Christmas and New Years at WDW - "free dining"!!

We will be there this year for Christmas with "free dining", I am looking forward to the rest of your report.
 
I think I can fit a few meals into one post with this one! By this point in the trip, my food photo taking had become lazy. The crowds were starting to pick up and I was hitting my Disney wall. It happens every trip. Sigh.

December 29th we did Hollywood Studios - for the life of me I can't remember what lunch was (though it was quite possibly a milkshake from Min and Bills) however we grabbed dinner from the ABC Commissary. The commissary gets a bad reputation and terrible reviews on a fairly consistent basis - I had no good reason to go here, but I also had no good reason not to. I also wanted to know what a quick service steak would give me.

This is no longer on the menu, however it was a steak with fries and roasted corn. The steak had a chimichurri sauce with it as well and to be 100% real with you it was pretty great! An awesome use of a credit, I could easily cut the steak with the crummy plastic knives that were there and the sides were also really good. Please also note these weren't your typical Disney fries (victory!!!!)

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PLUS I had to get one of the seasonal cupcakes with Prep and Landing on it.....

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The next night we did the Happily Ever After dessert party in Magic Kingdom - I can say without a doubt this is my Disney Holidays Secret Life Hack for you all - Magic Kingdom does their New Years Eve fireworks on December 31 AND December 30! The dessert party on the 30 is regular price, the 31 is way more expensive. Go on the 30th, you still get the DJ and party atmosphere, you do the dessert party, see the castle lighting show, AND see the NYE fireworks....honestly we're still patting ourselves on the back for this.

As you can see from my plate, if you think you're going to get your moneys worth from the desserts you probably won't. However, they were plentiful and there was definitely more than enough to get seconds or thirds. We would do this again just for the reserved seating area on the grass infront of The Plaza - to not have to be in the crowd was 100% worth the money to us.

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Lastly, for this update, at some point we ended up at California Grill . We had a great meal here, but I only got photos of mine. Of course it's no longer on the menu, but I do believe it was Bison or Buffalo. We had avoided California Grill for a long time, no idea why, but we really liked the meal here and will go back. At this point, I don't think we've tried a single signature meal we haven't loved.

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Also, the best part of this meal, was the brought us EACH our own little butter dish. It made my bread and butter loving heart sing :)

Next up, New Years Eve in EPCOT......Coral Reef!
 


Oh my goodness @roxysmum123 your dessert party tip for the 30th December is excellent!! My husband and I are planning a December 2019 trip which will see us enjoying New Years Even in the parks. We were terrified of how bad the crowds would be but your tip will allow us to enjoy our resort, join the park crush in the late afternoon or early evening and not have to sit on a sidewalk for 6 hours to stake out a decent view. Thanks so much :)
 
We decided to do NYE at Epcot because we're poor decision makers.

We knew the fireworks would be epic (they ring off fireworks over all the countries according to who went through the timezone first, plus a finale that you need sunglasses for) so we decided to risk it because it was a once in a lifetime thing for us. Hindsight 20/20, I'm glad we did but at the time where you were literally elbow to elbow walking through World Showcase or afterwards waiting 2 hours for a bus it felt like The Stupidest Idea On Earth. Will we do it again? Not on your life, we'll do Hollywood Studios next time. However I wouldn't discourage anyone from doing it - it really was a once in a lifetime experience.

To give some context to the crowds, this was 2pm....it was already so full that people were spilling over and sitting on green spaces that are typically a no-fly zone for guests.
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Also. That Mickey Bar was pretty dang delicious.

We decided to book our dinner for Coral Reef. I know this place gets some pretty bad reviews but we have always enjoyed our meals here. We knew the only way to survive NYE at Epcot would be to have a TS dinner planned. I believe we had this booked around 7pm, and that was a good time for us.....the break from the park was very welcome. Lets cross our fingers that the menu hasn't changed so I can actually give you the full rundown of our choices....

Lobster Bisque
Cream, Brandy, Chervil

$10.00
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This is what I always get for a starter when it's on a menu, I liked it a lot. I don't always love the bowls Disney uses (I'm looking at you half-pyramid bowl from Artist Point), but this one was the right shape to not leave a drop behind.

Caesar Salad
Parmesan Cheese, Croutons

$10.00


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My husbands choice. It was a caesar salad.

Grilled 8-oz Center-cut New York Strip Steak
Sour Cream-Cheddar-Chive Mashed Potatoes with Bacon and Bercy Butter

$34.00

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Also my husbands choice. He doesn't like "weird" food....which usually means normal food that's been described in a fancy yet unrecognizable way. And he sure as heck doesn't like seafood. He always gets the steak here - it remains one of his fave steaks on property. He orders medium-rare and has never had them miss preparing it properly for him.

And our first snag is my meal, I got the Seafood Scampi - of course its off the menu now so I can't share the details with you but it surprised me. I typically get the Mahi Mahi here but decided to change it up. I'm glad I did, I've never had scampi before so this was a definite risk lol but it was very very good and I would order it again.
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For dessert we got a mystery dessert that's now off the menu and
Turtle Cheesecake......maybe?
Pecan Florentine, Chocolate and Caramel Ganache, and Caramel Sauce

$9.50


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Maybe it was an apple strudel? Bread pudding? Looking at what I thought was the turtle cheesecake it looks decidedly less chocolatey than it should...but....hmm. Now I have no idea what it was. BUT it was delicious. The dessert I usually get here is the Baileys and JD Mousse, and I can also highly recommend that choice.

We left right when they were setting off regular Illuminations. They do two shows on NYE, the regular Illuminations at 9pm and the full kit-and-kaboodle for New Years at midnight.

My husband was determined to have the 'best' view, so we went and grabbed our spot right after the show. We were sitting here for hours. And hours. And hours. Here's an idea of the crowd about 10pm
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The 'empty' space you see...it's only empty because it was a walkway and you couldn't sit there. IF YOU DO NOT LIKE BEING CLOSE TO STRANGERS DO NOT GO TO EPCOT FOR NEW YEARS EVE!!


By the end of it, I couldn't feel my butt and my patience was shot. We were rewarded with a great fireworks show, but it came at a cost. Also, hot tip, the regular washrooms close down when the crowds get big. Like, no potty for you. You have to walk all the way around to the World Showcase Pavilion between Canada and The U.K. to use the facilities. HOWEVER the washrooms here are VERY clean and incredibly plentiful...no lineups and you didn't have to dodge the drunkies. I get why they did it, but in the moment when you're waiting for the last second to try to use the facilities because you know you'll be going through a sea of humanity to do so - you're cranky. Sooooooo life lesson, don't wait until you HAVE to go to try to find a loo on NYE.

Anyway, the view we were rewarded with.....
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Worth it.
 

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We were at EPCOT on NYE too! We watched the early Illuminations show and then got out of there. Way too many people for my taste!
 
Great report.
We have just booked a Christmas trip from Christmas Eve until 4th Jan.
We are going to HS on New Years Eve but did contemplate walking into Epcot at the international gateway to see if we could see the fireworks. We are staying at the beach club so it would be a quick walk back. Are we mad?
 

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