Akershus Royal Banquet Hall

Once again working on the book, but instead of a ride we are going to bring you a review of one of the dining attractions.

Akershus Royal Banquet Hall 

Location: EPCOT, Norway. Right on the main path, in fact you can see into the windows as it is a ground level restaurant.

Service: buffet/family style. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Dining Plan: one “table service” meal per person.

Special Experience: Princess character experience. The main meal is buffet style, and dessert is family style.

Cost: $30-$60

Dress: Casual, but the setting is a royal banquet hall, so fancy dinner clothes would not be out of place.

Age group: Families and kids of all ages are drawn here for the princesses. However, the tables are well spread out, so it isn’t as much of a nuisance as it could be.

Menu Variety: The buffet was awesome, the winning item of the night was Gjetost cheese. Gjetost is a brown-yellow, soft goat cheese that tastes sweet and is very popular in Norway, Germany and other Scandinavian countries. The entrees of the dinner/lunch buffet are well-rounded, with a good mix of American and Norwegian foods for everyone at the table. Jeremy’s quote of the night: “I would call it well-rounded but uninspired.” Due to the family nature of the character dining, the menu leaves a little to be desired for the adult palate. Almost everything is stuff you’ve eaten before and will eat again afterwards, but it’s done very well.

Menu Quality: still focuses more on the buffet than the menu. Nothing particularly special on the entree menu. The dessert is served in a “family style” sampler so everyone can try a little of everything. The dinner, however, was forgettable. Jer loved it, Jen forgot it even existed.  Doesn’t change from lunch to dinner.

Drinks: Moderate selection of wines and beer.

Uniqueness: A character dinner is always unique, but this is a pretty typical experience for character dining.  The atmosphere set up to feel like a castle dining hall.

Reservation: required

Notes: Rotating princess schedule, so ask who's coming to dinner. Sometimes no one is willing to say anything though, so flexibility is important.

Have you eaten at Akershus? How was your experience there?

Toy Story Mania

Working on the book tonight again, and for me that means a new post. So here is arguably the most popular attraction in Hollywood Studios(or as I like to call it MGM). Enjoy!-Jer

What is it - a 4-D arcade tournament. Unlike Buzz lightyear, you cannot control the direction of your car.

Thrill Rating - low, there is some rapid spinning though.

Crowd Rating - maximum. If you want any shot at riding this, you need to get in line and/or fast pass it first thing in the morning. The fast passes will run out before 11am on busy days--sometimes even sooner.

History - This ride is still relatively new and is the reason that “Pixar Place” is currently only representative of Toy Story.

Duration -

Queue:  You’re going to wait for this one, unless you’re the first one there at rope drop in the morning. We have not waited less than 60 minutes, except on the fast pass lane where you will wait 15-30 minutes. The queue area is full of interesting things to look at. It shrinks you down to the size of a toy. In the regular waiting line, there is an sometimes interactive “Potato Head”. He will either run through a pre-recorded show, or else there is someone speaking for him and interacting with guests.

Ride:  5-6 minutes, but it goes quickly as you’re interacting with the game.

Hidden Mickeys:  painted on the wall closest to the stairs that lead to the loading area (he’s in blue). Hidden nemo is also on this wall in paint. http://land.allears.net/blogs/stevebarrett/2008/07/ready_toy_story_midway_mania_h.html

The exclamation point in “Circus Fun”, the poster of potato head, slinky dog, and bullseye right before the entrance to the ride, and a tiny mickey in the eye of the chicken on the “Little Golden Book” in the loading area (genuinely tiny and nearly impossible to find).

romance level: this can be a friendly game or a serious competition. Not the time for holding hands.

Notes: This is the most popular ride in Hollywood Studios. Period. It came out in 2008 and the lines haven’t slowed down even a touch since opening day. We aren’t kidding when we say this should be the first thing you do in this park if you want to do it at all. Not even late at night, during fantasmic, when the park’s getting ready to close, will the lines slow down. Extra magic hours helps slightly, but that will be your entire extra two hours.

Big Thunder Mountain

We've been working hard on the book for a while now, particularly focusing on our MGM Hollywood Studios info. However, every time we ask people to pick their favorite park or favorite ride, they almost always name something from Magic Kingdom. And so, to honor everyone we know, we bring you a breakdown of one of the classics: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Enjoy!

I took this from the ride itself. Not recommended if you aren't good at multi-tasking.

Know Before You Go: Prepare the Smart Way!

Good News! Things are moving here at In-Betweeners...and by things I mean me, Jen.

I just made a move from my home in CT down the east coast to Jeremy's home in NJ which is awesome as it means we'll have lots more time to work on the book.

Before the move, however, I got to sit down with a couple other in-betweeners and talk to them about their last trip to Disney. My friends, Sara and Alex, will be joining us in Disney on our next trip. They'll be serving as Guinea pigs, of a sort, for our travel tips and expertise, so I decided to ask them what their biggest problems were when traveling to Disney. Their answers didn't surprise me, and their problems (and likely yours, as well,) are all easily solved with smart preparation.

Knowing your CAN'T MISS List

Disney Itinerary

This one is probably the most important part of planning the trip, aside from booking it. If you don’t know what you want to see, you could very well end up missing it.

Hollywood Studios' Tower of Terror

Tower of Terror:

Hey, we have been working on some other portions of the book recently which have more to do with trip design than any sort of ride description.  This is one of our more complete overviews of any of the attractions we've done.  If you have thoughts or comments let us know.  We want to hear em.

-Jer

Thrill rating: Full thrill. Not only is this a thrill ride in and of itself, the “ride pattern” changes with each cycle, so you don’t know what to expect. There are “better” patterns.

Crowd rating: At peak times, the line can get up to an hour (or more) long. Average wait time, though, is around 30 minutes, and the queue is interesting enough that the time goes by very quickly.

History/trivia: There is a Disney Channel movie based on the ride.  The story is supposed to reflect an episode of The Twilight Zone, and Rod Serling’s classic introduction was digitally recreated for the ride’s prologue. The tower’s library has tons of props that pay homage to the original series. Also Rod Serling was a beast.  

Tower of Terror is one of the very very few places where the attendants are not allowed to smile.