Today was October 1st. For those of you who don’t know, Magic Kingdom opened on October 1st, 1971. That meant that today, Magic Kingdom turned 40. So, where did we go? Hollywood Studios, to avoid the crowds. Well, if we were sensible we would have.
Off to Magic Kingdom, after first emptying another bottle of water from the Lounge, and getting some pastries too. We were in fairly early (minutes after Rope Drop) and there were people handing out 40th Anniversary Pins. Score. We wandered up Main St, and there were already people lining the street for the procession that would be happening, in about 1 hour.
We didn’t care so much about the procession, so we wandered toward the Castle where we would be able to watch the announcement. It was packed, so we wound up on the bridge between the Hub and Liberty Square. The announcement was fun, with the Disney Ambassadors giving speeches, the Main St Philharmonic and the Dapper Dans both performing, and Phil Holmes, the Vice-President of Magic Kingdom and original Haunted Mansion ticket taker giving a speech. There were also streamers and daytime fireworks, as well as a special edition of Wishes that night, which we didn’t get to see. Finally, there were artist signings throughout MK the whole day. Rumour had it that MK almost closed due to capacity.
We then wandered around for a bit and stopped in a shop to see the 40th Anniversary Merchandise. We found some 40th Anniversary shot glasses (or ‘Toothpick Holders’ as Disney classifies them) for Rin with the original posters for the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain, as well as Cinderella’s Castle made up of various Disney images.
Despite the talks of closing due to capacity and whatnot, the park seemed fairly quiet, and we quickly got onto Peter Pan, tried to pull out the Sword in the Stone (neither of us succeeded), met the Fairy Godmother, got some pictures of Cinderella’s Fountain, saw a group performing on Main St (I’m not actually sure what group it was), got pictures of Roy and Minnie’s statue/bench, and got some more miscellaneous pictures before hopping on the monorail to Epcot. All before our ADR at Via Napoli.
Once we got to Epcot, we immediately got Fast Passes for Soarin’, since we’d never yet been on the ride. Then off to Via Napoli. Our waiter was Ivan, a little hard to understand, but a nice guy. We both got a Coke and water, and we split an order of Arancini, and an order of Salami e Provolone.
For those of you unfamiliar with Arancini, they’re little balls of risotto, usually with cheese and some type of meat, then fried. These were filled with saffron risotto, mozarella and (as stated on the menu) a meat ragu (which is redundant, since ragu refers to a meat-based sauce). They were served with marinara, for dipping, and were delicious.
The Salami e Provolone was just that, a small plate of salami and provolone cheese. The salami was among the best I’ve ever tasted, but I don’t generally like cheese (unless it’s melted), so I left that for Rin. She found it a bit strong, but I suppose that’s to be expected with provolone.
Next up, we each had pizza. I had a basic Pepperoni pizza, and Rin had Prosciutto e Melone. The waiter thought at first that there was an issue with the melon, so he went to check, and quickly came back to let us know that all was well.
Oh my, this pizza was some of the best I’ve ever had. It had a nice amount of blackening, the mozzarella was fresh, the pepperoni was crisp and delicious, and there was a nice amount of sauce. Rin’s pizza was a white pizza, that is, it had no sauce. She fell in love. She’d had pizzas with prosciutto before, but usually done with apple, which doesn’t quite cut the saltiness of prosciutto. She said that it was perfect with the melon, but unfortunately, couldn’t finish it, there was just too much of it. You can’t believe how sad she was.
Oh, and for the record, we asked Ivan about the pizza from the take-out window. He confirmed that it’s not even close to the same pizza. Different dough, different cheese, different ovens. If you want the real thing, head into the restaurant.
Oh, and dessert. I had a type of sundae. I don’t have the full name of it, but it translated loosely to ‘Cup of Ugly but Good.’ I didn’t find it that ugly, but it was indeed tasty. Rin had tiramisu, and figured she wouldn’t eat much since she was so full. It was so light, she finished the whole thing. And it was quite large. (I keep thinking of inappropriate jokes. Bad Zife.)
Final Thoughts
Am I Glad I Ate Here? - God yes, so tasty. And a lot of fun talking to the Cast Members about their homes.
Would I Go Back? - Yes. In fact, just writing this, I want to go to Piatta, a similar place (although not quite as good) here in town.
Rating: Me - 9/10
Rin - 9/10
Cost - $77.75
After our lovely lunch at Via Napoli, we noticed a street performance going on, so we stopped to watch. This was a bad idea. I quickly became part of the performance as one of the ladies' husbands, while a wedding was going on. I was a bit confused, since we didn't see the start, but apparently I was supposed to cry. I was laughing uncontrollably at this point, so there wasn't much crying. It was fun though, and one of the other ladies thought I was cute. Bonus.
After my spectacular performance, we headed to the front to see if we could ‘package check’ Rin’s leftover pizza. Turns out that they will only check things purchased from stores, restaurants don’t count. We (well, I) didn’t want to carry it around for the rest of the day, so I tossed it into the garbage while Rin looked the other way and sobbed.
It was around this time that our FastPass for Soarin’ came due, so we headed to it. There was still a bit of a wait, but not much. This was our first time on Soarin’, and we were in the back ‘row’ of seats. I’m not sure if the effect is better in other rows, but I have to say, I was thoroughly unimpressed. It just didn’t feel as immersive as people say it does, and the fact that it just cut from scene to scene instead of somehow transitioning didn’t help. Oh, and the giant streaks down the left side (maybe from dirty or old film?) didn’t help much either. Oh well, at least we had the chance to try it.
We wandered around a bit more, checked out some shops (not once did I make it into Karamelle Kuche!) and then wandered to Test Track. I was really hoping this was better than I remembered. So was Rin. We both came off underwhelmed, again.
Honestly, I can’t remember what we did the rest of the day, but eventually we came to our ADR for Le Cellier. I’d been wanting to try this place since our first trip, and the chance finally came. Our ‘Authentic Canadian Waitress’ was Katrina, and she didn’t give us nearly the history of the restaurant that some of the other wait staff gave their diners, but she was knowledgeable, and mostly attentive.
Rin and I both had shakes to drink, mine was a basic Chocolate, and hers was a more daring Chocolate Raspberry. These were good, more like the shakes that we had expected at Narcoossee’s, and bigger than they looked too. They both lasted through the entire meal, and I most definitely was not sipping mine. However, I should mention that Rin said she got tired of hers about halfway through.
To start, I decided to try something I’d never had before - Steak Tartar. It was actually quite good, but I couldn’t get past the fact that I was eating cold meat. see, I can’t even eat cold pizza. Foods that should be hot should be hot, foods that should be cold should be cold. But, like I said, it was good, and I ate probably half of it. It had a ‘Hot Spring Egg’ (essentially a poached egg) cracked over the top which was good too. Surprising, since I don’t eat eggs.
Rin had the famous Cheese Soup, and we both really enjoyed it. I didn’t want to order it, since again, I’m not a huge cheese fan, but I kind of wish I had ordered this instead of the steak tartar (although I am glad I can say I’ve tried steak tartar now). We had saved a bit of bread for dipping, which was nice, but not the be all, end all that some people make it out to be. In fact, we found the bread selection to be good, but nothing special.
For our mains, since we were in a steak house, we both had steak. Rin had the Mushroom Filet Mignon (Le Cellier's Signature) and I had the Grilled Bone-In Ribeye. We were both underwhelmed, given all of the hype, but that’s not to say we weren’t happy. The steaks were both done properly, they were tasty, and they filled us up. I just think we’ve had better.
Finally, dessert. I had really been looking forward to the 'Chocolate Moose' they had, or the 'S'mores' type dessert. Unfortunately, neither were on the menu anymore, so I went with a Sorbet Trio. It was ok, a lot like the one Rin had at Yak & Yeti. By the end, I had mixed it all together, and it was a mess of colours. I'm sure that when the waitress came by, she assumed that the 5-year old behind us had somehow gotten into my dessert.
Rin had the Maple Crème Brûlée. Now, ever since our last trip to Disney, Rin has fallen in love with crème brûlée. So, she likes to try it any time she can. We've had really good crème brûlée, and really bad crème brûlée (sidenote: I think the best we ever had was at a tiny restaurant here in St. John's called Get Stuffed). This crème brûlée was just good, nothing spectacular. The maple flavour was nice, and not overpowering, but the sugar 'shell' on top wasn't as crisp as it should have been. In fact, there was no shell on about half of the crème brûlée. As a plus, there were some fresh raspberries on top, which were quite tasty.
Final Thoughts
Am I Glad I Ate Here? - Yes. I've been hearing about Le Cellier for years, and I'm glad I finally got a chance to try it.
Would I Go Back? - Probably not. We enjoyed it, but for the cost (well, for the 2 Credits), we feel that we enjoyed Yachtsman, as a steakhouse, much better, and that there are even better overall restaurants at Disney.
Rating: Me - 7/10
Rin - 7/10
Cost - $142.05
This basically concluded our day at Epcot. By the time we left the restaurant, IllumiNations was going full swing, and we didn't want to fight the crowds while trying to leave, so we watched a bit as we walked toward the entrance. As we walked, we could hear the 40th Anniversary Wishes off in the distance. We so wanted to be there for these, but unfortunately, we hadn't considered the timing when making our ADRs. Oh well, we'll just have to go back for the 50th Anniversary.
Once we left Epcot, I think we basically just headed back to the Resort and called it a night.
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