Evening 4: CP, Biergarten, FEA and Illuminations!
So this is sort of turning into a bit of a TR that is 95% dining, but I will just have to say that this day was another perfect Epcot day. It was long and it was exhausting but we did SO much, it was just an amazing day. We rode a ton of stuff in future world and then took off for the world showcase where I had very tight plans... we had to get all the way over to the American Adventure for the 3:30pm show of voices of liberty. I LOVE the voices of liberty... I mean love them. I try to see them every time I go and I love their holiday performance.
It was SO hot that day though that we just had to stop by Japan to get a rainbow kakigori... which let's face it, is just fun to say. I've never had this before but it sounded so good... and it is HUGE. I didn't take a picture of it but here is one cribbed from the internet that shows exactly what we had:
Kakigōri
Japanese Shaved Ice available in Rainbow, Strawberry, Melon, Cherry, or Tangerine - rainbow has all 4. I got rainbow because I figured it would be good to share with the kid in case he didn't like any one flavor and as it turned out he didn't like melon OR tangerine so he ate all of the red parts and I ate most of the rest. This does take some time to consume and is not good walking/sharing with your kid food so we ended up standing outside the American Adventure trying to finish it up... we also met up with some new Disney friends while we were there... another disboards member was traveling solo with her son and our sons really hit it off at the dessert party so we exchanged phone numbers and met up a whole bunch of times (including for Jedi training academy... forgot to mention that part since it was not food related!)
Anyway because of time spent consuming kakigori, we unfortunately got to the voices of liberty a little late and got in as they were already singing their first song but here is a shot, I love their holiday costumes:
their performance was fantastic as usual. If you have never seen them, you should make time to do so... they are really an amazing a capella group and one of those lesser known things in Epcot that make it so special. After that we did the 3:45 American Adventure and got out around 4:15 and got ourselves seated for the Candlelight Processional. Edward James Olmos was the narrator and he was fantastic... I saw him about 15 years ago and he was fantastic then as well. We ended up with seats all the way front right in the roped off VIP section, which was a kind of nice surprise (a little Disney magic.... when we originally came in we sat all the way to the left and then realized we could not see the narrator podium AT ALL... my new friend asked a CM about it and since the VIP section was empty they let us sit there, along with some other latecomer CP package holders).
Since the CP package is such a big thing I will make this comment about seating and the show as well... If you can, sit on the right side of the stage. That's where the sign language interpreter is and in my experience, Disney sign language interpreters are INCREDIBLE to watch. They are so fluid and graceful and performers themselves. Even though our seats were on the extreme right I really really enjoyed them.
So here are a couple of pictures before we get to the food.
fuzzy zoomed in pic of EJO:
view of the stage from our seats:
thank you all for indulging me in my bit of remembrance about the rest of that day. The show ended at 5:45 but by the time we cleared the theater and split off for our own dinner plans and fought the crowds to Germany and dealt with both of our bathroom needs (as it turned out the nearest restroom was IN Biergarten) it was time to check in for our meal. We got a nice preview passing the buffet and tables to the bathroom though! Anyway we were given a pager and attempted to walk around the German pavilion but it was so packed with people and so freaking HOT and HUMID. So we decided to just head back into the waiting area and then our pager went off. It was not a very long wait at all. We found the hostess and waited a few minutes for the other party to arrive.
As you know (or know now) Biergarten only has tables for 8 and communal seating if you are less than a part of 8. This is probably part of (but not the entire reason) that I had managed to go to WDW for the last 18 years with Epcot as our favorite park and NEVER ended up at Biergarten. The other reason is that in my former life as a DINK, we tended to not gravitate toward the buffets... signatures were more our style. So for whatever reason, Biergarten has been around forever and is probably the last of the non-recent World Showcases that I have yet to go to. So we were standing around waiting for the other 6 people for our table to arrive and they showed up a few minutes after we did.
Now this is a big source of anxiety for a lot of people, myself included. But we decided that Biergarten looked interesting enough that I'd be willing to risk it, and the picky kid is ALWAYS up for making new friends. It turned out we didn't have much to worry about, a nice family of 6 (grandparents, parents, two kids) were seated with us. They were really nice and flexible about letting me sit next to G and the two kids sat down at our end of the table and by the end of the meal picky kid and their girls were talking up a storm about pokemon while I chatted with the adults about DVC, the food and beer. It was a nice meal from that perspective.
But now that you've endured all the rest of this stuff, we can move on to the food. I WILL say that I had fairly low expectations of Biergarten, being a buffet that gets mostly good but also some mixed reviews. I will also say that we showed up pretty hungry. So we were probably in an ideal place to enjoy this experience, and enjoy it we did!
For drinks, picky kid ordered apple juice and got it in a smaller beer mug looking thing. I didn't take another picture of apple juice, sorry. I got the grapefruit beer and stupidly ordered a liter of it. I'm not sure what I was thinking except "hey, 2x the beer for 1.5x the price! what a bargain!"
This is what I ended up with:
this turned into a pretty major eyes bigger than stomach situation. It was good, nice and cold but just toooooo much to finish. more on that later.
I took the picky kid up to the buffet and here is his first (and only) plate. He typically got second plates at other buffets but by the time he was done with this he had his head buried in our tablemate's phone looking at her pokedex and that was the end of dinnertime... there was also a lot of food on this plate.
starting at the top 12 o'clock position and going clockwise we have: roasted chicken, salami from the cold bar, a huge wedge of mac and cheese, a couple of pretzel rolls (I ended up grabbing one of these), and a couple of pieces of pork schnitzel.
Now this was his plate so I can't tell you firsthand how it tasted, but when I cut the chicken up for him it was nice and moist... and I can tell you that everything on it was gone...devoured... except the chicken bones and chicken skin. So he must have liked it, even the custardy mac and cheese which some picky kids have issues with... but molten cheese is basically one of his major food groups.
Here is my first plate:
I will now give a listing starting at 12 o'clock and going clockwise with everything on my plate along with my commentary about it.
right at the top the red stuff is the beet salad which is not really "salad" as much as sliced beets, which is fine by me because I love beets. These were good pickled beets, kind of lightly pickled and not too much extra sugar added (I find some have too much extra sugar) and nice and fresh and had a little crunch to them (I prefer them with a bit of bite back rather than too soft).
to the right of that the few cucumber slices were the homemade pickles. This is my one major Biergarten regret... when I went through the buffet line, there were not many left. I tried to not be rude and clean them out and only took a few assuming I could get more later. Well, when I went up for the second round they were gone! I asked the CM behind the counter if they had more and he said no they were all out for the evening. These are some amazing pickles. I seriously still dream about these pickles and wonder if I can make them at home myself, they were that good. So crisp and fresh and perfectly sour... I hate sweet pickles and these are not sweet at all. I seriously am thinking of booking Biergarten on my next trip just so I can have the pickles! And next time, forget the people behind me - if there are a few left I'm demolishing it!
going next at around 2 o'clock is the braised beef roulade. It was ok, it was brown and tasty but nothing I dream about like other items.
next at 3 o'clock is a poached salmon with some dill. I don't really like dill but I love salmon and the dill was NOT overwhelming at all so it didn't bother me. I've found that herbs I say I don't like I really just don't like in huge quantity. This was perfectly cooked and moist and flavorful, much better than I expected for salmon on a buffet... part of that is that the poaching method is more forgiving and less drying out I think.
at 6 o'clock is the famous biergarten mac and cheese. This was super yummy, I think I prefer it greatly to regular mac and cheese. Under a thick SLAB of gooey molten cheese was a mix of noodles and some kind of custard, I'm not even sure how cheesy the custard was (if at all) because I ate every bite with a piece of the slab cheese. This was super yummy and the picky kid devoured his as well.
at around 7 o'clock is the pretzel roll. This was great dipped into the soup of the day, which was a beer cheese soup. While I loved the combo of the pretzel roll and beer cheese soup together once the roll was gone I gave up on the soup, it tasted WAY too strongly of beer for me... but for some reason was perfection with the pretzel roll. The picky kid dipped his roll in my soup a few times too but thought it was yucky off the spoon too. Next time I'd just get a tiny bit for dipping.
at 9 o'clock is a cold potato salad... I did not like this at all as I found the potatoes to still be a bit crunchy and I do NOT like crunchy potatoes. This was pretty much the only thing I didn't like.
filling out the space between the potato salad and the beets is a cold cucumber salad that was also delicious. It was not pickled but marinated I think in something not too heavy.. but there was a bit of creaminess in it too... it even had a bit of dill too but I did not find it overpowering at all. So I am going to revise my "I don't like dill" to "I don't like overdone dill."
and right in the middle is the pork schnitzel, which was maybe my favorite thing of the whole meal (after the pickles, but that might just be a scarcity thing). I kind of expected it to be a bit dried out like most thin cut meat/poultry cutlets that have been breaded and fried are on buffets but it was perfectly crispy (and not greasy AT ALL) on the outside and moist and juicy on the inside. It was soooooooo good, the kid devoured his as well.
As I mentioned earlier the kid did not end up with a second plate... but I did and again had more eyes bigger than stomach issues. Here is my second plate:
on the top are more beets and cucumber salad, a sad substitution for the pickles. More pork schnitzel was in order but I saved it to eat last and was too full to eat it when I got to it. The sausage is I believe a bratwurst and it was so juicy and flavorful, next time sausage will be on my first plate... it was whatever the more "brown" sausage was and not the one that was more "pink." Also I tried the spaetzle with some gravy and this was as expected, kind of doughy and not my thing, but it is traditional german so I figured I would give it a try.
The show was going on throughout dinner and the timing was good that kids were called down right when we finished up dinner but before dessert. Our tablemates' kids and the picky kid went down but the picky kid came back quickly preferring to be with me, which is ok, I didn't feel like going down there myself. Here is a shot of the show during "Silent Night" when they light up the christmas lights. The atmosphere in here is so amazing, especially during this part of the show I remember thinking "Biergarten, where have you BEEN all my life?!"
After the show ended it was time for a little dessert... and I do mean a little, we were both stuffed. The picky kid had:
a slice of chocolate roll, which he ate... a chocolate chip cookie, which he ate, and bavarian cheesecake, which he did not eat.
Here is my dessert plate (remembering I'm not much of a dessert person)
I had a piece of bavarian cheesecake and a half piece (left behind from someone else's half piece) of the apple strudel with vanilla sauce. The apple strudel was just ok, the apples were a bit more crisp than I like in baked desserts, but the bavarian cheesecake was phenomenal. A light fluffy and not too sweet cheese layer was sandwiched between two layers of delicate sponge cake. I can't say that the yummy vanilla sauce did not enhance the whole thing either. I think this may be actually one of my favorite desserts of the whole trip.
Sadly, this is how much beer left by the time I cried "uncle" at the end of the meal:
The waitress was happy to give me a to-go cup for it but there was no lid and after the 4th or 5th time the kid bumped into the arm carrying it avoiding the crowds in the world showcase and nearly spilling it on myself, I ended up pitching it.
After biergarten we were well situated for our Frozen Ever After FP+ and although the kid, NOT a Frozen fan, reluctantly agreed to go on with me he actually really enjoyed the ride. I think he is a fan of the classic world showcase "inside out" thing as well because he commented on it at both places.
And of course, we ended the night with Illuminations again. So I will end my review with another shot of our favorite nighttime show.
It was another completely amazing epcot day with multiple rides on both Soarin' and TT and the highly coveted FEA as well as two of the best meals of the trip and our favorite nighttime show. We stumbled back to the BWV and collapsed into bed, glad that the next day would be a "rest" day.
Overall Biergarten was absolutely delicious. It far exceeded all of my expectations for food quality and tastiness and the show was so much fun and the atmosphere so amazing... we just enjoyed it so darn much that it is on our list of places to go next time we're in Epcot. Yes even with all of the other choices. It was THAT good. I still dream about the schnitzel, pickles and bavarian cheesecake... next time I'll order the half liter of beer though. It's not so much of a bargain if you pitch nearly half of it!