Battle of the Princesses : Cinderella’s Royal Table Vs Princess Storybook at Akershus Royal Banquet

Which Princess Meal is the best?  Character meals at Disney are intimidating enough, but the Disney Princesses take it to another level.  The two meals offering a variety of princesses are Cinderella’s Royal Table and the Princess Storybook at Akershus Royal Banquet.  Both offer 5 princess encounters, but which should you choose?  I visited both during this trip to Disney on back-to-back days to compare the pros and cons for you.  You will often only get one of these reservations so you want it to be the best for your princess or prince!

Cinderella’s Royal Table

Welcome to Cinderella’s Royal Table

Let’s start with Cinderella’s Royal Table.  It is located in Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic  Kingdom, which adds major atmosphere points.  This is a reservation you must make 6 months in advance if you want anything close to a normal meal time (9 pm dinner anyone??). The dining room is small and always booked. I tried to change our party from 4 to 5 people starting at 3 months out and there was no availability at all.

Dinner and lunch costs two dining credits on the dining plan or minimum $60 per adult if you are paying directly.  You start the meal with a photo with Cinderella, available via Disney Photo Pass.

Get your picture made with Cinderella

After a short wait, you are taken up a spiral staircase to the dining room inside Cinderella’s castle.  Each princess receives a magic wand and each prince gets a sword.  They also get a wishing star to take home with them.

Each child gets a wishing star, a Magic Wand for each princess, and a sword for a prince!

Food

Dinner comes with a charcuterie platter for adults and a choice of appetizers for each child.  Our kids picked the grapes and cheddar cheese cubes.  You also get a drink, entree and dessert selection.  The food was very good, but the desserts stole the show by far.

Princesses

During dinner at this Princess Meal, four additional princesses make their way to each table for autographs and pictures.  There isn’t a PhotoPass photographer, so you will have to snap your own shots.  Each princess is announced and emerges from the front of the restaurant to tour around the tables.  It was fun to hear the princess announcements and guess who was next.  

We were happy to see Jasmin, Ariel, Aurora, and Snow White during this trip.  After all princesses have made it to the floor, a special “wishing Star” moment takes place and lots of magic wands wave and swords are brandished while we send our wishes up.

Princess Storybook at Akershus Royal Banquet

The Princess Storybook meal at Akershus Royal Banquet takes place in Norway at Epcot. Similar to the Royal Table, you begin with a photo with a princess, and this time it is Belle.  A Disney photographer takes the photos and you can download via PhotoPass.  Belle is a favorite in our house, so we dressed for the occasion!

Food

This meal only costs 1 Dining credit or around $35 per adult.  Breakfast comes with a bagel, fruit and other choices on a bar for starters.  The rest of the meal is served family-style and include eggs, bacon, sausage, and other breakfast favorites.  Lunch and Dinner have an appetizer bar with various salads (pasta salad, shrimp salad, etc), vegetables, and meats and cheeses.  You have the choice of entree and dessert.  We picked the braised beef, salmon, and tenderloin.  The kids had meatballs and steak.

Princesses

You are again treated to four additional princesses.  We saw Cinderella, Ariel, Princess Aurora, and Snow White.  Each princess visits your table for autographs and pictures.  There are no freebie gifts at this meal, but the Princesses do a processional in which the children can walk around the restaurant in all their royal glory.  Our daughter LOVED this time, and we have fond memories of our son serving as Cinderella’s prince years ago.

Another cool feature we have seen at Epcot is that Snow White tends to give big kisses for the boys (and our daughter this time).  Walking around Epcot, the other Disney cast members all said hello to “Snow White’s young prince.”

Final Recommendation

If I had to pick between the two, I would go to the Storybook meal.  You see the same number of princesses for almost half the price.  You also get the processional experience, and we found more time with the princesses.  The food was just as good as Cinderella’s Royal Table.

This will probably be our only visit to Cinderella’s Royal Table, but I did enjoy the scenery and location.  I think this meal also has an air of exclusivity, because it is so hard to get a reservation.  It is a small dining room so it feels intimate from that perspective.  It isn’t a bad choice, but I just found the Storybook meal to provide the same experience for less credits which means you could actually have 2 character meals for the same price as one at Cinderella’s Royal Table.