On our most recent trip to Disneyland Paris, we indulged ourselves into something new – the Royal Banquet, served inside the Disneyland Hotel right at the entrance to the park. This buffet style Character Meet lunch or dinner option gets you as much food as you like and plenty of one-on-one time with iconic characters from the Fab 5. The question is, at €100 per adult and €50 per child… is it worth it?
Getting to the Banquet and starting out
You enter the Disneyland Hotel at the entrace to the park and are greeted by the new lobby after a very long refurbishment, a clean and luxurious decor and theme that showcases that this is THE fanciest hotel on site at Disney. Very reminiscent of the Grand Floridian in Walt Disney World.
You have to do a small bit of searching form the grand lobby to find the restaurant – there are no signs around (at least that I saw) to direct you, but if you’ve any sense of direction, you’ll find your way towards the ‘centre’ of the hotel (its PASSED the gift shop… which also had a number of unique treats).
In the central rotunda, you’ll find the entrance to the restaurant. Reservations are a MUST. For some reason… because it was not even nearly full for our lunch time visit on Bastille Day. And we weren’t exactly given the best view or experience you can do, placed in one of the side rooms.
The Royal Banquet Food
Once seated, you are free to get what you want, when you want. Its buffet style after all. This includes a multitude of starts, main courses, an extremely impressive spread of seafood (totally lost on me) and a plethora of desserts, all in the main area. There is ALSO a cheese area, though this is off to the side and often missed (and often missed by staff, it seems, for restocking). You also get ONE non alcoholic drink with dinner. Subsequent drniks are priced at an absolutely ridiculous €9.00 per bottle. In the park its €4 which is already absurd. Anyway, moving on.
Starters and mains were excellent, though I found a bit limited, because as you can see, there is a huge focus on seafood. However, there is plenty of high quality entrees to still satify your hunger.
Where it REALLY shined to me were the desserts – these are some extremely unique and ultra tasty goodies for your post-main indulgence. The Tiana dessert was my personal favourite.
The Royal Banquet Characters
The big selling point, of course, is the chance to meet the characters without having to do insane queues. My son (6) had a great time, while my daughter (3) was a bit more wary, though warmed towards the end. At our lunch, we had the chance to meet Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck. At dinner time, you swap out Donald and Daisy for Goofy and Pluto. Each of them are in their own unique and exclusive Royal costumes, making this a very unique character meet.
Each interaction is unique as well. Comparing to the likes of Chef Mickey or Topolinos Terrace in Walt Disney World, it is pretty much the same – nothing massively different (no talking) in terms of the interaction, because every one is unique and specific to your family. I will say though, that they are a little more rushed than what I experienced before, which was surprising seen as though the restaurant was not nearly full.
Our favourite? As usual, Donald. Donald always has more freedom and expression than any others.
Some Royal Banquet issues…
If I were to be critical – and I will be – I will say that the start and main course food quality was excellent, but the variety was limited. I don’t eat seafood, which made a lot of the meny inaccessible to me. I know I am not alone with my tastebuds, so its surprising just how all-in they went with the seafood spread. Its impressive and wonderful if you like it, but it was lost on me.
Another issue, though one Disney could not (really) control, and unfortunately something I experience quite regularly at Disneyland Paris – Spanish tourists thinking they own the place and doing whatever they want. My children were literally interacting with Mickey Mouse at the table, when a woman approached Mickey from behind and tapped him on the shoulder, shouting ‘you missed my table’. This was highly inappropriate. There were no handlers or waiters helped with the situation, nowhere to be seen. Thankfully Mickey ignored her and continued his interaction with my kids, and my wife (being the closest) let rip on this astoundingly rude woman. Unfortunately, I find it regularly that Spanish tourists lose the run of themselves at DLP. This was yet another example of it happening again. Why she thought this was appropriate to interrupt, I shall never know.
Is the Royal Banquet worth it?
I’ll be very blunt – the answer is NO. It is not worth it. This is, unfortunately, a cash grab by Disney, trying to capitalise on the newness of the experience and the newness of the hotel, and while the food and interactions are good, they are NOT worth the €300.00 bill we were left with for a family of four. We did not purchase anything additional wine or drinks, because I felt like I already had given plenty towards this experience. The one drink is a cheap rip off, and shame on Disney for this, it really shows what their priorities are – syphon every penny possible. Instead, I would book Plaza Gardens and enjoy a charater meal there, in the actual park, at a much more acceptable (but still over the top) price.
Why is it not worth it? Well, the food, while excellent, doesn’t have enough variety. The venue, while beautiful, is just a venue, and its a bit pot luck which room and view you get. The characters, yes you see 4 main characters, did make lots of interaction, but not as much as we experienced in Topolinos Terrace. I get it, you have timings and a route to make, but it still felt a bit rushed. Not terribly, but just a bit, and for that cost, I expected more. Its by far the most expensive character dining meal our family have ever done.
And you could see this in the restaurant – as I eluded to, it was nowhere near sold out or at capacity, maybe 50%, which I believe is cause Disney have set the price much, much too high, and this was on possibly the busiest day of the enture year for DLP, Bastille Day. The price of food in Disneyland Paris is already biblically a rip off (€10 for a half a Croque Monsieur as of last visit…) but this was next level. People appear to have voted with their feet. Which is probably why Disney have allowed for non-hotel guests to book it, because they couldn’t get enough guests to fork over even more money. Similar to the low capacity issues the hotel has experienced since reopening, the restaurant looks to be suffering the same. Disney is simply pricing people out.
Would I do Royal Banquet again?
No. Definitely not. For comparison again, I’d do Topolinos Terrace again, and perhaps Chef Mickeys, but I know that I will never go for this experience again. It was far too expensive, and service is non existent due to the buffet nature. I get you are paying for the character meets, but I certainly did not think it was worth it. As said above, I’ll book Plaza Garden next time.
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