- If you have princess crazy daughters would you go for a 8am pre rope drop or 6pm ADR at Akershus? If we don’t do the 8am at Akershus we will probably try for an 8am at Garden Grill.
- When you’ve been, do the princesses start appearing at 8am, and when had you seen all by?
- If we did a dinner could we stay for 90 mins, or is everything on a 45min cycle and you’re always encouraged to leave?
Many Thanks.
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We would opt for breakfast if we ever ate there again. Breakfast is pretty basic fare. Dinner had a much more Norwegian bend to it and we did not care for our meals. The princess interaction was fantastic.
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Not sure what time they start making their rounds at breakfast, but it was shortly after we were seated at dinner.
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I think you can always stay as long as you like.
ditto @OBNurseNH
We definitely prefer the breakfast. We usually end up being there for 2 rounds of the Princess parade. The service there is good. Not overbearing, they’re attentive if you need/want something but they’ll leave you in peace otherwise.
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Thank you. Was chatting to a friend at lunch today who had taken her kids about 5 years ago, and she told me to avoid the character meals as the food was rubbish. Had to say we currently had 5 on our list, but we aren’t going to WDW for the food. We do eat everything so I’m sure we’ll find something decent, and the kids entertainment is the priority.
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Well I’m not sure what kind of food your friend likes, but I think it is grossly unfair of her to classify all character meals as rubbish. We do several each trip and always enjoy. Our favorites are Tusker House (breakfast), 1900 Park Fare (dinner), Crystal Palace (breakfast) and Chef Mickey (dinner).
I wonder which character meals your friend experienced…
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I personally like the breakfast at Akershus very much. I often think about (and long for) the potato casserole that they serve family-style along with the scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages. The sausages are also above average quality. Then there is the cold board buffet. If you like salmon, you’ll be happy. We love the smoked salmon, herring and bluefish. The pastries are of the garden-variety Disney fare.
On the value for your money side, this is a winner. The protein heavy components will keep you satiated for many hours to come. We usually don’t bother with lunch on the day we have Akershus.
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We’re we separated at birth???
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We were the first ones into the restaurant for 8 am Akershus breakfast about a year ago, princesses started coming around at around 8:30, which was perfect, everyone was settled with food and drinks. Downside was that we were done before 9 and were leaving when the “princess procession” happened where all the kids paraded around the room - my kids ran back to join it (I think it was at exactly 9 am). Food was awesome, especially the potato casserole. Princesses were lovely.
I had a friend (who also went about 5 years ago) say the same thing… very overpriced peanut butter sandwich. I don’t think it’s like that anymore, though.
We did the 8 AM last August. Breakfast took just about an hour, though we could’ve gone faster or slower. We enjoyed our food and found it one of the most relaxing character meals we had, because food was brought to you. (Not sure if this is still the case, as we aren’t trying it this time - going for CRT instead). We did four character meals last trip and will probably knock it down to three this time, just because of how hectic they are and also that we don’t feel the need to do many repeats. I highly recommend that 8 AM time. I’ve never done dinner though.
I have never had a single PBJ at WDW. My kids had a couple at counter service, but never at a table service and not at a character meal either. And we’ve been going for more than 5 years.
Ther ARE five star dining options at WDW. Would I argue that the character meals are some of them? Certainly not. But neither do think them all “rubbish”. It’s important to be fair about reviews. And that statement - as well as the overpriced PBJ note - just are not fair.
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I do appreciate the correction. Quite frankly, because she had said that to me (and I guess that was her experience - maybe more like 7 years ago, for whatever that’s worth), I hadn’t ever bothered looking at the character dinners. But I do see on this forum that a lot of people, not only rave about it, but make sure there are a few in their plans.
I’ve done most of the character meals. Tusker House was my personal favorite because of the food, we had lunch and it was excellent. My family would say Garden Grill though, they loved the family style plates. I don’t recall any ‘bad’ meals, other than TH nothing out of this world but everything was good.
But back to your original question we ate at Akershus our first trip maybe 8 years ago and it was our first character meal so I don’t remember all the details but I remember not having any food complaints and that my girls LOVED it. In fact because of the princess interaction most of my planning went out the window as meeting characters became there #1 thing.
Thank you everyone. You have helped me decide to opt for dinner, that way if the girls want to stay for 90 mins, I won’t be constantly checking my watch and thinking about how long the Test Track queue will be by now. My friends comments didn’t bother me, we are still planning on 5 character meals plus BOG for dinner if we can get it.
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IMHO you pay the price at a CM for the characters, not the food. “Rubbish” is perhaps and overstatement, but generally speaking you can get better food for the same price elsewhere, or get similar quality food cheaper elsewhere. To me, the best combination of food quality, interaction, and price is TH in AK. At least for lunch (I never do large breakfasts).
My research has led me to believe that the buffets at WDW are better than you usually find. The price is to sit down away from the crowds, while your children meet the characters.
Was wondering if A&E might end up in the restaurant.
We have an 8:05 ADR at Akershus for October and will of course show up early and ask for the check early on. I was wondering what were the chances of getting out of there in time to beat the Rope Drop crowd to Frozen Ever After. We have two young girls who will of course want to meet all the princesses but I think I can coax them away from the Princess Parade with the promise of meeting Elsa and Anna after the ride. What do you think? Can we beat the crowd?
If they let people in (aside from those with ADRs) around 8:45 (which has been our experience), people will start queuing immediately.
If you have more than 1 adult in your party, you could send someone, after they’ve had their breakfast, out to get in line. You may all be finished eating by 8:45 anyway. That’s the time I’d shoot for to get in line.
I would say breakfast or even lunch! When you are called in you meet/take photos with a princess (Belle our last two times) and then 4-5 princesses rotate to your table, it’s great!