Walt Disney World Resort knows how to throw a dessert party. Each of the four theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom) have a dessert party that takes place before or after that park’s nightly firework or spectacular show. Curious as to what they were about, we signed ourselves up for the Happily Ever After Dessert Party the night after our wedding to celebrate our recent nuptials. When we sign up, there were two options: the Seated Terrace Viewing ($84 per adult and $50 per child) and the Plaza Garden Viewing ($69 per adult and $41 per child). Since the Plaza Garden Viewing is cheaper and with a better view (in my humble opinion), my husband and I selected the Garden Viewing option. However, if you’d like to sit during the fireworks show, then the Seated Terrace viewing option may be for you! For both options you eat your desserts seated at Tomorrowland Terrace.
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| Happily Every After Dessert Party |
The check-in for the dessert party started 90 minutes prior to the start of Happily Ever After. We showed up about an hour prior to and didn’t experience a line to check-in and were able to walk right up, get checked in, get our special wristbands, claim a table and head toward the dessert. I highly recommend this, unless you plan on eating desserts for the full 90 minutes. By showing up after it had already started meant we didn't have to wait in line for it to start and we still had plenty of time to eat our hearts content of sweet treats, sit around and relax before we headed out with the Cast Member to the designated viewing area. Tip: Don't eat right before you come, plan for an early dinner or a late lunch so you have plenty of room to enjoy the desserts that you're paying for!
After setting our things at a table we headed to the dessert buffet! First thing we saw was the drinks. There was Strawberry Lemonade,;Lemonade; Passion, Orange and Guava Juice (which we affectionately call POG after visiting Hawaii); unsweetened tea; milk and bottles of water (you can see the green bottle caps peeking out from above the black crates).
On a separate table was Sparkling Apple Cider. This was right when you walked in, off by itself. There was also coffee, hot chocolate and tea available for dessert party guests.
I went with POG (because when you can have POG, you have POG) and a cup of coffee that my husband found for me because we were TIRED after going to the Magic Kingdom all day after getting married the night before (but it was worth it!).
Then it was time for the good stuff: desserts! I was really looking forward to this as I was very upset that we didn’t get to have any of our wedding cake as we were so busy taking pictures with Mickey and Minnie!
The first thing we found on the buffet we found macarons in pistachio, lemon, raspberry, vanilla, coffee and chocolate. I tried every one of these except for coffee (I don’t like coffee flavored items except for actual coffee). The flavors were good on the macarons. However, these macarons didn’t have the typical outer crunch, it was all chewy. I’m blaming the fact they are sitting out in the humid Florida air and that is why they lost their crunch. The flavors were great so I got seconds of my favorite flavors.
Next up was the Pineapple Delight. This was sweetened pineapple with whipped cream and a piece of fresh pineapple pineapple as the garnish. As much as I love pineapple, this was skippable and not really memorable.
Happily Ever After Red Velvet Cupcake. This was everything I wanted and was hoping to get at the party. A Disney cupcake - soft, flavorful cake with delicious frosting. It was topped with crunchy pearls that made this bite-able dessert perfect.
Chocolate Raspberry Cake. When I saw this bite sized treat, I knew the dessert party was meant to be for us as one of the flavors of our wedding cake was chocolate cake with raspberry jam. I loved the chocolate flavor and the sweet, tart punch of the fresh raspberry and raspberry jelly on top.
Strawberry Tart. I wasn’t expecting much out of this one and shame on me. It ended up being one of my favorites! The cookie shell had a great sugar cookie flavor that held up well to the strawberry cream and the whipped topping with fresh strawberry slice was the perfect topping. This made it onto my ‘seconds’ plate.
Oreo “Mickey” Treat. First of all, this was officially the cutest dessert on the buffet - I mean how can you say no to a Mickey Mouse lookalike treat! I couldn’t! The bottom was an Oreo, already starting good, can't go wrong with an Oreo. It was topped with the ‘grey’ stuff that you find a Be Our Guest - cookies in cream frosting! And the ears were little chocolate wafers. All of these components were the perfect cookies'n'cream flavored dessert.
Cheesecake Brownie Bites. This was the best dessert. Hands down. I loved it. I also am a big fan of cheesecake. And the chocolate brownie bottom plus the whipped cream and chocolate drizzle on top - combine to make one great dessert. And this was a good cheesecake too, creamy and delicious.
Dark Chocolate-dipped Strawberries. These were so cute with their gold “Happily Ever After” stamped on them. Chocolate dipped strawberries are a simple dessert but are also oh-so perfect. The crack of the chocolate as you bite into the fresh strawberry is probably one of the best bites you could ever have.
Chocolate Marshmallow Tart. I love s'mores. But this was a let down. The shell didn’t taste like graham cracker; the marshmallow topping was just odd. The chocolate pieces topping the dessert was the best part. Skip this one.
There was also a cheese and fruit platter display (in all honesty, I skipped these because I was there for one thing and one thing only: sweet treats). There was also an ice cream station and a decorate-your-own-cookie area that were both packed with kiddos. There was one Cast Member scooping the vanilla ice cream and topping it with requested sprinkles. I skipped both of these areas because of the lines (I was exhausted from getting married the night before, I felt like a zombie and couldn’t wait in line). I am so not a fan of vanilla ice cream (chocolate fan if you couldn't tell by now) so waiting for it did not appeal to me.
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| My plate of seconds |
After we had our fill of desserts, we headed back to the check-in area to have a Cast Member guide us to the viewing area. This was chaotic as we followed the Cast Member through the sea of people to get the viewing area and then waited as families rushed in and out of our group to find their spot. My suggestion to help on this would be to have more Cast Members escorting smaller groups to the area. Once the Cast Member guarding the entrance checked to make sure we had the required dessert party wristbands on, we were in the roped off area. There was a lot of space here! So much space we were able to sit and watch the fireworks with our legs stretched out without anyone pushing upon us. This was the highlight for me!
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| If you look closely you can see that everyone is sitting in this dessert party area |
There is now a dessert party offered after the fireworks in addition to the two parties held before. This new party share this same space so I imagine this is more crowded now and the space isn’t there to sit and not feel like a private showing.
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| Ready for the fireworks |
Do I think this is worth it? Yes and I highly recommend this party! This is a truly unique Magic Kingdom experience. I loved getting to go sit and have a variety of bite sized desserts (can’t do this anywhere else in the MK) and having a fantastic, uncrowded place to watch the fireworks. Even my husband, who isn’t a big dessert eater, thinks this dessert party was worth every penny we paid. Next time we will be trying the AFTER party as there are still the sweets here (plus some extras including the ooey gooey toffee cake you’ll find at Liberty Tree) plus savory appetizer items including my favorite Magic Kingdom spring rolls!
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| Outstanding views of the Happily Ever After Fireworks |
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Note: Dessert party pricing is current as of date this article was published.
