By Brandon Hill on May 5, 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

2023: Disney Trip – Akershus Royal Banquet Hall and Princess Aurora

For our dinner, we visited Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in the Norway Pavilion of EPCOT’s World Showcase—an enchanting character dining experience that combines Norwegian cuisine with fairytale magic.

Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, set inside a medieval-style stone castle, offers guests a regal meal surrounded by beloved Disney Princesses. This charming experience begins with a buffet of Norwegian-inspired appetizers such as cured meats, cheeses, and fresh salads, followed by plated entrées like grilled salmon, braised beef, and traditional meatballs. It’s a wonderful way to enjoy rich cultural flavors while skipping the long lines to meet characters—each princess visits your table, ready to pose for photos and sign autograph books. Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing individual scrapbook spreads dedicated to each princess we met during this magical meal.

The left-hand page of this layout focuses on the banquet hall itself. And this is where I have to own up to a mistake that I am going to chose not to fix since the page is already created. I thought that the Banquet Hall was in the Germany pavilion, when it is actually in the Norway pavilion – oops.

The “Germany” title block and background paper came from Scrapyourtrip.com (a bit of a mix-up thematically, but the colors worked well!), while I created the custom “Akershus Royal Banquet Hall” title using an SVG file I purchased on Etsy and cut with my Cricut machine. It was a detailed project, but I love how it turned out. Also featured on this page are a photo of the wooden rafters inside the hall and our invitation card, which includes signatures of the princesses who typically appear. You’ll also notice two collectible stickers in the corners—fun little tokens often given to children throughout the World Showcase.

The right-hand page is dedicated to Princess Aurora, also known as Sleeping Beauty, who is one of Disney’s most iconic and graceful heroines. First appearing in the 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty, Aurora is known for her elegance, kindness, and the timeless tale of being cursed into an enchanted sleep by the wicked fairy Maleficent. Raised in the forest by three good fairies under the name Briar Rose, her story is one of hidden royalty, true love, and triumph over darkness. With her golden hair, flowing gown, and serene presence, Aurora continues to inspire generations as a classic Disney Princess.

The background paper for this page is from a 1990s Disney Princess paper pack, which you’ll see used in several upcoming spreads. Aurora’s autograph is actually a photocopy from our autograph book—matted on purple cardstock to match the page’s color palette—since I didn’t want to remove the original. The two photos flanking the autograph were carefully cropped to remove someone we chose not to feature in this album. The final touches include stickers from a vintage Disney sticker pack I’ve had for years.

If you’d like to see how this spread came together, click the video link below!