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?

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.