Be Our Guest and All the Rest
On Sunday night after Main Street Philharmonic rehearsal, Jameson took me to the Be Our Guest restaurant at Belle's castle as an early birthday present!
Well, before that, our reservation was at 8pm so we had several hours to kill.
Right now it is between "tourist seasons," no major holidays going on, so foot traffic at the Magic Kingdom was fairly light. As a result we got to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Under the Sea, and The Barnstormer in quick succession. Somewhere in there we used our castmember coupons to get a free pretzel and a bottle of water. I have been saying this since becoming a castmember, but what a thing it is to be able to just throw on my ID badge and walk around Disney at any time. What a massive privilege.
We arrived at Belle's Castle right as the evening fireworks were going off, which was quite magical!
Jameson confirmed our reservations, and we were led into "the ballroom" which looks almost like the one from the movie except with multiple chandeliers, lower ceilings, and laid out as a dining room.
The menu cover.
Jameson being Jameson :D
We each ordered a drink, he got "The Handsome Brute" which was a pomegranate-vodka thing that tasted fantastic, and I had a glass of their "private label" rose wine which I suspect is just relabeled Barefoot or something but it was fine.
As we waited for our meal we chatted, specifically about my upcoming tour. I can't discuss details of it yet, but you are all intelligent people and it is hard to contain my excitement about it so you may be able to guess. Sitting there in a reproduction of the Beauty and the Beast ballroom, and of course they were playing snippets of the movie AND Broadway soundtracks...I actually got a little emotional. That music means a lot to me, for so many reasons. I felt silly to have my eyes welling up over it, but Jameson smiled because he knew exactly why I was feeling these things, and he'd been so, so thoughtful to bring me here tonight. We talked about this, and other things.
Be Our Guest offers a prix fixe menu, and we both ordered the same meal:
Escargot de Borgogne, which is snails in parsley, butter, and white wine.
I've only had snails once before and I was too young to remember what they were like, so it was nice to revisit them and find that they are meaty and delicious.
Filet mignon over mashed potatoes with green beans and peppercorn cream sauce.
The steak was the star, perfectly cooked and larger than the typical filet. A very special treat!
Dessert was a trio of lemon raspberry macaron,
"The Grey Stuff" in a chocolate tart shell with white chocolate Chip (get it?),
and a decadent chocolate truffle with a rich chocolate and orange cognac cream.
The Grey Stuff was, I swear, just whipped cream with activated charcoal or something haha. It was fine but nothing special. Jameson loved the macaron the most and it was indeed very good. My favorite was the truffle because I am a sucker for rich and decadent chocolate :)
Partway through our meal The Beast made an appearance! He didn't greet us specifically, but we enjoyed watching him wave and do cute things like straighten the chairs at the tables. Here is a short clip showing that, and also the chandeliers and the enchanted rose which was in the West Wing. You can see a petal start to fall from the enchanted rose right when I ended the clip.
After our meal we explored other parts of the restaurant. This included a walkway with talking suits of armor, a waiting room with plush chairs made to look like the Beast's fireplace (where Belle treats his wounds in the movie), and a sort of sitting room that had adorable portraits of Belle and the Beast doing various things like reading together, trying on hats, playing in the snow, etc. I did take pictures of these but they didn't come out well (lighting + people moving around that I couldn't crop out.)
Here is my favorite picture from that room. A scene that was not in the movie (unless it was in one of the sequels/spinoff animations.)
This one makes me imagine an actual relationship developing between Belle and the Beast. Not just Stockholm Syndrome :p
(photo courtesy itsagreatblogafterall)
The fireplace in the West Wing, with the clawed image of the beast as a prince.
A mosaic near the castle entrance.
Full and happy, we walked to the backstage gate that I normally use with the Main Street Philharmonic, then Jameson had to go to guest parking for his car while I slipped backstage, gathered my things from the band break room, and rode the company bus to the employee lot.
This was a magical night, and I'm so grateful. Jameson is very thoughtful...the best :)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday it was back to the rehearsal grind.
Weirdly, despite all the pressure to memorize and learn quickly and do a zillion repetitions per day, it now feels like we are AHEAD. We're getting more breaks, and the focus is on small nuances of acting and doing full runs of the show rather than lines or the music.
We are still waiting on an important prop, and of course there will be more costume fittings. But...you guys, I think the show is SET. I think that if we had to perform tomorrow live in the park, we could all do it.
We did get to at least SEE our important prop for the first time, and it's beautiful! But there are still some kinks to be worked out in the design so we weren't allowed to mess with it just yet. Throughout the day we had several other casts walk through our "world," so each set of us got to do a full run with a real audience. All of the runs went great (there were some technical difficulties but OUR performances were on point.)
On the way home I stopped at Target because Tuesday is my birthday and I wanted to bring treats for everyone. I got mini sodas and seltzers, some chocolates, an assorted mini cookie tray, a tub of savory snack mix, and some fruit gummies. Kinda overdid it probably but whatever, we need a pick-me-up and any leftovers will be quickly snatched by the rest of the entertainment department.
At home I put everything away, packed breakfast and lunch, ordered dinner for pickup tomorrow, washed our bedsheets and put fresh sheets on the bed, emptied the dishwasher, showered, and typed up this post. By then it was 9:30pm.
I cannot wait for these full time rehearsals to be over.
Do you guys realize I've been eating dinner in the car, while driving, almost every day for the past three weeks?
Tired of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday I was up 15 minutes early to allow for loading up the car with birthday treats, picking up my dinner (a Panera breakfast sandwich) and getting to the rehearsal building early to set up the treats. Everyone appreciated them :)
We went out into the park as usual, but the vibe was kinda off today. It just seemed like a percentage of us were sort of...over it. Including myself. Our show director wanted new choreo for one section, and it was actually a really good change that had us moving more and being more dynamic. But we learned it almost all in one go, and personally I needed time to rehearse it in parts to be able to remember it all. Eventually we got it, though, and I'm looking forward to getting more comfortable with the new movements.
Nothing really to report...we're all just doing our best out here.
Back home it was bass practice, packing lunch, and a little chill time before bed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, the only thing special was that someone left a bag of googly eyes out in our green room so I stuck one in the middle of my forehead. Because that's what you DO when there are free googly eyes.
(Fun Fact: the background is intensely blurred because I took this pic in Epic Universe)
A lot of the actors were delighted and copied me...and so throughout the day I saw misc people walking through the park, practicing their roles, with googly eyes on their foreheads. It was pretty damn funny.
Other than that it was just another rehearsal day. We did some run throughs, had some audiences made up of other entertainers and/or construction workers. It's hot outside now so I drank lots of water. During the lunch break I went to Whole Paycheck since my only day off is Saturday and I won't have time for groceries otherwise.
Back home I packed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, practiced bass, had my hour to relax before bed.
Oh also...I have put googly eyes on my trombone.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday: More rehearsal, of course.
Saturday: A day off. I'll catch up on what I can but need to rest too.
Sunday: Subbing with the Main Street Philharmonic all day.
Well, before that, our reservation was at 8pm so we had several hours to kill.
Right now it is between "tourist seasons," no major holidays going on, so foot traffic at the Magic Kingdom was fairly light. As a result we got to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Under the Sea, and The Barnstormer in quick succession. Somewhere in there we used our castmember coupons to get a free pretzel and a bottle of water. I have been saying this since becoming a castmember, but what a thing it is to be able to just throw on my ID badge and walk around Disney at any time. What a massive privilege.
We arrived at Belle's Castle right as the evening fireworks were going off, which was quite magical!
Jameson confirmed our reservations, and we were led into "the ballroom" which looks almost like the one from the movie except with multiple chandeliers, lower ceilings, and laid out as a dining room.
The menu cover.
Jameson being Jameson :D
We each ordered a drink, he got "The Handsome Brute" which was a pomegranate-vodka thing that tasted fantastic, and I had a glass of their "private label" rose wine which I suspect is just relabeled Barefoot or something but it was fine.
As we waited for our meal we chatted, specifically about my upcoming tour. I can't discuss details of it yet, but you are all intelligent people and it is hard to contain my excitement about it so you may be able to guess. Sitting there in a reproduction of the Beauty and the Beast ballroom, and of course they were playing snippets of the movie AND Broadway soundtracks...I actually got a little emotional. That music means a lot to me, for so many reasons. I felt silly to have my eyes welling up over it, but Jameson smiled because he knew exactly why I was feeling these things, and he'd been so, so thoughtful to bring me here tonight. We talked about this, and other things.
Be Our Guest offers a prix fixe menu, and we both ordered the same meal:
Escargot de Borgogne, which is snails in parsley, butter, and white wine.
I've only had snails once before and I was too young to remember what they were like, so it was nice to revisit them and find that they are meaty and delicious.
Filet mignon over mashed potatoes with green beans and peppercorn cream sauce.
The steak was the star, perfectly cooked and larger than the typical filet. A very special treat!
Dessert was a trio of lemon raspberry macaron,
"The Grey Stuff" in a chocolate tart shell with white chocolate Chip (get it?),
and a decadent chocolate truffle with a rich chocolate and orange cognac cream.
The Grey Stuff was, I swear, just whipped cream with activated charcoal or something haha. It was fine but nothing special. Jameson loved the macaron the most and it was indeed very good. My favorite was the truffle because I am a sucker for rich and decadent chocolate :)
Partway through our meal The Beast made an appearance! He didn't greet us specifically, but we enjoyed watching him wave and do cute things like straighten the chairs at the tables. Here is a short clip showing that, and also the chandeliers and the enchanted rose which was in the West Wing. You can see a petal start to fall from the enchanted rose right when I ended the clip.
Click to viewAfter our meal we explored other parts of the restaurant. This included a walkway with talking suits of armor, a waiting room with plush chairs made to look like the Beast's fireplace (where Belle treats his wounds in the movie), and a sort of sitting room that had adorable portraits of Belle and the Beast doing various things like reading together, trying on hats, playing in the snow, etc. I did take pictures of these but they didn't come out well (lighting + people moving around that I couldn't crop out.)
Here is my favorite picture from that room. A scene that was not in the movie (unless it was in one of the sequels/spinoff animations.)
This one makes me imagine an actual relationship developing between Belle and the Beast. Not just Stockholm Syndrome :p
(photo courtesy itsagreatblogafterall)
The fireplace in the West Wing, with the clawed image of the beast as a prince.
A mosaic near the castle entrance.
Full and happy, we walked to the backstage gate that I normally use with the Main Street Philharmonic, then Jameson had to go to guest parking for his car while I slipped backstage, gathered my things from the band break room, and rode the company bus to the employee lot.
This was a magical night, and I'm so grateful. Jameson is very thoughtful...the best :)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday it was back to the rehearsal grind.
Weirdly, despite all the pressure to memorize and learn quickly and do a zillion repetitions per day, it now feels like we are AHEAD. We're getting more breaks, and the focus is on small nuances of acting and doing full runs of the show rather than lines or the music.
We are still waiting on an important prop, and of course there will be more costume fittings. But...you guys, I think the show is SET. I think that if we had to perform tomorrow live in the park, we could all do it.
We did get to at least SEE our important prop for the first time, and it's beautiful! But there are still some kinks to be worked out in the design so we weren't allowed to mess with it just yet. Throughout the day we had several other casts walk through our "world," so each set of us got to do a full run with a real audience. All of the runs went great (there were some technical difficulties but OUR performances were on point.)
On the way home I stopped at Target because Tuesday is my birthday and I wanted to bring treats for everyone. I got mini sodas and seltzers, some chocolates, an assorted mini cookie tray, a tub of savory snack mix, and some fruit gummies. Kinda overdid it probably but whatever, we need a pick-me-up and any leftovers will be quickly snatched by the rest of the entertainment department.
At home I put everything away, packed breakfast and lunch, ordered dinner for pickup tomorrow, washed our bedsheets and put fresh sheets on the bed, emptied the dishwasher, showered, and typed up this post. By then it was 9:30pm.
I cannot wait for these full time rehearsals to be over.
Do you guys realize I've been eating dinner in the car, while driving, almost every day for the past three weeks?
Tired of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday I was up 15 minutes early to allow for loading up the car with birthday treats, picking up my dinner (a Panera breakfast sandwich) and getting to the rehearsal building early to set up the treats. Everyone appreciated them :)
We went out into the park as usual, but the vibe was kinda off today. It just seemed like a percentage of us were sort of...over it. Including myself. Our show director wanted new choreo for one section, and it was actually a really good change that had us moving more and being more dynamic. But we learned it almost all in one go, and personally I needed time to rehearse it in parts to be able to remember it all. Eventually we got it, though, and I'm looking forward to getting more comfortable with the new movements.
Nothing really to report...we're all just doing our best out here.
Back home it was bass practice, packing lunch, and a little chill time before bed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, the only thing special was that someone left a bag of googly eyes out in our green room so I stuck one in the middle of my forehead. Because that's what you DO when there are free googly eyes.
(Fun Fact: the background is intensely blurred because I took this pic in Epic Universe)
A lot of the actors were delighted and copied me...and so throughout the day I saw misc people walking through the park, practicing their roles, with googly eyes on their foreheads. It was pretty damn funny.
Other than that it was just another rehearsal day. We did some run throughs, had some audiences made up of other entertainers and/or construction workers. It's hot outside now so I drank lots of water. During the lunch break I went to Whole Paycheck since my only day off is Saturday and I won't have time for groceries otherwise.
Back home I packed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, practiced bass, had my hour to relax before bed.
Oh also...I have put googly eyes on my trombone.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday: More rehearsal, of course.
Saturday: A day off. I'll catch up on what I can but need to rest too.
Sunday: Subbing with the Main Street Philharmonic all day.