Disney Desserts

Here's a small sampling of desserts discovered during last month's stay in Walt Disney World. The first two may be described as desserts with character. The remaining confections are from a birthday dinner celebration at Cítricos in the Grand Floridian resort some of which may possibly contain hidden Mickey's.

Olaf cupcake, Studio Catering Co. (and elsewhere), Disney's Hollywood Studios

Chocolate “Moose,” Chocolate mousse rolled in toasted chocolate crumbs with maple leaf antlers
Le Cellier Steakhouse, Canada Pavilion, Epcot

The birthday "card" is made of chocolate.

Cítricos, The Grand Floridian Resort

Death-by-chocolate chocolate torte, Cítricos, Disney's Grand Floridian Resort

Tiramisù with Italian Galbani mascarpone and chocolate sauce, Cítricos, The Grand Floridian Resort

Note:  Are we up to dessert already? See more from earlier in our Walt Disney World vacation.

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Chinese Acrobats 2014

The Chinese acrobatic troupe Jeweled Dragon performed at Epcot in front of the Chinese pavilion.

Jeweled Dragon

Balance

Hoops

There's more drum work in the two following videos.

What next? See the grand finale in the video below.

Note:  More posts about Walt Disney World are available here 24/7 perhaps even in China.

Good news! Attempted Bloggery has been mentioned in the latest installment of Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog, entitled "For the Birds."

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Duffy the Disney Bear

Who? This character did not originate in a Disney movie or television show. Rather he started out as an uninspired marketing gimmick for Disney theme parks. The Japanese were the first to really take to the teddy bear character and now he's present at meet-and-greets at a number of the theme parks. Me, I'm underwhelmed, but Duffy isn't marketed to me.

A sign from Epcot announcing times to meet Duffy the Disney Bear

Note:  Check out my earlier posts about Disney World to see things more interesting than Duffy.

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Epcot 2014

Epcot consists of two major areas. Future World purports to be a window into coming technology. Innoventions is the centerpiece of this mission, but it is quite juvenile and there is no longer anything here of even remote interest to me. Most of my photographs are from World Showcase, a permanent World's Fair.

Not much is new in Epcot, and my pictures are not very comprehensive this time around. Here is “Tomb Warriors: Guardian Spirits of Ancient China” from the Chinese pavilion. This is a small-scale reproduction of the real thing which I nevertheless found impressive.

China:  “Tomb Warriors: Guardian Spirits of Ancient China”

China:  “Tomb Warriors: Guardian Spirits of Ancient China”

China:  “Tomb Warriors: Guardian Spirits of Ancient China”

China:  “Tomb Warriors: Guardian Spirits of Ancient China”

France: decorative hedge

Les Chefs de France

Chefs de France menu

Minnie mug

Mickey mug

Mickey's Really Swell Diner Coffee. Of course it's really swell, just like the old pie-eyed Mickey.

Maelstrom in Norway

Globe for IllumiNations

Spaceship Earth in Future World as seen from across the World Showcase Lagoon

Journey into Imagination. We arrived too late for this show two years running.

Landscaping in Future World

IllumiNations

IllumiNations Fireworks

Video added September 1, 2014

IllumiNations Globe

Video added September 1, 2014

Note:  More posts about Walt Disney World are available here for your viewing pleasure.

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Blog Post No. 800: Think Locally, Blog Globally

Welcome to my 800th blog post! I couldn't have asked for a nicer visitor.

Google provides many nifty statistical tools to its bloggers, and I admit to being fascinated by some of them. While I don't care at all which browser people are using to read this blog, I have been fascinated all year by how my humble blog attracts readers around the world. In February I noted that the blog was starting to accumulate page views in China, which was a totally new and unanticipated phenomenon. I commented on this several times, and I avidly follow China's progress here every day.

China is currently sixth among all nations in monthly readership, but it has not yet made it into the top ten list for all-time page views. If current trends continue, that should happen some time late this year and Brazil, I'm afraid, will be leaving this list.

Attempted Bloggery All-Time Pageviews by Countries, July 4, 2013

Please allow me to make a few additional observations. This list is top-heavy, with readership in the U.S. being approximately 100 times readership in Brazil. As a result, towards the bottom of the list, the results can easily be skewed by one or two dedicated readers in each country. The statistics can also be skewed by referer spam.

Of the ten countries on this list, six are Epcot nations. Five Epcot nations are not on the list: Norway, Japan, China, Morocco, and Mexico. The strong showing of Russia makes it unlikely that this list can ever be an all-Epcot list. Why I think this is important is not clear even to me.

Nations of Africa and the Middle East are not well-represented among the blog's readers. A similar fate may await South America if Brazil is pushed off the list by China. The entire Southern hemisphere would then be underrepresented, although Australia is English-speaking and may well remain strong. Overall readership in non-English-speaking countries is probably facilitated by Google Translator and other similar translation programs.

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