We’ll check out yet another Happily Ever After Dessert Party option at Magic Kingdom.
Just last month, I reviewed “Ferrytale Fireworks: A Sparkling Dessert Party” in this post. I came away feeling less than enthusiastic about the offering, which puts you on a boat quite a ways back from the action, given the $99/person price tag.
Last July, I reviewed the original offering, which Disney now refers to as “Dessert – First Party – Standing.” That doesn’t seem to have much of a ring to it. Basically, you now have the option of enjoying the buffet of treats before or after the fireworks. I’ll compare and contrast both opportunities as there are some pros and cons to either choice.
Here’s how Disney describes the After Party:
The cost is the same to attend the Dessert Party before or after the fireworks – $69 per adult and $41 per child ages three to nine, which includes tax.
When I initially reviewed the Plaza Garden Viewing Dessert Party about eleven months ago, it was $10 less for adults and $6 less for children, so we have seen a ~17% price increase year over year.
Initial check-in for the Before and After Dessert Parties with Plaza Garden Viewing, in addition to the seated terrace viewing, is in the same location at the entrance to Tomorrowland Terrace. You can read up on the Terrace option here – note that it costs $15/adult and $9 more per child and includes the same food and drink options as the Before Fireworks Party.
According to the literature, guests have the opportunity to “first, join us at Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant starting 90 minutes prior to Happily Ever After—the most spectacular fireworks showcase in Magic Kingdom history. As showtime nears, Cast Members will escort you to a prime location in the Plaza Garden for priority fireworks viewing.”
90 minutes is a bit excessive and the stated reservation time is actually 60 minutes before the fireworks show begins. In this case, that’s 8:15pm with Happily Ever After slated to start at 9:15pm.
On this particular evening, the blue wristbands were for those with After Fireworks reservations while those hitting the buffet before the fireworks were given green.
Larger: Here.
That brings us to our first issue. The viewing location for both the Before and After Dessert Parties is the same. Above is the scene at 8:17pm, which is just two minutes after we were supposed to arrive for the After Dessert Party and 32 minutes into the Before Dessert Party, which begins at 7:45pm with the 9:15pm start time for Happily Ever After.
If you’re doing the Before Dessert Party, you’re at a distinct disadvantage as those with After Dessert Party reservations are going to arrive and find their spots earlier than you probably want to leave the dessert buffet. To see how things progressed, we arrived right at 8:15pm and proceeded near the front of the reserved viewing area. But even an hour before the fireworks begin, there’s already a row of people in front of us. If you’re willing to wait an hour for the fireworks to start, then you can find a spot on Main Street without difficulty and we could have actually found very similar spots just ahead of us in the “open viewing” section at no additional cost. There was also a gentleman on an ECV that sat there for an hour next to me that could have found a similar or better spot in the disabled viewing section just a few feet ahead of where he ended up being.
If you’re doing the Before Dessert Party, then the After Dessert Party makes you worse off just about any way you look at it. There’s going to be more people in the reserved section and there’s going to be more pressure to find spots earlier into the evening before the area fills. That seems to defeat a lot of the purpose of paying so much extra for a reserved view. On the other hand, Main Street viewing is a lot wilder with a lot more people vying for the space. This is the view outside of the reserved area at 8:25pm, or 50 minutes before Happily Ever After. There’s room, of course, but it can be pretty uncomfortable trying to hold spots for that long and it can be incredibly frustrating when you do so only to have someone come up at the last minute and block the view. That’s far less likely to happen in the reserved area.
8:33pm or about 45 minutes before fireworks time.
8:47pm – at this point, it’s definitely filling in, but there’s also plenty of space and nobody is on top of each other, which is what you’d likely be starting to experience on Main Street.
9pm or 15 minutes before start time. It’s certainly not empty, but there’s plenty of room.
If you’d like, you’ll also have the opportunity to sit up until the start of the show, which isn’t something that’s typically realistic on Main Street. Note that just about everyone is going to stand for the fireworks once they begin. Above is 9:11pm and is a good representation of what the reserved viewing area is going to “feel” like once Happily Ever After begins.
The good news is that the Plaza viewing area is quite good.
We’re close enough to see the projections on Cinderella Castle, which is a big part of the show, and also far enough away that we can take in a panoramic view of all the fireworks overhead.
My view this time around was virtually identical to what I experienced during my last Dessert Party back in July of last year.
But that’s also at the cost of my time.
I literally stood here for just under an hour.
I certainly didn’t have to do that.
But the later you arrive, the more people that are going to be in front of you.
Plaza Viewing does afford one of the better views of Tinker Bell flying overhead.
There are a couple of potential downsides to the After Dessert Party.
First, it’s awfully late at night to be downing a bunch of miniature cupcakes. With Happily Ever After scheduled at 9:15pm, the After Party runs from about 9:35pm through 10:45pm. That may be too late with kids and may be a recipe for some serious heartburn for the rest of us.
Here’s a look at wait times from the day of this Dessert Party, Tuesday May 29th:
Larger: Here.
Second, the late night typically sees lower waits than any other time of day outside of the first half hour of Park operation. If you’re spending 9:30pm to 10:15pm chugging cupcakes at the Dessert Party, then that’s 45 minutes away from the attractions when waits are less than a third of what they were during the afternoon. That doesn’t seem to make a tremendous amount of sense.
Let’s see how the dessert buffet portion of the Party ended up looking:
After the fireworks, we headed back over to Tomorrowland Terrace where we flashed our wristbands and confirmed our party size. A cast member then walked us to an available table.
And there were a ton of empty tables. I didn’t count how many people had After Dessert Party reservations, but it must have been under 50. Obviously with more people, the reserved fireworks viewing is going to be even busier.
But it was certainly nice to have the seating section basically to ourselves. Above is from my sold out Dessert Party last year. My estimation is that the After Dessert Party will be less popular than the Before version, but may prove to fill close to capacity during the fall when Happily Ever After is only shown three or four times a week with Magic Kingdom closing at 6pm for so many Mickey’s Halloween and Christmas Parties. You can probably expect both versions of the Party to sell out on July 4th and around Christmas as well, which reduces the benefit of attending as the reserved section will also be so much busier.
The Dessert Party selections are the same regardless of which Dessert Party you attend.
Strawberry Tarts, which enjoy a crunchy shortbread bottom topped with creamy icing, strawberry pearls, and a fresh slice of fruit.
Red Velvet Cupcakes, just in case you’re short a few hundred milliliters of red food coloring for the day. These weren’t as complex as you might hope with the cocoa undertones and tang from the cream cheese icing replaced with a chemical-y flavor of fake butter and over-processed flour.
The Mickey Oreo Treats were a fun take on the usual cookie with the cream on top adding even more sugar and the chocolate ears providing even more chocolate.
The Cheesecake Brownie Bites were among my favorite items with a really nice, bold chocolate cake base with a refreshing, cool cheesecake center. The sugary icing on top added some sweetness and the chocolate pieces on top added some crunch, in addition to the chocolate drizzle.
The Dark Chocolate-dipped Strawberries were another highlight – juicy berries and quite a bit of chocolate with the fun Disney Happily Ever After art.
The other half of the basic dessert setup.
I feel like I’m alone on this, but I “literally’ can’t believe that Disney doesn’t spring for seedless watermelon, at a cost that I would guess is around 10 cents more per pound, if that. You’d think the overall cost increase over both Dessert Parties would be to the tune of three bucks. I will continue to provide melon updates. The cantaloupe and honeydew weren’t particularly ripe and the grapes were on the soft side.
The Pineapple Delight was fresher than we were expecting with little chunks of sweet tropical fruit underneath the light cream on top. The fresh piece of pineapple sticking out of each little cup was a nice touch.
The Macaron selection was a little disappointing with just chocolate, coffee, and vanilla flavors represented as far as I can tell. I prefer the pistachio and raspberry myself, both of which were present last July.
Four types of cheese are available for your perusal. Rogue River Blue or White Stilton Gold this is not, but the pepper jack had a nice spice to it and the other flavors were similarly satisfying. It’s worth picking up a few pieces to enjoy alongside all of the sugary sweetness.
You’ll also find this assortment of crackers alongside Spinach and Artichoke Dip.
While I typically enjoy this sort of thing well enough, the consistency was that of glue – and not even the brand name stuff – while the flavor was largely cream cheese and sour cream. Not nearly as much of a highlight as you’d probably hope.
Here’s another “savory item” in the “House-made Mini Taco Egg Rolls,” which were on the greasy side of things without the satisfying crunch of a good spring roll. They had obviously been fried long ago. The flavor was largely generic taco spice.
Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake.
This is quite a bit different than what’s served at Liberty Tree Tavern – there’s far more chocolate involved and quite a bit less cake involved. It’s incredibly decadent and sugary and I’m not sure how you could eat more than a couple of bites with the intensity of the sweetness.
I’d recommend cutting a piece off from the sides of the pan, where there’s more cake to help set the stage for the bite. The center is a molten, melty mess.
A cast member is also on hand creating s’more-esque marshmallows.
They’re worth seeking out.
Here’s some more dessert options that you’ll see during both Parties.
The kids, and anyone else, have an opportunity to decorate cupcakes.
As shown.
Some straightforward cookies and brownies.
Crisped Rice Treats.
Hand-scooped Vanilla Ice Cream is available to help in the aid of creating miniature sundaes. You might dress yours up a little further with the caramel and chocolate sauces.
On the drink front, a glass of Sparkling Apple Juice is served on your way to your table.
An assortment of Twinings Tea.
Hot Water and Hot Cocoa.
Coffee and Decaf Coffee.
Here we have Passion Fruit, Orange, Guava Juice; Strawberry Lemonade; Lemonade; Unsweetened Tea; and Milk. And slightly out of frame, small Dasani Waters, which I appreciated. On the downside, there’s no soda and the waters weren’t cold.
Overall, the After Fireworks Dessert Party is probably bad news for anyone that had already booked the original Dessert Party. It just means more people in the reserved area. And as demand for the After Party increases during busier times or around Mickey’s Party Season, the reserved area will be that much busier as more guests book the After Party. For the original Dessert Party, which almost always sold out, the reserved area could only be as crowded as the number of people that fit in the seating area for the buffet portion. The After Party opens up another 200+ spots for people.
As far as which Party to book if you decide to do it, then it’s a bit of a toss-up. The After Party is a better fit if you typically stay up later and don’t care much about riding the attractions after the fireworks. You’ll have a better opportunity to find spots in the reserved section and be able to enjoy a much calmer dessert party with fewer people around and an expanded selection of items. On the downside, you’re going to be waiting an awfully long time for that fireworks view and it’s a late night for a lot of people.
The Before Party is ideal if you can’t or don’t want to stay out later than you have to or would prefer to hit the attractions after the fireworks when waits are just about as short as they get. On the downside, the reserved section is going to be busier and you might feel some pressure to get going to find spots, taking away from relaxed time at the buffet.
One other thing – those that enjoy the desserts before Happily Ever After have the excitement of the show to look forward to. For us, the somewhat meager spread of desserts and such was a bit of a letdown after the awesomeness of Happily Ever After concluded. We just sat there eating a couple dollars worth of little cupcakes and mass-produced chocolate toffee glop then headed for the exit.
For me, the fact that the reserved area is going to be more congested each and every single night is a big deterrent in springing for the relatively-high cost of either Dessert Party. And the comfort of the viewing area is most of what I think people are paying the money to experience. Even if you gorge on cheese and cupcakes, you’re still only eating a couple dollars worth of food, at most. I could have waited an hour for the fireworks “for free” in a lot of different places on Main Street, including just 15 feet ahead of where I was standing. But the Plaza Garden Viewing is very good. There are some light posts and whatnot in the way, but your eyes quickly tune them out. Once the fireworks start, I don’t think anybody is lamenting the fact that their view is slightly obscured. And the likelihood that you’re going to have to battle shoulder kids or last-minute arrivals is much less. And even if the reserved section is filled with more people, I would reiterate that there was plenty of room for everyone. Add another 50 or 100 people and that would obviously be less true.
I was a little surprised that those attending the After Fireworks Party didn’t fill in the similar Plaza Viewing section on the other side of the Hub. But that area is a good distance away from Tomorrowland Terrace and would be a little more difficult for people to get over to the buffet after the fireworks conclude.
All things considered, the Happily Ever After Dessert Party may be worthwhile if you only have one shot to see the show, particularly on a first viewing and particularly with kids or those that might have trouble seeing from a prime location elsewhere. After seeing the show for the first time, it’s easier to enjoy the view from outside the Park or somewhere less congested than Main Street. The end of my first Dessert Party review offers some alternative viewing locations and tips.
Inside the Park, I’ve recommended the New Fantasyland area as described in this post. You won’t see any of the projections on Cinderella Castle, but the music is clear, the fireworks are big, and the lack of people is hard to beat.
We’ll see what Disney upcharge event Disney has us disparaging next.
Thanks for getting this review out so quickly. I have the before party reserved for the end of July. We are taking my parents for their first ever Disney trip. Health is an issue, so I booked this for an easier experience. I was really disappointed when they added the extra part. I’m still undecided. For me, I would switch to after because I love dessert and don’t want to be rushed! For my parents, it’s probably better to do the before party. I guess I’ll wait a little bit and see if that reserved area gets a lot more crowded.
Thanks so much for the review! We were planning to do the Before Party next year, but with the addition of the After Party, I’m not so sure. We love HEA and the appeal of the party for us is a less crowded location so we could have a good view and avoid being packed in like sardines, which I hate. It sounds like it will still be worthwhile, but I’m going to keep an eye on how packed the viewing area gets if they start selling out both parties.
I had the plaza garden viewing party booked but cancelled it when I realized that we could spend another night in our FW cabin for the cost of the dessert party. Yay, longer vacation! Not sure where we will watch the fireworks but I’m really happy with my decision now that they have added the after party!
I was so happy to see your review today! After finally breaking down and booking the Dessert Party, I was shocked and disappointed to see the second one added. Our reservation is in a couple weeks. Hopefully the After Party will remain lightly attended for our date. Thank you so much for your quick review!
Everytime I see these parties, I think about just waiting an hour waiting for the fireworks and spending the $150 on food at the confectionary and offering treats to everyone around me on the street. Same amoutn of money, time, and calories for me. Far more fun for those around me.
This is an awesome idea, lol, your party sounds more fun to me! I appreciate the humor in this and yet also would love to actually do this one day, hhhmmmm, how many Mickey carmel apples could I hand out?!
We attended the party last summer, and I still cannot believe that they can’t put out ice for the drinks and cold water. That’s what I wanted more than anything else after sweets on a hot night.
The cost increases continue to amaze me. I really enjoy the dessert parties, but the first one I attended in June 2015 was $25 per adult!!! We paid $200 and surprised the family… can’t do that anymore!
I’d been toying with a dessert party for our August trip. With the addition of the after party and higher crowds in the reserved area, I decided to book Brunch at the top. With my discount, it’s about the same cost as the dessert party. I’ll return in the evening for fireworks. Better food, better value. NO projections, but oh well.
^^Andrea, I think that’s a smart decision. We loved Brunch at the Top. As Josh says, it’s easily the best dining experience on property.
If they lowered the price of these parties (since they’re more crowded), I could understand. $69 and more crowded than ever and there’s little value there except to those who are coming 1 time only. IMO Disney has been catering to the once-in-a-lifetime crowd a lot lately. We’re very glad to be DVC and have access to top of the world lounge–and if anyone here does not have access to it, take some of the advice here and save the money. We did the party on 12/30, easily one of the most crowded nights and still barely felt it was worth the case.
Thanks Joel. We did the brunch last year. It is spectacular. We are dvc too, but dh is the member, I’m an associate. As he won’t be with us this trip, I don’t want to chance being shut out of Top of the World. I have the blue card, but my Id wouldn’t match up. Do you think they’d let us up?
Are you on the membership? My husband is also the “primary” but we both got the same cards.
Hello,
I have a question about something you wrote in this great review: “I was a little surprised that those attending the After Fireworks Party didn’t fill in the similar Plaza Viewing section on the other side of the Hub.”
Does that mean that there is actually another space reserved for dessert party attendees, but was not used because people just didn’t want to walk that far? If so, wouldn’t that solve the overcrowding in the plaza standing area?
Thanks!
I just can’t bring myself to book one of these. Hell – for less money the two families I travel with can pay for a private Illuminations Cruise and stock the thing with much better snacks (and wine!). That’s a far better experience, IMHO.
Strawberry Taaaawwwwwwwttttss!!!
Attended the first dessert party last night (June 1), which I booked before the price increase, AND before the announcement of the after party. The taco eggrolls, ooey gooey toffee cake, S’mores, and the spinach dip were offered to us. We made our way to the garden viewing area about 20 minutes before the start of HEA, choosing to stand on the left side, at the very back, so we could lean against the railing. (And also so we could watch disgruntled guests argue with Cast Members, when told to keep moving/ clear the walkway. Lost track of how often we heard, “I PAID OVER $100 FOR MY TICKET, I WILL STAND HERE IF I WANT!” and “I WILL GO TO GUEST RELATIONS ABOUT THIS!” It was magical and tragical.) Of note: the garden viewing area was full, but didn’t feel crowded, *and* 80% of the party goers remained seated for the entirety of the show. The lone standers were those along the back railing with us, and a few groups at positioned along the front railing. Was the $59 per person I paid (again, before the price increase) worth it? Not for the food–I won’t even pretend it was anything special. But I have a child with severe anxiety, and not having to be in the throngs of bodies crammed into Main Street USA or in front of the castle made it a priceless experience. A one-and-done experience, but worth it last night!
We are first timers going from June 19th till July 5th. We booked the after dessert party on the 4th. We don’t anticipate going back for a long time, so we thought we would make the best of it! 2 adults and three boys, probably will turn out to be a one and done.
I have booked the after party for a night in August. The once upon a time show is not scheduled yet, but I’m guessing it will likely be after the fireworks. If I am at the after party, will the castle be visible at all? Or do I risk missing the show?
Oh, I’m so stressed out over all this. We have never seen HEA because my (adult) daughter has epilepsy and being trapped in a crowd is something we have to avoid because of the possibility of a seizure. She also has a 5 year old that can’t see in big crowds. So I splurged for our Sept trip and bought the HEA dessert party, the original one. We paid the original price – $59 per adult and whatever the child price was x 1. Would it be better to try and switch the “After” party in order to secure a spot nearer an exit route? We do want to see the projections… we’ve been watching videos of HEA since it debuted in 2017. TIA for any advice/suggestions. PS: We don’t really care about the desserts, but we all like cheese. 🙂 Maybe we could run in, grab some cubes and make a run for the viewing area.
I’ve always said I would never book a dessert party, but I decided to splurge on this for my husbands 55th birthday trip. It will just be us two, and of the 6 nights we are there, there are 3 Christmas parties. I’m figuring the nights when HEA is shown the hub will be packed. I will enjoy the space the reserved area, and then enjoy snacks while the crowds disperse.
I was in the same boat, but the week we are at WDW there are FOUR Christmas parties, and only two chances to see HEA. I keep thinking back to the chaos of trying to find a spot and trying to stay together afterwards, I decided the 69 bucks per person is SO WORTH IT. It will also be my soon to be hubbys birthday the day I booked it! Even a busy crowd in the reserved space will be better than trying to get out of the HEA crowd after!
Your level of granular detail is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. You are awesome. Your meticulous work answers so many unanswered questions I had. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’ve gained a huge fan of your work.
The day I booked this – fireworks are at 9:15 and I have the AFTER dessert party but the park closes at 10. Will they rush me out? Will I still be able to enjoy myself and get a bus back to my resort?