disney with kids

I mentioned in a previous post that I’d been comparing Disney World’s many dessert parties and that we had settled on the Pirates & Pals Fireworks Dessert Voyage. I’m back today to update you on our experience. I made reservations for one of our “rest” days about 2 months in advance. By the night of (the first Sunday in June), this event was sold out. This party originates at the Contemporary Resort and for us, it began at 8pm. Start time varies based on what time Magic Kingdom’s evening fireworks show, Happily Ever After, takes place. We left our resort early and monorail-hopped from Magic Kingdom to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort for quick-service dinner at Captain Cook’s (we had the Coconut Thai meatballs and Pan Asian noodles with shrimp — AMAZING!) and to stroll around before taking the monorail back over to the Contemporary for our event.

We got there a little early, too, and enjoyed checking out the grounds and the gift shops as we had only ever been there for meals at Chef Mickey’s in the past. Once we checked in and were allowed in the room, we were overwhelmed with the amount of lovely dessert, snack, and drink options that were available. There were sweet treats such as cupcakes, cheesecake, novelty ice cream bars, and fruit as well as savory items such as pretzels, chips, popcorn, and raw veggies with hummus. Alcoholic beverages are not included with this experience, but several other drinks were available including tea, lemonade, coffee, and water.

Once everyone grabbed their snacks (and sometimes seconds), we got into line for our Captain Hook & Smee meet and greet. A couple of drawbacks – there were not a lot of places to sit and enjoy your snacks so a lot of people were either standing or sitting on the floor. There were a few tall tables in the middle of the room and rows of chairs along the walls. The other negative was that we did feel somewhat rushed to eat our snacks and have our character greeting because we knew we were on a strict timeline with the fireworks schedule.

The hosts did a great job of keeping everything moving along. A huge plus I would like to point out is that unlike all of the character meals we’ve done thus far, this experience did include Photopass photographers. This means that professional photos were taken and went straight to our Memory Maker rather than us having to rely on cell phone photos, which can often turn out blurry or grainy in nighttime and low-light situations. The character interactions with Smee and Hook were playful and entertaining. Once the greetings were completed, the hosts ushered everyone out to the docks, reminding us several times to use the restroom before getting onto the boats (there were two, each with their own pirate captain).

Once aboard, the pirate hosts entertained guests with conversation, jokes, songs, and information as we cruised around the lagoon. A few minutes prior to Happily Ever After we settled in front of Magic Kingdom. The music for the show came through the speakers on our boat. The view was actually wonderful and this was a new and interesting way to experience the show.

Afterwards, we cruised back to the Contemporary Resort where Peter Pan was waiting for us. We did another photographed meet and greet with Pan and this concluded our evening. The kids got a small prize (such as a plastic pirate sword, hat, etc) on the boat for answering a trivia question and each participant received a bandana that functioned as a “boarding pass” to get onto the boat.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience and we are looking forward to checking out other dessert parties in the future. I really enjoyed that it was based out of the resort rather than a park and we were able to add something extra special that was also relaxing on our rest day.

Have you done dessert parties? Which one was your favorite?

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Candice was raised in east Tennessee. While in college, her best friend dragged her to a Walt Disney World College Program recruiting session at the University of Tennessee and the rest is Disney history. In the Fall of 1999, Candice became a quick service food hostess for Sunset Ranch Market and Fantasmic at Disney-MGM Studios – or what is now known as Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While soaking up her time as a cast member, she met Ryan, a neighbor and a fellow college programmer who worked as a custodial host at Epcot. Four years later, Candice moved to the Midwest and married that boy from across the hall. They now live in Greenwood, Indiana with their two little boys. The Disney-loving foursome took their first family trip to The Happiest Place on Earth in 2013 and Candice is eagerly planning their return. Candice also works full-time at a community mental health center and enjoys taking photographs and blogging at Mommy in the Midwest.

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