Last year I took a whirlwind two week trip to Disney World. I stayed at the Art of Animation hotel and for the first time ever I used the Disney Dining plan! First off let me say that prior to that trip I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a dining plan but oh my goodness it changed my life, but that’s an article for another day! Because I had the dining plan I was able to visit a ton of the amazing restaurants that Disney World has to offer. But the two I get asked the most about are Cinderella’s Royal Tables and Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. Since I’ve been to both places I thought I’d give a slight rundown of both!
Akershus is in the Norway Pavillion in Epcot. When my friend and I arrived we were about 15 minutes early for our reservation but they showed us right in with no problem. It worked out perfect because the first thing you do when you walk in is meet Belle! Now I have to say I was SO SUPER EXCITED to see her, because when you meet her there, she meets in her yellow ballgown. It was shortly after her new dress was revealed so I was more excited than every little girl in the queue to see her. At the time there was a photopass photographer there to take pictures of us and she signed my autograph book. Best start to breakfast ever. Once we were seated, our server brought us our drinks and then we were able to go to the buffet. It had some traditional Norwegian options, but it also had standard American breakfast items. I got to try smoked salmon there for the first time…I didn’t love it but I was pretty stoaked to get to try something new! About 10 minutes into our meal the princesses started to appear. On my trip we met Snow White, Ariel, Aurora on this particular day. I have been told you can sometimes meet Jasmin and Mulan there as well. I loved the interaction. They spent a good bit of time with each family and in the middle they do the sweetest little processional with all the little kids present. I was well pleased with Akershus. It was a really enjoyable experience and for my first princess meal at Disney World I was pretty pumped!
Later in my trip I made the trek over to Cinderella’s Castle to dine at Cinderella’s Royal Table. I also dined their for breakfast so my experiences at both princess meals were in the morning. My reservation was for 8 am and we were at park entrance at about 7:30 am. Because it was before park open it does take a little bit more to get into the park so I would recommend getting there a little early if you can- not to mention if you do have a reservation before park open mainstreet is pretty empty. So me and my friend stopped at EVERY photopass photographer going up mainstreet to get pictures…because we are nerds haha. When we finally arrived after our impromptu photo session, we checked and we headed off to meet the head princess in charge Cinderella! We had our photos taken and we headed off for breakfast. It was a standard sit down meal with a menu. I went for steak and eggs- which was filet mignon and fried egg. It was delicious, but not a standard breakfast option. Everything there was really quite fancy as it should have been I mean we were eating in a castle! The princesses were announced as they arrived which I thought was so sweet! There I met Aurora, Snow White, Jasmin, and Ariel. I didn’t get to spend as much time with each princess but I personally was okay with that because I had already met them elsewhere. If you are looking to spend a solid amount of time with the ladies CRT might not be the place for you. I really enjoyed eating at Cinderella’s Royal Table! My photos and my take away magic wand were absolutely precious so it was well worth it to make the trip there!
But here’s my advice- While Cinderella’s Royal Table is spectacular I would recommend Akershus Royal Banquet instead. Cinderella’s Royal Table is something I would do for the experience, but not to really enjoy the meal, or even the characters because I really didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them. At Akershus I left very very full, and I spent a great deal of time with each princess which means the most to me. That said both are spectacular but I definitely have a favorite! Tell me guys- have you been to both? Which is your favorite? I’d love to hear!
