And now, at last, the thrilling conclusion of... The Day 2 That Wouldnt END!!!!
After
D23s Epcot 30th Anniversary Celebration ended, I found my pal Trish and we bolted for Le Cellier. I was nervous cuz D23s dessert party at the Siemens Lounge started at 7:45pm and Trish technically didnt have a reservation til something like 8:30pm. I dunno how she did it, but she got us in. At first we got the typical song and dance about how wed have to wait forever. We told them I was in a rush, and the hostess went back to talk to the manager. When she returned she said it still might be 25 minutes til we were seated. I kid you not, TWO MINUTES LATER we had a table. Trish insists that this happens to her all the time. The one time Patrick and I showed up early at Le Cellier, we had to wait an entire hour for our original reservation to come up. I think Trish just has some kind of mystical Canadian juju, what with being a native and all. Americans, use this strategy at your own risk!
Patrick and I had a pretty bad experience at Le Cellier in January that has made me officially over the place ($46 for a gristly slab of meat dumped on a scoop of dry, lumpy mashed potatoes with nothing but a grease puddle for garnish). So for dinner that night I decided to steer clear of their overpriced steaks altogether and ended up with two sides.
Id heard a lot about the poutine. I guess the dinner versionwith its cheddar cheese, truffle salt and red wine reductionis different than the lunch version, and neither is particularly authentic.
Wow, so there IS something that looks grosser in photos than the Mushroom Filet!
YOWZA, was that stuff salty! My first instinct was to push it away and focus on my other dish, but over the course of our meal I found myself sneaking just one more fry over and over. Saltily addictive, it seems!
The other side I ordered was the Lobster Macaroni & Cheese with Mascarpone. I had low expectations for this one, so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be creamy and generously laced with big chunks of lobster.
Pretty dang good!
Trish and I had a ton of fun catching up over dinner. We met a few years ago via the DIS Boards and have since taken two trips to WDW together (neither of which Ive written about yetsorry!!!). I cant remember if the first time we
met in person was at Le Cellier, but I wouldnt be surprised! We were sorry not to have been able to sit together at D23s Epcot 30th Anniversary (thanks to the little caste system Disney likes to create with its tiered event ticketing), but its probably better we didnt cuz we would have chattered through the whole event.
After dinner I dashed off to the Art of Disney to meet the event guide for entrance to D23s World Key reception inside the Siemens Lounge. It started raining just as I found my fellow D23ers, but we only had to huddle under the eaves for a minute or two before the guide herded us across the way to the secret-ish entrance to the lounge near the exit of the ride.
The first time I got to see the Siemens lounge, it was as a guest of my well-connected DIS pal Jennifaerie. When we got to this part, she had to enter a secret code, but for this party, we were whisked right through.
When we were there with Jennifaerie, about two-thirds of the lounge was being refurbished, so about all we saw (and, some would say, all one NEEDS to see) was the free soda dispenser. Which looked like this...
Tastes like FREE!!!
This time the entire lounge was open to us, though it turned out to be pretty small.
Heres what those two were looking at. This kind of technology always makes me think about how in 5 or 10 years well laugh at how primitive it was
.
Wow, thats a whole lotta sofa goin on...
The main part of the lounge is an open area with an expansive view of Epcots majestic Pin Station, which is even more breathtaking in the rain:
Follow the glowing glass-block path past the bar and you come to a second, windowless room where they were showing some of the rare Epcot film footage. This was also where theyd stashed the goods...
Desserts!!!
Chocolate Tropical Fruit Bites
No-Gluten Vegan Carrot Spice Cake
Reeses Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Suddenly, thinking up a funny caption for my umpteenth shot of a Friendship boat or a ride doesn't seem so hard anymore...
OK, now I'm curious to know which one is! 
