Be Our Guest: Dining Experience

Location: "NEW" Fantasyland

Service: Table service for dinner, quick serve for breakfast and lunch. Our experience was that service was very attentive and very accommodating. To be fair our results may have been skewed considering we were having a very special meal.

Dining Plan: quick serve for breakfast and lunch.  1 credit for dinner.

Special Experience: This restaurant is tres magical. The story here is that you are invited to the Beast’s enchanted castle, and his magical kitchen is ready to serve you. Beast walks around during the dinner, and you can meet him and thank him for the dinner when you are done eating. There are three very different dining areas: the ballroom, the west wing, and the dining hall.

Cost: Disney claims $15-30 per adult.  We would say it probably ranges closer to $45 pretty easily.

Dress: There is no dress code but it has a fancy feel to it, especially at dinner time. We would recommend upscaling your dress from typical park clothes,but for lunch or breakfast you don’t even need to hit business casual.

Age Group: All ages.  Tables are mostly 4 tops so smaller families and couples.  There is a lot of space between tables though.

Menu Variety: The food is based on French cuisine, to expand the experience of being in the Beast’s castle. The menu is one of the more diverse and interesting menus we found in WDW, which makes choosing difficult but there are still things for the more picky diners. Each of the meals at Be Our Guest (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner) has a separate menu.

Menu Quality: The food was excellent at dinner. We tried a good variety of the menu and everything was amazing. You should definitely try the grey stuff.

Drinks: The only place for alcohol in MK. Everything from beer to champagne.

Uniqueness:  We haven’t eaten in Cinderella’s castle, but we assume it’s somewhat like that experience. There is nothing else like this experience with this diverse menu in the parks. The “story” being told here is very thorough--complete with magical snowfall out the windows in the ballroom and an enchanted rose in the west wing. Take some time to explore the whole castle during your meal.

Reservation: REQUIRED 180 DAYS IN ADVANCE.  NOT A JOKE OR SARCASM OR

SUGGESTION.

Atmosphere: The ballroom feels like you would imagine from the movie, the west wing has an awesome atmosphere as well.  The “dining room” is kind of lacking comparatively and looks like it was meant to host larger parties or quick serve meals.

Notes: NEED A RESERVATION. Definitely recommended, the atmosphere here is unparalleled.

Here's the official Be Our Guest page on the Disney site: BE OUR GUEST

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?