Categories
In the Parks Reviews

Restaurant Review – Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able go to Florida and stay at the Swan for almost a week with my husband while he went to a convention. I only had two months to plan our trip, so many of the most popular restaurants that we love to eat at were all booked up.  One place that I have really wanted to try again for a while was the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater. The last time I went was in 2005.  They updated their menu in September 2011 and it has gotten some good reviews since then. Luckily there was an available dinner reservation for the day we were going to be at Hollywood Studios.

We showed up about 15 minutes before our reservation to check-in and found the restaurant to be extremely crowded. There were quite a few families already waiting for tables. We had to wait about 30 minutes to get seated ourselves.  Once inside we were seated in the back row of one of the car tables along with another family. Our waitress came to our table right away to take our drink order. I ordered a coke with cherry flavoring, and my husband just got water, since it was incredibly hot out. We looked over the menu while we waited for our drinks. I decided to get the much talked about Reuben and my husband opted for the Shrimp Pasta.

Our drinks were brought to us and we placed our order.  I tried my cherry flavored coke and didn’t like it at all. I was really disappointed, since I really like cherry coke. I am pretty sure it was the dye they used in the cherry flavoring that made me dislike it. I am very sensitive to them, and often find them to add a bitter taste to things. While I waited for a regular coke to arrive to replace the cherry flavored coke, I took in the atmosphere of the restaurant.

There is a huge movie screen that you watch from the comfort of your car, that shows clips from old sci-fi movies, cartoons and even some old space related Disney clips. This was a great way to pass the time while you waited for your food. It also worked really well at keeping the kids from the family in front of us entertained and quiet. Aside from the main attraction of the restaurant there are lots of little things to look at to remind you of drive-ins from the 50s. The entrance to the kitchen had a huge lit up sign over it stating it was the snack bar, there were speakers next to your car playing the movie sounds, and many nostalgic signs on the walls around you to look at as well. Overall I give it a 10 in my book for atmosphere!

Our food came in about 10-15 minutes, which was great because we were hungry after a long hot day at Star Wars Weekends. My sandwich came with fries and a pickle, but I could have gotten a cucumber salad instead of fries if I had wished. My husband got a fairly good sized portion of pasta. My Reuben was fantastic. Definitely lived up to the reviews I have read about it. Just the right amount of corned beef and sauerkraut and nicely toasted. There also wasn’t a lot of sauce on it to make the toasted bread soggy, it was just right. My husband’s pasta was good, but nothing special. I certainly could have made the same dish at home, it wasn’t bad just unexciting.

Our service was great overall. The waitress was very attentive, and never let our drinks become less than half-full. She even offered to take our photo together for us when she saw me taking lots of pictures. They didn’t turn out great but it was nice to have our photo together.

The only negative things I have to say about our dinner there was that it was really dark inside the restaurant, and though it made us feel really cool compared to the heat outside, it was not great for taking photos and felt like we were eating in the dark, and that it took a long time to get our check at the end of our meal. I think our server might have gone on a break just about that time, so that may explain the 20 minute wait we had to get our check. I also wouldn’t recommend getting the cherry flavoring for the sodas if you are sensitive to the taste of artificial dyes.

Overall it was a great place to eat, has a great atmosphere, and was fairly cheap ($40) for a table service dinner. I would highly recommend it to anyone!

Categories
Wordless Wednesday

wordless wednesday fantillusion parade disneyland paris

Categories
In the Parks

An Interview with a Cast Member – Keith – Festival of the Lion King

I have been fortunate enough to have some good friends that have performed for Disney in various shows. Our dear friend Keith agreed to do a short interview for me! We met him when my husband and sister hired him to work for Spirit Cruises as a performer. We have know him for almost 15 years and the highlight of our WDW trips was getting to see him perform live in Festival of the Lion King!

How did you audition for Disney?
I actually never auditioned initially…I sent them a tape of me performing on the Spirit and a headshot and they called me a few weeks after and offered me a job.

What parks have you worked in?
I have worked in Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom and Hong King Disneyland.

What roles have you played?
At Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in the Festival of the Lion King Show, I have played Nakawa and Kiume.
Nakawa means Good Looking!
Keith Nakawa
Kiume means Masculine and Strong!
Keith Kiume
He also played Scar in Hong Kong Disneyland.
Keith Scar
Clip of Keith as Scar in Hong Kong

How many shows do you think that you have done?
Wow! I couldn’t even how many shows I have done…thousands…many, many years with the Mouse!

Where do you rehearse? How long do you have to learn the part?
We rehearsed in the parks and I had a week of vocal rehearsal and a week of choreography/staging for each part.

How long did it take you to get into make up and costume?
In the beginning I took my time to get in costume…after awhile I was the last minute king..lol I was getting dressed at our 5 minute call.

What was the best part of being a part of being a Disney cast member?
The best part by far was working with some of the most talented people ever!

What was the strangest thing that ever happened to you while you were doing a show?
A many a strange things have happened…I’m a crazy so I have had my fair share. The worst for me was one show I went up the stage for my last solo in the mega mix and I get to the top of the stage and the feather in my hat gets caught in the birds fly rigging…I couldn’t go anywhere and the 2 girls were struggling not to full out stop singing and laugh at me!

How often did you have to do meet and greets?
Meet and greets varied…Lotta celebrities would do meet and greets and also family and friends.

Meet and Greet with Keith as Nakawa

Meet and Greet with Keith as Kiume

What did you do in between shows?
In between shows we either grabbed a bite to eat…watched a lil tv…discussed mishaps of the past show…got notes from the show director.

Did you have any other responsibilities in the park other than the show?
As an Equity performer, we just did our roles..nothing outside of that unless they contracted us to do something else.

Was it tough to be in a non-English speaking country?
It wasn’t really tough..Mandarin and Cantonese are not the easiest languages but our Chinese cast mates helped us out so much. We even had to call them to talk to a cab driver for us.

Do you think it is crazy that 100s of 1000s of people have your picture or have a video of you?
It still amazes me to know that I have performed for sooo many people from sooo many countries. So proud and honored to know that I could make so many memories for so many people.

What do you miss the most?
I miss performing for so many people daily..there is really no better high. Seeing kids and parents alike hanging on your every word is so awesome.

Do you have plans to go back?
I would like to go back to Hong Kong Disneyland..it was the best gig ever.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Working for Disney in every capacity has given me some of the most fulfilling moments of my lifetime. Being grateful and blessed to be in the company of so many outstanding performers! I’m a lucky guy!

Categories
Disney @ Home

Quiche au Fromage de Chèvre (Goat Cheese & Sun-Dried Tomato Quiche)

Although quiche is now a classic dish of French cuisine, quiche actually originated in Germany, in the medieval kingdom of Lothringen, under German rule, and which the French later renamed Lorraine. The word ‘quiche’ is from the German ‘Kuchen’, meaning cake. The original ‘quiche Lorraine’ was an open pie with a filling consisting of an egg and cream custard with smoked bacon. It was only later that cheese was added to the quiche Lorraine.  Add onions and you have quiche Alsacienne.  The bottom crust was originally made from bread dough, but that has long since evolved into a short-crust or puff pastry crust.
Quiche became popular in England sometime after the Second World War, and in the U.S. during the 1950’s.  Because of its primarily vegetarian ingredients, it was considered a somehow ‘unmanly’ dish, – “real men don’t eat quiche.” Today, one can find many varieties of quiche, from the original quiche Lorraine, to ones with broccoli, mushrooms, ham and/or seafood (primarily shellfish). Quiche can be served as an entrée, for lunch, breakfast or an evening snack. (foodreference.com)

French Chèvre, or goat cheese, gives this quiche a fresh, tangy, slightly salty flavor; put into Lay man’s terms….where do I get more, that was Awesome!  However, those of you on a diet or those of you that have dairy allergies-STOP right here and head on back to the Salad Bar….sorry, this one is not for you!

 The French have it down and that’s where I found this dream pie, in the France Pavilion at Epcot during the Food & Wine festival.

Quiche au Fromage de Chèvre

4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

1  9-inch pie shell, prebaked and cooled

1 teaspoon herbes de Provence

4 eggs

2 cups half and half

Pinch of ground nutmeg

Coarse salt, freshly ground pepper, to taste

1.  Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2.  Sprinkle the goat cheese over the bottom of the pie shell (I made my shell from scratch that is why, may I say it looks rustic LOL).

Evenly distribute the sun-dried tomatoes over the cheese layer, follow by herbes de Provence. (I used Boursin cheese because we love the flavor so I did not add the herbes de Provence).

3.  Whisk the eggs and half and half in a small bowl for 2-3 minutes or until smooth.  Season with nutmeg, as well as the salt & pepper.  Pour contents in the pie shell.

4.  Place the quiche on a baking sheet in the center of the oven.  Bake 40-50 minutes, or until the custard is firm to the touch and golden brown.  To prevent the crust from getting too dark, you can cover it with a strip of aluminum foil or a pie shield. 

5.  Allow quiche to cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

If you and your taste buds want a tangy, fresh, slightly salty ride to food nirvana, whip this treat up- which is a very quick dish to make, and will taste like heaven in your mouth!

 I would highly recommend a light salad to cut the richness and a beautiful bottle of wine to accompany the quiche.  And please, please, share this delight with others as hard as it will be.

Cook’s notes:

Herbes de Provence is an assortment of dried herbs including thyme, basil, savory, fennel seeds,and lavender flowers.  Which is commonly used for cooking in the south of France.

What to drink:

Château de Sancerre (Sauvignon Blanc) from France’s Loire Valley is a perfect match as well as Château Haut-Mondain, Bordeaux  Rouge which is a blend of  Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot from Bordeaux France.

Categories
Travel Tips

Characters Meet & Greet

I’ve had a few people asking me about how to get better and funnier pictures with characters. We are big character hunters in my house, but I never realized before how many characters’ pictures we take in a trip before I started to choose a few for this post. We have been to Disney World 4 times and once to Disneyland in the past 4 years. On these trips we have met 119 unique characters (120 if we count my oldest son battling Darth Vader at the Jedi Training Academy), and we have been lucky to find a few unusual and rare characters like Bolt, Jack Sparrow, Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh and the Hag.

The first thing we like is to always have an autograph book for the characters to sign. It’s a good way for shy kids to approach the characters and start some fun interaction. The last autograph book I made I had all of the pictures my kids have taken with each specific character in a themed page (single or double page) for each character. I printed it as a 12×12 album and it was a total hit with the characters and cast members. The characters always have so much fun seeing their pages and sometimes they spend a long time checking your book.

Here is an example page from my book:

 And here are some reactions from the characters:

I’m not sure I have lots of tips on how to get good character pictures, so I’ll just show a few examples of how my family enjoys character interactions. I have one main piece of advice – ALWAYS have your cameras ready, and snap away. I always start taking pictures when we are still waiting in line. Sure, you will like the posed picture you take with Mickey, but you will treasure the one of your son still in line running to meet Buzz for the first time:

Or still after 5 trips running to take his picture with Lightening McQueen:

The excitment of seeing a favorite character for the first time:

Those hugs:

Those kodak moments and group hugs:

Those intimate chats:

If you have a Duffy Bear, don’t forget to take it to your Meet & Greet, Duffy will love it, Goofy might play with it, and Buzz will enjoy his Buzz costume.

The same goes for your kid’s favorite costumes. Who know if it’s your little Peter Pan’s lucky day and he gets to duel with Captain Hook?

Allow yourself to be silly and play with the characters:

And if someone ends up on the floor in a tickling session with Pluto, snap away:

Ask them to make a special pose that relate to their movies:

Or just show some ears (Mickey or Goofy ears):

I think what is the most important piece of advice I can give you is to do what you and your family are comfortable with, and just have fun. You know looking through all of these pictures makes me want to go back and make more fun memories with my kids and the characters.

And yes, there are still some characters that we need to hunt down, like Jose Carioca, the Brazilian parrot from The 3 Caballeros. I had my picture taken with him when I was 14 years old, but we definately need a new one, as I’m not showing that hair style in a scrapbook!