Can't compare to CRT. Having just been to breakfast at Akershus last week, though, I can talk about that, and I'll compare it to another breakfast experience:
The setting is appealingly castle-like inside, or royal, as the name actually states. The princess interaction is quite good. The main princess of our party was a not-quite-3-year-old in a Cinderella dress. The entry photo was with Belle, and 4 additional princesses that I can remember (Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel and Snow White) greeted our table, signed autographs, posed for photos, etc. You don't leave feeling like you didn't get enough attention from the characters, IMO.
Food is not bad. Cold buffet which includes a few Norwegian type items (herring, maybe that's what you always wanted for breakfast
) as well as fruit, yogurt, pastries, etc. Then you get some hot food (bacon, sausage, eggs and a potato/cheese dish) served family style to the table. What I don't see brought up much (or at least missed in my reading) is that the attempt to waste the least food (I can understand this) can be taken to a somewhat ridiculous extreme. We were a party of 6 adults and two non-paying children (young enough to be free). The plate brought out had a lot of bacon and sausage and then enough eggs and potatoes for about 2 adults in a reasonable (not at all oversized) portion. The potato stuff is good and you want more of it, but the service is slow and indifferent, and it's hot in there, so instead you just want to get out. Or I did, anyway. (I don't know why it was extra hot in there, but it was.)
Inefficient service started from the Epcot front gate, where apparently no one was let in until 8:00 (we arrived about 7:45). We had 8:05 reservation; I assume the reservations start at 8:00. Was more like 8:30 before we got in. So they are well behind even first thing in the morning! It was such a contrast to the earlier breakfast we had at Tusker House (AK). Maybe it's because the park was opening at 8:00 there for Extra Magic (standard 9:00 opening for Epcot), but they let us through well in advance, we got a front row view of the opening show and rope drop, and the service getting into and more importantly while inside Tusker House was far better. Of course, Tusker House is Donald's Safari Breakfast, not exactly the same, but taking out the character aspect, and the theming (both have good theming and good character interaction, just different types), the service was better at Tusker. The food might be marginally better at Akershus (maybe a lot better if you really want smoked salmon).
Akershus is the place to go for princesses, though. I'd like to think I saw an off day for service. Maybe the food at lunch/dinner makes it more worth it. At least then you get a dedicated entree plate for yourself. But you're still reliant on the service. Maybe just one mediocre waiter, dunno. Theming and characters are good. 2 out of 3 ain't bad? Or is that 2.5 out of 4 (food and service separately)?
