Millennium Dessert: Chocolate Spaceship Earth
Disney has long celebrated special occasions, like the Happiest Celebration on Earth or the Celebrate Today! theme, with special desserts. But once these occasions have passed, we lose the desserts! So when Nate Parrish of the WEDway Radio podcast gave me the opportunity to reminisce about the chocolate Spaceship Earth desserts from Disney World’s millennium celebration, I jumped at the chance. Here’s his story:
While my wife and I were honeymooning in Walt Disney World in August of 2000 we spent an evening at one of our favorite restaurants, L’ Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante. Our order was for a special “Millenium Celebration” inclusive dinner consisting of an appetizer, entrees, dessert, and a bottle of wine. I think it ran around $99 for both of us (a steal nowadays).
Probably the most interesting item that I have ever had was the dessert at this meal, a chocolate Spaceship Earth. The presentation was amazing. The sphere was nearly complete, and inside of the hollow chocolate shell was tiramisu. Chocolate was sprinkled on the plate as well to spell out “2000” in honor of the Millennium Celebration. I don’t think I had ever taken a picture of a food item before, besides the blue mayo at Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe, but this definitely warranted a snapshot.
Chocolate Spaceship Earth Specs
The dessert consisted of a dark chocolate, molded Spaceship Earth geodesic sphere, complete with chocolate “legs.” There were several different possible creamy fillings for the sphere, ranging from rice pudding in Norway to maple-flavored cream in Canada. I’ve even read about there being Butterfinger Mousse in some of the Spaceship Earth desserts — and we all know how delicious that sounds. It’s like a huge, cream-filled truffle on your plate. Heaven!
I’ve seen mention of the dessert in only a few spots online — mostly trip reports. One fantastic report, by Scott Nicholson and his partner Ken, featured the Norway version of the dessert.
Norway's Chocolate Spaceship Earth Millenium Dessert
Many thanks to Scott for allowing me to use this photo! For those of you who have memories of this celebratory dessert, I welcome your photos and trip reports.
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That is SO cool, i had never seen or heard of these before, thanks for sharing Nate and AJ 🙂
When we were on our honeymoon in June 2001, my husband had thia Signature EPCOT goodie several times. I will have to look back in our photos (non-digital) to see if we have any of the creations to scan and share. He loved it and was quite disappointed that they were not on the menu when we went back in May of this year.
Wow! That is amazing! Can you imagine how long it would take to make something like that? And then I’d be torn about eating it…it’s so pretty!
Cody — It IS cool, isn’t it?
TheAngelForever — You guys must have had the greatest honeymoon. Everything you mention about it makes me hungry 😉
Gray — I know! I wonder if they’d give you a box to bring the “shell” home. (Who am I kidding?!?)
I remember these gorgeous desserts, but don’t actually have an recollection of actually eating one. These are the kind of unique dining options that I love at Walt Disney World.
I was hoping you’d remember these, Ryan! Yep — this is why we love dining in Disney World.
I remember this being my favorite dessert ever. I just came across it now, about a year after it was published, but I have decided to comment on it anyway. I was only about 5 during this celebration (I’m 15 now), but this is one of the things I remember in detail. Spaceship Earth is my favorite ride, and is the symbol of Disney and happiness for me, and when I got the Chocolate model of it, I was pretty excited. Ours didn’t have a mousse in it (at least mine didn’t) because once I saw my parents have the chocolate model, I wanted to have one myself. The staff at the restaurant (I don’t really remember which) were nice enough to hand us a Chocolate spacehip earth without the mousse inside. We brought it home too. All the way to Wisconsin, carefully wrapped in our packed luggage. It was untouched when it came home. I kept it as long as possible, but eventually, we had to get rid of it. I don’t remember if we have any pictures, but this really brought memories back to me. Thanks to all of Disney for such wonderful memories, and have a Magical Day.