Is 7 Days Enough to Make a First Timer Fall in Love??--Aug'11 TR-- FINAL UPDATE 8/26

[heathsf]

Sunday, August 21 - Part 3

By the time we finished all these phone calls, it was time for lunch at Le Cellier! We had a 12:20 ADR and this was one that I had *really* been looking forward to. I didn't want my bad mood to interfere with enjoying lunch so I tried not to think about the hurricane. And failed. As we walked towards Canada, I couldn't stop talking about how upset I was. I could tell BF was getting tired of hearing it and that's when it really hit me that I was already letting it ruin my vacation! I told myself that I couldn't control the weather, but I can control whether I enjoy the days I have. If a hurricane is coming, I may as well make sure to enjoy every second before it gets here. Starting with lunch...

And here we are!

We checked in at the kiosk at the entrance and found the waiting area inside totally empty! However in the few minutes it took for us to be seated, it filled up very quickly.

I was in love already. It just looked so cool in here. As always, the theming is just impeccable. Now, if I enjoyed the waiting area this much, you better believe I enjoyed the actual restaurant

After a few minutes we were taken to our seats. We had a small table for two on the outskirts of the restaurant, it was pretty much the first table when you enter. I didn't mind at all, I was just so excited to eat the food. BF said a little later that he wasn't crazy about the table's location but that may have been because he had a view of the wall behind me, and I had a view of the whole restaurant. For him to see anything he would have had to completely turn around in his chair.

But it's not like there was anything going on anyway. Other than on our plates. And he had a great view of that!

So here we go! Menu:

I had known what I was going to order for months. Although an appetizer wasn't included in the DDP, we ordered a cup of the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup. I just *had* to try this.

Oh my gosh this was FANTASTIC! So so so so so so so so so good!!!!! We dipped the breads in it which was also yummy, although I preferred it just on a spoon. So delicious! BF reported that he enjoyed buttering the bread and dipping it in the cheddar cheese soup for "maximum gluttony." His words, not mine!

For dinner I ordered the Mushroom Filet Mignon (cooked medium) and substituted the mushroom risotto for the cream cheese mashed potatoes. I love mushrooms but have never had a risotto that I really enjoyed. I'm sure it's excellent here but I was too afraid I wouldn't like it so I wanted to go with the sure thing.

Oh gosh, I'm drooling as I post these pictures and write about this meal. I enjoyed the filet just as much as last night's filet, if not more. It just melted in my overjoyed mouth. The sauce and the mushrooms were delicious too, and it was just unbelievable. I'm not sure what I missed in not getting the risotto but the cream cheese mashed potatoes were quite possibly the best mashed potatoes I'd ever had. It made me sad to think that I would eventually finish everything on my plate and there would be nothing left And then it actually happened...

BF ordered the New York Strip Steak but I forget how he asked for it to be cooked. Probably either medium rare or medium. His dish also came with the cream cheese mashed potatoes. Thank goodness...because if it hadn't I would NOT have been happy about sharing mine!

He also loved his lunch. He tasted my filet and agreed that it was better than the strip, although he was happy that his portion size was much larger. He also loved the cream cheese mashed potatoes and cleared his entire plate. What a spectacular meal.

But wait! There's more!

This is the dessert table which was right behind where we were sitting, at the entrance.

For dessert I ordred the Maple Creme Brulee and BF ordered the Chocolate-on-Chocolate Whiskey Cake.

First up: BF's cake. He enjoyed it but it was way too chocolatey for me.

My dessert was deeeeeeeeelicious and came with a beautiful presentation:

I felt so special as I devoured every last drop of creme brulee in that gloriously large dish. Oh my goodness was it fabulous. In fact, I want it right this very second. Best. Creme. Brulee. Ever.

Now I can totally understand why it's so difficult to get an ADR here. What I don't understand is how people can be disappointed here! Okay, it's true that I haven't tried everything on the menu but I can definitely recommend the items that I did. I only hope I get to eat here again in the (near) future!

We used two table service credits for this meal + paid OOP for the soup.

Up Next: Back to the Future [World]!

 

[FosterA]

So glad to see an update today!
oh....and your Segway tour segment was awesome. How neat to see so much without crowds! I'm sure my skeptical hubby would enjoy this tour but it's not something I would do. I would be falling all over the place

anyway....your description of LeCellier really has me considering getting something there, anything, but it's probably too late for me to get a reservation anyway. Those mashed potatoes and the cheese soup sounds heavenly!!

Can't wait to hear more about some of the attractions you did at Epcot since Living with the Land wasn't a huge hit with your BF. I'm really curious about what he thought of Soarin'

 

[misscmac]

Thanks for joining! And oh my gosh! What hotel were you staying at? Had you ever seen lines like that for the buses before? That TTC line was insane!

We were at the All Star Sports! My husband was following the crowd and thought the line for the TTC bus was the bus for our hotel so he almost went to the end of it - fortunately I made sure we checked before waiting in it!

Love the updates - your food pictures are making me hungry

 

[kokotg]

Just surprised myself by finding a last minute Le Cellier opening for our trip, so I was pleased to read your glowing review. We've never been before!

 

[IheartDDuck]

If I was in your shoes, I would have been panicking about Irene too. I don't want anything to get in to way of my Disney vacation!

I'm glad that you enjoyed your lunch at Le Cellier. It's definitely a great location.

Oh and to your other question earlier, I have never been on a Segway, so my Chicago tour will be the first.

 

[Pixie*Pirate]

Hello!! I just found your TR and I'm all caught up.. I'm getting a total kick out of you trying to get BF to love Disney. I know how you feel, my DH doesn't love it either despite my best efforts. But he is going with me in October so I will be happy with that.

 

[Leshaface]

Oh my goodness...isn't Le Cellier AWESOME!

I definitely remember the cheddar cheese soup, the filet, AND the creme brulee. It was all soooooo ridiculously good. I'm DETERMINED to make that soup this Fall. Since I won't be enjoying the real stuff anytime soon

 

[Pixie*Pirate]

Hello!! I just found your TR and I'm all caught up.. I'm getting a total kick out of you trying to get BF to love Disney. I know how you feel, my DH doesn't love it either despite my best efforts. But he is going with me in October so I will be happy with that.

 

[PixieMama]

I'm back from my trip... and now I'm all caught up on your TR!

The Segway tour looks like it was fun! I even saw a tour zip by me one of the mornings I was at Epcot (but I don't remember which one). I think it would take me a very long time to get the hang of those things!

And, oh my goodness, your Le Cellier lunch looks amazing!

 

[teekathepony]

We adored Le Cellier when we went. I'm glad it cheered you up! I don't blame you for panicking. I hope everything went perfectly smooth from then on!

 

[heathsf]

I'm sorry again that it's been so long since I've posted an update. I have been so busy with work and other things that by the time I get home I'm too tired to do anything. Thankfully, I'll get a break this weekend because BF and I are going to Boston to see a Red Sox game. It's kind of an annual thing for us and we'll be away Fri-Sun. Depending what time we get back on Sunday, I'm planning to post an update then! Thanks for sticking around

 

[Leshaface]

I'm sorry again that it's been so long since I've posted an update. I have been so busy with work and other things that by the time I get home I'm too tired to do anything. Thankfully, I'll get a break this weekend because BF and I are going to Boston to see a Red Sox game. It's kind of an annual thing for us and we'll be away Fri-Sun. Depending what time we get back on Sunday, I'm planning to post an update then! Thanks for sticking around

Have fun at the game! When we were back there, we toured the outside of that stadium. Very cool place!

 

[Cin]

Mmmmm... I booked Le Cellier for our lunch too and after reading your review I am excited about dining there. I was going to order a burger and pay OOP but after your glowing reviews of the steak, I am beginning to rethink my plan and let my DDP take this one. I've only ever had creme brulee once at Wolfgang Puck's Express and I really liked it, in fact I ate almost ever bit and didn't share at all.

 

[Letterhead]

What a great report so far. i don't think I've ever read one with as much detail.

I hope at the end your BF likes WDW (although the signs are poiting to yes so far ). I know personally I try and get everybody I know to fall in love with WDW, as it gives you more options for travelling buddies later in life.

I think credit should be given to your BF for:
a) Going to WDW with an open mind and not writing it off before he visits:
b) Appreciating the details and theming rather than just how good the rides are

 

[heathsf]

I'm back! Again, I'm so so so sorry it's been so long without an update but I'll be doing one tonight! I figured I'd share a little bit of my weekend trip to Boston with BF. We left Friday at 5 pm and figured we would get to our hotel by around 10, allowing an hour to stop for dinner. From where we are in NJ, it should take 4 hours without stopping. Unfortunately, it took SEVEN! And no, we didn't take a 3 hour dinner break... There was a bad accident on I-84 in the afternoon involving two tractor trailers and when we got to that area at around 8:00 pm the highway was still closed. We traveled past two exits on the highway in 2 1/2 hours. Then we had to follow a detour which took 30 minutes and put us back on I-84 one exit North of where we got off. We bought our dinner out of a vending machine at a rest area. My dinner consisted of pop tarts, Cape Cod potato chips (which I LOVE), and Peanut M&Ms. We got to our hotel at midnight. Not a great start!

We went right to sleep and woke up at 8:30 the next morning to get tickets for a tour of Fenway Park. I should probably mention that the whole reason we were going to Boston (and the reason why we have gone every year since we've been dating) is to see the Red Sox play. BF and his family are hardcore Red Sox fans and the sad truth is that I have been converted too. I, however, am a closet fan while in NJ. I don't have the guts to walk around in a Red Sox shirt or hat. BF does though So anyway, we got tickets for the 12:30pm tour and the game was at 4:00 so we spent the whole day at Fenway Park and it was awesome. Here are some pictures:

Standing on the field:

Green Monster!!

It was a pretty good game but the Sox lost We went out for dinner afterwards and decided that since we had nothing planned for the following day, we may as well get tickets for Sunday's game so we could hopefully see a win before going home! Apparently that was too much to hope for though because they lost again. But again, it was still fun!

The coolest part of the trip, however, happened when we rode the elevator down to the lobby in our hotel on Sunday morning. There was a guy already waiting for the elevator when we got there. We got in and he asked us if we were going to the lobby, then asked us if we were going to the game, and we said yes.
Then he said: I hope they play better than they did last night.
BF: Me too.
Me: Me too.
Man: Well, have fun at the game.
Me: Thanks
--pause--
BF: You look like Nomar Garciaparra.
Man: How you doing?

I didn't realize right away what was going on. I knew his name, and knew he was a former Red Sox player (I really wasn't following the Red Sox when he was playing), but I didn't realize right away that it was really him! I guess I'm a little slow

BF was *SO* starstruck that when the elevator doors opened, he just stood there staring at him and I actually had to say, "Bobby! Get out of the elevator!" Then we got his autograph and took a picture with him:

I think it was one of the happiest moments of BF's life It was very very cool.

After we watched the Sox lose yet again, we drove back home, this time only sitting in traffic for one hour (as opposed to three). There was another accident on I-84 in almost the exact same spot but this time on the South side of the highway. In that one hour of traffic we traveled one exit, just over 3 miles. But we made it home safe and had a lot of fun! The end!

 

[heathsf]

Please forgive me for not replying to people's individual comments. I feel so far behind and I'm hurrying to complete an update before BF gets home so I can have dinner ready for us to eat. He's usually home much earlier and I'm not a big fan of eating such a late dinner during the week. Thank you to those of you who are still sticking around after my long absence and to those who are just joining!

So, continuing where we left off......

 

[FosterA]

Please forgive me for not replying to people's individual comments. I feel so far behind and I'm hurrying to complete an update before BF gets home so I can have dinner ready for us to eat. He's usually home much earlier and I'm not a big fan of eating such a late dinner during the week. Thank you to those of you who are still sticking around after my long absence and to those who are just joining!

So, continuing where we left off......

Hey, glad to see you back in action!!
I love your report so far and don't worry, sometimes it's hard to find time to update. I'll probably be the same way when I do my trip report. Have to work it in on weekends and such.
Can't wait to hear more though

 

[IheartDDuck]

How awesome that you met a Red Sox player!

No worries that you feel a little behind. TRs can get a little overwhelming at times. We're still here to read along when the updates are posted.

 

[heathsf]

Sunday, August 21 - Part 4

As we were finishing up lunch, I saw on my phone that EasyWDW had tweeted that Test Track was only a 30 minute wait which wasn't bad at all for the middle of the day in the summer. After paying our bill we headed back into Future World and made our way to TT, stopping for a few pictures on the way. (By the way, I got my Photo Pass CD so I'll be including some of those pictures now)

Everyone else in the park must also have been subscribed to EasyWDW's tweets because they all beat us there! The wait was now 60 minutes and the FP return time was 6:45. I didn't want to wait on line for 60 minutes and neither did BF, but he also didn't want to wait until 6:45 to ride. The single rider line was posted as 10 minutes and this was too tempting for BF. He really really really wanted to ride it now. I really really really didn't want to ride it without him. Or maybe it was that I didn't want him to ride without me! Either way, I just couldn't tell him no. It made me happy that he was that excited to do something in Disney but sad that he wasn't willing to postpone it a few hours so we could do it together. I wanted to see his reactions! But I sucked it up and we got on line. It certainly wasn't a ten minute wait though. I didn't write down the exact time but my notes say, "20 minutes at least."

Another down side to riding the single rider was that BF didn't get to see the pre-show. I told him he would miss out on it but again, he didn't mind because he really wanted to ride it now. Sigh. Here we are, parting ways, or as BF put it, "Joining our new families."

Well, let me just say, I didn't like my new family very much. They talked through the entire ride and I felt like a lonely outcast I don't think BF minded his family as much. At least he got to sit in the front row:

When I asked him how he liked it, he of course said he liked the end the best. He thought the rest was a little slow. I honestly think he would have enjoyed it more if we were riding together, but hey, what do I know? At least we would get to ride it again later with our FP.

Next we walked over to Mission Space, another thing that BF had been looking forward to before the trip.

The wait time sign was broken and there was no time posted for the Orange side. We asked a CM and he said it was 45 minutes so we started to walk away, planning to try again later. We hadn't gone very far when he called us back and said it was actually only a 15 minute wait so we decided to go for it. When we got inside there was no line whatsoever and we literally walked right onto the ride. I always get so nervous before riding this, no matter how many times I've been on it. It's such an intense experience. This is one ride where the motion sickness warnings should definitely be taken very seriously.

BF liked it a lot, although I was expecting him to be totally blown away by it. I think I may have done too good of a job talking about what an amazing place WDW is because BF said the ride pretty much met his expectations of what it would be. Although if his expectations were really high, that's still a good thing!

Next we went to Innoventions to do Sum of All Thrills, a first for me too!

While waiting in line, we could see the simulators flying people around and turning them upside down. It looked pretty cool. First you watch a video about how important math and science are. As a math teacher, I began wondering if I could use this ride as a way to get a field trip to Disney World approved by my superintendent! Then you go to a touch screen computer to build your ride experience. We chose the jet plane (roller coaster and bob sled are the other, less intense options). I let BF make most of the decisions and do most of the touching on the computer.

When we finished, we walked up the steps to enter the simulator. The CM there scanned our card (where our jet ride was saved) and confirmed that we had no upside-down parts on our track. What!? No way! We wanted to go upside-down! He said no problem and changed our entire ride That was okay with us though because it was a lot of fun. It feels different than going upside-down in a roller coaster because you don't have the speed and g-forces holding you into your seat, you're just hanging upside down so my butt was literally off my seat and my legs were dangling above me. Also, when you're inside the simulator looking at the screen, there's a small box in the corner that shows you your riding companion in the other simulator. You're right next to each other but enclosed separately, if that makes sense. There's also an emergency stop button in case you are riding and become uncomfortable. It was a pretty cool experience although overall not nearly as intense as a rollercoaster (or fun). But still neat! I wouldn't want to wait more than 15 minutes for it though. Just my opinion.

Next we rode Spaceship Earth. We didn't wait more than 5 minutes for this.

I told BF to make a funny face when they took our picture and here are our results:

I think BF was trying to hold his nose and make a P-U face, but it ended up looking like he was picking his nose with part of his head missing! Pretty funny. He thought the ride was pretty cool but he didn't really have any desire to ride it again during our trip. I'm always up for riding SE so this was a little disappointing for me, but we moved on. To Club Cool.

I thought it was much cooler when it looked like an igloo and it was snowing inside. I think it was called "Ice Station Cool" back then.

Here are the soda choices:

But we both needed to try this:

The Beverly! I had never had it before. I was planning to try it with my mom in February but it wasn't available in any of the machines! BF knew it was supposed to be bad so there was no tricking him there, but his reaction was still pretty hilarious.

I'm sure my face looked very similar. Wow was it gross. We tried a few sodas and the Israeli soda is definitely still my favorite. I guess I'm boring because it tastes like Sprite, not too exotic. Rejuvenated from our beverage tasting, we were ready to take on more of Future World...

Up Next: Imagination Pavilion and Soarin'

 

[Leshaface]

OH MY GOSH! I can't believe you met him! How crazy! DH and I are HUGE baseball fans (San Francisco Giants )

When we went to Boston on our mini tour of New England, we walked around the entire stadium and went to that bar underneath the stands...not remembering what it's called. But it's a gorgeous stadium indeed.



Loved your update!

I'm the same way about SR lines without my riding companion...I want to experience the laughs and screams with my DH whenever possible. However, if it shaves off an hour of waiting, we'll just have to sacrifice.

I must say, I'm a little disappointed there is no Beverly picture of you!!!