Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (Akershus), located in Norway in Epcot’s World Showcase, is a character buffet (currently family style meal served at your table due to COVID) featuring the Disney princesses. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, this buffet does require valid theme park admission. Although we enjoyed our first breakfast here in May 2012, it’s not on the list this year.

*Update* We visited again post-COVID in June 2023, and there have been some changes, which are reflected below.

I would, however, definitely recommend it for little princess fans, especially those who can’t snag a reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom or who’d prefer a more economical (at least in Disney terms) alternative.

We were in the largest room almost right inside the main entrance.  We had a great view of the restaurant and the happenings, including the princess procession where the Disney royalty make their way around the restaurant to music. The interior is very regal and still gives the effect of dining in a royal castle, which is why I mentioned earlier that it’s perfect if you can’t (or your wallet doesn’t want to) have a meal in Cinderella Castle.

For our most recent breakfast, we were seated in a smaller room near the front, but we still enjoyed the atmosphere and actually found the smaller room to be quite nice in that there were fewer guests, and it was a bit quieter.

Characters

As with most character buffets, our server informed us of the characters’ path, so we knew when we had a little time to get to the buffet and back to our seats before they arrived. The princesses at this meal were very chatty, which I love. Ariel was perfect, and Snow White was very impressed with the kids’ autograph books. Remember that characters, which are present at breakfast, lunch and dinner, are always subject to change.