We recently attended the Fireworks Dessert Party with Plaza Garden Viewing at Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World. It’s $69 for adults and $41 for kids and includes unlimited eats and drinks, plus a promised great view of the Happily Ever After Fireworks.

We arrived at the Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant at the suggested 90 minutes before the fireworks to find several tables in the back section were already full, so goodness knows what time these people turned up. The cake eating was well under way!! But we were seated very quickly and the process explained to us on the way to our table, so off we set to sample the array of freshly prepared desserts, fruits and cheeses.

There was quite a selection of sweet goodies. We could choose from:

  • Pineapple Delight (pineapple compote with thick whipped cream)
  • Strawberry Tart
  • Cheesecake Brownie Bites
  • Red Velvet Cupcakes (topped with bright yellow cream cheese frosting)
  • Mickey Oreo Treats
  • Macarons in pistachio, lemon, raspberry, vanilla, and coffee flavours.

For some reason the Dark Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries we had heard so much about weren’t available, which was a shame.

There were a couple of customizable options too:

  • Create Your Own Cupcake station – select a vanilla or a chocolate cupcake, swirl on some frosting and decorate as you wish
  • Create Your Own Sundae Station – choose toppings for your vanilla ice cream scooped into a sundae glass with sauce and cherries to decorate.

Also available were Cookies, Brownies, and Krispie Treats which you could eat as is, or pop a scoop of ice cream on with or without sprinkles.

My favourite on the night was the Ooey Gooey Toffee cake, which was self serve (be generous with your portions people!!)

There was also a s’mores station where a Cast Member would roast your marshmallow till it was gooey on the inside, soft on the outside, then roll it in melted chocolate and  add chocolate shavings, sprinkles, and graham cracker crumbs. Oh my!!

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We hadn’t realised there would also be savoury snacks and fruit, but they were lovely to try and made a nice change between plates of sweet cakes!!

  • Taco Spring rolls
  • Chipotle Dipping Sauce
  • Spinach dip and crackers
  • Cheese cubes
  • Watermelon
  • Honeydew melon
  • Cantaloupe
  • Red grapes

Drink selections included:

  • Sparkling cider
  • Hot chocolate
  • Lemonade
  • Strawberry lemonade
  • POG juice (passion, orange, and guava juice – aka Jungle Juice)
  • Coffee
  • Tea
  • Iced water

You can decide when you want to walk over to Plaza Gardens to take your position for the fireworks and a Cast Member will escort you. We left the Tomorrowland Restaurant 30 minutes before the the nighttime spectacular was due to start and it was already quite busy in the Plaza Gardens. Some people had been leaving their tables (and the cakes!) from as early as 8pm. I’m assuming they were the same people who arrived before the suggested 90 minutes arrival time. There were a few grassed areas still available and we did find a decent spot, but those arriving a little later struggled to all stay together. But do make sure you sit behind someone who appears a little smaller than you and your party, as once the show starts, everyone stands up.

I noticed while in the Gardens that some people had take-away coffee cups which i hadn’t seen in the Restaurant at the time, but they obviously had brought them over with them from the party, which i thought was a good idea. It was also okay to nip back into the party to use the ‘restrooms’ (Americanisms here!) or top up drinks as the wristband allocated to you on arrival serves as your entry so it’s possible to leave and come back – although they do tell you they can’t guarantee your re-entry we certainly didn’t see anyone turned away and people were still arriving after the fireworks started.

The Fireworks Dessert Party offered a good variety of eats, the red velvet cupcake and ooey gooey cake were really lovely while the rest of the sweet foods I would put as ‘nice’ to ‘average’. The savoury treats were an okay standard, but we didn’t find them to be that mind blowing.

We did have a really great view of the fireworks from the Gardens though, with minimal waiting time and it was a lot more relaxing to wander over a short while before they were due to start than stake out a space an hour or more before on Main Street. Even if you turn up much earlier for the food so you can enter the Plaza Gardens an hour before the fireworks, its still a nicer area to wait in.

There is another version of the party where you get a seat for the food and fireworks viewing in the front section of the Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant but if you don’t arrive early your table could be further back in that area. In that case I imagine the view wouldn’t be much better than the Plaza Gardens view, but if the heavens opened, as they frequently do in Florida, you are at least protected from the rain. The price for this version of the Dessert Party is $84 for adults and $50 for kids.

There is a third version of the Dessert Party at Magic Kingdom and that is the After Fireworks party. This is basically the reverse order of the Plaza Gardens Dessert Party. You arrive to view the fireworks in the Plaza Gardens up to 60 minutes prior and then afterwards are escorted over to the same Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant seating area as used by the Plaza Gardens attendees previously, to partake of the cakes and savoury delights.  It is also the same price as the Plaza Gardens Dessert Party.

I don’t think we ate our money’s worth of cake by any means, buffets tend to fill you up  quite quickly I always find, so if we did it again I would think of the event as a way to have some nice treats but with an easier-to-find good viewing spot. Essentially you are paying a lot for the view, the ticket price certainly does not cover the food – there’s only so much cake you can eat in a short space of time and once people start leaving their tables to go over to the Gardens, there is a little bit of pressure on to finish up and get over there. I don’t suppose you have that same pressure with the Tomorrowland Terrace seated viewing area, as you could in theory still nibble on food and have drinks while the fireworks are on, but only the best views will be available for those who get there very early. Note, they have the same food and drinks selections available at all three parties.

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