My daughter (7 years old) and I did at PPO ADR at Akershus last Wednesday (4/11/18) and I am happy to share our experience if it might help others in planning. Our reservation was for 8:00 AM on a 9AM park open day during a moderate to low crowd week at WDW. Our goal was to have a hearty breakfast, meet several princesses, and then ride FEA as soon as it opened before continuing on to various other rides in the park.
We parked at Epcot and arrived at the security/bag check area around 7:20. We were among the first people there, though more folks starting arriving soon after us. There was a few minutes delay opening at security, but they started letting us though around 7:40. There was a designated area at the entrance, with two sets of taps, for guests with PPO ADRs and early morning tours. At those taps a CM checked with each party to make sure they were on the list for either early dining reservations or tours. They were not distinguishing among reservation times; as long as your ADR or tour was before 9 AM, you were cleared to continue through the taps in the order you were in line.
My daughter and I were at the front of the line at our set of taps, so we scanned our MBs as soon as they opened at around 7:50 and were off for Norway. It was very cool to walk though a completely empty park. There were a handful of CMs whom we passed along the way, mostly gardeners tending bushes and flowers, but otherwise we saw no one except for the family behind us who were also heading to Akershus. We walked quickly and were the first to arrive at Akershus, right around 8 AM. We checked in, were immediately invited inside. Belle then made her entrance, and came over to lead my daughter to have their photo taken. After the photo, we were taken to our table and put in our drink orders before proceeding to the buffet. When we returned from the buffet, the platter of hot food was waiting for us, along with our drinks. I told our waiter that I wanted to take care of the check early so we would not be delayed later, and he was very accommodating.
The breakfast was very good, and we enjoyed the many cold offerings available at the buffet as well as the bacon, eggs, sausage, etc. that was brought to the table. We were offered a second platter of hot food (which we declined because we were full) and our drinks were refilled several times as we ate. The service was very good, both friendly and attentive. Our waiter also informed me that the other princesses would begin coming out at 8:30, and that they would be coming to our area first since it was where the first families to arrive were seated.
Sure enough, right at 8:30 the princesses emerged. Within just a few minutes Aurora, Ariel, Snow White, and Cinderella all stopped by our table to greet my daughter and pose for pictures. There was also a princess procession where the princesses all paraded around the banquet hall with the children. By 8:45 we had eaten our fill and met each of the princesses, so we made our exit.
FEA was not open yet, and there was only one other family waiting at the rope for the standby line when we came out of Akershus. We got in line behind them and chatted for a few minutes as other guests coming out of breakfast lined up behind us. Around 8:55 some Norway CMs came out and opened up the standby line, and one walked us though the door and through the full standby queue to the ride. We boarded the first boat of the day and pulled away to visit Anna, Elsa, Olaf, and friends. We were off FEA and exiting out the gift shop by 9:03 AM.
We then headed directly to Soarin', where we went standby and waited less than 10 minutes. Next we went across to Mission Space, where we waited less than 5 minutes to ride via standby. It was then getting close to 10 AM, and we had a TT FP+ expiring at 10:15 (or 10:30 with the grace period), so we went to TT next. We were slightly delayed at TT due a reset, but were glad that it was not a true breakdown, and within a few minutes my daughter was designing her car. After TT we rode Mission Space again with little wait before proceeding to other rides where lines would be small and/or we had FPs. We did every ride in the park before having lunch at Nine Dragons in China, except for Gran Fiesta Tour and Living With the Land (5th FP) which we saved for relaxing after lunch cruises before we made our way out of the park.
Our PPO ADR at Akershus was a great experience and allowed us to achieve all of our goals. Hearty breakfast, meeting and photos with 5 princesses, a no-wait ride on FEA as soon as it opened, and very short lines at other headline rides after that. It was also awesome to walk all the way through from the front entrance to World Showcase in an almost empty park. My daughter loved every part of the experience and we would definitely recommend it to others, especially if you want to be among the first to ride FEA and have a very productive morning of touring at Epcot.
and we got everything we hoped for, even FOP! My question is, we have an 8 am Akershus, and we chose NOT to book a FEA fastpass with the hopes of getting over to it directly after Akershus. Now I'm second guessing that decision. Has anyone had a similar experience with the same times? There are no EMH scheduled for that morning, so we are safe there! Thanks for any insight!!
