Mouse Extra

We have written about Le Cellier before.  Canada’s steakhouse is perhaps Epcot’s most popular restaurant.  Reservation can be a difficult thing to obtain due to its impressively positive reputation among Disney World enthusiasts.

My latest visit to this World Showcase favorite was certainly an up and down experience.  To begin with, we waited an abnormally long time to be seated.  It took forty-five minutes for us to finally get a seat.  Now we had a big party, but there was no excuse for this.  It was a lunch reservation, the place was not overwhelmed and we had an ADR.  In fact, some in the party were ready to walk.  But eventually we got our table.

What came next was perhaps the best meal I have had in a long time, if not ever.  I started with the Canadian Cheddar Cheese soup, something anyone who has been to this restaurant seems to rave about and for good reason.  Breadsticks accompany the soup course, and thankfully the waiter suggested dipping the pretzel breadstick into the soup.  This was like the chocolate meeting the peanut butter…if not even better!

For dinner I had Pork Osso Buco and a side order of Baked Macaroni and Cheese.  I would only be slightly exaggerating if I told you I was very close to storming into the kitchen and genuflecting in the presence of the chef.  The flavor that came from these two dishes absolutely floored me to the point where I thought I would tear up when it was finished.  Hyperbole you say?  Not a chance.

The moral of the story is that when you go to a place as popular as Walt Disney World and eat at one of its finest and most loved restaurants remember that patience may be required.  It will certainly reward you in the end.

Disney World has begun a very interesting and worthwhile transformation into the “internet” world.  Soon you will be able to check in to your hotel online, book dining reservations, and even use your Verizon cell phone to get real-time attraction information.  It’s time for the Mouse to step up and do the same for their Magical Express service.

Disney’s Magical Express is a great idea and it is really hard to find anything to complain about with it.  But every so often you may be unlucky enough to find an enormous, and I really mean enormous, line waiting to check in before you ever even queue up for the next bus to arrive.  It seems to me this checking-in process serves only to see who has arrived and more importantly how many bags Disney needs to now go and find. 

This is all well and good, but why can’t you go online 24 hours or less before your flight takes off and check-in with Magical Express and tell them exactly how many bags you will be checking into luggage?  If I can track myself when flights are on time or when they are delayed surely Disney can as well.  If that is not possible, how about after checking in the previous day with Magical Express you print out a boarding pass with a barcode which a cast member can simply scan before you board?  A handheld scanning device as you head towards the bus lines would be fast and easy.

This may sound a bit like nitpicking, but I can’t be the only one this bugs.  On my first day on vacation I simply can’t stand to watch my precious time tick away while waiting on line at Disney’s Magical Express.  To be honest, when I used Magical Express last week the line was so long that a couple behind me gave up and went for a cab.  Now that may have been an extreme circumstance, and it certainly was the longest I had ever seen the line, but I really doubt it was.  Disney needs to streamline this process, and an online check-in can only help.

Like I said yesterday, I did not bring myself to see Disney World’s newest addition, the American Idol Experience, on my recently concluded trip to the Mouse.  But I did have a chance to “experience” the other major change at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the newly slashed show times for Fantasmic!.  And as I am sure you could have predicted, it was a total disaster.

Considering the potential for a mess, our party decided to book a Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose’s.  We had a good meal, good service, and were enjoying ourselves until our waiter at the end of our meal told us we should think about heading over to the theater as soon as we were finished…it was over 2 hours until show time!?!  Now that may be good advice, but the party included my 4 year old niece and 7 year old nephew.  I couldn’t imagine either one of them sitting on a bleacher for 2 hours even if Mickey Mouse himself was sitting next to them the entire time.

As we arrived 45 minutes early, they were already turning people away and telling them only limited standing room remained.  But they gave us a seat thanks only to the dinner package.  Folks, I can not emphasize enough how important this package is now if you don’t want to sit on a bleacher looking at a blank stage for over an hour.

I can only imagine how many people, who did not have the benefit of a well informed waiter or are not avid readers of various Disney related websites, did not get to see the show on their one and only shot to do so on their vacation.  How many guests made their way over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios specifically for Fantasmic only to be turned away at the entrance to the theater?  And this was a particularly slow week for attendance.  This problem will only get worse.

I hope all of those who did miss out registered their complaints with Guest Services.  This decision to cut costs by cutting down to only two showings per week what may be the most popular show on property was one of the worst Disney World officials have made in recent memory.  I understand the need to cut costs, but how about 4 times a week?  Why go from every night to only twice?

Thanks to this decision there really is no reason anymore to stay into the night at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  It is now nothing more than a half-day park.  Get there early, hit the e-tickets, and you’ll be done by early afternoon.  Is that what Disney hoped to accomplish?

It was a great week at Walt Disney World and I am deep into my post-Mouse blues.  I would like to thank you all for being patient with the lack of posts last week.  I know that in order to keep up with the Joneses I really should be blogging from my hotel room when I am in Florida, but when I go on a Disney vacation I am on Disney vacation, which means I try to keep as far from reality as possible.  After all, that is the point, right?

Over the next few days we will be reporting on all the experiences we had during another terrific WDW trip, so check back often for new posts and photos.  But I will start off our post-trip reporting with our first encounter with the American Idol Experience…okay, maybe “encounter” is a bad word.

You see, the new American Idol based attraction was open almost the entire week we were there.  The problem is that I just couldn’t bring myself to sit through it.  I know this makes me a bad reporter, and I am sure there are many readers out there who love this incredibly popular television show and are excited about this new attraction, but I find American Idol completely unwatchable and I just couldn’t bare the thought of a watered-down version.

I tried to pawn it off on others in my party, including more than one contributing writer to Mouse Extra, but there were no takers.  There also seemed to be little or no “buzz” around the park over it.  During what must have been the pre-show portion you could hear someone pumping up the crowd, but that still seemed to attract no interest or curiosity from guests making their way around the park.  Cast Members before the park opened were asking guests lined-up at the turnstiles if they wanted to participate, but found no takers.

Again, I apologize for my lack of interest in the American Idol Experience.  I suppose I should have taken one for the team and sat through it.  But I thought there was little chance I could be objective over a show I clearly already don’t like.  No matter what Disney did with it, I just don’t like the show.

Disney gets a lot of criticism in recent months for cost cutting measures and other nickel and dime stuff that I certainly agree with. But Disney does do some things very right. Take into account the recent annoucement of Disney’s Armed Forces Salute. Active and retired U.S. military personnel, including active and retired members of the United States Coast Guard and activated members of the National Guard or Reservists, can enjoy complimentary, multi-day admission into Disney’s U.S. theme parks. And it doesn’t stop there as they get great rates at select Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort hotels, and additional specials for family members and friends.

At Disneyland, military personnel get a three day complimentary park hopper until the middle of June. At Disney World, they get one 5 day complimentary ticket. A truly outstanding deal. During this offer period, military personnel may also make a one-time purchase of up to a maximum of five 5-Day “Disney’s Armed Forces Salute Companion” tickets(one theme park per day) for $99 per ticket for family friends.

One more sign that the Year of a Million Dreams is leaving us is the apparent retirement of the current Disney’s Dreams Come True parade at the Magic Kingdom. Accoring to the Orlando Sentinel the parade will be gone by the end of the month. In fact, the parade has changed a bit already.

So whats coming instead you ask. Well, a Celebration theme, of course. The Orlando Sentinel throws out some rumors such as Stitch and Baloo getting floats or Snow White being added. New Music is a strong possibility. I suppose we will see relatively soon.

Today’s posting is from Mike, contributing writer to Mouse Extra.