Celebration at the Top - Sip, Savor, Sparkle
There is one event at the Contemporary that we have been wanting to do for some time, however due to the infrequency and irregular scheduling, our trips have never coincided with when it was offered…until our most recent trip.
I am of course talking about Celebration at the Top - Sip, Savor, Sparkle. This event is only offered a few times a month, if it is even offered that month. In the past few months it’s been offered only four times each month, and the schedule is never consistent. Some months it’s offered on random Saturdays and Sundays, other months they will only have it one week and do four consecutive days and that’s it for the entire month. And, to make it even more difficult to book, they often don’t release the dates until about 30 days prior to the event. So needless to say, this is a difficult event to book!
We got exceptionally lucky on our trip in June that the only days this was offered for the month all fell during our trip. The dates weren’t loaded into the system until about 35 days prior to the event, and at that point they were not available for booking.
At first I thought I had missed out on snagging a reservation when I saw that the dates were finally showing up for June but when I tried to book it, it showed no availability. I had a suspicion though that maybe they hadn’t actually opened booking yet since I couldn’t imagine all four dates had sold out in the short amount of time since I checked earlier, so I signed up at Mouse Dining (no affiliation, but I do recommend and it’s free!) to get alerts if booking became available. Sure enough, a few days later I got the alert that space was available! It was clear at that point that booking just hadn’t been open when the dates first showed up since all dates had plenty of availability and were available for a few days after.
On the night of the event we decided to take a Minnie Van over to the Contemporary instead of an Uber since we’ve heard from others who have done this event that sometimes the guards are not aware this event even exists since it is so infrequent and have given them a hard time getting through the gate to get into the hotel. So we figured with the Minnie Van we wouldn’t have to worry about an uninformed guard not letting us in.
We ended up arriving at the Contemporary pretty early, the event was scheduled to start at 8:20, but we arrived at the Contemporary around 7:25. I’m glad we got there early though since there was a long back-up getting past the guard. While the Minnie Van can use the official Disney car gate and bypass the guard, the back-up extended far enough back where it was only a single lane so we couldn’t even get to the side gate to bypass people for about 15 minutes. So if you are driving or taking a ride share, I do recommend giving yourself some extra time since a lot of people are arriving around this time for dinner reservations and it could be backed up.
After we were finally dropped off, we made our way upstairs to the check-in desk. The check-in is at the same desk as the California Grill. Once they got us checked-in and gave us our wristbands for the event, we went to relax at one of the many seating areas on this level.
Not long after sitting down, we saw a line starting to form for the event, so we made our way over to join the line. It was about 7:45 at that point. Since seating is first come first serve, we wanted to be towards the front of the line so we could get a good table.
The line built very quickly, after about 10 minutes I looked behind us and was shocked at how long the line had gotten! There looked to be about 50 groups behind us and people were still coming. This was not what we expected, from the few reviews we’ve seen, this was a very intimate event, but this evening it looked like it would be a bit more crowded. (Spoiler alert, once upstairs it was spread out enough it never felt crowded)
Around 8:00 they started to bring us upstairs. We just missed the first elevator, but were first on the second.
When we got upstairs they had a table with welcome drinks, a Bellini this night, our nametags for our table. We grabbed our drinks and name tag and went to find a good table.
There are two rooms where the tables are set up for the event, one with windows looking out over Bay Lake, and the other much larger room with views of Magic Kingdom. The Bay Lake room is where the food is served, and the Magic Kingdom view room is where the open bar is.
We had previously discussed which room we wanted to be in, and we decided the Bay Lake side to be closer to the food. So when we got our name tag we went to that room to find a table. Since this is the smaller room with only a few tables, we almost missed out on getting a table in this room since a group of four decided to take two of the two person tables. Fortunately, they were soon moved since the tables were set up based on the sizes of the groups that evening, and with a group of four taking two two-tops, two groups of two would need to share a table. So once they were moved, we grabbed on of those two-top tables.
view from our table
The food was already set out when we got there, so after grabbing our table, we went up to get our first round of food.
We were so impressed with the food here this evening. Not only was it all delicious, but there were so many options! I did not realize just how much would be offered! Here’s the list of all the non-dessert food they had the evening we went:
BBQ Fried Chicharron
Mojo Chicken Chilaquiles
Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli
Spicy Tuna Sushi Roll
California Sushi Roll
Poached Shrimp in Pineapple-Jalapeno Aguachile
Red Snapper and Scallop Ceviche
Tuna Poke Cones
Heirloom Tomato and Smoked Mozzarella Focaccia
Tacos al Pastor
Cheeseburger Sliders
To start we got the slider, the focaccia, the taco, a goat cheese ravioli, and some sushi. We then took turns going to the open bar to get drinks. We ended up getting a margarita and a glass of red wine.
slider and focaccia
taco al pastor
goat cheese raviolli
sushi
margarita
The flatbread and the ravioli were my favorites from that round, but everything was very good.
For my second round I grabbed the scallop and snapper ceviche, a tuna poke cone, and more sushi. The ceviche was amazing and one of my favorite dishes of the night, but again, everything was delicious.
tuna poke cone, ceviche, and sushi
We went up a few more times to try the other items. The really nice thing about this event is the cast members were constantly replenishing the dishes. We happened to be seated next to the goat cheese ravioli station, and that one was running out constantly, but within a few minutes a new batch would be brought out. They were really on top of things and made sure that the items were mostly available all night.
mojo chicken chilaquiles
Around 9:00 the cast members moved one of the food tables off to the side and brought in the dessert cart! I opted to wait until after the fireworks though to grab dessert.
So speaking of the fireworks, this event is basically a dinner and a private deck to watch the fireworks from. However, we noticed that around 8:40 a number of groups who were not with the event went out onto the roof deck that was supposed to be reserved for just us. I assumed that close to the fireworks a cast member would go out there to move those people, but nope, nobody was monitoring who was going out there. We went out at 9:10 and were the first people from the event to go out (easy to see since we all had bright green wristbands), and all the spots along the far edge facing Seven Seas Lagoon were already taken by the people who didn’t pay for the event. This is something I do believe Disney should remedy since they clearly state on the event description that the viewing deck is private and only for those at the event. Fortunately, we recognized that the better view of the show would be on the end facing Bay Lake Tower rather than Seven Seas Lagoon, so we grabbed our spot there and had a perfect view of the fireworks.
The fireworks started at 9:20 and it were fantastic as always!
After the show we headed back inside. Now one thing that is great about this event is that it continues after the fireworks, and for quite a while. They also keep bringing out fresh food, and not just desserts, but the dinner as well!
Once back inside we went to get our desserts. For desserts this evening these were the offerings:
Chocolate Hazelnut Pot de Creme
Tropical Fruit Tart
Key Lime and Coconut Pie
Chocolate Espresso Brownie
Strawberry Cheesecake
Everything looked so good, but by then we were full from all the earlier food, but we still tried as many things as we could!
The desserts were really good, but more the standard dessert party fare and not as unique as the dinner offerings. I also picked up another glass of wine to enjoy with them, and my dining partner got an amaretto. It was really nice having the open bar, that’s not something you see often in Disney World!
They had last call at the bar around 10:00, but we had drunk enough by then! I’m not sure how late the event went, we ended up leaving around 10:10 since we wanted to catch the boat back to Wilderness Lodge where we were staying, and the event was still going strong when we left.
Besides the non-event people using the private fireworks viewing area, this event was perfection! I could not believe the amount and quality of food that was served. The event lasted a good while too, we were brought up just after 8:00, and it was still going when we left a bit after 10:00. Throughout the night they were refreshing/replenishing the food, and you can’t forget the open bar! For the price, we found this to be an amazing deal for what you get. We definitely recommend checking this one out, if you can get it of course!