Being able to attend a dessert buffet and watch the Epcot fireworks from a World Showcase Pavilion (ended up being Italy), was one of the selling points when nora suggested to nick that we attend the D23 Magic & Merriment event. We’ve both seen many blog posts about dessert buffets at each of the theme parks, and we’ve read the raves of how amazing the food was and how thrilling it was to be able to see the fireworks from a separate private area (for example, here’s an upcoming event from The Disney Food Blog).
Things didn’t go as we had hoped, maybe we shot ourselves in the foot because we didn’t attend the Candlelight Processional. Well, honestly, we’re not that impressed or thrilled with Candlelight Processional, it’s not a religious thing, we just don’t get the nearly rabid devotion that some WDW guests have for this particular event. The schedule said that the seating for the Dessert Buffet would begin at 9:00, so we arrived back at Epcot with enough time to spare that we stopped in Germany and got a couple of glasses of wine to enjoy on our stroll over to the Italy Isola. We arrived there pretty close to the end of Candlelight Processional, there were WDW Event People there; so we showed our badges and asked if we could sit down. Nope. THEIR paperwork said that they could start letting guests into the area at 9:15 (now the fireworks start at 9:30 during the holidays, so we were going to have 15 minutes to snag a table, grab some food, and be ready to watch the fireworks… sigh). Nora decided to stand around and wait, nick went back to Germany for more wine to go with dessert.
Thankfully, they did let us in to a “holding area” before Candlelight Processional let out, so we weren’t on the sidewalk in the crazy crush. Promptly at 9:15, the WDW Event People (these aren’t the same as the D23 people) escorted us in to the dessert area. We were able to get a table on the little patio that juts out into the World Showcase Lagoon, nora went for food first and then nick went up.
Candy Cane Mousse, Snickerdoodles, and in the background, the Warm Brownie with Vanilla Cream
We were so underwhelmed by the dessert buffet. Snickerdoodles (cookies that we don’t like), pretty plain, bland and boring! Candy Cane Mousse was interesting, but it wasn’t a WOW dessert. The Warm Brownie with Vanilla Cream NEEDED the vanilla cream because it was rather dried out for the presentation. The Pumpkin Buttons were dry and they needed cinnamon sugar or something to give them flavor and texture. Overall, it was very disappointing. We KNOW that the Chefs at WDW can produce some really good food when given the opportunity and since this was a special event to showcase Walt Disney World during the Holidays for D23 Members, the food should have been better.
Dessert Buffet offerings, some of them… Snickerdoodles & Pumpkin Buttons (you can see a guest taking the last Candy Cane Mousse)
So, did we get to enjoy the fireworks? Yes, we did get to enjoy Illuminations: Reflections of Earth with the Holiday Tag. There were some shortcomings though – for the first time in our experience, the fireworks at Epcot were delayed due to technical difficulty… delayed for 20 minutes… also, it was a rather warm & humid night, so there was a lot of smoke that obscured things & made it difficult for nick to get good photos (thankfully, the smoke blew towards the America Pavilion and not towards the Italy Pavilion!).
Illuminations!
So, all in all, this was “just okay”… not the great, fantastic experience we were expecting (hoping for)…
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