Member Dining – The Wave and the Top of the World Lounge

For my first official stay as a DVC member, there were only two things I ABSOLUTELY wanted to do. One was to share the experience with my Mom, Madeline and to go up to the Top of the World lounge. So, I booked a two-bedroom villa at Boulder Ridge (

I had never been up to the Top of the World lounge at Bay Lake Tower. With this being my first ‘official’ stay as a DVC member, I wanted to take advantage of the special Dinner and Fireworks package available to DVC members staying on property. It’s called The Wave DVC Dining package and is currently available daily through June 30th. The price is $59.99 per person plus tax and gratuity. To book this, you must call Member Services and it’s available exclusively to DVC members staying on site and their guests. The two guests I had with me were not on my reservation, and this was not a problem (there’s been some discussion that this is only available to those staying on site and guests listed on their reservation. You should check with member services when you call to book though).

The package begins with dinner at The Wave with a three-course prix fixe meal. That’s followed by champagne and chocolate in a special area on the viewing deck outside the Top of the World lounge.

For dinner, you’re given your choice of an appetizer, main course, and dessert. I made the unforgivable mistake of not photographing our dishes that night. This was not out of negligence as much as it was not to draw my Mother’s ire. You see, at 88 years old she comes from a time when people ate their food, they didn’t take pictures of it. Then again, they didn’t have television either, so how these people survived to tell the story is beyond me. Details on the meal can be found on an upcoming video we produced of my first stay at Boulder Ridge, and I’ve embedded the dinner review that we did a few weeks before, so I won’t go into a long soliloquy here. What I will say is that The Wave has become one of my favorite restaurants on property. New chef, new menu, new attitude (apologies to Patti LaBelle) have conspired to change the fate of this once reviled restaurant. I drew a sigh of relief upon sitting down to see that the Bacon and Eggs appetizer was included on this slimmed-down version of their standard menu. You have not experienced food until you’ve tried this dish. That’s all I’m going to say. In my opinion, this is THE best appetizer at Walt Disney World currently. I don’t say that lightly.

I also want to mention that we were told to arrive at 6 pm, but arrived early at 5:30 and were promptly seated. I don’t think we would have been rushed through our meal had we arrived at 6 pm, but the extra time (especially with Mom) was a good idea for us and gave us a little more of a leisurely meal. Service and food were both outstanding, and after vlogging a little outside the main concourse of the Contemporary, we made our way over to Bay Lake Tower.

As I mentioned before, this was my first time visiting the Top of the World lounge, and I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I was blown away by how beautiful it was! The views from this place are spectacular, rivaling – arguably surpassing those at the California Grille.

We arrived well before anyone else who was doing the dinner package, so we found a table right by the window that overlooked the Magic Kingdom. It was a spectacular view! While we were full from dinner, some of the items on the menu here really caught our eye.

The soft bavarian pretzel with cheese fondue was too much to resist. I tried, I really did (and no, it’s not Keto friendly so don’t fat shame me).

As part of the package, there was a special area on the outdoor patio where they were serving chocolates and champagne for those who purchased the package. It was a great location, but this particular night it was a bit chilly and VERY windy, so we opted to keep our seats inside. For the record, 50 degrees and a breeze constitutes chilly in Orlando.

Once the fireworks started, the lights in the lounge dimmed and the music was piped in. I’ve seen the fireworks from the California Grille dozens and dozens of times, so by no means is this a new experience for me, and I’m not sure why, but this was special. Maybe it was because I’d spent the day with Mom, I shared dinner with Mom and my friends, and I was doing this all on my first stay as a DVC member. Regardless of the reason, this was one of the best nights I’ve had at Walt Disney World in a long time.