Disney World

This is a sub category to Florida.

Restaurant Review: Walt Disney World, Orlando, Epcot, Le Cellier

Restaurant Review: Walt Disney World, Orlando, Epcot, Le Cellier

Restaurant Name: Le Cellier
Location: Walt Disney World, Epcot, Orlando, Florida
Web site: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/le-cellier-steakhouse/
This is an extremely popular restaurant.  Prior reservations are required about 180 days before you want to dine but check with the restaurant as to their current policy as it may change.  There is also a cancellation fee charged to your credit card.
We attended January 11, 2012.

  • Ambiance is nice, nothing special.  If you are looking for a romantic evening with your date, this is not the place.
  • The seating is a bit cramped everywhere we looked.  This is where individuals come to eat excellent food and do not mind the close spaced tables.
  • The service is very good. The serving staff typically are exchange students that come for one year, only, to Disney World for work.  Our server was intelligent, articulate and accurate and had a most pleasant personality.
  • Bread supplied to the table was very good and plentiful.  My son does not like cold butter served with his bread and the butter that came with the bread was soft and mixed with maple syrup.
  • Speed for food arrival, as you would expect, is not quick.
  • The Canadian cheddar cheese soup was excellent.  We recommend it highly.  They even used Moosehead Beer in making the soup.  Cost was $9.00
  • The Canadian “Prime” New York Strip was a 12-oz cut with Gruyere-Yukon gold potato Gratin, wilted spinach and vin rouge reduction for $42.  It had an incredible taste, tender and perfectly cooked.  We recommend this dish.  The steak was huge, the wilted spinach was applied like a garnish and the potatoes were a reasonable size.  The potatoes were rather good flavor and the spinach was a bit better.
  • For desert, we chose the maple creme brûlée for $8 and the apple tart.  The creme brûlée was very good.  It had a perfect crusty top, soft center, rich flavor, and a hint of maple.  The apple tart was the recommendation of our server, Colin, and was nice.
  • Our bill for four people came to over three hundred dollars.(with tip).  This is a signature dining restaurant which translates into paying lots of money for excellent food.

We recommend this restaurant for food and service but it may be a wallet buster.

Le Cellier Restaurant, Walt Disney World, Epcot.
Entrance to Le Cellier
Looking For The Black Cat (Christmas 2011)

Looking For The Black Cat (Christmas 2011)

A very impressive Walt Disney World, Orlando Christmas celebration activity is viewing a most impressive light and sound presentation in Hollywood Studios area called the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights. The story is that the Osborne family decorated their home with lights, the display growing each year. Finally the display got so big, and the traffic driving by got so bad and the neighbors complained so much that Jennings Osborne, the patriarch of the family, donated the whole display to Walt Disney World.

At Disney World the display is shown on the Avenue of the Americas, a movie set of streets from New York, San Francisco and the imagination. The entire surface of each building is covered with lights, and the Osborne family pieces are added. But the lights don’t just look nice. They are coordinated with music, mostly some Christmas carols, but most dramatically with some pieces by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The lights go on and off and form patterns in time to the music. And there is fake snow blowing down at times.

A little known aspect of this show is trying to find the black cat.  (The black cat when viewed is actually purple).  It seems that when the lights were shipped to the park, a Halloween decoration, a black cat, was included by error.  The Disney people, sometimes known for adding hidden objects (like Mickey), decided to have some fun and include the black cat to the light presentation.  Finding the black cat each year has become an interesting aspect of this light show.

Closeup of Black (purple) Cat in alleyway.
Black Cat hidden location
Information and partial article writing provided by J. Edwards
Vitamix Vita-Prep Blender Web Site Allegidly Misleading

Vitamix Vita-Prep Blender Web Site Allegidly Misleading

Our old blender failed and I took a lot of time to research buying a really good blender.  The choices I came up with were Blendtec and Vitamix.  It looked like it would cost me about $400 for either.  The reviews for both were excellent and came in as being pretty close and choosing one over the other seemed pointless.   I finally settled upon the Vitamix because it offered the Eastman Tritan copolyester container that reputes to have no BPA (a possible contaminate).  I wanted the 5200 model but the manufacturer has the priced locked; dealers can not cut the price.  I found a local vendor that would sell me a Vita-Prep model and he was willing to switch out the container so it would be BPA free.  He would decrease the price for me to get the sale.  he even threw in a $17 Vitamix cook book.  The Vita-Prep only came with a 3 year warranted while the 5200 had a 7 year warranted.  I was told that the Vita-Prep was a professional unit, better than the 5200.  I went to Vitamix web site and it appeared to me that the motor was 3 peak horse power, one more hp than the 5200.  The Blendtec has a 3 hp motor.  I purchased the product and when I got it home I found that the amperage was 11 instead of 12.5.  The Vita-Prep model I had was a 2 hp model.  I went to the web site and found in small print the words “Vita-Prep 3”.  The web page had the title of “Vita Prep” in big letters.  The web site menu system ONLY showed the Vita-Prep web page I looked at to make my decision, which, if you looked closely was a Vita-Prep 3 unit.  My blender was shipped August 20th from the factory and the day I purchased it was September 5th, same year. The web site only showed one Vita-Prep, gave it a more powerful motor and in small print added a “3” which I missed.  My point is that my model was purchased within days of my viewing the Vitamix web site and the model I thought I was looking at on their web site did NOT show any other model.  How am I to know that I was to recive a completely different model?  I tried to find my model on the Vitamix web site but could not!  This seems close to bait and switch or misleading advertising or some other alleged unethical activity.

Starring Roles Bakery – MGM Studios – Walt Disney World

Starring Roles Bakery – MGM Studios – Walt Disney World

Starring Roles Bakery – MGM Studios – Walt Disney World

This bakery is located right next to the Brown Derby Restaurant in the MGM Studios. There is no indoor seating, but there are several tables with umbrellas on the patio just outside the bakery. The tables have a good view of the action on one of the busiest corners of the MGM Studio and are great for people watching and taking a break.

I love this place. It’s great for a (relatively) inexpensive breakfast or a coffee break later in the day. It only stays open until about 3 in the afternoon (depending on the season) so check the hours posted by the patio.

Inside the bakery, one can get coffee drinks, soft drinks, hot chocolate and an assortment of pastries. To my regret they no longer seem to carry the yummy grapefruit cake (which is available next door at the Brown Derby restaurant). For breakfast fare the bakery offers several kinds of bottled juices, assorted muffins, bagels, etc.

My personal favorite is the bagel, cream cheese and salmon plate. The salmon comes either “pastramied” or smoked (i.e. lox). The plate also comes with capers and a HUGE portion of cream cheese. If you order a bagel and cream cheese alone, you don’t get nearly as much cream cheese. You can feed the bagel through the toaster device on the counter if you prefer it toasted.

The condiment bar is well stocked with napkins, cream and that sort of thing. The silverware, although plastic, is quite sturdy for spreading the cream cheese. Every time I’ve been there, there are also plenty of staff there sweeping up and keeping the area very clean.

This place is highly recommended by me. Don’t take all the lox. Thank you.

The Writer’s Corner – MGM Studios – Walt Disney World

The Writer’s Corner – MGM Studios – Walt Disney World

The Writer’s Corner – MGM Studios – Walt Disney World

This little place is part bookstore and part coffee bar. If you’re from Seattle, as I am, it reminds one of all the coffee places around town. It is also a great place for having a coffee break when it’s too hot or too cold or too wet outside or you just need to get away from the crowd. There isn’t much seating – just one or two tables and a sofa and two easy chairs.

The items for sale are books (not that many – mostly Disney related or popular fiction suitable for vacation reading), music (definitely all Disney-related), autograph books and journals and the like, and also some kitchen-related Disney items.

There are soft drinks and specialty coffee drinks. The coffee is the contract-required Nescafe brand, but if you get a latte or such, it is generally better than the hopelessly weak Nescafe served most places in the theme parks.

Snacks include giant cookies, rice crispy treats, etc. A word about the cookies: if you like soft cookies, like I do, don’t be drawn in by the cookies which are higher than they are round. I think it’s because they have to cook them slowly to get them done all the way through. But in any case, they are all crunchy, even the chocolate chip, sugar cookies, and peanut butter cookies. If you like soft cookies, choose the ones that resemble small Frisbees.

However, the ultimate attraction of this place is the small size and change of mood from the rest of the park. It is located next to the Sci-Fi Drive-in Diner and quite close to the Star Tours ride. If you visit during the Christmas season, this is a great stop after seeing the Osborne Family Festival of lights which is quite close.

Sci-Fi Drive In Diner – MGM Studios – Walt Disney World

Sci-Fi Drive In Diner – MGM Studios – Walt Disney World

Sci-Fi Drive In Diner – MGM Studios – Walt Disney World

I ate that this restaurant in 2000 and then again in April of 2007. Things haven’t changed much.

This time I took my niece (age 14) and nephew (age 18) to this restaurant. They picked it because of the theming. I have to admit the theming is excellent. The premise is that you are going to a drive-in movie and eating in your car while you watch the movie.

The setting of the restaurant is a semi-dark “drive-in theatre” with a big movie screen up in front. The seating looks like cars, old fashioned Cadillac-type cars with 3 rows of seats. The walls are painted to look like outdoor southern California with palm trees and gentle hills. While we were waiting to be seated my nephew had to use the restroom, so he got a view of the restaurant before the rest of us entered. When he came back I asked him, “What did you think?” He said “It was all I hoped for and more.” I did not detect any adolescent sarcasm in his report. I have to agree with him that the ambiance is excellent.

When we got out seats, the young people sat in the front seat of the car (it’s only 2 people wide) and I sat in the second seat. Eventually, we picked up two more “hitch hikers” in the third seat of our car. (There are a couple of tables that have a car front and back attached to a regular table. In this seating arrangement, the party is sitting with the movie screen to their side rather than straight ahead. This would work if there was a person in a wheelchair, a very large size person, or a party that was more interested in interacting with each other than in the theming. In the last instance, there are much better restaurants for spending quality time with one’s friends or family.)

The eating surface is a shelf-type affair, affixed in front of your car seats. There is a low-level light all along the shelf for reading the menu. It’s not much good for anything else.

As for the movie screen, it is huge and really looks like the old drive-in theaters that I used to go to with my family in the mid-1960’s. There is a “speaker” on the pole by each car (just like the drive-in) and the sound is good. The movie screen plays a series of trailers for old and really bad sci-fi movies (I even watched some of them as a child) as well as a number of ads for the drive-in theater. The ads are also classics for the snack bar, just the kind you used to see at the old drive-ins. The film is on a loop that lasts about 45 minutes, which is about all the time that you want to be spending in this restaurant.

At the end of the meal, instead of a check for your meal, you are presented with a “speeding ticket” for the damages.

Now, as to the food… When I first visited this restaurant in 2000, I just had dessert because I wanted to see the restaurant, but I had a smaller income and could not afford a whole meal there. (Compared to all Walt Disney World restaurants, this one is not especially expensive. It was my job that was the problem, not the price of the restaurant).
This time, I had more food. My niece, who hardly eats anything, had a child’s hamburger. She reported that it was “fine.” My nephew ordered the chili with salsa topping off the appetizer menu. He reported that it could afford to have more chili and less salsa. I also ordered off the appetizer menu and had the tortilla chips with artichoke/parmesan dip. There were plenty of chips, but the dip was quite bland. Given the quality of the food, I was pleased that none of us were really hungry when we visited this restaurant. One of the items on the menu is spare ribs with bar-b-que sauce. I tried to imagine eating ribs with a lot of sauce and trying to keep track of everything in the semi-darkness. Not a pretty picture.

On the beverage menu they offered, besides the usual things, Spite soda mixed with flavored syrups. I had the green apple, which was quite good. I only wish they had had a diet version.

Overall, the theming is fun and carried out well. It would probably be the most fun if you’re of the age to actually remember some of the bad movies and/or going to drive-in theaters. Even though I can now afford the food, if I take people there in the future I will stick to my original dessert-only plan. If you go to this restaurant be clear that you’re going for the theming experience and not for the food.