Arrival Time for Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party

[dcassetta]

Fireworks are currently scheduled for 10pm on the night we are going, so the ADR says 9pm. Should we go right at 9 or is it better to go early like 8:45 or later like 9:15? TIA

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Are you doing the terrace seating or the plaza garden seating? If it's terrace seating, get there earlier to try to get a good table. If it's plaza viewing, we prefer to be a little late as the buffet is quite chaotic at the beginning of the party. If you arrive a little late, it seems you have a better shot of sitting on the mid-mezzanine level (right above the terrace viewers) which is a little less chaotic and more ambient than the upper terrace.

Are you sure it's 10 pm with a 9 pm ADR? Our dessert parties have always started 1 1/2 hours prior to fireworks.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I agree with @DisneyWishes14, my answer depends on if you booked the Plaza Garden or Tomorrowland Terrace version and my advice would be similar.

(Edited to remove incorrect info)

Can I ask when you're seeing fireworks scheduled for 10PM? Must be around Thanksgiving I guess? If it is a 10PM HEA, the dessert party will start 8:45PM.

 

[Lisa F]

Are you doing the terrace seating or the plaza garden seating? If it's terrace seating, get there earlier to try to get a good table. If it's plaza viewing, we prefer to be a little late as the buffet is quite chaotic at the beginning of the party. If you arrive a little late, it seems you have a better shot of sitting on the mid-mezzanine level (right above the terrace viewers) which is a little less chaotic and more ambient than the upper terrace.

Are you sure it's 10 pm with a 9 pm ADR? Our dessert parties have always started 1 1/2 hours prior to fireworks.

this is great advice. I'm booked for our february trip (they have not expanded hours yet so hoping it will move from 8-9 the saturday of both president's week and princess half marathon). What time is "a little late" for the plaza party? an hour before? they actually start 75 minutes before, not 90.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

this is great advice. I'm booked for our february trip (they have not expanded hours yet so hoping it will move from 8-9 the saturday of both president's week and princess half marathon). What time is "a little late" for the plaza party? an hour before? they actually start 75 minutes before, not 90.

I know this wasn’t directed at me, but I’ll give you my opinion if you don’t mind.

For us, the main appeal of the dessert party is the reserved fireworks viewing. We’ll eat a dessert or two, if that, but otherwise that’s not our motivation. For the plaza version, our preference is to arrive more like 8:20-8:30ish (assuming a 9PM HEA). I like to be out to the garden area by 8:40-45ish. I find anything more is overkill and we just waste time sitting around.

I concede this strategy might not make sense for some folks, but it works for us.

My answer would also be a little different if OUAT is before HEA, as I’d probably bump up that time a bit so we could watch OUAT from the garden.

Hope that makes sense. Happy to elaborate if needed!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

this is great advice. I'm booked for our february trip (they have not expanded hours yet so hoping it will move from 8-9 the saturday of both president's week and princess half marathon). What time is "a little late" for the plaza party? an hour before? they actually start 75 minutes before, not 90.

I guess they've changed the starting time! For plaza viewing, I would show up 15 minutes into the party to try to let the opening chaos die down. Spend 20 minutes tops eating dessert and get over to the garden.

 

[dcassetta]

Are you doing the terrace seating or the plaza garden seating? If it's terrace seating, get there earlier to try to get a good table. If it's plaza viewing, we prefer to be a little late as the buffet is quite chaotic at the beginning of the party. If you arrive a little late, it seems you have a better shot of sitting on the mid-mezzanine level (right above the terrace viewers) which is a little less chaotic and more ambient than the upper terrace.

Are you sure it's 10 pm with a 9 pm ADR? Our dessert parties have always started 1 1/2 hours prior to fireworks.

We are doing Terrace Seating. Currently, the park calendar says HEA at 10:00 pm and MDE shows the reservation at 9pm. If it actually starts at 8:30, then I guess we will aim for 8:15.

I agree with @DisneyWishes14, my answer depends on if you booked the Plaza Garden or Tomorrowland Terrace version and my advice would be similar.

Both versions of the party start 1 hour and 15 minutes prior to HEA. If HEA is at 9, the ADR shows up as 7:45PM. If HEA is at 8, the ADR shows up as 6:45PM.

Can I ask when you're seeing fireworks scheduled for 10PM? Must be around Thanksgiving I guess? If it is a 10PM HEA, the dessert party will start 8:45PM.

It's actually on Thanksgiving Day itself. That would not have been my first choice of day, but we are on the NYC cruise that stops at Port Canaveral. Since we could not book at 180 days, I feel like I got a little pixie dust finding availability at all. Is 8:15 still a good time to aim for?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

@dcassetta - Actually I need to correct something I said above. Per Disney’s website (assuming it is correct), check-in for the Tomorrowland Terrace seated version is 60 minutes prior to HEA. Check-in for the Plaza Garden party is 75 minutes prior to HEA. So on your night, your party check-in is at 9PM.

My gut says to be there/in line around 8:30-8:45, although in full disclosure I haven’t done the seated version in several months (and even when we did we didn’t get there that early) so the logistics aren’t very clear in my mind in terms of the likely line, what to expect, etc. They do load tables first come, first served, so there is a benefit to being prompt. We got there late and were seated all the way to the right side of the terrace, which frankly wasn’t all that bad to be honest.

Sorry for any confusion above!

 

[Lisa F]

I know this wasn’t directed at me, but I’ll give you my opinion if you don’t mind.

For us, the main appeal of the dessert party is the reserved fireworks viewing. We’ll eat a dessert or two, if that, but otherwise that’s not our motivation. For the plaza version, our preference is to arrive more like 8:20-8:30ish (assuming a 9PM HEA). I like to be out to the garden area by 8:40-45ish. I find anything more is overkill and we just waste time sitting around.

I concede this strategy might not make sense for some folks, but it works for us.

My answer would also be a little different if OUAT is before HEA, as I’d probably bump up that time a bit so we could watch OUAT from the garden.

Hope that makes sense. Happy to elaborate if needed!

Don't mind at all! In fact, appreciate it! I had bariatric surgery in July so the dessert aspect is actually quite secondary to me as well, but hoping to grab some fruit and cheese (I need to eat frequently) and maybe a bite or two of something sweet as a treat, but if they had a package for $10 cheaper with no food I'd take it. I'm with my 9 year old so he is going to want some desserts but I do not plan to sit there for an hour eating desserts. We are not showing up hungry to maximize dessert consumption as we have a 4:30 BoG adr for dinner.. we'll skip dessert there and the party will put an hour or two between dessert and dinner but the food is so not the focus.

We did the dessert party at MVMCP last year and were with a bunch of DIS friends, we ran over after the parade (no longer included) and grabbed good seats and we had fun socializing for the hour before fireworks... but with just me and the kid, an hour is WAY TOO LONG to be sitting at the table over desserts (assuming we show up on time and head to the garden 15 minutes before fireworks). An hour is about how long most of our full TS run generally!

They haven't updated hours yet but last year that saturday night had a 9pm fireworks, so hoping everything shifts later by an hour. We can I'm sure get a few rides in between dinner and fireworks (I LOVE tomorrowland at night and no problems doing things like peoplemover if it's packed to the gills). Right now it's still at 8pm but park is closing at 8pm every night that week and it is a busy holiday week so I doubt that will stay that way. But assuming the 9pm HEA I think we will show up around 8:15, have a snack, and then head out to the garden about 8:40-8:45. We're paying for it and will skip dessert at BoG so we'd like to have a little something but agree that extra half hour or so would be better spent in the parks. I booked it because I anticipated the parks being quite crowded that Saturday night and we only have 2 full and 2 half days in the parks, and this will be our only night to see HEA in the park (we are going on a cruise and tacked on a few days at the parks).

I guess they've changed the starting time! For plaza viewing, I would show up 15 minutes into the party to try to let the opening chaos die down. Spend 20 minutes tops eating dessert and get over to the garden.

Sounds about right though maybe a half hour in would work and still get us to the garden in plenty of time. It seems very not crowded and I've always found in large reserved spaces (like in hollywood studios dessert parties, we did the JBJB one) hanging back gives you a much better view than being in the crowd at the front. Definitely rather use the time touring than stuffing our faces (not that i can really anyway and my son does not either, he will leave most of a dessert if he is full).

Thanks for the advice, I was really not sure how to time all of this! my one hesitation is what a time suck it is but 45 minutes is about what I'd want to allocate to finding a spot anyway but I just worried it might not be enough if crowded enough. It's our first time seeing HEA, want it to be spectacular!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

@Lisa F - Hope you guys have fun!

Just FYI, one thing I’ve always read around here and I think tends to hold true is that once you see dessert parties available for booking at specific dates/times, you very rarely will see fireworks times later moved. I do agree that the park closing time is likely to be moved on your date, but I’m a little less confident you’ll see the fireworks time move.

As always, YMMV!

 

[Lisa F]

@Lisa F - Hope you guys have fun!

Just FYI, one thing I’ve always read around here and I think tends to hold true is that once you see dessert parties available for booking at specific dates/times, you very rarely will see fireworks times later moved. I do agree that the park closing time is likely to be moved on your date, but I’m a little less confident you’ll see the fireworks time move.

As always, YMMV!

I was surprised they opened bookings at 6 months out.. that was not my experience in the past (I was always chasing the opening). I am considering doing the illuminations frozen dessert party on our last night just for the whole experience as well.. I like the idea of sitting at a table and nibbling on dessert and then ending our night (whole trip really) with Illuminations and frozen. That said, it is only booking about 3 months in advance right now, and Epcot hours NEVER change.

Last year they had the MK open til 10pm with Wishes at 9pm on Wed-Friday and then Saturday they had the park open from 8am-11pm with Wishes at 9pm. Right now they are sitting at 9am-8pm. I think there are going to be changes for sure... we'll see but I'm hoping for the 11pm close and HEA 3 hours before close seems highly unlikely. Whatever it is, it will be fine... I think actually touring time post fireworks is some of the best time since people seem to get out of there after fireworks so if it's nearly 3 hours of quieter time, you won't hear any complaints from me. Either way it's fine, I made my BoG for 4:30 so if the fireworks were at 8pm we'd be good, even if it takes 90 minutes to eat we're out of there by 6, walk around for an hour or so and then be ready for dessert (for dessert as dessert, not to eat $60 worth of sweets). An extra hour in there would be great but not heartbreaking if it doesn't happen. Do you happen to have any idea how far in advance they expand park hours? It seems like they should have by now!

 

[Lesley Wake]

One thing you need to consider about showing up late to the Plaza Garden viewing - sometimes they run out of the most favorite desserts. When we arrived there were 2 platters of chocolate covered strawberries. By the time I went for Plate 2 there was only 1/2 a platter left and it didn't look like they were refreshing. Plate 3 and they were all gone. Similar with certain flavors of the macarons (chocolate ran out first).