We had attended a Highway in the Sky event during our wedding trip back in January 2018, and absolutely loved it! We knew it wouldn’t be something that interested my Dad, so we skipped it on our December 2018 trip, but we knew we wanted to do it on this trip. I don’t remember exactly when we booked it, it was not available at the usual 180 day mark, but we just kept checking and as soon as the calendar showed our dates we locked in. You do have to pay in full at the time of booking, and it’s not a cheap option at $179/person – but I really enjoy it.
After we booked Highway in the Sky (I’m just going to abbreviate that to HITS from now on because I’m lazy and don’t want to keep typing out the full thing haha), we realized we had scheduled it for a day when we were moving hotels. We packed our HITS outfits in our backpacks and once arriving at Magic Kingdom for the day, rented a locker to shove everything into. Around 4:30, we went back to the locker and changed in the bathroom just outside the park by guest services. I had a few strange looks as I stood in front of a mirror putting on makeup in a floor-length dress haha. I also had a casualty, and dropped my favourite red lipstick, shattering its glass tube across the floor 🙁
Once we were ready, we re-entered Magic Kingdom to use our third Fastpass of the day – to meet Celebration Mickey & Minnie! I initially planned it this way, so we could meet them while looking fancy! It was such a fantastic meet-and-greet, Mickey was very upset that Luke didn’t have a bowtie on like he did, so he went over and ripped one off the Mickey tuxedo decorating the room. The cast members were doubled over laughing as Mickey proudly held a giant yellow bowtie out for Luke.
After our fantastic meet with the two main mice, we made the quick 10 minute walk over to the Contemporary hotel. Check-in is at the Wave, which is located on the first floor just past the check-in counter. We actually ended up being quite early, and were the first people to arrive. We found a seat in the little alcove to the side of the check-in desk and did what any great millennial couple does – sat side-by-side in complete silence looking at our phones haha. It wasn’t long before other couples began arriving, and the cast members showed up at 5:30 exactly. Luke went up and checked us in, and collected our lanyards and buttons. When you book Highway, you will receive a phone call about a week prior asking about food restrictions, so Luke had let them know I don’t eat seafood of any kind, so they also gave me a piece of paper with this stated on it to give to our server during the entrée portion of our evening. A cast member also took Luke out to bell services at the Contemporary so they could hold onto our park backpacks for the evening. I’ve heard the area where we were sitting referred to as the “blue room” – possibly due to the crazy blue hue my pictures have hahaha
Once everyone had arrived and checked in, a manager from the Wave (or the Contemporary dining team? I honestly don’t remember) greeted us and told us a bit about the hotel/restaurants located in the hotel. She also described the drink and first item we would be tasting on the evening – a pea soup with truffle oil and a drink with gin. I didn’t like the soup at all, but I’ve never liked pea soup. Luke loved it, and gladly ate my serving as well. The drink was delicious though! I wish it was on a regular menu somewhere, but it was a specialty drink just for Highway. It had cucumbers and strawberries, and maybe club soda? I took terrible notes during this meal haha. The most important thing is that the drink was tasty, and my glass was empty way too quickly. Both the drink and the soup were different than what we’d had on our first time doing HITS. (Also, not sure how I was able to get an actual decent picture of our drink, and such a terrible one of the little soup sample…)
While we sat in the Blue Room by the Wave, we started chatting with the couple who had sat on stools in front of us. They were a really lovely couple from New York named Wayne and Karen who had been married over 30 years. We ended up talking to them quite a bit over the course of the evening, and Karen and I are now Facebook friends – which makes sense since this trip was all about friendship and food! (hi Karen!)
Eventually, once of the cast members came around to let us know it was time to leave. We had to go through security at the Contemporary to get onto the monorail, but it was the only time we needed to go through security that evening (which is why wearing the lanyard you received at check-in is important). The cast members are actually in contact with the monorail drivers throughout the night, so it is always sitting there waiting for the Highway in the Sky group (which minimizes the time spent standing around waiting for it). They also hold the entire front car for just the group, so you never have to worry about finding a spot while on this tour.
Our next stop was the Polynesian. I don’t love the location for this, it’s literally just a roped off area just inside the doors from the monorail. They have improved the seating from our last time doing this however – our first time on this tour they only had high-top standing-only square tables. This time they had a mix of high-top and normal tables, but all had chairs/stools to sit on. Each place setting had a lei to wear, and in my opinion the food was better this time. (PS: our 5 year old neighbour found the lei and thought it was the greatest thing in the world, and proudly wore it home from our place haha)
The drink is a standard (but stiff!) Mai-tai (same as last time).
Cheers to a great night!
Since I had no seafood marked for my name, my plate of small bites was slightly different than Luke’s. Starting with Luke’s (the more standard plate), it contained tuna poke , tuna ceviche with a shrimp crisp, and beef filet and roasted potatoes.
My plate had a chicken stir-fry with noodles, a fruit ceviche and the same beef/potatoes Luke had. The noodles were a bit dry, but the stir-fry did have water chestnuts so that made me very excited (I love those so much, even though they don’t really taste like anything, just whatever sauce is on them). The fruit was nice (and it had boba balls!), and the beef and few bites of potatoes were quite good – but it’s difficult to go wrong with potatoes in my eyes!
Again, while our food was being brought around to our table, a manager from the food and beverage division of the Polynesian talked to us about the hotel itself. He mentioned the various restaurants, Trader Sam’s, etc. Luke and I have never stayed at the Poly, but we’re actually quite well versed in the food options there haha.
Eventually, we were given the 5 minute warning and we finished up our small plates and drinks before heading outside again to catch the monorail again.
Our next stop was at the Grand Floridian. We were led over to Citricos, where they had pre-assigned us to tables. The food provided here is meant to serve as your main entrée for the evening, and it always seems to be a surf-and-turf. On this particular night, it was Red Snapper and Beef Short Ribs. Since I had asked for no seafood (and I was far from the only one with this request), they gave me a double serving of beef. There were also mashed potatoes on each plate under the beef, and some green stuff under the fish (or in my case, my second chunk of short ribs haha).
I’ve been on a huge short ribs kick lately, and these ones were so good! Fall-apart with a fork tender, and the sauce on top was delicious. Also – insider tip – if you want to keep me happy, just feed me any variety of potato, I love them all. Luke also really enjoyed his fish. Since it’s something I won’t eat, we rarely have anything like that in our house, so it’s like an extra special treat when he does get properly prepared nice cuts of fish.
While our food was being served, our waiter came around pouring each person a glass of either red or white wine. I’m not much of a wine person, but I didn’t hate the white wine they served me. Luke opted for the red, and thought it was good. We had already drank some before I took this picture- they are conservative with the pours, but not as bad as it looks from this picture.
There was also a basket of bread on each table with some nice soft butter (you can see the butter in the picture with our wine).
Once we finished eating, the cast members with our group directed us downstairs to the Tea Room for our fourth course.
They again had assigned seats with names on each table. This course was a cheese/charcuterie plate and a glass of sparkling wine (I believe it was Fairy Tale Cuvee, which is the most common “champagne” I’ve seen on Disney property, and something which we had at our wedding because it was included with our package). Each person had their own plate of cheese and meats, with a shared plate containing little baguette slices.
I don’t like pickles or blue cheese, so those were immediately scraped onto Luke’s plate. Same for the mustard seeds, those were pushed off to the side. I really enjoy the honeycomb, and the meats and soft cheese were all decent. I’m honestly not a huge cheese/charcuterie person – give me a slab of plain ‘ol marble cheese and I’m happy 🙂 I did overall enjoy this course though!
Our table was directly beside Wayne and Karen’s, so we took a few pictures for them, and they returned the favour 🙂
Once we finished up, we went back upstairs to wait for the monorail. I pointed out the characters hidden in the floor to a few people, I just love all the little details around the Disney property 💕 I think I might be been feeling the effects of all the alcohol we’d drank already, these pictures were supposed to be of the characters on the floor, but I completely missed them all haha… I guess you can kind of see Goofy on the far left side in the first one?
While we were waiting for the monorail, I noticed that the couple we’d been talking to during the Citricos portion of the night was checking out things at Basin. They were a newly engaged young couple from England, and I immediately knew what they had to buy. I ran in to show George and Jade the bride and groom soap – it smells amazing, and it’s so cute! I had bought a slice of it during our wedding trip, and I still haven’t brought myself to use it haha. Just look how adorable it is:
Once the monorail arrived, we boarded for the last time and headed back to our starting hotel – the Contemporary. They had roped off the left side fourth floor observation deck for our group – which is the side with the permanent benches facing the Magic Kingdom. It’s a really nice location, the monorail goes right overhead, you can see the Castle and Space Mountain all lit up, and they had added some high-top tables for our group.
There was a selection of desserts and drinks to enjoy. Drinks included cans of pop (or soda for you Americans haha), coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc. and there was an option to add Bailey’s, Frangelico or Kahula. I’m not really into hot drinks (I never drink coffee), so I just grabbed a can of Coke. Luke had a coffee and Baileys – I don’t have a picture since it was just a standard to-go cup and a regular can. There were three desserts – Organic Chocolate Flourless Cake, Key Lime Cheesecake Bar and Florida Strawberry Shortcake ,and of course I had to try all three!
I really liked all three of these! I think my favourite was the chocolate cake – I love the denseness of flourless cake.
It was a beautiful evening, and it was so nice to just enjoy the view and the snacks. About ten minutes after we arrived, the opening notes of Happily Ever After started (yes, they pipe the music in for the 4th floor balcony), and we settled in for the show. The projections obviously are not visible from that far away, but the fireworks are! I’ve seen this show multiple times, and I love it so much <3
After Happily Ever After ended, Karen asked us if we could get some pictures, along with Jade and George and another couple who’s names I forget.
The cast members brought over our final food item of the night – a small box of chocolate truffles. I ended up not eating mine until we got back to Canada (which is also when I took these pictures of them sitting on my Wall-E cutting board).
It was another amazing experience at Highway in the Sky, and we would absolutely go to this again. I don’t know if it’s something we need to do on every single trip since it is pricey, but it’s such a fun evening!
We decided to extend our evening, and invited George and Jade to join us for a drink at Trader Sam’s, since they had never been.
*Trader Sam’s Review link once complete*