Guests staying at the Emerald Island Resort in Kissimmee over New Year, you may be interested in two offerings at The Magic Kingdom.
New Years Eve at Walt Disney World is traditionally a busy time. This year, The Magic Kingdom is offering two options for guests to take a break from the crowds and enjoy an exclusive event.
The first is a special New Years Eve package which includes a 2 hour all you care to enjoy dinner. The dinner is from 6.30 p.m. - 8.30 p.m. on December 31st at the Tommorrowland Terrace Noodle Station. Dinner includes dessert and non-alcolohic sparkling beverages. After dinner, you and your family will settle down in exclusive, reserved seating for the holiday Wishes! fireworks show.
The menu includes fresh fruits, assorted cheeses, sushi, salads, seared tuna, artisan breads, beef short-ribs, and carved pork. Kid friendly foods such as macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets will also be available.
The Magic Kingdom’s New Year’s Eve Wishes! dining experience costs $139.99 for guests age 10 and up and $69.99 for guests ages 3 to 9. Children under 3 can dine for free.
The second offering is the Fantasy in the Sky Dessert Party which starts at 9.50pm. This event features a self service buffet offering a variety of deserts and non-alcoholic beverages. The dessert party costs $35.99 for guests age 10 and up and $19.99 for guests ages 3 to 9.
Theme park admission is required for both events.
For reservations call: (407) WDW-DINE
Character Dining can be reserved online or by phone
As of the 27th October 2009, advance dining reservations (ADRs) for Walt Disney World restaurants can be now made 180 days in advance. Some popular dining options can sell out in minutes, Cinderella’s Royal Table, located in Cinderella’s Castle in The Magic Kingdom is one such option.
Dining reservations can now be made online here or by calling (407) WDW-DINE. Online reservations can be made as early as 6am Eastern time – earlier than the telephone reservation department opens, bear this in mind when searching for those popular reservations!. Both options are available to you when staying at Emerald Island.
Sometimes it may be better to call for a reservation rather than book online. If you are looking for a dinner reservation at the Contemporary’s California Grill at the same time as the fireworks, only the live operator will be able to tell you what time the fireworks are that night.
Even at slower times of the year, advance dining reservations are a must. If you are a compulsive planner or want specific reservations (for example character dining), you will want to get your Walt Disney World dining reservations in place early. It is feasible to get reservations the day prior, even for large family groups. You have to be flexible on restaurant and time, but it is not an impossible mission.
We tend to be flexible guests at Walt Disney World, preferring not to plan our every day down to the last second. A tactic that has worked for us is to book a couple of key dining reservations for specific events that we definitely wanted to experience during our trip. These might be character dinners or reserved seating at Fantasmic. These days are booked for that event and park, but the other days we leave flexible. Then as our plans firm up during the week (which park we want to go to on which day), we phone up and get perhaps a dinner or lunch reservation for the next day or two. (This has worked, even with a group of 15 of us!) Usually we book lunch in a nice restaurant which gives us a welcome mid day break from the hustle and bustle. Dinner is usually off site at one of the many restaurants in Kissimmee / Orlando or a take out eaten at the vacation home.
Don’t forget about dining options in the resort hotels themselves or at The Boardwalk or Downtown Disney. Emerald Island Resort guests can still dine at Boma, The Wave and any of the other resort restaurants. Great for those quiet non-park days.
A cool place
When you think of Kissimmee or Orlando, you think of hot, humid, tropical. You think of Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney World, Universal and Sea World. In the words or Monty Python “and now for something completely different…” lets transport you to a bar made entirely of ice. Yes, you read correctly. ICE. Frozen water. Yup, cold. Welcome to the wonderful, frozen world of ICEBAR. This bar is carved from more than fifty tons of ice and is kept at a frost 27 degrees farenheit. Ice carved seating is draped with faux furs. Pop in, sip a frosty concoction, and enjoy a respite from the usual heat of the area. Entrance to icebar is $19.95, but you can often find a discount for an online pre-purchase. Entrance includes use of some unique gear to help keep you warm in the frozen zone! http://www.icebarorlando.com/ice/ Afterward, you can retire to their Fire lounge to warm up and have a few drinks.
So if you are looking for something a little bit different during your stay at The Manor located on the Emerald Island Resort, you might want to check out the Icebar.
This is the closest shopping plaza to Emerald Island Resort. It has restaurants, grocery store, mini golf, UPS store and more. It also has a new website at http://formosagardensvillage.com/
Some of our favorite restaurants on the Formosa Gardens Plaza are TGI Fridays, Outback Steakhouse and Cracker Barrel. Other people love Giordano’s Pizza which is also in the plaza.
Very convenient location from Emerald Island and you more or less have to drive by it on your way home from the attractions.
A notable place on the plaza is the the Centra Care office. I hope you never need it, but it is nice to know that it is there should you have a medical need.
