Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
Alyssa Marshall
The Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
The Akershus Royal Banquet Hall is every little princess' dream. This castle has high ceilings, stone archways, sumptuous purple carpets, and regal banners flying. They model it to look exactly like the real Akershus Castle in Oslo, Norway. Except in this castle everyone will be able to dine and take pictures with Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Princess Aurora, Ariel, and Mary Poppins. With there all you can eat buffet you can get traditional American food or they also offer food with Scandinavian food that will bring you to Norway without leaving Florida. The dining hall also provides fun memories that you will never forget.
What They Offer
Adults will start with an American Breakfast that includes your choice of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potato casserole, cinnamon rolls, and fresh fruit. Then, for lunch you are transported to Norway. They have the finest Scandinavian seafood, imported cheese, cured and sliced meat, and salad or fruit. For dinner, they have pan-seared salmon, oven-roasted chicken breast, and a Norwegian meatball dish called kĂžjttkake. For the children they have pizza, pasta with grilled chicken, salmon and roasted potatoes, and vegetables and fruit salad. When everyone is done eating you will be handed The Royal Chef's Dessert Plate which is a 3 delectable desserts family-style. While the food is amazing the little princesses can participate in the Princess Processional which is a little parade lead by the princesses. This is where kids can walk around the dining hall singing and having fun with their favorite princesses and for parents it is fun thing to wtch and take fun pictures of your kids that will make lasting memories.
Why The Princesses Are Important
To start everyone will get greeted by Belle at the front where you can take pictures, get autographs, and will even have a fun conversation with the kids to get them excited about the dining experience. While you are dining Princess Aurora, Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella, and Mary Poppins may make an appearance, but she is not always there. When the kids get to meet their favorite characters their faces light up with excitement. Meeting your favorite character it makes them feel like anything can happen. People say when the kids go around in the princess Processional they are so excited that they can't sit still because they are so full of excitement. The princesses let the little kids live out there dream and have fun doing it.
The Layout and Design
The entire castle was close to the same as the real castle in Oslo, Norway. You walk in and are immediatley welcomed by the 14th century feel with the whitewashed stone and cheerful feel that makes you want to stay. There are carved wood thrones and benches. As you keep walking you will enter enter the main dining room which adds to the castle vibe. There are vaulted wooden ceilings with huge wooden beams across it with chandeliers hanging from the middle of the ceilings. They even have banners with Norway symbols hanging above everybody. Pass the dining room they have another dining room that is a bit quieter and has the same design except that there are not any banners hanging above you. Then you will enter the the circular dinning room which is a huge circle, so it is easier for the princess to make their rounds and the kids have more space for the Princess Processional.
How THe Disney Effect, Affected Me
When i was little, I went to Disney world and it was so much fun. Everyone was so nice and i had many conversation. All the cast members were really nice and when they were talking to it made me feel happy because it makes you feel like they actually want you here not just working. It was like they actually cared about you and what you are doing. The cast members were also very helpful with directions. Also they want you to have the time of your life. We went for a week and you only need to see the parade once, so the next day we went on the log ride right before the parade was about to start and there was my family and another family behind us. The guy working the ride let us go then the other family instead of putting us in one because there was only six between the two families and then he kept asking if we wanted to go again. He wanted to make sure that we were having fun, so went on the ride like 8 times. HE also said that to get to any of the fun ones you have to walk through the crowd of people during the parade and showed us the fastest way to get there so that we can do more while everyone is mesmerized by the parade. Also having the Disney character come to life was so cool and they made the trip a thousand times better. One that i remember vividly was we were in line to get pictures with Cruella Deville and there was just a huge circle around he and it was chaos. IN Disney you are supposed to add your unique personality, so she said in her voice "its a line darling, there everywhere" It was so funny that my parents and I still randomly say it to each other. Meeting Lilo and Stitch made me so happy because ever since it came I always wanted to meet them because there are my favorite characters of all time. Seeing all the movies pop out of the screen made an awesome experience that made Disney so much better. The characters were so real and very accurate. It felt like it was unreal.