How to Plan a Private Anniversary Dessert Party at Epcot

[quandrea]

Just heard back from my planner. We've been approved for UK pubside for October 19. Now I just have to work out a menu with the chef that meets my daughter's allergy needs. Can hardly wait! By the way, I've been checking out the disney fairytale weddings inspiration gallery for food ideas. Great resource.

 

[quandrea]

Spoke with the chef. We have to nix anything with chocolate as it is a threat for cross contamination. No chocolate covered strawberries. The quote came back as $39 per person, but my planner left off my meat and cheese platter. Not sure if that was an oversight or not, as I did speak to the chef about it. They also didn't mention if the ice cream was billed on consumption even though I asked for that. I added donuts.

My question for my planner today was: "Does the thirty nine per person apply for ten guests or just for the five I actually have attending?" Waiting to hear back on that as well on clarification about the meat and cheese platter. Looking to stay within the minimums, which I told the chef. They would also be charging $45 for a six inch cake. not decided on that yet.

 

[DisneyPeachNJ]

Thank you so much for this! We're about five months out from our trip and I would love to do this. Is a $350 budget reasonable? Or should I expect a but more?

 

[lurkyloo]

Well, those are the minimums. You'll also have 6.5% tax on pretty much everything, 23% service charge on food and beverage, and then 6.5% tax on the service charge. Plus $12.95 viewing fee for anyone without park admission.

 

[quandrea]

Well, those are the minimums. You'll also have 6.5% tax on pretty much everything, 21% service charge on food and beverage, and then 6.5% tax on the service charge. Plus $12.95 viewing fee for anyone without park admission.

The service charge is now 25%

 

[lurkyloo]

It went up to 23% in January - are you sure about that?

 

[quandrea]

She wrote 23% on two emails, 25%on two others now that I check my correspondence. I will need to ask for clarification.

 

[jerseygirlmk]

What a beautiful anniversary! Thank you for sharing!

 

[quandrea]

Just heard back from my planner. We've been approved for UK pubside for October 19. Now I just have to work out a menu with the chef that meets my daughter's allergy needs. Can hardly wait! By the way, I've been checking out the disney fairytale weddings inspiration gallery for food ideas. Great resource.

Well, after an initial phone call and a few emails back and forth my planner is MIA. We discussed a few revisions to a menu, I needed her to correct some errors and get back to me with a final pruce. Nothing. I followed up with her a couple of weeks ago. Nothing. I'm not going to chase disney so they can take my money. Guess we will do something else.

 

[lurkyloo]

In my experience, DCE doesn't really start to get cracking on these things until about 3 months out, and you're not even at the 6-month mark yet, so it could just be that she's busy planning events that are happening sooner.

 

[Doodlebug25413]

I saw that you had a peanut butter something in your blog. My husband is a die hard peanut butter fan. No chocolate, just the peanut butter.
So with the desserts & cake options, what peanut butter stuff can we do?

 

[lurkyloo]

There's peanut butter buttercream frosting and peanut butter mousse. But no peanut butter cake flavor, so you 'd have to get vanilla, I guess. Let me know how it turns out - sounds delicious!

 

[Doodlebug25413]

Peanut Butter Buttercream you say?? That sounds yummy! I wonder if it would be brown like peanut butter. Wait, the Escape Cakes are done in fondant. So that wouldn't matter would it?
I'm not too crazy about fondant personally. But it makes beautiful cakes.

I just need to make a trip & go order some cakes to taste test. Wonder if my husband will be ok with that.....It's for Research. Yea that's it !

 

[lurkyloo]

It's not super brown. It's sort of... tan? I don't know how to describe it, but it's really tasty. More buttercream than peanut butter. Fondant is just on the outside of the cake. There is a layer of buttercream under the fondant to adhere the fondant to the cake. And then there are layers of filling (or frosting, if you request it) between the layers of cake.

Here - you can see the peanut butter buttercream inside these cakes:

 

[Doodlebug25413]

You're an instigator by night aren't you?
That looks yummo! I mean he will eat a Reese's but it's not often. Now give him a jar of Jif, and it's all she wrote.

Nobody eats the fondant right? Or am I living in a cave still?

 

[lurkyloo]

Well, nobody in the real world eats the fondant, but Disney's is actually pretty tasty. I think they call it "marshmallow fondant" or something, and it's sweet and soft. I usally have a bite or two before licking off all the buttercream.

 

[disney0210]

Hi lurkyloo! I just wanted to thank you for your information on the private dessert party at Epcot. Stumbled upon your disneytravelbabble.com website about 3 weeks before our arrival at WDW so it was whirlwind planning from there on out. I originally had an Illuminations cruise booked but it wasn't too much more to do the party so I nixed the cruise. Everyone was able to keep it a surprise so I was happy. This was just last week. I got my final invoice on Friday however, charging all 12 people in my party when my event coordinator said only those over the age of 3 will get charged (which is 9 people in my party), so I'm still waiting for them to fix the bill. The BOC viewing fee which I paid for in advance for 3 of my guests will also need to be reversed since the entire party decided to spend their day at Epcot after all (no one needed to be brought in through International Gateway).

Here are some pics of the set up:


These warm berry cobblers were the best for me



It was very hot that day so the ganache melted after a short time.


DH loved these tarts the best

.

 

[VikkiLilyBee]

Can I ask how much your food was pp? Those key lime Mickey tarts look delicious!

 

[disney0210]

Can I ask how much your food was pp? Those key lime Mickey tarts look delicious!

It was $29.50 + 23% service charge + tax on top of the venue fee.

 

[lurkyloo]

Hi lurkyloo! I just wanted to thank you for your information on the private dessert party at Epcot. Stumbled upon your disneytravelbabble.com website about 3 weeks before our arrival at WDW so it was whirlwind planning from there on out. I originally had an Illuminations cruise booked but it wasn't too much more to do the party so I nixed the cruise. Everyone was able to keep it a surprise so I was happy. This was just last week. I got my final invoice on Friday however, charging all 12 people in my party when my event coordinator said only those over the age of 3 will get charged (which is 9 people in my party), so I'm still waiting for them to fix the bill. The BOC viewing fee which I paid for in advance for 3 of my guests will also need to be reversed since the entire party decided to spend their day at Epcot after all (no one needed to be brought in through International Gateway).

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm so glad you were able to pull this off in such a short time. Looks like it was fantastic! Were you at UK Upper? If you have any shots of the setup or fireworks, I know the readers of this board would love to see them!