Fireworks viewing options outside of MK and post-fireworks transportation questions

[Figment Mom]

We are arriving on my son's birthday and will have his birthday dinner at Cali Grill. Our dinner is at 6 pm.

My other two priorities for the evening are to watch the fireworks and the Electrical Water Pageant. We do not have park reservations or tickets for that day.

I'm guessing we'll be done with dinner by 8, which would give us time to get to the Poly beach before the Water Pageant at 8:30.

I am leaning towards watching the fireworks from the Poly beach, but I'm wondering how the viewing compares to the top of the Contemporary. I doubt we'd have another opportunity to watch from there, but I also don't think I want to go back, or necessarily just hang out there from the end of dinner until 9:20.

A few related questions:
Is the Poly beach currently typically open to people not staying there?
Is the top deck of the Contemporary crowded?
Will my 7-year-old even be awake by then? (We'll be at the airport before 5 am that morning. I'm hoping to get a nap in before dinner but we might all crash and burn before 9 pm, making this all a moot point.)

Urg, and I just realized my original plan of monorail to MK (or walk if we're at the Contemporary) after the fireworks and bus to POP is horrible with the mass exodus from MK. Does it make sense to take a Disney Springs bus from whichever resort we're at and then bus to POP? Or I could take a bus to HS and then skyliner to POP, but would the bus take us that way if HS is already closed?

Maybe we'll just go straight to bed after dinner!

 

[Best Aunt]

We are arriving on my son's birthday and will have his birthday dinner at Cali Grill. Our dinner is at 6 pm.

Will my 7-year-old even be awake by then? (We'll be at the airport before 5 am that morning. I'm hoping to get a nap in before dinner but we might all crash and burn before 9 pm, making this all a moot point.)

(You were asking about watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks and the Electrical Water Pageant after dinner, but I accidentally cut too much out when I quoted you.)

You say you will be at the airport before 5:00 am that day. How early will your family members be waking up that morning in order to get to the airport before 5:00 am?

My prediction is that you're all going to be exhausted. Sometimes it's hard to fall asleep for a nap on your arrival day; you're too excited, you're not used to napping, there's too much light coming in the room, there's too much noise outside the room...

You don't want to push too hard your first night and have that ruin the following day because everyone is so wiped out.

And you don't ever want to be pushing so hard to accomplish things that your vacation stops being fun.

I'd head back to Pop after dinner.

 

[Figment Mom]

(You were asking about watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks and the Electrical Water Pageant after dinner, but I accidentally cut too much out when I quoted you.)

You say you will be at the airport before 5:00 am that day. How early will your family members be waking up that morning in order to get to the airport before 5:00 am?

My prediction is that you're all going to be exhausted. Sometimes it's hard to fall asleep for a nap on your arrival day; you're too excited, you're not used to napping, there's too much light coming in the room, there's too much noise outside the room...

You don't want to push too hard your first night and have that ruin the following day because everyone is so wiped out.

And you don't ever want to be pushing so hard to accomplish things that your vacation stops being fun.

I'd head back to Pop after dinner.

Yes, that probably is the wise thing, and I'll certainly play it by ear.

We'll be up around 4:15 or so. This is the same flight schedule I always do and usually we start with a park day. (Grab breakfast at POP and head straight to MK.) I added a non-park day to the front end of our trip this year so we can celebrate my 17-year-old's birthday there.

I don't have anything else at all planned for the day besides dinner so I do think we'll end up resting. (We are all very talented nappers. ) But if our room isn't ready, that will throw a wrench into it.

 

[Best Aunt]

Yes, that probably is the wise thing, and I'll certainly play it by ear.

We'll be up around 4:15 or so. This is the same flight schedule I always do and usually we start with a park day. (Grab breakfast at POP and head straight to MK.) I added a non-park day to the front end of our trip this year so we can celebrate my 17-year-old's birthday there.

I don't have anything else at all planned for the day besides dinner so I do think we'll end up resting. (We are all very talented nappers. ) But if our room isn't ready, that will throw a wrench into it.

17 or 7 years old?

 

[Figment Mom]

17 or 7 years old?

Both! It's the 17-year-old's birthday and he has a 7-year-old little brother.

The 7-year-old is the wildcard in all of this, of course.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

Playing it by ear and seeing how everyone feels seems like a good plan. To answer your questions:

1/ They didn’t check if we were resort guests in March when we watched fireworks from the Poly beach.

2/ They also didn’t check if we were resort guests when we watched fireworks from Gaspy’s another night, also in March.

3/ I’ve never watched from the top of BLT, only from my room there which I imagine is a similar view. I preferred the view from Poly personally. (Gaspy’s had a wedding which blocked off the best spots.) BLT is closer but it’s more of a side view. Poly and GF were more head on. The beach was just a nicer vibe imo.

Can’t go wrong with any of them tbh. I believe you can use the viewing area at Cali Grill if you ate there that day?

 

[Figment Mom]

Playing it by ear and seeing how everyone feels seems like a good plan. To answer your questions:

1/ They didn’t check if we were resort guests in March when we watched fireworks from the Poly beach.

2/ They also didn’t check if we were resort guests when we watched fireworks from Gaspy’s another night, also in March.

3/ I’ve never watched from the top of BLT, only from my room there which I imagine is a similar view. I preferred the view from Poly personally. (Gaspy’s had a wedding which blocked off the best spots.) BLT is closer but it’s more of a side view. Poly and GF were more head on. The beach was just a nicer vibe imo.

Can’t go wrong with any of them tbh. I believe you can use the viewing area at Cali Grill if you ate there that day?

Thanks! I think the only reason I'm even considering watching from the Contemporary is because we will have that perk since we're eating at Cali.

The water pageant is purely nostalgia for me as I grew up staying at the Poly every year and we loved watching.

The more I think about it, if we can get over there for that, maybe we'll head back to POP before the fireworks.

Or I wonder how much of the fireworks you can see from the MK bus stop. Then we'll be first in line to head back as soon as they're over.

 

[_19disnA]

When we stayed at the Contemporary back in 2019, we liked to watch the MK fireworks from the outdoor patio at the far end of the Contemporary. It is on the same floor as Chef Mickey's but the opposite end past the gift shop. I don't recall the floor number since it is above the main lobby, but there are also some other floors in between. Great to not have to fight the crowds exiting MK when that show was over.

We didn't eat at Cali Grill but I seemed to recall that if you ate dinner there, you could show your receipt and return that same day for the fireworks. Not sure if they still do that and/or if on certain days they might limit how many people they allow to be up there. I don't believe you can view the show from the roof if you haven't eaten at Cali Grill. Someone on another recent thread mentioned that the Poly beach is generally open to the public but on peak days like July 4, they hand out arms bands to those staying there and limit beach access due to large crowds.

Whatever form of transportation you take back to your hotel will take a long time once MK closes and everyone is exiting to somewhere else. I think it would be a VERY long day for your family considering how early your flight will be. Could you move you Cali Grill dinner to a different day of your trip? Think you will enjoy it more if everyone is falling asleep by the time that show starts.

When we were there, that lighted boat show parade started after the MK fireworks were over. During our stay, closing time for MK varied, therefore the boat show was not exactly the same time every evening. Might check the posted schedules to see if that could still be an issue.

 

[Figment Mom]

When we stayed at the Contemporary back in 2019, we liked to watch the MK fireworks from the outdoor patio at the far end of the Contemporary. It is on the same floor as Chef Mickey's but the opposite end past the gift shop. I don't recall the floor number since it is above the main lobby, but there are also some other floors in between. Great to not have to fight the crowds exiting MK when that show was over.

We didn't eat at Cali Grill but I seemed to recall that if you ate dinner there, you could show your receipt and return that same day for the fireworks. Not sure if they still do that and/or if on certain days they might limit how many people they allow to be up there. I don't believe you can view the show from the roof if you haven't eaten at Cali Grill. Someone on another recent thread mentioned that the Poly beach is generally open to the public but on peak days like July 4, they hand out arms bands to those staying there and limit beach access due to large crowds.

Whatever form of transportation you take back to your hotel will take a long time once MK closes and everyone is exiting to somewhere else. I think it would be a VERY long day for your family considering how early your flight will be. Could you move you Cali Grill dinner to a different day of your trip? Think you will enjoy it more if everyone is falling asleep by the time that show starts.

When we were there, that lighted boat show parade started after the MK fireworks were over. During our stay, closing time for MK varied, therefore the boat show was not exactly the same time every evening. Might check the posted schedules to see if that could still be an issue.

Thank you for your response!

I don't want to move the dinner (and probably can't, anyway) because we only added a day to the beginning of our trip so we could have a birthday dinner there.

The water pageant is at the Poly much earlier than the Contemporary. I think we'll still try to catch that at the Poly if we're feeling up to it, and then head back to our own resort to sleep. We'll just watch the fireworks from the MK on one of our evenings there. (I actually booked a MK dessert party for a different night since they just became available for our dates. I may or may not keep it but if I do we will definitely rest in the afternoon before returning to the park for the party.)

 

[Figmentv]

Anyone have experience taking Lyft from Poly to another resort (POFQ in our case) after the fireworks?

Rather than fighting WDW transportation crowds, I’m wondering if Lyft would be a good option.

 

[CNorwood3]

Once Fireworks start I'd head straight out to the Ferry and watch them as I depart to the TTC. Learned my lesson when watching them up close lol.

 

[ShannyMcB]

Bus to springs then to pop would probably be the least crowded option. If you don't mind waiting walk back to (slowly) MK after the pagent then grab the bus...the time in walking may ease some of the crowds.

Or minnie vans are back and may be worth it with tired kids and grownups! Can get it from where ever.

I saw on another thread mentioning you can see epcot fireworks from POP. If you just want fireworks and aren't picky which ones thats an option. I know we watched them from the patio behind Centertown market at CBR. Can easily skyliner back to pop from there as well.

 

[1999baja272]

I was wondering the same thing. We are staying at poly in December and our friend and her 7 yo daughter are staying at pop. Figured we would do dinner and fireworks one night at poly but how would she get back to pop afterwards. I'm thinking it's probably the easiest to just get an Uber.