New Offering - Dessert Party at California Grill

I opted to get an ADR at La Hacienda de San Angel for our EPCOT day (10/4) over Rose & Crown, partly because I was afraid this was going to happen.

I hope the view from La Hacienda will be decent.

So Sonoma room faces bay lake and has no patio access…Napa room has a private door to the patio viewing area. I see no way to effectively manage who has access to which room… Main dining vs party. I suspect cancellations will be coming, or an announcement that dining room guests no longer have access to the patio. Which could get ugly.

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It was for IllumiNations at least. I’m not sure with the new monstrosities ahem I mean “features” in Harmonious

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Spot on!

Oooooh man this is so tempting for a very short adults only trip where we have a no-parks day/night! Do I sacrifice dinner at DS for this?

Umm, but no word on brunch??

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I would be upset if this was completely replacing California Grill. But I will say that I absolutely loved the old Sip, Savor and Sparkle event they used to have before COVID. They had both appetizers, desserts and drinks and for those who don’t want to get into the middle of the Magic Kingdom crowd during fireworks (like my dad, who wouldn’t step foot in the park but thoroughly enjoyed the view from the Contemporary) it’s a great option. My parents both said this was one of their favorite activities of their trip.

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So what were those rooms used for previously? Just regular dining? Special events? Or?

Wondering if this reduces California Grill’s dining capacity or if it is just a bonus source of revenue suddenly…

I know they use them for wedding receptions, that’s where I pulled the info from. Not sure what else they’re used for.

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I’m curious about the ADR thing too as I have 10/2.

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I was talking to a waiter when we were there on Saturday. He said there is little chance of the Sunday brunch coming back this year. They were hoping sometime in 2022

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Thanks! What a bummer. I have a weekend stay at BLT in Dec.

CG Brunch is my top ever dining experience at WDW. I deeply hope it will return.

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Thanks - so it may have just been special events so using it for fireworks just creates some issues with the patio viewing area potentially and not much else. That’s more encouraging at least, that the California Grill will be mostly unaffected overall…

Me too! I wonder what the hold up is. Must be what Len was mentioning about supply chain, etc. I’m also pretty surprised about the lack of lunch options at resorts.

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Even pre-Covid a lot of the resort restaurants didn’t offer lunch. Think the presumption is that most guests are in the parks for lunch so the majority of resort restaurants didn’t offer it. Not sure that will change that much as staffing improves…

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“intimate and private observation deck”

Would it be possible to partition off part of the observation deck? Then maybe Sonoma accesses through Napa? (It’s been several years since we did CG, so I can’t recall the size of it whether the entire thing would be properly called “intimate” or if that is hyperbole for “tiny private section”? Normally how crowded is it with just CG guests?)

Would you say this new event sounds like just a reinvention of this old one? Or is it something new entirely?

It sounds like a refresh of what was there previously.

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Did it have any affect on CG’s normal operations before?