On my most recent trip to the World, I dined solo at Akershus Royal Banquet hall. I checked in early and was hoping to get seated before my dining time because I had plans to meet friends after dinner. Unfortunately, I was herded into a corral full of people waiting to be seated. The waiting area for Akershus is in full sun with no where to sit down. I really wish they would go to a beeper system so that we could wander the Norway Pavilion while waiting for our names to be called. It might improve the sales at the nearby shops. (It would also help if the nearby shops were a little more affordable.)

Family name after family name was called, until it was exactly time for my Advance Dining Reservation. Then I waited five more minutes for my last name to be called. The mood in the waiting corral was not so pleasant. There were lots of unhappy princesses. The youngsters didn’t understand what or why they were waiting out in the sun in a very small space.

Me and Belle!

I entered the restaurant after my name was called and was handed a small slip with my name on it. I held onto the small slip as I was ushered into another, thankfully smaller, line. There were three families ahead of me waiting to get photos with the hostess of the meal: Belle. I’m not exactly sure why Belle is the hostess of the meal in Norway. She’s French! There isn’t a Norwegian Disney Princess, so the logic of this meal defies all explanation! I’m going to guess that the Norwegian restaurant wasn’t getting enough traffic, so Disney decided to turn it into a character meal with Princesses. The demand is certainly high enough! I eventually got to meet Belle. She asked me where my Beast was, and I had to tell her that I had left him at home. I only waited for the photo because the Photopass Photo from this meal is included in the cost of your meal. This is the photo taken with my camera. The ones from the Photopass Photag are actually a little better.

I was seated almost immediately after my photo session with Belle. I noticed as I walked through the room that there were no tables for two in the entire restaurant. This explained my long wait outside. I had figured that if I checked in early I would be seated early. I couldn’t see much demand for solo diners or even parties of two at Akershus. Apparently I was correct. They don’t even have tables for parties of one or two.    There are tons of tables for four and lots of tables for parties of five or six. I wonder if it wouldn’t make sense for this restaurant to have some tables for two that could easily be pushed together to accommodate a party of four, but pull apart for solo or twosome diners.

Salad Bar choices

I immediately headed to the salad bar after being greeted by my server, who was wonderful throughout the meal. I was a little disappointed by the choices offered on the salad bar. Almost all of the offerings were mayo based salads like chicken, shrimp, potato and pasta. There was a lovely beet and apple salad that was fantastic. Grilled asparagus was another tasty offering. The cold cuts on the bar were just basic cold cut ham and salami. There were three types of cheese as well: swiss, munster, and a Norwegian offering that despite being authentic was almost inedible. The peel and eat shrimp on the bar were so small that they were not worth the effort to actually peel and eat them. I did really enjoy the rolls that were available: crunchy on the outside and nice and soft in the middle. I also really liked the white zin vinaigrette salad dressing that was available for the regular mixed green salad.

Almost immediately after I returned to my table from the “salad” bar the first princess arrived at my table. Snow While was more than nice to me and we had a short conversation, but she was eager to move on to the table next to mine that had several younger princesses at it. The same was true for Aurora. I have to say that the quality of face characters at this meal wasn’t quite up to par. I sort of felt like the “second team” had showed up for my dinner that night. Snow, Aurora, and Cindy didn’t really look like they were supposed to.

Fungus

My entreé arrived in between visits from Snow and Aurora and I was less than pleased. What could have been a wonderful dish was swimming in truffle oil. I really like mushrooms and so I ordered the veggie offering of mushroom stuffed ravioli with parmesan cream. This dish was so rich that I only finished a couple of bites of it before having it taken away. Thankfully my glass of wine cut the richness a little bit and I was able to consume enough to count as an actual meal. It looks really good doesn’t it? Right up until you notice that it’s swimming in oil and it isn’t just regular olive oil, but truffle oil, which is very over powering!

I had planned this meal for two reasons! First reason was that I had never met Princess Ariel! The second was that I’m trying to dine at every single restaurant on property. I’m very close. There is only one restaurant I haven’t been to yet. You can leave your guesses in the comment section.

Well all of the downsides to this meal were saved by a Cast Member and a Princess. I struck up an conversation with the Cast Member who was in charge of making sure that every Princess got to every table. I was a little weepy during the meal because I was thinking about Cam, Luke and Stefanie and how they were doing. I told their story to the CM in charge of Princesses and she shared with me that she was in fact a Breast Cancer Survivor and Disney was her life line. The CM spent a long time talking to me, as she must have known I was feeling a bit down. When Ariel arrived at my table, the CM in charge of Princesses made me tell the story I had told her and I got a huge hug from Ariel and lots of pixies for the Matthews Family.

My dessert and Ariel arrived at the same time and at that moment my whole meal turned around. Ariel spent a lot of time with me, posing for pictures and taking a video for me. Plus dessert. Dessert at Akershus is wonderful. They bring out a trio of selections that includes a chocolate cake, rice pudding and a puff pastry with mascarpone cheese and strawberries. The chocolate cake and the puff pastry are great, but I’m a sucker for rice pudding and this was the real deal. It was amazingly creamy and firm at the same time and I wish I could eat it every day!

I have to say, that while my meal at Akershus was not great, the Cast Members, both my server and the CM in charge of Princesses, made my meal worth every penny. I would not hesitate to book another meal at Akershus, although I think I will try breakfast next!