Let’s Visit… An Evening at Crescent Lake

Hey Howdy Hey,

Today we are going to go back and visit an evening at Crescent Lake from early April 2018. For those unaware, Crescent Lake is the Epcot Resort area located behind World Showcase and accessed via the International Gateway entrance at the rear of the park. To reach this entrance / exit from inside the park, bear right as you approach the France pavilion from the UK instead of crossing over the bridge to your left. If you continue straight you will arrive at the Beach Club Resort. Bear left at the bridge to head to Disney’s Boardway.

There is also a boat dock right outside the park exit. In addition to Epcot, the Friendship Boats here make stops at the Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Swan/Dolphin and Hollywood Studios. The whole trip from Epcot to Hollywood Studios, or vice versa, can take about 35 minutes with all of the stops.

This area is home a total of 5 resorts: The Disney owned Boardwalk, Beach Club and Yacht Club; and the Swan and Dolphin hotels, operated by Starwood Hotels. All three of the Disney owned hotels in this area are Deluxe Hotels and DVC. Swan and Dolphin are closer to moderate prices, but have rooms more comparable to Deluxe quality. There are a few setback to staying at Swan and Dolphin though as there are both resort and parking fees, and you can not use Disney Magical Express. They do however, have transportation to the parks, as well as the ability to book fastpasses 60 days out.

While Swan and Dolphin are nice enough of the inside, many consider their exterior design to be a bit of an eyesore. While I don’t mind the look of them in isolation, I do dislike that they are very visible from many places around WDW, having a negative impact on desired skylines. This is perhaps the most detrimental when looking at France from the across the lagoon in World Showcase.

On this particular evening, we had dinner at Flying Fish on the Boardwalk. If you are coming from your resort, rather than Epcot, you can park at the Boardwalk Resort as long as you have a dining reservation. I will write a separate post with a full review and photos of the meal, but long story short, it was fantastic. In the meantime, Josh from easywdw.com has reviewed this restaurant a few times so check that out if you like. Tom from Disney Tourist Blog also reviews it here.

After dinner, we realized that we should not have gotten dessert, as we both really wanted to hit up Ample Hills Creamery for ice cream. After about 5 seconds of debate, we decided to do just that anyway even though we just had a yummy dessert at the restaurant. I was too busy devouring my sundae that forgot to take pictures. But just imagine the best sundae you’ve ever had and it was probably as good or better than that!

Next on the agenda, was Jellyrolls. For those who have never been, Jellyrolls is a “dueling piano” bar located on the far end of the Boardwalk right before you reach Swan and Dolphin. There is a cover charge per person to get in ($15 each on the night we visited) and you have to be 21 or older to enter. We have been to Jellyrolls a few times and its always a highlight of our trip. The performers are great, both musically talented and audience interaction. You will be laughing a lot throughout the night. Requests are welcome, but expect to tip along with it if you want to get your song played.

After spending a few hours at Jellyrolls, it was time to call it a night. We always enjoy walking around Disney locations late night with little crowds, so we decided to take the long way back and loop around Crescent Lake. Here are some photos from that late night stroll.