Trip Report Disneymoon Report

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

I make a list of pictures that I want to take before each trip. This isn't just a “get a picture of the castle” type list, this is a “use an ultra-wide angle lens, approach from 45 degree angle, get a picture of Tiki Room sign” type of list. I don't know where I come up with a lot of the stuff on it, but I do. Sometimes I'll be watching a sitcom on TV, and all of the sudden, an idea pops in my head. I run to the computer and type it up. Other times, it's more contrived. I look at old WDW souvenir books to get an idea of what's located where, and then think up ideas. Going into this trip, I had 4 pages of three column, single-spaced, 10-point font ideas. Usually, I don't refer to this list much during the trip, I just keep it in case I run into a creative roadblock.

This day, I knew exactly what shot I wanted to get off of that list. It was actually the reason I purchased the ND filter (for those unacquainted, wikipedia it). I spent roughly 12 hours researching ND filters before settling on this one. Thereafter, I spent a lot more time finding auctions on eBay for this filter set within my price parameters. At market prices of $80-150, I wasn't going to spend recklessly (I got mine for $75, if you're curious). I mean, come on, it's a filter!

The shot I wanted is below. It's not as cool as it was in my head, but I still like it. I took a few more shots, all while screaming, “THIS PLACE IS AWESOME” to myself in my head, before realizing 25 minutes had passed since Sarah and I had made our deal. I rushed back, getting disoriented in the process, before seeing it. International Gateway. Holy cow. I could enter EPCOT for two minutes, stroll back to the resort, and no one would be the wiser. Already behind schedule, I didn't. However, at that instant, the EPCOT area resorts just became even more awesome.

When I arrived in the room, Sarah was still getting ready. Phew. After she finished, we left for the Studios. It was the last day of Star Wars Weekends, and we wanted at least one character picture. All things being equal, I wanted Darth Goofy. Sarah didn't really care. We decided to hoof it, thinking it was a 5 minute walk (they told us 10, but we walk very quickly). However, we took a few wrong turns, and 5 minutes turned into 30 in the nice 100 degree sun. It was a little frustrating, but we were at WDW and on our honeymoon! Nothing to complain about there.

We arrived at the Studios (wow, finally some substance to this TR!), and immediately headed for the Star Tours area. Without maps. We figured we'd just see lines for the characters, but this wasn't the case. After some initial confusion, we finally found the line for Darth Goofy. After being in line for 5 minutes, Goofy left, and Jedi Mickey, R2D2, and Princess Lei Minnie came out.

Although I wanted to see Goofy, I wasn't too distraught. I was, however, absolutely soaked with sweat. I asked Sarah if I could go get a water from the Commissary. When I returned, Mickey and co. were leaving. Quickly, I busted out the camera and grabbed a few shots. I guess we'd get whatever characters were there when we got to the front of the line.

This is when I made a big mistake. Whenever I see someone else with a nice camera in the park, I always check it out, wondering if I know them from one of the Disney photography forums (yes, there are forums that are that specialized). On this particular occasion, I decided to approach a foreign couple and ask if they'd like me to take a picture of them with the characters. The couple did not understand me. As I tried, with the help of another American couple, to explain what I meant, I realized that I shouldn't do this in the future. It was really an awkward situation for both me and, I'd imagine, the couple. When they finally realized what I was saying, they said no, indicating that they'd give the camera to the PhotoPass photographer. They had large Star Wars Disney character dolls, which were very cool, and Tokyo Disneyland bags, which made me want to head there even more.

After the picture, we sort of stood around for a few minutes, somewhat dumfounded. What should we do next? We had written an email to the WDW Today crew to answer this exact question, and Matt and co. answered it with precision, but when push comes to shove (and it's 100 degrees out), logic sometimes goes out the window. At the very least, we figured, we would have to eat something besides just our Kona Cafe dinner. However, it was already near 6 p.m., and that dinner was at 8:30 p.m. Still, we were starving, and a snack would not be sufficient. We decided to split a pizza at Pizza Planet.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

The decision then was: to Hyperspace Hoopla or to not? Clearly one of humanity's great questions. Sarah was a little uneasy about standing elbow to elbow with a crowd for some show based on a movie of which we weren't fans, but I implored her to give it a chance, as I had read good things. For the next 9 days, she was singing “Dachshunds, Hyperspace Dachshunds...” to the beat of Hyperspace Hoopla (this may seem odd, but it's par for the course with us; if we like a song, we try to incorporate our pets into the lyrics of the song. Before you judge, just remember, you're the one choosing to read about this...). Suffice to say, she and I both loved the show. The pictures below were all taken by her; I didn't even bother as I was enjoying the show so much. I think it's pretty clear that she has some skills.

The conclusion of Hyperspace Hoopla marked the end of Star Wars weekend, and at that point, we booked it to the exit. We did not want to wait in a huge line for the Magic Kingdom bus, and we didn't, as we took the TTC bus.

Disney being Disney (captivating, thrilling, etc.), we normally don't want to leave the parks to head to the resorts for dinner. Thus, we normally unintentionally underestimate the commute time, and arrive to the resorts around 10 minutes late for our meals. This particular evening, we arrived 10 minutes early, right around sunset. If there is a “kid in a candy store” score on your computer, queue it as you read this section. Sarah gave me permission to go play while she checked us in for dinner—reminding me to feel for my phone (I always keep it on vibrate as ringing phones ________ me off).

Sometimes photography is a race against the clock. This night it was a race for two reasons: sunsets don't just hang around for you, and also because at any moment I might get the hook as our table for Kona Cafe became available. So I did what any wise photographer would do in the circumstances: I screwed my ND filter onto the front of the lens to make the shot take even more time. But to offset this, I didn't set up the tripod, and instead just set the camera on the edge of the dock (brilliant idea at the beginning of an 11 day trip) and held onto the camera strap for dear life. The ND filter allowed me to get rich, vibrant colors out of the sky and water (you may find this hard to believe, but these are very near to the colors seen by the eye that evening) while smoothing the water, while the lack of tripod cost me a lot when cropping to get the horizon straight again. The sunset and the buzzer both held out, allowing me to capture subsequent shots.

Since I've probably lulled you into a near comatose state with photography-jargon, I'll cut to the chase and start with one of the more climactic points of the trip report now: Kona Cafe v. Le Cellier.

Obviously, it makes sense to start with Kona. We were on the Dining Plan (more on this later), so we were “given” a drink, entree, and dessert. Despite our best efforts, we were often “pulled” to the more expensive entrees in a value maximization attempt. I don't know if that's what influenced me to order the New York strip—what island makes a good steak!?!—but whatever influenced me, I thank. Condensing my meal to a word, the steak was amazing. Everything a steak should be: lean yet flavorful, hearty, honestly, I can't go on for fear I will head to the airport today for WDW. The steak was perfect. In addition to the steak, I had mashed Yukon potatoes, which were also amazing. It was our first night, so we took a lot of pictures of ourselves. The fisheye lens is great for taking a picture of yourself—as long as you don't mind that it's a tad distorted. The memories are what's important to us, so no, we don't mind the distortion.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Then, prior to dessert, our waitress brought us a celebratory treat. I don't think I've adequately described the elation I've been feeling at this point of the trip (as I look back, the TR seems somewhat monotone), but my life was perfect at that moment. Imagine marrying the woman of your dreams, going to your favorite place in the world, and then having amazing new experiences there, and eating delicious foods. Cram this all into 24 hours and you'd be in my boat. Looking at Sarah, I smiled, and dug in. We were truly lucky.

I'm not going to offer my review of Le Cellier now—you'll have to scroll ahead or keep reading for that. It was amazing, as always. However, Kona Cafe was better. Well, I should add an “in my opinion” there, as Sarah preferred her meal at Le Cellier. They really were very close. I guess the deciding factors for me were, as trivial as this may seem, location and availability. We booked Le Cellier on the very first day we were able. If we tried to book it the second, I'm betting we wouldn't have gotten it. I booked Kona 20 days out, on a hunch that our plans were going to change from what they were originally. Both had amazing steak. We've eaten at Le Cellier a few times now; to me, Kona's steak was better. When accounting for the whole experience, Le Cellier wins, as our waiter was more knowledgeable and personable. Conversely, though, Kona is in our favorite resort—where we got engaged—and had a beautiful sunset while we were there. This almost is like choosing a favorite child: inherently unfair. Both were amazing and highly recommended. If we were paying out of pocket, I would have been unsatisfied with the proximity of nearby tables (although they went unfilled at Kona) at both restaurants. Honestly, though, I probably can't articulate why I'd give the edge to Kona. That may make my opinion less-than objective, but I think if you read my commentary, it's buried in there.

Upon finishing, we dragged ourselves to the monorail and boarded for the Magic Kingdom. Talk about timing: 15 minutes after we arrived at the MK, the Summer Nightastic Fireworks (more on these later) were set to go off. Sarah and I are lazy when it comes to fireworks and parades. In order to get one shot last summer, we waited two hours for Spectro—but it was for a shot I really really wanted. Other than that, 30 minutes is by far our max. Seeing them is more important than taking the pictures, and we can typically see them regardless of whether we get “front row” spots. Consequently, we usually end up with odd or obscured vantage points. I'm just stating this mostly to preface my crappy fireworks shots. While normally our poor spots can be attributed to our lack of desire (laziness) to wait, on this entire trip, waiting for the fireworks would have been impossible. Cast Members were positioned up and down Main Street to prevent people from loitering, and by the time the show was about to start, the bum rush of people to center-street essentially precluded tripod use. I set up anyway.

Given the crowds, I could not fully part the tripod's legs. Without the legs fully parted, the 63” tripod became about 70”. This is significantly taller than me. I had never used a ND filter for fireworks, and had no idea what to expect. Normally, I can see whether I'm doing something wrong while photographing fireworks (on the LCD display after taking the shot) and make the necessary adjustments. However, with a ND filter, the exposure is around 60-200 seconds (versus the normal 10-30), which means waiting that long between shots. Which also means significantly fewer shots per fireworks show. Between ignoring the camera for most of the time and because of the exposure-lengths, I got no good shots out of the first show.

After that, the Magic Kingdom was ours to explore! Our first choice, naturally, was Tomorrowland. We partook in the dance party (more on this later) for a while, before heading to the TTA. I've stated this before, but the TTA is our favorite “as a couple” attraction (that's a cop-out—it means that it's the one we enjoy the most collectively; individually, it's not our #1). Despite the new narration, which we had heard last October, we still love it. Although the new narration does suck.

After taking in a few attractions, we then headed towards Main Street upon learning that the Main Street Electrical Parade would be shown a second time that night! Sarah was exhausted, but was excited to see the show; she, unlike me, remembered it from her childhood. Despite the huge crowds, the hub was relatively empty of people when we arrived 10 minutes prior to the parade. We sat down had one of those moments—looking into one another's eyes, first full day married, at our favorite place in the world—I will spare you the mushy details, but it was just one of those moments that puts life into perspective.

The announcement was made and the parade could be heard approaching in the distance. I had made a mental point to try to photograph things differently than normal this trip, so I had my (borrowed) 70-200mm lens mounted. Sarah could tell I was getting that itch again, and since she was tired anyway, she told me to go ahead and watch it coming up Main Street. I ran over there, but then I looked back...she was just sitting there, half asleep. I walked back to our spot, and sat next to her. When the parade approached, I took a few pictures. She took far more than me, although not to the success of her Hyperspace Hoopla shots. She also admitted that she really loved it, despite initial thoughts that she would be disappointed in missing Spectro! While she liked it, there would be no singing of the MSEP synthesized score involving dachshunds. Phew.

It seems the popular thing to do on the net is to compare SpectroMagic and MSEP. I don't want to be uncool, so I guess I'll do that. SpectroMagic is what I remember watching while growing up. For me, it's the quintessential Disney parade. It incorporates the films I watched growing up, it's the parade I watched when I was a child, the parade I watched as a teen, what I've watched as a semi-adult with the love of my life, and it's what I watched after I got engaged to said love. It includes floats from some of my favorite Disney films (although I think both parades could benefit from being updated to include newer films), and nothing beats the music. I don't think any substance could overcome my feelings towards SpectroMagic. MSEP did come close, though. MSEP had this inarticulable presence, this air about it, that made it mesmerizing. Inarticulable is the descriptor of choice, but it's really more than that. My one complaint would be that MSEP seemed considerably shorter than SpectroMagic, although I really don't have any proof that it is shorter. All I know is that the first time it ended, I was shocked that it was over so soon. It seemed like it had just started!

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

We rode a few rides after that, then ended up in Tomorrowland when the park was about to close. When we're both tired, we tend to go for Country Bears, Carousel of Progress, or TTA. We both wanted to ride TTA, as it’s our nighttime mainstay, especially for the first night of the trip or when we’re tired. We were definitely tired on this particular evening. After a spin around that, we still had some time, and Space Mountain's wait time wasn't too bad by this point, so we decided to head over to it for our first ride on the newly refurbished Mountain (more of our thoughts on the refurbishment later).

If you've read to this point, you probably have read our other trip reports, so you know about our practice of staying after the parks close. You may laugh, thinking everyone knows about this, but that is definitely not the case. If I had to average it out, I'd say I get at least 5 messages about this particular issue per week (mostly people asking whether we pay to do it). The time being after 3 a.m., and us being tired, you'd probably figure the night would end early. Surprisingly, that was not the case.

The strangest thing happened--something that has never happened to us. It was apparent that we were the last ones at the Magic Kingdom (by both observation and Security telling us so), but they did not “encourage” us to leave. Quite the contrary, in fact! Security told us to take as many pictures as we want, and of course, we couldn't pass up this opportunity. Heck, we even got pictures outside of the Train Station (rarely possible for us at night)! It was almost as if the Disney gods were taunting us--we know you're tired and probably wouldn't mind being told to leave and go to bed, but if you're willing to bear with the tiredness, you may stay and take pictures.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

When we got on the bus shortly after 4 a.m., Sarah fell asleep. I quietly set up the tripod and grabbed a few shots of her sleeping. I eventually woke her up doing this. At first I don't think she was too thrilled that I woke her up, but once she saw the results she was pleased. Although it was well after 4 a.m. upon arriving at BoardWalk, I decided to head down to the BoardWalk to get some pictures while Sarah got ready for bed. Some of the lights on the BoardWalk were turned off, so I only got shots of the Yacht and Beach Clubs.

We started the next morning, we did something that is fairly rare for us at WDW: we slept in. After the non-stop action of the two previous days, I think it was well deserved. Plus, even though we did go at a “high intensity” pace for most of the honeymoon, we also saw the need to slow things down and depart from our normal break-neck pace. While Sarah was showering and getting ready, I headed over to Yacht and Beach Club to get some shots of the pool before it got crowded. After quickly getting those pictures, I met Sarah back at our room, and it was time to make the short walk to EPCOT. BoardWalk could have been one of the worst resorts at which we'd ever stayed (it was not, it was the best ever), and that location would have still been wholly redeeming.

Much to our surprise, upon entering through the International Gateway, we immediately spotted the Stepsisters—with no line! We're normally not much for “human” character meet and greets, but with no line, we couldn't pass up the encounter. On later days, we would find other characters with similarly short lines in this location, so I can only assume that this is a hidden gem for characters.

I alluded to the fact that the timing our wedding wasn't the best in our pre-trip report due to its proximity to my graduation and studying for the Bar exam; additionally, the timing of our honeymoon wasn't the best, either. Sarah and I are twenty-somethings without kids—why on earth are we heading to WDW in the height of the summer season? The temperature and the crowds were both high, and that was evident even in the morning when we first headed out for the day. On this day, when we left at noon, the weather was brutal. Although we had a great time anyway, in the future, we will be vacationing in October, December, and April. That is, until we have our own little rugrats.

It was already approaching noon by this point, and we knew we'd need to get Soarin' FastPasses in a hurry if we planned on riding that day, so we headed over to the Land and got the FastPasses and got lunch at Sunshine Seasons. Although Cosmic Rays is my favorite counter service restaurant thanks to the burger toppings bar (the condition of my face afterwards looks much like that of a toddler's who has consumed his baby food in the midst of a temper tantrum—I pile about six times as many toppings on the burger as it can conceivably hold, then just dig in; many mushrooms become casualties to the meal), I have to say that I prefer Sunshine Seasons from the perspective of the food. I made it my goal to give some of the other options there a try this trip (as I am a sucker for the chicken and key lime pie), so I opted for the sandwich and the brown dessert you see pictured (anyone know the name?). The sandwich was great; nice and “fluffy” for lack of a better term (yet filling), and the dessert was rich yet good (not nearly as good as the key lime pie).

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

The rest of the afternoon at EPCOT was fairly uneventful. We wandered around Future World, hitting some of our favorites (and Imagination). We were getting a little tired about midday through, so we decided to make a stop at Club Cool for some refreshments. I know it might just be one big Coke advertisement, but I love that place. Nothing like free caffeine! Revitalized, we headed back to BoardWalk to get ready to go to Sanaa for dinner.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Since we feel that renting a car would remove us from the full immersion of the Disney Magic by bringing us to the real world (not that waiting for buses in the sweltering heat is all that “magical”) we always use Disney transportation. Okay...and we are too cheap to rent a car (I like the first rationale better!). This means getting to some of the resort restaurants—like Sanaa—can be a huge pain. When starting at our resort, our approach is to hop the first bus we see for a park or Downtown Disney, even if that location is in the opposite direction of the ultimate dining location, and catch a bus from there. It usually works out reasonably well (read: takes us around an hour to go between locations that would take 10 minutes via cab). This time, as soon as we stepped out to the BoardWalk bus stop, an Animal Kingdom bus arrived. Then, as soon as we arrived at AK, an AKL bus showed up.

As a result of the Disney Transportation gods smiling upon us, we arrived roughly thirty minutes early to our ADRs. Of all the places resorts to arrive early at, AKL would probably be my last choice. I mean, it's neat and all, but for some reason, it just doesn't do a whole lot for me. I have the same feelings towards Animal Kingdom. I consider the cornerstone of both to be the animals, and I just think little is offered in that regard above a stellar zoo. I guess this is more of a knock against Animal Kingdom than AKL, since a resort being a “stellar zoo” should be perceived as a compliment. A theme park that's supposed to have top rate creativity and captivating attractions should be predicated solely on animals and minor details and lack substance in the area of attractions. In any case, AKL isn't my top resort.

One of the main reasons I don’t like AKL: their lenient stand against vagrants.

Sanaa, however, was excellent. The food was unique, the atmosphere was great (despite all of what I said above, watching two zebras 'fighting' at dinner was pretty amusing), and the service was good, too. Although the appetizers looked and sounded really good, we knew that ordering them wouldn't be the best use of our funds due to the dining plan and the likelihood that if we got an appetizer, we wouldn't be able to eat all of our entrees. The entrees were great On top of all of that, they gave us free glasses of champagne. It was really the perfect cap to the dinner.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Following dinner it was back over to Animal Kingdom. As you might have ascertained from my previous comments, I am not that “wild” (pretty clever, eh) about Animal Kingdom. If I am not wild about it, Sarah is decidedly anti-AK. Compared to me, she downright can’t stand the place. This is quite odd, given her normal desire to adopt just about any animal that we see. Perhaps it’s because there are no stray cat or dachshund-based attractions at AK? Whatever our reasons, AK is the park where we spend, far and away, the least amount of time per trip.

Since we hadn’t gone to AK on last October’s trip, I was eager to experience some of the things I do enjoy at AK. I figured that, given AK had evening EMH that night, there was still an off-chance Everest might still have FastPasses.__ We rushed over there to discover it did, and that the FPs would be valid in around an hour.__ Then I looked at the wait-time sign to discover only a 20 minute wait.__ I had never seen Everest standby at less than 30 minutes besides in the first hour of operation (we usually start early at AK and leave by 2 p.m. due to the heat)!__ Sarah was sweet and let me wait to ride (Everest makes her sick).__ I don’t really have a pointed opinion on the “Disco Yeti” controversy either way, so I will save the space here.__ Although I’d like it to be fixed, I think it was probably a bad investment in the first place.__ If fixing it meant taking the ride down for upwards of a year, I probably wouldn’t favor the move.__ At least not until more was added to do at AK.

When it was almost time for me to board the attraction, I discovered that there was a single riders line (afterwards Sarah said that people who entered that long after me rode and exited long before me).__ Guess I need to be more observant.__ As I am prone to do on occasion, I took pictures throughout the ride.__ Often, this just meant sticking the camera out of the vehicle a tad and firing away at random without peering through the viewfinder.__ The guy next to me gave me a couple of odd looks (perhaps he was concerned that I’d lose my grip and he’d end up with a D90 imprint on his head) but I had fun nonetheless.

I watched this kid taking pictures of this squirrel for around 2 minutes, all the while chuckling in my head that he’d be so intrigued by a Squirrel. Little did I realize we’d soon start a collection of duck shots.

After Everest we did Dinosaur and Tough to be a Bug. Then, we realized there was nothing left to do. At this point, it was around 8 p.m. and not probably an hour away from sunset. I was really hoping to spend our first-ever evening in AK, so we decided to stretch things out, do a couple character meet and greets, and see if anything else struck our interest. Nothing did. Flights of Wonder was having one last showing, but neither of us really felt like watching that. We did spot what was shaping up to be a wonderful sunset, so we tried to find a good angle to take some pictures. After scurrying about (what seemed like) the entire park, we finally settled on a location right as the last of the sun disappeared.

Can’t win them all. At this point we were both getting frustrated and ready to head in early, but I said we should head to Dinoland to do Dinosaur once more. On the way there, I set up the tripod to catch a shot of some lighting over Dinorama! Oh all the places to spot lighting, we just had to be near one of my least favorite spots in all of WDW. Oh well, like I said before, can’t win them all. After this, we were both really ready to call it an early night, so we went to Everest to grab a couple of pictures before booking it out of the park. It may look cool at night, but the absolute void of attractions really makes AK a turd for visiting at night. I won’t belabor the point—it’s already clear I’m not the biggest AK fan, but its even more limited offerings from its normal limited offerings was disappointing, to say the least. Still, we plan on heading there this December. At least then we’ll be able to catch the Jammin’ Jungle Parade, Nemo, and Festival of the Lion King.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Rushing to get out of the park, we felt like the citizens of D.C. (or whatever city it was) in Independence Day making a similar mass exodus. Clearly an alien invasion is worse than AK at night, but by how much, I’m not sure. As we were leaving, we started throwing around the idea of heading to the MK for a couple hours before it closed. While we were both really tired, we hated the idea of calling it a night at 9:30 p.m., so we hopped the bus for MK.

This would prove to be a poor idea. Despite sleeping in that morning, we were both still really tired. After a relaxing bus ride, we were both a little groggy, and even with that delightful evening atmosphere in the Magic Kingdom, we decided we wouldn’t be staying for long. We were there for such a short period of time, and I was so tired, that I didn’t even take a single picture, which is a real rarity for me. Since we didn’t want to make a trip there for naught, we took another spin around Tomorrowland aboard the TTA, then picked up our first ever chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. Wow, was it good. Messy, but good. I planned on grabbing another one later in the trip, but I forgot.

With my hands thoroughly sticky and my face covered in chocolate and melted ice cream, we headed for the bus to take us back to BoardWalk. In case you’re keeping score at home, our travel pattern for the day was Boardwalk to EPCOT, EPCOT to BoardWalk, BoardWalk to Animal Kingdom, Animal Kingdom to Animal Kingdom Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge to Animal Kingdom, Animal Kingdom to Magic Kingdom, and finally, Magic Kingdom to BoardWalk. Add in BoardWalk to Beach Club and back for me to start the morning, but that doesn’t really “count.” If everyday were like that, we might just have to bite the bullet and rent a car. I dread considering how much time we lost by relying on Disney transportation. Still, it’s fun to just sit back and let someone else do the driving.

Full of energy, I got up early that morning to catch the sunrise while Sarah got ready. Unfortunately, it was already incredibly hot, and foggy and humid to boot, so it took my camera about 20 agonizing minutes to adjust to the temperature difference (fogging up before finally reaching the appropriate temperature). Consequently, I only got two decent pictures. Talk about a waste of time.

That morning was to be epic: Magic Kingdom morning EMH. I had visions of grandeur: “okay Sarah, first, we’ll hit Space Mountain twice, then we’ll do Peter Pan’s Flight, then Big Thunder Mountain, then Splash Mountain, then…” We barely got there before park opening, and we definitely weren’t some of the first people in; however, when we got to the Tomorrowland rope, we were near the front of the pack. Ah, to be young, agile, and able to walk very briskly.

When the rope was dropped, we used our brisk walking abilities to arrive at the FastPass kiosks for Space Mountain first. On our way, we heard a disconcerting voice, “Space Mountain is currently down.” We got FPs anyway, thinking they’d be valuable in the future. We then headed towards Fantasyland; luckily, Peter Pan’s Flight was not down. Following that, we were off to Frontierland. There, we discovered Frontierland was roped off. Not giving it much thought (or rather, thinking BTMRR and Splash might be “down” too so the land hadn’t opened) we headed to Adventureland. Down too.

We asked a CM for a Times Guide (I’m a typical man—it takes me a few hours of being “lost” before I’ll finally ask for directions), something we should have done upon arriving to the park, and we discovered that only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland were open that morning—but with all of the attractions in each of those two lands open. Knowing that, we would not have come so early! As truly important as it is to see Carousel of Progress and Stitch’s Great Escape first thing in the morning to avoid the heavy crowds they accumulate, I would rather get a little more rest.

I was more than disappointed that few headliners weren’t open. I would assume most people partake in EMH to hit the headliner attractions with lower crowds, and when only Dumbo, Buzz, Space, and Peter Pan are open for that hour, we felt a little shortchanged. Especially when Space wasn’t open and Dumbo wasn’t something that interested us. I have no idea if this has become common practice (opening only two lands for EMH) to save money or what, but I really hope it reverts back to the past system of opening key/headliner attractions in each land for EMH. This was the only morning EMH we did in MK, and none of the evening EMHs there were like this, so I have no idea if it was a test, or what. Anyone know?

We returned to Fantasyland to make the rounds there. Riding Pooh again further established my opinion that it’s an extremely underrated attraction—one that I think will only get better with the new queue. I wish some cheaply done sections were a little more high quality, but I think even with those, it rivals Peter Pan’s Flight as Fantasyland’s best. Speaking of Peter Pan’s Flight, it boggles my mind that this attraction draws such extreme wait times. While I enjoy the attraction, and I understand that the FastPass integration coupled with the slow loading inflates wait times, I still think they’re too long. The ride is incredibly short, is showing its age, and other than being up in the air over London, doesn’t really have an “awe” factor. Don’t get me wrong, the ride is a Must-Do for us, it’s just something for which we wouldn’t endure the midday Standby wait times.

When the other lands finally did open, we quickly hit the Frontierland headliners before collecting another FastPass and heading to Main Street for breakfast. There was quite a line, but after seeing the breakfast croissants, I knew it would be worth the wait. When it was our turn to order, the CM behind the counter asked if we were on our honeymoon. We responded that we were, and she told us to hold on. She came back with a large copy, and told her it was on the house. When I say large, I mean pizza size. It was huge! I think WDW must have been fattening us up in the hopes that we wouldn’t be able to leave. The cookie was very nice, as were all of the freebies we’d receive, but even all of the little “congratulations” really made our days. We heard these from so many Cast Members every day, it really was impressive. Either that many CMs are genuinely interested in making the magic (which is impressive) or Disney has done a great job instilling the importance of the “Celebrate” theme of the year (which is equally impressive). Regardless of whether they were genuine congratulations or not, we really appreciated them.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Following breakfast we headed to Liberty Square, Adventureland, and more of Tomorrowland before stopping to eat the Finest Dining Establishment Known to Man: Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. I don’t know if you’ve heard about this restaurant, but, suffice to say, double-cheese w/ bacon plus toppings bar equals crazy delicious! It bears mentioning, although you've probably figured it out by now anyway given how I'm belaboring minor details, that this won't be the typical trip report. I figure everyone who is reading this knows what it's like to go on Splash Mountain, then to Country Bears, then to Tiki Room, then to... so I'm not going to give a count by count description of each ride.

As you might have gathered, we are adults who like meeting characters. (Odd, right?) We stand in diametrical opposition to all those who complain about the supposed proliferation of Meet and Greets (yes, it’s absolutely shocking that Disney would want to meet guest demand; instead perhaps it should focus on satiating the obscure minority interests that only appeal to rabid fans who complain about everything on Disney forums). Our biggest complaint about the Meet and Greets is that there are far too many temporary locations haphazardly located in the sun. Why must Disney locate all of its M&G locations right in the sun?! By the time we get through the line, we're usually drenched and in no condition to be getting pictures! That was definitely the case here—we took turns going and standing in the old Skyway restroom while we waited for Chip and Dale!

After a little while longer in the MK, it was time to head to EPCOT. Over there, we had a bit of time to get Soarin’ FastPasses and take in the Seas before heading to Biergarten for dinner. Little did I realize when we arrived at Biergarten that Sarah was already husband-shopping, and that the family style seating would give her the perfect opportunity to find her prey. I guess I should have seen it coming. I am only in my twenties and have most of my hair. Clearly, not what most people look for in a man. The gentleman across the table from us, with his wife, mind you, was easily in his late 60s, and looked much like Santa Claus with shorter hair. I know how Sarah loves Christmas, so this should have come as no surprise to me.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

While I innocuously went to get my second helping of German meats I can’t pronounce (besides bologna!), Sarah made her move. Over a microphone, one of the CMs began to congratulate Sarah and me on just having gotten married. Naturally, I assumed this was an elaborate ploy by Sarah to secure the man’s affection, as the CM drew attention to he and Sarah, as if they were the two who had just gotten married. Okay, maybe this isn’t quite how Sarah “plotted” the event. Truth be told, she was a little embarrassed about the announcement, as she said a lot of people looked over at our table oddly. Were I in their position, I would have done the same thing. Later we both got a pretty good laugh out of it, but I can imagine that it was fairly embarrassing for her at the moment!

With that misunderstanding behind us, we decided to get up to dance together. This would be another embarrassing moment for Sarah. You see, I have absolutely no dancing abilities whatsoever. No matter how many times she tries to train me, my feet and brain inevitably fail. I think there’s some kind of disconnect between the two (although I think I’m fairly decent at walking, so maybe not?). Consequently, I sort of just flail about, trying to put some semblance of a dance together. I try to dip her and engage in other swanky moves like that (as she, I’m sure, rightfully fears for her life), but I highly doubt that they look natural. Still, we have fun, and we always manage to get a good laugh out of the experience, so we keep doing it.

As for Biergarten’s substance, it was pretty decent. The first round was on the lukewarm side, with the second round being considerably warmer. My usual theory with buffets is that you can get unlimited amounts of decent food versus a decent amount of good food at a ‘normal’ restaurant. It all depends on how hungry you are. Although I can’t say either of us really ate that much this particular evening, we enjoyed the experience. The ambience in the restaurant was very good, and I would recommend the restaurant. It probably isn’t the ideal honeymoon restaurant as you’re seated with other parties, so I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a romantic evening.

It was only 10 minutes before Illuminations when we left Biergarten, so there really weren't any good spots from which to photograph the show. In the future, I think EPCOT should have a special area for tripods up against the rail. I wouldn't even need to be near the tripod (I could just use the remote from afar). They wouldn't interfere with anyone's viewing of the show, and would really make us photographer's happy. I know this will never happen (more likely, tripods will be banned a la Tokyo Disneyland at some point), but I can dream! I set up the tripod anyway to get practice using my ND filter. Every time I watch Illuminations, I love it more. While it doesn't evoke quite the same emotions as a show with Cinderella Castle in the background, the score is brilliant and the story great. It's honestly difficult to compare to Wishes!

With Illuminations over, we joined the herd of others heading back towards Future World. Traffic was especially bad through Mexico, where the walkway narrowed considerably due to construction walls. Given the huge crowds we encountered throughout the trip, this was par for the course, but I have to say the behavior of some people always cracked me up. Like the people with strollers or other large devices getting visibly frustrated because they could not easily go against the crowds at the conclusion of these shows. Or the same folks going with the crowds but expecting to be able to push through just because they have a big plastic cart. Well, buddy, you may be able to run into the back of my ankles with the plastic, but all you're not getting through. Everyone is trying to get to the same place, I highly doubt you actually “need” to get through.

Once we finally reached an area of reprieve, we determined where we needed to go...to feel the flow...to the Universe of Eneeeer-gy! One of our favorite hidden gems, we delighted at the thought of getting off of our feet for 45 minutes and watching some dinosaurs, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Just Ellen. Or, as well call them, the “Trifecta of Awesome” (clever, right?).

Next, it was time to strap in and blast off for Mars! Sarah really wanted us to fly orange, but I LOVE the thrill of Mission: Space, and know I wouldn't have been satisfied with that. Very sweetly, she let me ride green while she rode orange. Afterward, we met up in the gift shop. The exterior of that attraction is so gorgeous at night. It really is too bad it has the taint that it does with so many fans due to replacing Horizons, and more sad that there isn't more of substance inside (i.e. an actual pavilion rather than just a single ride and post show. With the parks quickly clearing out, we boarded SpaceShip Earth, Soarin', Livin' with the Land, and the Seas before beginning the picture taking fun.

Our plan was to take pictures throughout Future World before heading back to World Showcase (and getting pictures again on the way as we left). We figured this would be a good strategy as we had seen people allowed to head towards the International Gateway in the past even though that portion of the park had been cleared. It was the perfect plan. We got pictures in front of the Seas, Imagination, and in the area of the Fountain of Nations before heading up front.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

The above images is one of the reasons why I bought the fisheye. When I took the original "EPICOT" shot last year, I was disappointed by two things: 1) the Food and Wine display in the flower bed and, 2) 11mm being the widest focal length at my disposal. Despite having the lens for our honeymoon, I never expected to get this shot. I was hopeful, but it takes too long to set-up, and at that time of night (technically, morning) it seems like the monorails run once every 20 minutes.
Here, as we approached the front of the park, I saw the monorail approaching in the distance. I didn't hold out much hope that I could get to the flower bed before it arrived, but I tried anyway, running with my tripod fully extended as I attempted to dial in the appropriate camera settings with one eye on the camera and the other on my path (brilliant and safe, I know). Shockingly, I arrived in time, but the tripod was too high. Rather than adjust it, I balanced the camera on the plaque in front of the flower bed and fired--success. Then I realized that this plan wasn't fool-proof, as I couldn't hold the camera there steady for 10 seconds or so. I resolved defeat, knowing that I wouldn't get the shot since it'd likely be 20 minutes before the next monorail passed and being the last guests, we probably needed to make our way to the International Gateway prior to then.
Roughly 5 minutes later (or so it felt), as I set up for shots of Sarah and me with her camera and tripod, the Tronorail approached. This would be a theme of the trip: the Tronorail, a nemesis of mine, showing up in every great monorail shot opportunity. While the dreaded beast always showed up quickly, it was almost as if the Serpentine of the Sky was mocking me: "Pick your poison, Tom; take a picture of me without having to wait, or wait indefinitely for one of the 'pretty' monorails." As you can see, the Tronorail claimed victory here by snaking its way into the shot, but I think I still got the last laugh
After that set of pictures, we decided to call it a night. As we began to turn towards International Gateway, Security stopped us, asking if we would need transportation back to our resort. I said responded that we would not, as we’d walk through the International Gateway. He half-chuckled, informing us that International Gateway was closed. Instead, we were rounded up onto a bus of other people. They must have been waiting there for us, as I hadn’t seen any of these people in the park! After a little loop around a couple other resorts, we were back at the resort, at which time we hit the hay.

Cape May Café’s character breakfast was on the agenda bright and early the next morning, so we rose early once again for that. Again, we arrived at our ADR early (I keep noting this because it's absolutely unprecedented for us—besides midday ADRs at the park in which we were in on that particular day, on previous trips that has never happened) and were seated right away. I dialed in the camera settings so we'd be ready when the (Goof) troupe of beach characters came by, and then we headed to the breakfast bar.

Although the value for these breakfasts isn't that great on the Dining Plan, and actually, isn't that great when paying cash, either, they sure are delicious. Maybe I have lower expectations for breakfast, or maybe I just prefer breakfast as a meal. Whether it be biscuits and gravy, chocolate mickey waffles, or my favorite, breakfast pizza, I love it all. I even sometimes eat a banana or two just to keep a “healthy” diet at WDW. We got our character pictures, enjoyed a few plates of delicious breakfast, and then waddled our way to the beach, where we boarded one of the Friendship boats for the Studios.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Since it was already about an hour and forty-five minutes after the park opened, the waits were already long, thus we developed strategy for the morning: pick up FastPasses as early as we could and ride unpopular rides between times we'd be able to pick up FastPasses then go back to the resort to take a midday nap, to return in the evening when we could utilize the FastPasses and enjoy nighttime in the park. Although the park was pretty crowded, it worked pretty well. We picked up FastPasses for Toy Story Mania and Tower of Terror; and, experienced MuppetVision and Great Movie Ride.

Then we took the plunge. We headed to Starring Rolls Café and ordered the muffin, the myth, the legend. The Butterfinger Cupcake. We had heard much chatter about this cupcake in the months preceding our trip. The WDW Today gang raved about it, as did Lou Mongello, and the review of AJ from the Disney Food Blog really sealed the deal that we’d definitely need to try this dessert. Their recommendations were accurate. Rather than ordering two of the gigantic cupcakes that we’d been told is large enough to share, Sarah ordered something different, so we could taste another option as well, and wouldn’t have “flavor overload.” Although the first bite of the Butterfinger Cupcake was good (nice and moist), it lacked the “umph” of flavors I expected. I then realized I only got one layer. With the next fork-full, I dug in carefully, getting a little of everything. Crème, Butterfinger stuff, cupcake, and other stuff (luckily I have no ambitions as a food critic) all combined into what can only be described as a flavor explosion. It was excellent—and definitely enough cupcake for at least 1.5 people. Full from the cupcake and ready for naps, we headed towards the exit.

We thought up a clever strategy when returning via the boat. Rather than waiting for the boat to stop at the Swan & Dolphin and then the Beach Club before dropping us off at BoardWalk, we just got off at Swan & Dolphin and walked the 2 minutes to BoardWalk. We probably saved 10 minutes this way! I'm sure we're hardly the first people to do this, but we thought it was a great idea worth sharing, nonetheless. Almost as soon as we got up to our room, it started pouring. Perfect timing, we thought. We slept for around three hours, before heading back to the Studios.

Upon arriving back at the Studios, we immediately got FastPasses for Star Tours, and then hopped in the standby line. We had already checked to see if ToT or RnRC FPs were still left, but they had all been distributed for the day. I took a lot of pictures throughout the queue and pre-show to document the attraction. Prior to boarding, the no flash pictures announcement was made, and when I started taking pictures inside (definitely without using the flash), I was admonished to put my camera away. This is one thing that really grinds my gears: if the rule is no flash photography, state it and enforce it as such. If the rule is no photography, period, state it as such. There are several attractions (Carousel of Progress, Finding Nemo: the Musical, Soarin’, etc.) where the Cast Members give inconsistent instructions on this. If they give a particular instruction, I am going to follow what they said on that particular experience. I think it’s unfair to later scold people for following the instructions as given. I don’t even care if they make an overbroad rule of “no photography” when all they intend to prevent is flash photography (if their rationale is that people can’t control their cameras well-enough to disable the flash), I am just irritated by inconsistent rules.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Anyway, back to Star Tours. It’s not really a favorite attraction of mine, but it’s one I remember vividly as a child. Until hearing that it would likely be refurbished, I didn’t really “embrace” the nostalgia I had for it, with its humorous pre-show video, interesting color choices, and creative signage throughout. I think one of the big problems with the Disney fan community is that its sentiment towards nostalgic favorites is much like mine was until a couple trips ago: we don’t really show ‘our’ favorite attractions love, but rather only complain ex post facto. By that point, the decision has already been made that, due to unpopularity, the attraction is going to be replaced.

I don’t consider myself hostile towards change to the degree of others, so I welcome the new Star Tours. Mostly unknown personal nostalgia notwithstanding, it is desperately in need of an upgrade, and I hope the refurbishment brings about a new attraction (a la Hall of Presidents or Space Mountain), rather than just a slightly refreshed attraction. So long as the changes are improvements, and not downgrades, I will embrace them. In these circumstances, I don’t see how downgrades are even a conceivable possibility—Star Tours will, undoubtedly, improve. It’s not like the dismal Imagination refurbishment a decade ago that replaced a brilliant attraction with a dumbed down and somewhat annoying one.

After what would likely be our last ride on Star Tours 1.0, FastPasses in hand, we headed for Pizza Planet for a quick dinner before Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage. Although I like Pizza Planet, if I have any regrets from our honeymoon, it’s that I think we ate at Pizza Planet too many times. I think the Studios is really lacking in the department of Quick Service restaurant theming and food, falling fairly far behind the three other parks in this category, in my opinion. Maybe it’s just because we never have really tried the other options (they seem dull to me). Any suggestions for standout Quick Service options at the Studios?

We inhaled our pizza, then booked it to Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage, which had always failed to catch on previous trips. It was a definite Must-Do for us this trip because of that, and since we had never seen it, I only snapped a couple of pictures so I could enjoy the show to its fullest. Overall, we thought it was pretty good. We love Beauty and the Beast (it’s my favorite animated classic—can’t wait for the October Blu-Ray release!), so perhaps we were a bit biased. What I really thought, throughout, was that the utensils should appear in meet and greet form! I would love to meet Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, and the whole gang!

Voyage of the Little Mermaid was our next stop. If Star Tours is an “unknown” sentimental favorite, VotLM is definitely a “known” one. I fondly recall watching its lasers in awe at a younger age (although not as a young child, as I don’t think it was there yet). While I think it could be refreshed, I definitely will miss any changes that come to it. Perhaps on subsequent trips, we’ll watch it twice just so it’s fully engrained in our memories when the inevitable change happens.

We rounded out the evening with rides about Toy Story Mania, Great Movie Ride, and a viewing of MuppetVision 3D taking some pictures in front of Grauman’s and the Big ___ Hat. The debate between the BAH and Grauman’s “camps” is another one that is difficult for me. With the shot below, I attempted to illustrate the adversarial relationship between the two (at least, as much as any two inanimate objects can have an adversarial relationship). While I think the Hat ruins the architecture fluidity of the area and is certainly thematically jarring, it is pretty to take pictures of! I know WDI can’t just play RollerCoaster Tycoon with the parks, but in a perfect world, I would like to see the Hat moved to the front entrance or the backlot. Maybe someday.

In case you can't tell, we're trying to mimic the poses of Fozy and Piggy here. I don't think we conveyed that too well.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

With our photo session concluded, we headed for the exit; it was right around park closing time, so it was quite odd to be walking through the turnstiles with so many others. Almost disappointing, actually, as it seemed like the parks were pleading with us to stay, to tuck them in for the night, or something of that sort. Metaphorically, of course, as we realize that theme parks don’t get tucked into bed at night.

We were leaving slightly earlier than originally planned because we had received several comments that we’d be remiss if we didn’t go to Jellyrolls at least once on our trip. When we got back to BoardWalk, we quickly headed up to the room to drop off our stuff, then headed down to the BoardWalk. It was a Wednesday at midnight, so it was not exactly crowded inside. We didn’t realize this going in, but I think it might have influenced our decision to go. Jellyrolls is clearly one of those places that gets better when there is more crowd with whom the performers can interact. We found it interesting to watch how the audience reacted to each of the pianists; the audience clearly preferred one of the performers, as demonstrated by cheering and tips. We wondered if this affected the relationship of the pianists. Don’t know why we gave it so much thought when we could have just been listening to the music, but we did. I pass along that nugget of information with the hopes that you’ll similarly be thinking about it if you go to Jellyrolls. We stayed for about an hour before finally heading to bed. It was still very fun, but it would’ve been nice if everyone else didn’t go to sleep so early!

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

We slept in a bit the next morning, getting to EPCOT at around 11 a.m.. First on the agenda, as usual, was to grab Soarin’ FastPasses. While in the neighborhood, we stopped to eat at Sunshine Seasons once again. Once again, I had the wedge shaped sandwich, this time getting cheesecake for dessert. The Key Lime pie looked delicious, but I really wanted to try something new. The cheesecake was much better than the dessert I previously had at Sunshine Seasons. Sarah got the old standby, the delicious chicken and mashed potatoes meal and the Key Lime pie. After that, it was on to Test Track, which we rode (as we usually do) as single riders. Test Track is a big favorite of Sarah’s, so we do it a decent amount. I like it moderately, but she puts up with riding several attractions she doesn’t like that I enjoy, so I try to reciprocate a little.

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Now, for one of the moments of the trip report for which you’ve been waiting: Sarah’s Gallery of Duck and Egret Shots! I guess I better preface this with an explanation: we have a running joke that one of the biggest attractions at WDW is the random birds flying around. This joke grew out of Sarah photographing them extensively when she first got her DSLR, and snowballed at the beginning of our honeymoon when she went a little trigger happy on the duck shots. The reason I bring it up now is because on this particular day, although we wouldn’t know it at the time, it got even worse.

As we were sitting outside of the Imagination pavilion, we were watching some ducks swimming around, and later this day outside of the Land pavilion, we were watching some ducks walk around in the grass. On both occasions, we started “talking for” the ducks, Mystery Science Theater 3000 style, adopting duck “voices” and saying the things we thought the ducks would be saying, if they could talk. Now, this in and of itself would not be embarrassing. We do it everyday at home, talking for our pets and making them say some pretty ridiculous things. However, I’m pretty sure someone from here heard us doing this. At least, I think someone did, as I later discovered I had a private message from someone saying hello who said he or she saw us near some ducks. So to the person out there who sent that PM, if you’re out there reading this now, I apologize for not responding to your message. Though in my defense, when you’re unsure of whether someone witnessed you giving odd duck “voice-overs” you don’t exactly know how to respond to them. That odd bit of information off my chest, here is Sarah’s gallery:

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Following our conversations with ducks, we headed into an attraction that’s worse than listening to strange people talk for ducks: Journey into Imagination 2.0. Like I’ve said in the past, it makes me almost sad to go on this, but I love Figment, and any dose I can get is worth getting. Sometimes I don’t know why I subject myself to it, but the things why do for loved ones are sometimes irrational.

To wash the taste of the Figment suck-fest out of our mouths, we headed to Club Cool for some soda from other parts of the world. As we left Club Cool, the smells of the FountainView innundated our senses. We almost got something there, but there was no indoor seating, which killed the deal for us. Realizing we hadn’t done anything in the World Showcase, we headed there, making stops in Norway and Mexico for those attractions as we strolled around the promenade.

As we exited Mexico, planning on heading to go feel the flow again, Sarah stopped off in the bathroom. I told her that I’d go ahead to get FastPasses for Test Track. When I arrived at Test Track, it began to pour. Actually, pour would be an understatement. The sky was basically vomiting down buckets of water at an absurd rate. While the sky had been a little overcast before, it was in no way indicative of this storm. I don’t know how the Florida weather works, but it seems to always have ambush rainstorms. To me, that seems a little unfair. The weather may suck in the North, but at least it’s predictably sucky. No surprise when you don’t see the sun for three months or get 2 feet of snow dumped on you.

Given the spontaneity of the storm, and since neither of us brought ponchos that day, Sarah and I were stuck in our respective locations: her under an awning of the Odyssey and me inside the queue of Test Track (they allowed us inside). Once the first wave of torrential downpours was over, it started “only” raining hard. For this, I felt comfortable merely standing under the large cover outside of Test Track. Since I spotted lighting fairly regularly, I kept randomly taking pictures, hoping I’d catch some. Several minutes and countless wasted shots of this passed before I decided to just set up the tripod and go for longer exposures to increase my odds. All told, I took 150+ pictures, and I didn’t catch a single bolt of lightning. Talk about bad luck. All of the pictures sucked, to boot.

When the rain finally subsided a little more, Sarah high-tailed it over to the Test Track awning, where we strategized our next move. We figured if we could go feel the flow at the Universe of Energy, we’d at least have an hour to let Mother Nature cool its jets with the rain. So we briskly headed that way, only to arrive and find out that Universe of Energy was down. After that, we tried SpaceShip Earth, which was up. Upon exiting, we found that it was still raining, at which time we decided to cut our losses and have Sarah get a poncho (since she has long hair, any rain exposure could cause issues). While she was getting a poncho, I saw quite possibly the coolest thing ever. This lady was walking, and all of the sudden, one of those strong, “underside of SSE” gusts of wind just came, and literally blew it to smithereens. It wasn’t just as if the gust turned the umbrella inside out and detached the cloth from the frame, it was as if there were explosives mounted on the inside that suddenly detonated. I wish I had some pictures of that!

WDWFigment · Aug 10, 2010

Fully armed with a poncho, we were ready to take on EPCOT in any type of weather. We didn’t actually end up doing a whole lot with it besides visiting Norway, actually, since Le Cellier was beckoning. We arrived at Le Cellier slightly early to our ADR. Nothing out of the ordinary here, as the delicious meats of Canada beckon carnivores like us from opposite ends of the park. We had a very short wait at Le Cellier, which was somewhat surprising given the large crowds amassed in the area when we arrive. My guess is they were people trying to get last minute reservations. I heard the party after us ask if they had any availability for a party of 16. Sarah and I just had to chuckle to ourselves on that one. I can’t imagine he had much success anywhere with that size of a party, let alone at one of WDW’s most popular restaurants. Why anyone would go to WDW without doing some due diligence ahead of time boggles my mind. With the amount of money it costs, it’s just unreasonable not to plan out one’s trip. I wouldn’t go on a weekend getaway anywhere without planning, I couldn’t imagine going to WDW without planning. I have little sympathy for folks like this, and for this same reason (as I’ve probably said countless times around here), I love FastPass. It gives an advantage to those willing to plan and take the effort to understand it. Success in any aspect of life can be achieved through a little due diligence and with effort. If more people took that to heart, I think our society would be a lot better off.

Enough of my soapbox. What can be said about Le Cellier that hasn’t already been said? How about this: I think it’s slightly overrated. Now, before you jump down my throat wondering where I came up with such heresy, I temper that statement with another that it’s one of my favorite restaurants in WDW. It borders on being Sarah’s absolute favorite. Being overrated is relative, and my stance is that in comparison to its actual quality, the opinion of it (at least as expressed in the Disney online community) is a little too high. People constantly gush over it, it’s the restaurant I most frequently see called #1, and I just don’t think it’s quite up to the hype. If going from a value perspective on the Dining Plan, it’s probably #1 (well, at least until the two credits requirement takes effect), but I don’t think that’s the ultimate criterion of a restaurant. It is great, no doubt, and the service is great, but there are some better restaurants at WDW.

On this particular evening, our server was exceptional. He was very knowledgeable regarding the different entrees, and was actually willing to make a recommendation instead of indecisively saying “they’re all good.” His description of the beers actually persuaded us to each try one, when initially we were unsure of whether any of them sounded good. He really was a great salesman for the restaurant. The beer, which came out first, was delicious. I had the Trois Pistoles and Sarah had the Blanche de Chambly; mine was a darker, heavy beer yet one with fruity and spicy tastes, Sarah's was a lighter, hopsy and somewhat lemon or orangy beer. Following the beer came the bread, which is something so good that Sarah remembered it from a previous trip. While I love some good bread and butter, I don’t think I’d remember it for that long. That alone speaks volumes about this bread. We think the pretzel bread is the best.

We both opted for the New York Strip Steaks. I am always tempted by the filet, especially with those mushrooms, but I love to eat, and the bigger cut is up my alley. Plus, I really like the taste of a good NY Strip, especially if it’s seasoned well. I love filet, too, but I’ll take the size combined with the taste of a strip over a filet most any day. The strip was, as always, delicious. Comparing them several days apart was really tough, but I had to give the slight nod to Kona’s strip. It seemed just a little tenderer, and also larger. The potatoes at Kona were definitely better. Having had the same meal at both restaurants, Sarah disagrees, giving the edge to Le Cellier. Her conclusion wasn’t even as close as mine, but I think she valued the better service at Le Cellier more highly than did I. The desserts would be the one area where Le Cellier definitely had the edge. My Maple Créme Brulée was phenomenal, and Sarah said she really liked her Le Cellier Mount Blanc Semifreddo I know I tasted it, but I don't quite remember what I thought of it.

Due to our early dining time at Le Cellier, it was only around 7 p.m. when we exited the restaurant. There was still plenty of time to take in the Seas, Turtle Talk, and Soarin’ before finding a spot for Illuminations. As we walked towards the World Showcase, a rainbow appeared over the Imagination pavilion. In its current state, it’s really not all that fitting, but 15 years ago, it would have been! Nonetheless, it was photo-worthy. As I lined up for the shot, my dreaded nemesis, the Tronorail passed by. Normally, I would have been elated to see the monorail approaching. All I could do this time was shake my first, scoff the ground, and go on my way. The serpentine of the sky had foiled me again. In this case, the Tronorail balanced out the shot, by my hatred for that beast really outweighed any excitement.

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