One of the most popular and hardest-to-get dining reservations is Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom. But the high cost, requirement of payment at the time of reserving, and exclusivity of this experience make it hard to access for all families.
However, there is an even better Disney Princess dining experience that often goes overlooked, which is a better price and even better character interactions. Let’s get into this popular option that some would argue beats the castle experience! Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including another overlooked Disney restaurant with easy to get reservations and a new rule change limiting Disney World transportation at Disney Springs.
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EPCOT Princess Dining Offers More Value
Royal Banquet Hall is EPCOT’s Disney Princess character dining experience, located in the Norway Pavilion. This family-style restaurant offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner, featuring a variety of menu options inspired by Norwegian classics. This meal is served family-style, which means your table will be brought large plates of food for everyone to share, with a sampling of all the menu items. You can also ask for seconds if you wish!
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Breakfast menu offerings include pastries, scrambled eggs, potato casserole, and Norwegian waffles. During our visit, we dined at dinner, which I’ll cover in more detail below. Every meal also includes a platter of two Norwegian-style desserts to share.
The EPCOT Disney Princess character dining experience at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall costs $59 per adult and $38 per child for breakfast, and $69 per adult and $46 per child for lunch and dinner. If we take a look at the pricing for Cinderella’s Royal Table, it is significantly more expensive than Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. Cinderella’s Royal Table offers breakfast priced at $76 per adult and $47 per child, and lunch and dinner costing $89 per adult and $54 per child. Plus, you need to pay at the time you book your reservation, which is one of the few Disney World restaurants that has that requirement.
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall is themed like a medieval castle, where guests will dine with the “storybook princesses.” During our visit, we met five different Disney Princesses: Ariel, Tiana, Cinderella, Jasmine, and Belle.
While dining inside Cinderella Castle is a bucket-list experience for many Disney fans, Akershus offers a similar princess dining experience at a lower price point.
Great Quality Norwegian-Inspired Family Food
We visited Akershus Royal Banquet Hall for dinner and were pleasantly surprised by how approachable many of the Norwegian-inspired dishes were. Even with a picky-eating teenager in our group, there were plenty of options to enjoy. Since this restaurant caters to families and character dining guests, the menu strikes a good balance between Norwegian flavors and familiar favorites. If you’re worried about finding something your picky eater will enjoy, there’s a good chance they’ll do just fine here.
Our starter included a Field Greens Salad with Lingonberry Vinaigrette, and Lefse served with Cardamom-Cinnamon Butter. Maybe our family just loves carbs, or maybe the Lefse was that good, but it was a standout for us. Either way, it’s a great starter for families to share.
Since I’m a vegetarian, we opted for the plant-based dinner platter, which included green beans, red cabbage, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and plant-based bratwurst. If you’re vegan, there are also dairy-free options available. The food was excellent and, as I mentioned before, is a great fit for picky eaters. After all, it’s hard to go wrong with mac and cheese and mashed potatoes! I especially enjoyed the plant-based bratwurst. Unlike many of Disney’s recent plant-based offerings, it wasn’t just another dressed-up Impossible product and had a much more distinct flavor.
And of course, the meal ended with dessert to share. I liked the little touch of the Norwegian flag as well, very cute!
Overall, we were pretty impressed with the food and would definitely eat here again for that reason alone. We felt the amount of food provided made it well worth the price and delivered solid value.
Meet the Storybook Princesses at EPCOT
Compared to Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in EPCOT, Cinderella’s Royal Table has a slightly smaller and more classic princess lineup. At Magic Kingdom, you’ll always meet Cinderella in the Grand Hall, along with a rotating group of four other princesses that often includes Ariel, Aurora, Snow White, and Jasmine, though others like Belle, Rapunzel, or Tiana can appear as well.
But the fun thing about Akershus is that it tends to offer a bit more variety in the princess lineup.
At Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in EPCOT’s Norway Pavilion, the princess lineup typically includes Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Tiana, and Jasmine. However, those princesses could be swapped out with Snow White, Aurora, Mulan, or Pocahontas, depending on the day.
Both character dining meals always offer five Disney Princesses to interact with. You just don’t always know which ones will be in attendance. That’s true of both Disney Princess dining meals.
The Disney Princesses appear in their most recognizable ball gowns from their films. The Akershus Princess dining experience was fantastic, and that has also been my experience at most character dining meals at Disney World. One of the best parts of character dining is not having to track down the characters yourself. They rotate through the dining room and visit each table, so there is no stress about missing anyone.
EPCOT Princess Dining vs. Magic Kingdom Princess Dining
Hands down, the more popular of the two is Cinderella’s Royal Table, likely because of the experience of dining inside Cinderella Castle, which is hard to beat, but also because Magic Kingdom has a smaller selection of strong table service options overall. While we were able to secure reservations for Akershus in EPCOT, that is largely due to the wider range of dining availability and options throughout EPCOT.
However, you are paying a high price tag for that castle dining experience. Cinderella’s Royal Table is generally about $20 to $30 more per person than Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. That additional cost adds up fast. If meeting the Disney Princesses is at the top of your list and you are concerned about price, then Akershus Royal Banquet Hall is the perfect choice. This more affordable experience is often overshadowed by the viral Cinderella’s Royal Table because of its castle location.
You also meet most of the same Disney Princesses at this location, so at the end of the day, your character interactions are nearly identical. You’re essentially paying a price difference for the setting and food variations. If those aren’t as important, then the EPCOT Disney Princess dining is a no-brainer. Plus, since it is located directly next to Frozen Ever After, you can enjoy that Disney Princess attraction before or after your meal quite easily.
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Overall, we had a great experience at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. It was a spontaneous choice for our group and turned into an enjoyable visit that we would likely repeat. Character dining can sometimes be hit or miss when it comes to food, but we were impressed with both the quality and quantity of options at Akershus.
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