you have a few pastries, yogurt (and granola toppings), fruit, cheeses, smoked salmon, peppered mackerel, and sliced salami & turkey. That’s everything. Trying to maximize my value here, I focused on the smoked salmon, mackerel, and cheeses, all of which were moderately good.
Okay, so maybe this doesn’t sound too bad? “Ridiculously good” potato casserole, plus fish and cheese. Seems like a decent breakfast. I suppose you could look at it that way, but that’s a really generous assessment of a $50/person breakfast spread. If this were a free hot item continental breakfast served at a 3-star hotel, I would’ve been impressed by it. At Walt Disney World, I would’ve even been accepting of something in the $30s/person range, as a character surcharge is to be expected.
However, at a breakfast with this price point, the variety (or lack thereof) is tough to justify. And that’s even when you take the characters into account. If you compare the Akershus Breakfast Menu to nearby Cape May Cafe’s Breakfast Menu, you can see just how lacking Akershus is. (It’s also worth noting that Cape May Cafe is ~$10 less per person.)
From my perspective, the only way to reconcile the variety, quality, and price discrepancies between Akershus and Cape May Cafe is that you are paying to meet the princesses here. I know all character meals have some degree of markup for the meet & greet element, but outside of Akershus and Chef Mickey’s, I’ve never felt it was so blatant. At every other meal we’ve done, I’ve walked away feeling satisfied by the food alone. In those cases, the character component could have been absent, and I still would’ve enjoyed the dining experience.
At Akershus’ breakfast, that would not have been the case. I get it from a business perspective: princess dining is in high demand and low supply, so the food can be ‘phoned in’ and Akershus will still be booked solid because many parents are so eager for a chance to dine with princesses.
However, that doesn’t sit well with me as a guest. Recent upcharge events aside, Disney has always been good about experiences like this being “value-added” opportunities that did not feel like blatant surcharges for convenience. By contrast, this felt decidedly like paying for a princess meet & greet.
To each their own, and if that’s your prerogative, I totally understand. I just think it’s important to understand just how much of this meal cost you should ‘mentally allocate’ as being the cost of meeting the characters. Based on breakfast costs elsewhere at Walt Disney World (so we aren’t even comparing this to real world breakfasts), I would say a good $25/person (adults) of the cost is the price of meeting the princesses.
To me, that’s absurd. Obviously, reasonable minds may vary on that, though. You can meet Anna & Elsa with no more than a 10 minute wait next door, and meet others with a <20 minute wait at Magic Kingdom the first 3 hours of the day or last 2. In light of that, I have a tough time paying so much to meet princesses. (Of course, I’m also not a parent, so I lack that perspective.)
This is also why a qualitative assessment of Dining Plan credit uses is important. On paper, this is one of the “best” uses of a Disney Dining Plan table service credit. However, if you don’t care about meeting the princesses, the reality is that you’re trading a credit for a meal that’s far inferior to the ~$20 breakfast at Trail’s End. That makes Akershus’ breakfast a qualitatively poor use of a credit for those who do not ascribe a significant value to the princess component.
I know it’s all a matter of perspective, but it’s impossible for me to get past the food in tandem with the price. I take no issue with Disney charging premium prices for a premium product or experience, but that’s not what this is. The core product (the meal) is not a premium product, it’s a mediocre one. This amounts to a paid FastPass for meeting princesses, served with a mediocre breakfast.
Always the inveterate optimist, Sarah was looking at the upsides of Akershus throughout our meal. The ambiance was enjoyable, the character interactions were great, and there were a couple of solid food items. She even envisioned taking our kids here someday for a fun and convenient breakfast. Once she saw our bill, this optimism disappeared (disappear! disappear!) faster than 3 trolls casting a boat back (back!) over the falls.
Overall, whether all of this matters to you is going to be a personal decision. The convenience of meeting the princesses at breakfast might be “worth it” to you. Given the near-unanimous praise for the breakfast experience at Akershus, I know I’m in the minority here. So, I’m guessing most of you don’t care–and I can respect that. Just know what you’re getting yourself into here.
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Your Thoughts…
What do you think of Akershus? Do you think I’m off-base, and that the experience justifies the high prices? Where does it rank in terms of dining at Walt Disney World for you? Have any favorite foods here? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Just saw a news post with a photo of a new sign in front of Akershus saying “Welcome to Florida Blue Lounge” with the implication being that the Restaurant is now an exclusive corporate lounge of some kind? Have you heard anything about this? I know Disney has a very long history with corporate sponsors, but this seems out of step with anything done recently.
Has anyone had dinner here recently (2019)? My family is going in Feb. of ’20 and we got a reservation for dinner. We have 2 boys and they have made it very clear they don’t care about seeing princesses, but my husband and I are looking for something different/slightly adventurous to eat. We narrowed it down to this or leaving early enough to catch dinner at Disney Springs.
I have done dinner with the princesses once with our daughters. Prior to having children this was one of my favorite restaurants at Epcot. It used to be a buffet with traditional Norwegian food and it was delicious. Now with the princesses added, they have removed most of the buffet and I didn’t find my meal enjoyable. The character interaction was great, the food…..not so much. We won’t be dining there on our trip in December.
Well, now I’m considering cancelling the lunch I have planned for November. We are doing Cinderella’s royal table for breakfast on the last day, so I’m not sure it would be worth it to do Akershus also – especially when it’s food and wine festival and we can just eat our way around all day. Grrr.
We just ate there in March for breakfast. We scored a pre 9 am reservation and got inside before 8:15 so we were able to get into the line for Frozen with almost no line. That part was awesome, but the food was just mediocre at best. We were all quite disappointed with the food. If we weren’t on the dining plan, I would have been furious to pay that much money for what we got. The characters were all great, but my kids are old enough that characters aren’t that important. I have heard dinner might be better, so next time we are on the dining plan I might try that.
You DEFINITELY need to try this for dinner. The appetizer buffet at dinner is exceptional with high-quality smoked fish, seafood salads, creative potato and pasta salads, and an assortment of yummy cheese (try the caramel-like Gjetost!) and meats. We’ve eaten here once on the dining plan (best value ever) and twice out-of-pocket, and had different entrees each time, and they were all delicious and miles better than anything we’ve eaten at Cinderella’s Royal Table (which I view as its main competitor due to the characters). Plus there is the novelty of trying traditional Nordic cuisine which is not widely available in many parts of the United States. I would never pay Akershus prices for scrambled eggs, but at dinner it is worth every penny.
I don’t mind laying down some bank for a good meal/experience, but I agree this looks like a shameless money grab. I live in DC, which makes Disney look value-priced in most instances. I can go to brunch at a wide variety of celebrity-chef restaurants with unlimited food and adult beverages for less than $50, tax and tip included.
To add insult to injury, none of the princesses looked like the princess they were supposed to be. What’s going on at Casting?
I need to see what the price would be here for lunch or dinner, as I do not like Disney breakfasts (I didn’t even like the Crystal Palace breakfast, although the food was good, it was just so overpriced to me. Although, we only got an 11:00 time, so that might have something to do with it). But $50 per adult?! Really?! Ugh. We’re from Canada, so that means that just for my husband and myself it would be $134 cdn, and we have 4 kids, so add the price of them in there, plus the mandatory tip that would be added on, and that is practically one of my kids park tickets for the week! No way. I’ll wait in line instead.
Breakfast at Wdw is disappointing if you ask me. I rarely pay those prices and eat kind bars or cereal in our room, or best case grab n go at resort. While we have a daughter now Akershus has been a favorite of hours since before they had Princesses there. I love the different menu choices here just the way I like the different choices at BOG. Princess a plus now. We try to include this every trip but living in Tampa we go rather often and love Disney Springs and Biergarten so it is harder to choose. Tom you and Sarah need to try this for lunch or dinner.
HB
I had lunch there a couple months ago and the food was much higher quality than this. The cold items were partially the same, with the pastries replaced by various salads, but each guest was given a menu for the main course. I went with the vegetarian option and it was AMAZING. I still dream about it. The dessert was also huge and delicious (particularly the rice cream, though you can get that at the bakery as well). That being said, we spent $55 for lunch off season and that really seemed steep also. I can’t imagine paying a similar price for breakfast with lackluster options.
Thank you for this Tom. We ate here in June ( the day before Frozen opened) for lunch. The food we had was lovely & plentiful and 5 of us (4 adults & 1 4yr old) all left feeling full. The character interaction was great but we felt the princesses were not really expecting the adults to have photos as well (though they did accommodate us). The princess parade was a flop for us as they would not let my husband go with our 4yr old and she got upset. We were planning on doing breakfast on our next trip as we stay off site & do not envisage getting a FP for frozen (or A & E if they do them by then) but may re-think this now.
I agree with you wholeheartedly on the quality of the food and the outlandish price. We won’t be repeating our dining experience here. I’d much rather spend the $200+ for our family of 4 somewhere else in WDW.
We did Akerhaus for dinner last fall and won’t go back. We enjoyed CRT for breakfast our previous trip and will go back there once our baby is 4 or so. The food wasn’t that good and the princesses gave us much more time.
We had lunch there, and I really enjoyed it. I had fond memories of eating there pre-princess, and with 2 girls just the right age, it seemed a good excuse to go back. We specifically didn’t choose breakfast, because my father-in-law and I really loved the Norwegian food at the buffet – smoked fish, wonderful cheese, unique salads. The two of us would have been happy with just that. Plus my kids got to see 6 princesses in one fell swoop. Win-win. Wish they still had the paint-your-own troll cookie, though!
What seems a bit odd about all of this is that the price is roughly the same for breakfast and dinner. Perhaps they need to lower the breakfast price?
That being said I have a dinner reservation at Akershus in October. Does anyone have an opinion on the dinner menu? (i know there are completely different logistics that would be involved in “value” determination).
I just happened to post about that!
We did the Magic Kingdom Cinderella’s Royal Table and altho yes, you are paying extra for the Princess set up (and dining in the castle!) the food is quite nice, as you pointed out in your review of it.
You have not yet reviewed Ariels restaurant in DCA, but altho the food isnt quite as good as in Cinderella’s Royal Table, it’s by no means disappointing. Again, you pay extra for the Princesses.
We also love the Character breakfast with Stitch at the Paradise Pier.
So, this is rather a shock. Thanks for the frank review.
While we have not dined here, I have found it very hard to pull the trigger at the price point. Especially after seeing the menu of offerings for breakfast and nothing that interests me for lunch or dinner. I would much rather go to Trail’s End, which is our constant on every trip, and head to Princess Fairytale Hall at Magic Kingdom to meet Princesses then spend $50/person for breakfast.
I visited with my best friend 2 years ago, we had a great time, food was decent and the princesses were great. And then the bill arrived…seeing that cost just made my stomach turn.
I think part of the price is that you get a free photo with Belle (do they still
Do that?) which helps justify the charge compared to the other character meals.
My wife and I ate here for dinner in December of 2017. The photos are only available for purchase. We did not have a photo pass nor do we have tickets of sufficient level to get free photos. So 3 pics with Belle would cost the price of photos for an entire day. Had we known this in the morning we would have stopped at numerous photographers.
As far as the restaurant, I have been a fan for many years but have never had breakfast. Dinner was stellar prior to it becoming a princess dining experience, but I had not been back once it became as such. That was until December. The meal was excellent. Wife had meatballs for which she has been itching to have again (and attempted to reproduce at the house). My seafood stew was also delicious.
What set this experience apart was the staff. The princesses were awesome and extremely personable. Even more impressive was our waitress who went to extremes for us. This is obviously very anecdotal, but take it from a guy who has been coming to Disney since the 80s. It made a huge impression. Did it hurt that we had good stories about food from her home land and attempted to connect with her by being friendly and happy to see her? No. But she and other staff didn’t have to bend over backwards for some random guests.