The first park of our vacation would be Epcot, and we had an ADR for lunch at Le Cellier at 1:30. This is exactly how we began our 2007 family trip: Epcot and Le Cellier! It's beginning to look like a tradition!
We were a little late leaving the Poly, and we took a couple of wrong turns along the pathway to the TTC, but we were on a monorail and heading to Epcot before too long. The girls loved that the monorails came in different colors, and we would always guess which color monorail we would be taking to our destination. Kate fell asleep in her stroller as soon as we got on the monorail. This is what she did almost every afternoon, even on the days when we took a break in the room. She would not sleep during our break; she'd wait until we were headed for a park and sleep for about two hours!
I asked Grace to take a picture of me, and was so pleased and surprised to see that while doing so, she also got a picture of the Magic Kingdom sign!
I had tried to get a photo of the Magic Kingdom sign and ended up with this:
We got to Epcot, went through the bag check, and were off for our long walk to Canada! I had originally planned to grab Soarin' fastpasses, but since we were running late, we headed for the restaurant instead. We would be at Epcot on two other occasions, so we would have plenty of time for Soarin'!
We arrived at Le Cellier about 30 minutes after our ADR, but we only had to wait for a few moments before we were seated. I heard the CM at the door tell someone that they could try to get them into another restaurant, so they must not have been taking any walk-ups at this point. Of course, we had to wake Kate up from her nap, and she was grumpy for most of the meal, unfortunately.
Our server was Stephanie, and we were seated in Saskatchewan. Interestingly enough, the last time our family ate here, our server's name was Stephanie, as well, but it was a different young lady. They were both fabulous and got an extra tip, especially since this one didn't automatically charge us the 18% gratuity for parties of 6 or more, since Christian didn't eat and Kate doesn't really "count" in the eyes of Disney. Of course, she got a bigger tip for doing that. We even had her sign the girls' World Showcase passports in the Canada section. She said it made her feel famous!
I love that you can get non-alcoholic frozen drinks at Le Cellier as part of the DDP. Grace and I ordered chocolate shakes, although Kate drank most of mine ; Rick got the mango slushie and Rose got the strawberry slushie. Rick and I both ordered the Le Cellier Mushroom Filet Mignon - with wild mushroom risotto and white truffle and herb butter sauce, but Rick requested no mushrooms (silly boy!) It was so delicious; I’d never had risotto before, and I really liked it! Grace got the kids’ pasta, which she didn’t like because it had chunky tomatoes, and Rose got the kids’ steak. The kids both got ice cream sundaes for dessert, although Grace’s kids pick meal should have come with fruit instead. (Thanks, Stephanie!) Rick had enjoyed the chocolate whiskey cake on our last trip, so he ordered that, while I went with the maple crème brulee. Apparently it had been taken off the menu, but the outcry was so great that they put it back on! I had actually been hoping for the warm spiced apple crumble, but perhaps this is a seasonal dessert, because it wasn’t on the menu. It was absolutely a delightful way to start our vacation and I think we’ll try to make Le Cellier our very first meal of every trip!
Apparently Kate also enjoyed Daddy's mango slushie!
This was not the only make your own sundae that the girls enjoyed on this trip!
We wandered around Canada for a little while after lunch, waiting for the O Canada movie to start.
The girls could relate to Martin Short only as the guy who played Jack Frost in the third Santa Clause movie.
We ran into a Photopass photographer back by the waterfall, and he took photos of all of us, as well as Tinkerbell and Stitch. The girls had their World Showcase passports signed and stamped in the Canadian kidcot pavilion after the movie, and we were on our way!
Next, we headed towards the United Kingdom. We had three things on our mind: Pooh, Alice and Poppins. Well, we hit the jackpot because we were able to visit with all three! On our way to the toy shoppe, the girls started playing around in the UK phone booths. Along came Dan, another PP photographer. He took several pictures of the girls in the booths, and then sitting down by some flowers. Then he asked us where we were going next, and offered to go with us! He took some more photos as we walked along the pathway, and then all of a sudden, we saw Alice! She had quite a line, but before we could even decide whether or not we'd stop, Kate calls out, "Alice! Hi Alice!" Alice turned and waved, and said she'd be right over. Not two minutes later, she left the line of people behind and rushed over to visit with us! Dan was right there, so I didn't take any pictures of the encounter, but it was priceless and precious. She got right down to Christian’s level and talked with him, then left a big lipstick kiss on his forehead! The girls loved meeting her, and it was one of the highlights of our day!
I asked Dan about getting a photo with the Eiffel Tower in the background, so we walked toward the bridge. He got a couple of nice family shots, and then suddenly a woman came running up to us, saying that Chip and Dale were right down by the International Gateway! Dan said he couldn’t come with us, so we said goodbye and gave him one of our thank you cards. It was so cool of him to walk along with us and capture some of those magical moments, especially the ones with Alice!
Chip and Dale must have just arrived, because there really wasn't anyone down there waiting to see them. They were fun, as usual, and my fears that Kate would have gotten over her love for big furry characters were unfounded.
She loved to run up, hug them, and then lift up her feet. I have several pictures of her doing that; it was hysterical!
Look closely, and you can see Alice's kiss on Christian's forehead!
Kate really loved the characters' noses, just like last year!
Up next: Poppins and Pooh!