Trip Report, Episode XVIII: Day 0 - A Magically Frozen Evening
A long time ago (12 days), in a galaxy far, far away (1,221 miles)...
It is a period of civil war.
(Wait, that's not right)
My first day at the parks on this trip didn't involve wars of any kind, unless you count Florida's brief war with the weather (spoiler: Florida lost and it got surprisingly cold), nor did it even involve Star Tours (that would have to wait for another day).
For those of you who've been following along on this trip report since the beginning, you'll know my original plan for this trip was to drive most of the day on the 27th, then finish the drive on the 28th and head straight to the parks. I ended up moving up my timeline by a day and I'm thankful I did, because it made for a much more relaxed first day, making this feel much more like an actual vacation and less like a chore of trying to do as much as possible.
After spending the night at Orange Lake, I woke up and had breakfast with my parents, then headed back to the condo to watch "Enchanted", which I hadn't been able to watch while driving all day on the 27th. After that I took a much-needed nap to refresh and get ready for an afternoon/evening at the parks.
Had I not taken the nap, I probably would've started my day at Animal Kingdom, in an attempt to see Flights of Wonder one last time before it closed, but, quite frankly, the two hours of extra sleep I got were much more important. The drive from Orange Lake to TTC was quick and traffic-free, and after a short tram ride from the parking lot to the entrance, I decided to take the ferryboat over to Magic Kingdom. It's probably my favorite way of getting there and I try to take it at least once per trip.
My afternoon started with a visit to see Mickey in Town Square Theater. To my disappointment, Mickey wasn't talking on this day -- I know that's always a possibility with "Talking" Mickey, but it's still a bummer to use a FastPass on this particular meet & greet, then find out it's a day where Mickey isn't talking for technical reasons -- but it was still nice to start my trip with a photo with Mickey Mouse. Because, as Walt said, "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing: that it was all started by a mouse."
When I made my FP plans for MK on the 28th, I'd stacked them back-to-back-to-back, knowing I wasn't going to try to do much at MK before heading over to Epcot. I finished the Mickey meet & greet right around the time that FP window ended, and rather than head immediate to my next FP (BTMRR), I decided to take my time, then do Thunder Mountain at the end of its FP window, followed by Splash Mountain immediately after.
With some time to kill before riding Splash Mountain, I ended up staking out a good position in front of Cinderella's Castle to watch the Frozen lighting ceremony. At least, I thought it was a good spot -- leaning up against a garbage can just to the east of the Partners Statue -- until a parent came along and decided to have his two kids stand on top of the garbage can. That's right, not sit on it, but stand, directly in front of me. I decided not to say anything at first, because I figured a castmember would quickly come along and tell them to get down, since there's no way it could possibly be safe to stand on one of those for any extended period of time, but that never happened. So I made the best of the situation and leaned slightly to my left, still having a really good view. Honestly, I find that particular show kind of cheesy (and not in an enjoyable, tongue-in-cheek way like the Frozen Sing-Along at DHS), but seeing the castle get lit up holiday-style is always amazing and inspiring.
After that was done, I slowly made my way to Frontierland, making sure to stop along the way to take more pictures of the castle. Both mountains had really long standby waits at this point, so I was happy to get on them with a FastPass -- which made BTMRR about a 10 minute wait and Splash basically a walk-on.
After Splash, I rode the railroad back to the entrance, then took the monorail back to TTC so I could head over to Epcot. I considered just transferring monorails and going to Epcot that way, but because I had some time before my dessert party reservation, I decided to go back to my car and get the pictures of Elsa and Anna that I wanted to get signed, so I could do that before the party, and not have to carry them around at any other point during the trip (the annoyance of carrying the 11x17 portraits is why I hadn't brought them with me into MK in the first place).
When I arrived at Epcot -- with a parking spot so close that it would've been silly to wait for a tram -- the app showed a wait time for the Elsa & Anna meet & greet of 30 minutes, which was perfect since I had 40 minutes until my dessert party started. However, in the 10 minutes it took to walk from the entrance to Norway, the wait time doubled to 60 minutes. I quickly made two assumptions: first, the wait time doubling was a function of them reducing the number of open meet & greet rooms, rather than a sudden surge in people in line, and second, that it wouldn't actually take 60 minutes. I have no way of knowing if the first one was right (though the line didn't seem that long, so I'm guessing it was), but I was definitely right on the second one. I got in line shortly after 9:00 and was in the room to meet Elsa by 9:45.
I always love doing the character meets when I have these portraits to get signed (the artist, by the way, is comic artist Joe Eisma of "Morning Glories" fame, who has done a whole set for me via Patreon over the past couple years). This meet ended up extra special when Anna tried to mimic the exact pose of the portrait.
Once the meet & greet was done, I headed back over to the entrance to World Showcase to check in for the
Frozen Ever After Sparkling Dessert Party.
The party technically starts an hour before Illuminations and you can check in up to 15 minutes before the start time, but quite frankly I found that the 35 minutes or so I had from check-in to the start of the show was more than enough. It helps that unlike a lot of the other dessert parties at WDW, you're not relocated for the show, so you can have drinks and desserts at your table to eat while still enjoying Illuminations, which essentially extends the time of the party by 20 minutes or so. Being a solo diner, I ended up sharing a table with two other parties of two, which wasn't a problem for me, but might be something to keep in mind if you're booking this for yourself.
DRINKS:
There was a solid selection of adult beverages at the
four beers (Bud Light, Corona, Yuengling, Angry Orchard), five wines, and three signature cocktails. I, of course, tried all three, and I'd rate two of them as "very good" and one as "okay". The Summertime Celebration Margarita (tequila, strawberry monin, lemonade, lime juice) was the first drink I had, and it was a great start to the night -- and it certainly helped that the tequila is poured in separately from everything else, which meant I got a generous pour from the bartender. The Sangria (Veuve Vernay champagne, blue curacao, pineapple juice, triple sec) was also very good, and topped with a small helping of chocolate chips to make it look like a "melted snowman". The Pina Colada (pina colada mix, Malibu pineapple rum, garnish boba pearls) had that same "snowman" treatment, but quite frankly didn't taste quite as good. I guess I don't like pina coladas or getting caught in the rain (but that's a tale for later in the week).
There were also of course non-alcoholic drinks (the "Frozen Heart" was a nice juice mix), plus water and cans of soda -- which I was more than happy to stock up on when the party was over.
DESSERTS:
If you've done any dessert party at WDW, you'll be familiar with many of the dessert offerings at the Frozen Ever After
cookies, mini-cupcakes, "crisped rice" treats, fruit mix, etc. Elsa's "blue velvet" cupcake looked incredible, and actually tasted pretty good too.
There were two items that really stood out to me as highlights of the selection: the warm pudding options and the freeze-fried popcorn. The latter was normal caramel popcorn, which was flash frozen in dry ice on demand. The final product still tasted really good, with the added bonus that when you put a kernel in your mouth and bit down, it created a "dragon breath" effect, which, I have to admit, was way more fun than I would have expected. As for the warm puddings -- which were really nice to have on a relatively cold night -- there were two options: Olaf's Warm Double Chocolate S'mores and Anna's Warm Cottage Pudding with Salted Caramel Glaze. Both were great, but I really enjoyed the Olaf one, especially with the vanilla bean ice cream to balance out the temperature.
Between the drink selection and food selection, I really feel like I got my money's worth at this party, even if I only got to my table 30 minutes before the show began.
ILLUMINATIONS:
This has never been one of my top nighttime shows at WDW, but seeing it from this viewing area gave me a whole new perspective (literally). The seating area for the party is right along World Showcase Lagoon, stretching from Showcase Plaza down just past Disney Traders (they close a couple of the entrances/exits to the store so people can't "sneak into" the dessert party area). I was about as close to front and center as I could be, which made the show all the more impressive. I honestly don't think you can have a better view of the show than the one this party provides, especially for someone like me who values being able to sit down during these shows. Being able to see the detail on the globe was very cool, and the fireworks were the perfect stage-setter for the rest of this New Year's Eve-centric trip. Plus they gave us these special glasses that added cool 3D effects to the fireworks, which was a nice bonus.
FROZEN EVER AFTER:
Oh yeah, this dessert party includes a post-show ride too. Honestly, Frozen Ever After isn't one of my favorite rides at Epcot, and among the Tier 1 rides, I'd probably rank it third (with Soarin' first and Test Track second), but it's a nice cap to the night to be escorted over and essentially walk right on (depending on how quickly you make your way over from your table, you might have a short wait at the ride, but I was basically in the first group that left the party area). In my case I was splitting the day between MK and Epcot, so I didn't make a Tier 1 Epcot FP selection that day, but if I was doing a full Epcot day with this party, I'd certainly appreciate being able to do two of the three Tier 1 rides with no wait. And Frozen Ever After is kind of an adorable way to end the night.
OVERALL:
$79 seems a bit pricey for a dessert party that doesn't include a character meet or special gift, but I don't feel like I "overpaid" at all for the experience. The way I see it, by purchasing the dessert party, you're essentially getting two additional FP selections (Illuminations, Frozen Ever After) at the end of your day, without blocking out the ability to grab same-day FPs if you're in the park all day. I had 3 cocktails, which at World Showcase costs is about $30-$35 right there, and while I'm not gonna say I ate $40 worth of food, I certainly felt like I got my money's worth in that department too. Truth be told, this was probably my favorite overall dessert party experience, and I'd definitely recommend it for others (while fully recognizing that for a family of four, the cost gets up there pretty quickly).
After the party, it was back to Orange Lake to get a good night of sleep before my trip was truly to begin.
Next Up: Day 1 - BEST. ROOM. EVER.