There are two new ways to experience Harmonious, the brand-new nighttime spectacular at EPCOT. If standing along World Showcase Lagoon just won’t cut it and you’re looking to add a little something special to your evening, new dining packages are available for booking at both Rose & Crown Dining Room in the U.K. Pavilion as well as Spice Road Table in the Morocco Pavilion.

We chose to experience Harmonious from Rose & Crown Dining Room recently, and we wanted to share our experience and our thoughts with you today to discuss whether or not it’s worth the price tag!

Overview

So what is that price tag, you ask? The dining package at Rose & Crown Dining Room costs $89 per adult and $39 per child. That comes with one appetizer, one entrée, a dessert platter, and unlimited drinks. This same-ish package was offered for previous fireworks shows for just a couple bucks cheaper. 

This dining package also comes with waterfront views of Harmonious, the newest fireworks show at EPCOT! Park tickets to EPCOT on the day of your reservation are required, as well as a Park Pass Reservation. If you have park hopper, you could also “hop” to EPCOT later in the day.

Unlike some other fireworks watch parties (like the new party at Disney’s Contemporary Resort for Disney Enchantment), there isn’t a dress code for the Rose & Crown Fireworks dining package.

It’s totally fine to show up in whatever you had planned to wear to the parks that day.

Atmosphere

This dining package is available at Rose & Crown, which is situated along World Showcase Lagoon in the U.K. Pavilion. Check in for this dining package begins approximately 45 minutes prior to the start of the show. Usually Harmonious will start at 9:45, but the times are subject to change, so make sure to double-check for the show’s time on the day that you’re there.

To check-in, you’ll head to the Rose & Crown check-in podium (the big green podium to the left of the actual building) and let the Cast Members know that you’re there for the fireworks dining package. The Cast Members had cards with our party’s name on it to reserve our table.

When we arrived, we were brought out to the patio area outside of Rose & Crown, which is the designated area for guests who booked this dining package.

On the table, we had menus, napkins with silverware, and a light since there wasn’t much overhead lighting (so that we could see the fireworks better). We ARE at a pub, after all, so a bottle of malt vinegar was also on our table.

Our host added the reservation card to our table, and we sat down to take a look at the menu!

Menu

The dining package includes one (1) appetizer, one (1) entrée, a dessert platter, and unlimited beverages. But what exactly does that all include? Let’s take a look at the menu!

Drinks are unlimited at this event, and you can choose from a variety of Ales, Lagers, and Stouts, or check out the long list of Pub Blends available. That’s the full list of draft beers and blends on the regular dining room and pub menu! There’s also a specialty cocktail (the same featured drink as on past visits to this experience) and a couple of options for wine. Drinks are unlimited, so you can choose a variety of alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks throughout the night. This was a nick perk of booking this package in the past so it’s nice to see it’s still the case!

Non-alcoholic drinks include sodas, lemonade, iced tea, Joffrey’s coffee, or hot tea. There’s also a Special Character Drink for young kids (9 years old or younger), which is lemonade in a souvenir cup with a glowing ice cube.

Most dessert parties offer “unlimited” alcohol, but it’s not quite in a sit down restaurant, real drink menu setting like this. It’s usually pop-up temporary bars with limited canned selections or pre-made punch. So the opportunity to essentially have unlimited draft beer (or a cocktail or wine!) while you watch the fireworks from great seats is likely a huge draw for many. 

For appetizers, you can choose from the soup of the day, the United Kingdom Cheese Platter, or a Scotch Egg. (Everything on the full menu BUT the Coronation Salad) Options for entrees are Fish and Chips, Shepherds Pie, Catch of the Day, or Bangers and Mash. (Missing are the Welsh Burger, Tikka Masala Curry, or Impossible Hot Pot from the full menu) And the dessert is the same for everyone — a Pudding Platter with samplings of three different puddings: Sticky Toffee Pudding, Strawberry Trifle, and Malted Milk Chocolate Mousse.

Eats and Drinks

We started out with something to drink. We chose the Shandy from the Pub Blends menu, which is half Harp Lager and half Sprite. The Pub Blends are a big hit at this spot and a big draw for many guests. If you’re in the mood to change up your normal beer order, blends can be a fun way to do it.

The Shandy was nice and light (since it’s cut with that Sprite) and a bit sweet, not surprisingly. Some places prefer to make a shandy with lemonade, but the Sprite kept everything nice and bubbly. Remember, you can switch up your order if you want another round. The entire draft beer selection of Rose and Crown is at your disposal.

Rose & Crown’s menu is full of classic British dishes. We wanted to give you an authentic dining experience, so we started off our evening with the United Kingdom Cheese Platter.

On the platter, there were plenty of gluten-free Multigrain crackers to try the cheese and accompaniments with.

All three cheeses are varieties of Irish Cheddar. The first cheese was paired with an apple chutney, and both were drizzled with a blackcurrant sauce. We thought the sweet flavor from the chutney and sauce paired really well with the strong cheese. This was one of our favorite pairings on the plate!

The second group was McCall’s Irish Cheddar with Curry Cauliflower. In the past, we found the curry cauliflower to be a little lacking in flavor, but the cheese here was the sharpest of the three. Overall these were okay, but probably our least favorite on the plate.

The last pairing was Cotswold Cheese with Chives and Onion Jam. The onion jam — along with the apple chutney — was one of our favorite parts of this whole dish. The cheese was creamy and less sharp than the other two.

We did our best not to fill up on cheese, though, because we still had an entrée to choose! We went with a Rose & Crown classic: the Shepherd’s Pie.

This dish is ground beef, seasonal vegetables, and English peas, topped with mashed potatoes with McCall’s Irish Cheddar.

The mashed potatoes on top are whipped, which makes them light and fluffy and SO delicious. The serving size is huge, so you’ll want to come hungry if you’re planning on ordering this dish.

The filling was nice and moist, with tender vegetables and well-cooked meat. The potatoes on top keep the filling super warm, so this is a great dish to have if it’s a little chilly outside. In general, we think Shepherd’s pie is the perfect comfort food — filling, warm, and very delicious. This is stick to your ribs food in the best and most cozy way possible

Then it was time for dessert! The dining package came with a full dessert platter, which is the same for everyone. The platter includes Sticky Toffee Pudding, Strawberry Trifle, and Malted Milk Chocolate Mousse.

We thought the little servings of each dessert were a perfect way to try a few bites of several great treats.

The Sticky Toffee Pudding was served warm with vanilla custard underneath the pudding itself. It’s a steamed “cake” that’s topped with a hot butter-rum sauce. The dish itself is a British classic. The texture is like a very moist, dense cake, but the vanilla custard lightens it up well. The pudding is really just a vehicle for the delish rum sauce that was generously poured over everything.

Our favorite was the Strawberry Trifle, which had layers of strawberries, vanilla custard, graham crackers, and whipped cream. This was the lightest dessert, and it was the only one with a fruity flavor. It was topped with a white chocolate Mickey head, decorated with images of fireworks!

Finally, there was the Malted Milk Chocolate Mousse, which was topped with Chocolate Shortbread Ganache. There was a biscuit sticking out on top, and chocolate crispy pearls were scattered on top as well for decoration. The mousse was creamy and smooth, and it was pretty sweet. The malt flavor was mild, but there, which we liked!

All three desserts were delicious! And what made all these delicious dishes even better was that while we ate, we could enjoy views of the Harmonious fireworks show.

Fireworks Viewing

The major selling point of the dining package is, of course, the designated fireworks viewing. By booking this package, you don’t have to worry about finding a good spot along the rails surrounding World Showcase Lagoon.

We had great views of the fireworks show from our table, so we could enjoy the show while we ate.

The UK pavilion isn’t very central in the World Showcase, so you might get more direct views from the American Adventure pavilion or one close to it if you’re really looking to have a “dead on” view of the center ring in the show with projections on it.

You can tell from our pictures that we couldn’t see the big circular screen super well, but we did have a great, unobstructed view of other effects, like the water, lights, and fireworks.

And it was great to not worry about staking out a fireworks spot early in the day.

So in general, the fireworks views were gorgeous, and our spot right by the water was ideal for seeing most of the show. However, if you haven’t seen the show before, you might miss out on some of the projections on the main circular screen.

Nosh or Not?

Clear your evening for a trip to the Rose & Crown Fireworks Dining Package if:

• You want to enjoy the fireworks without worrying about getting a good spot. The seating for this event all has good views, and your place is reserved throughout the evening.
• You love the food at Rose & Crown, or British food in general. The dishes here are classically British. If you like that kind of food and would want a reservation at this spot anyways, why not do it during fireworks?
• You’d love unlimited drinks while you watch fireworks. The unlimited drinks is a big plus here, with lots of options to choose from and plenty of time to sample different ones.

Skip it if:

• You haven’t seen Harmonious yet. We didn’t have a great view of the big circular screen, which is where the main projections are. If you haven’t seen those yet, you might want to get a better view of that screen for your first time.
• You want more options for food. The menu is prix fixe, and you can only choose from the selections on the event’s menu. If your favorite Rose & Crown dish isn’t listed there, you’ll want to just get normal reservations instead. That said, the vast majority of the current menu IS available, so most who enjoy Rose and Crown should be pleased.
• You’re trying to stick to a strict budget. The event is $89 per adult and $39 per child. That’s a pretty steep price for dinner, even in Disney World. You can get dinner for much cheaper in EPCOT and then find your own fireworks spot along World Showcase, saving you some major cash.

Overall

We love the food at Rose & Crown, and we were certainly not disappointed by the food we had at this event. You basically have access to the majority of the normal menu at Rose and Crown plus a reserved view. If you wanted to see the fireworks and dinner at Rose and Crown was on your must-do list, this is an easy choice for a nice evening. We’ve told you numerous times we love the food here and, once again, it was solid.

However, the price for the package was a little high compared to normal dinner prices at Rose & Crown. For reference, usually the Shepherd’s Pie is $22, and you can get a dessert for around $9 and the cheese plate for $14. The drink that we ordered was $10 on the normal menu. That means our meal would be about $55 on a normal reservation. If you think about it that way, it’s like you’re paying $34 for the fireworks spot ($89 minus $55 for the food).

Unlessssssss…you’re really looking to maximize that unlimited drink menu. A couple of pints in (drinking responsibly, of course) and the value starts to show itself. In general though, if you’re OK paying a bit more for the reserved seating and view, this is a solid way to view the fireworks. If you happen to be looking to take advantage of the drink situation here though, the affordability is considerably higher. 

If that’s worth it to you for great, no-hassle views of Harmonious, then this package is a great idea! But remember that you can get a lot of good food in EPCOT, so if fireworks aren’t a top priority, consider all the restaurant options before settling on this package. You can get a great meal at Chefs de France or Le Cellier Steakhouse for cheaper than this package, although neither comes with the fireworks views. So it all depends on your priorities — are fireworks views worth the extra cost?

If you’re dying to do a fireworks viewing package, to us, the big deciding factor between this one and perhaps a dessert party in Magic Kingdom is simple. Are you looking for a full, hearty meal to go with the show or some light sweet and savory bites? If you’re looking to really fill your belly, Rose and Crown does just that. We enjoy the other dessert-based parties as well, but here you’re cozying up for a full MEAL.

Remember that we haven’t seen crazy fireworks-watching crowds in EPCOT the last couple of days. Usually the spots along World Showcase don’t start filling up until right at the start time, so it might not be difficult to get a great viewing spot even without these extra packages. It could be that the new Disney Enchantment show in the Magic Kingdom is taking most of the crowds, and the crowds will start to even out soon. If that’s the case, maybe a reserved spot will become more valuable. We’ll keep an eye on the crowds and let you know what we see going forward.

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Would you book this Harmonious dining package on your next Disney World vacation? Let us know in the comments!

The post REVIEW: Do Unlimited Pints of Beer Make EPCOT’s Fireworks Package Worth It first appeared on the disney food blog.