Here’s a conundrum
Would you ditch dinner at CG so that you could stay at UOR till close and see the new Cinematic Celebration and possibly the Nighttime Lights at Hogwart’s Castle?
Bear in mind (a) I’m doing brunch at CG, so I’m not missing out on it altogether, and (b) I’m on the dining plan so I’d effectively not be using two credits for a meal any more.
I will tell you after 2/13. Then I will have had both brunch and dinner there.
We seem to always start at EP! I think the current plan has us hopping to MK though. No parks on day 0.
I would for the Hogwarts lights. We probably won’t make any special effort to see the Cinematic Celebration.
I saw the Nighttime Lights last summer, but I was only half-concentrating because of being an idiot and wanting to take photos, all of which were rubbish. So I’d like another chance. (Although it’s not on every night and Universal doesn’t publish times until really close to the actual dates, which is annoying.)
I just watched the Cinematic Celebration on YouTube (well, I skipped through it) and it looks like it might be worth a watch. It looks better than the old Cinematic Spectacular.
I’m probably voting in favour of my new plan because it gives me flexibility at other points in the trip. The previous iteration of the plan had four trips to Universal, including a short 3 hour trip. That 3 hour trip will now become 6.5 hours and means I could sacrifice one of the others later in the trip if I needed to, e.g. because a day had been rained off earlier in the trip.
You could always use the bump-and-run to hang on to that reservation and decide more “in the moment” based on what your thinking/feeling that day.
You could, as well, eat at the bar at CG which serves the full menu as the restaurant
News update
The trip is definitely going ahead. I got a great 0% credit card deal in the mail today, which I interpreted as being God’s way of telling me to pay the balance of my booking and order my Universal tickets.
Which I’ve done.
So everything is now paid for — well, at least at Virgin’s, WDW’s and UOR’s ends — so the trip is definitely going ahead. Hurrah!
Be careful of that. We tried to do that our last day and MDE was completely NOT working.
Yay!!!
It’s just him tho. So if it fails? $10
True. It was $30 for us. 
My current thinking is now this.
CRT on arrival night, followed by FPP 7DMT then two hours of EMH. I’m going to aim for an 8pm reservation with the idea of seeing HEA from inside the restaurant. If there’s anything to see.
(My flight is scheduled to arrive at 3pm, so I figure I can get to CRT in five hours.)
Watching HEA indirectly is going to be sort of a theme because the next day — a full MK day — is now going to end with dinner at CG, again watching HEA from there.
I’ll get yet another distant view from Narcoossee’s on my last night.
This does all mean that I won’t actually see HEA up-close — and certainly no dessert party. I’m not too troubled by this. I’ve seen HEA from the Plaza Gardens four times now. Plus Hallowishes once and Holiday Wishes once. I can live without a close up HEA. Especially if it saves expenditure on a dessert party.
Old thread, but trying to figure out if this spot is still a viable option for HEA. Do you know? My sister has asked me to help her plan a 2 day whirlwind trip in Sept. They are planning to be in MK on 9/29 & my niece insists on watching the last HEA.
Yep. It definitely still is a great spot!
Thanks! We sat there in 2017, but didn’t watch HEA this time so I didn’t pay attention when we walked past there.