Last night Cheryl and I went to a new restaurant at WDW.  Now we have been coming to Disney for nearly 20 years and lately twice in one year, so a new restaurant is difficult for us to find.  This restaurant was called Kouzzina by Cat Cora.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the name Cat Cora, she is one of the American Iron Chefs on the television program by the same name on the Food Network Chanel.  The restaurant features Greek cuisine and in my opinion is a welcome addition to the Disney line-up of restaurants.

I do not want to go into details about the meal, because that is not the purpose of my guest blog status.  What I would like to blog about is the accessibility of fine dining at WDW.  We live near a major city with the availability of many fine dining choices, however they are not accessible because of the restrictive dress code and other impediments to a potential customer.  It is one thing to have fine dining options available it is another to have them accessible.  The night before we dined at Cat Cora’s restaurant we had a wonderful French meal at the Bistro de Paris (complete with escargot), and we have several reservations lined up for the week ahead at other very fine to excellent restaurants.  The thing that I find unique about these restaurants is that they are accesible to anyone of the thousands of folks who come to WDW, it does not matter what you wear (within some small exceptions).  Now I admit that I am a “hick” (born in New Mexico and raised in Texas), but I would gladly compare any of these fine restaurants to any of the finest anywhere.  WDW has prided themselves on providing top notch dining experiences for their guests and they have succeeded in spades.  But more importantly they have made them accessible to all of their guests.

Cheryl and I will make dining reservations 90 days prior to arriving and it is one of the most fun adventures that we have prior to our arrival at WDW.  We will get out a calendar, plot out our trip, relive trips in the past, plan our meals and then make the phone call to make reservations.  We were excited this year when we heard about the new addition to the family of restaurants at WDW and we were not disappointed when we got there.

My thanks to Cheryl for letting me take this time to voice my opinion: Carey G Spain, guest blogger

Carey and I have been coming to Walt Disney World for almost twenty years.   Except for times when it was closed, we have always gone on Spaceship Earth, the large geosphere at EPCOT, which transports its riders  through time in the context of the history of communication.    In the last two years, the attraction has gone through a major change and  refurbishment.   Although I miss some of the former scenes, I love the addition of mathematics and the fields it made possible, including communications from space and the dawn of the computer age.   I particularly love the scenes of the large computer rooms with blinking lights and rows upon rows of tape drives, as they bring back fond memories of when I worked for the University Computer Center at the University of Southern California.   (No that is not me in the mini skirt and boots.)

At the end of the ride, the passengers are asked to choose their future.   They are asked a series of questions, and then a far distant future is built for them, where space travel is a means of everyday commuting and automation removes many of the hassles of everyday life.   Although we laugh everytime we sere our faces superimposed on this fanciful future, I come off the ride wondering how best to plan my own future during the brief time I have with my fellow passengers on “Spaceship Earth.”