Lion King and Pandora
Our next FP was for the Lion King show. This is always one of my favorite shows of all the parks. We were in line by 10:25 for the 11:00 show. We were behind a LOT of other people and had thought we were early. Thankfully, most of the wait was in the shade, but it was still hot. They didn’t open the doors until almost 10 minutes before the show. I think we were in the Lion section, and high up.
I have a tendency to take a lot of pictures and video when I watch this show, but told myself I should just enjoy this one and watch. I thought we would be back later in the week (we never made it back), but I have plenty of pictures and video from previous trips. I did well and only took one (somewhat blurry) picture when one of the girls asked me to (they loved telling me what they wanted pictures of this trip).
After the show, we headed to Pandora for our last FP of the morning – Navi River Journey, at 11:55am. This was the first time we discovered there is a pathway from Africa (near the Lion King show) to Pandora. This was one of the only pathways that was not crowded at all and it was somewhat shaded, which was nice.
This was the first time I’ve been in Pandora without it being wall-to-wall people. I tried to get an “empty park” shot of the mountains, but this one couple was not moving fast enough haha, so they got to be in my picture.
I’m in awe of these floating mountains every time I see them.
We tapped our magic bands right at 11:55am and were on the ride 7 minutes later. This is such a beautiful ride, and I think I appreciated it even more this time around. We even got to see the animatronic shaman this time (she was down last time we rode, so we saw a much smaller projection of her instead).
This year:
Last year (the projection behind where she sits):
After our ride, we were more than ready for lunch at our favorite Quick Service. A former co-worker of mine left our company last year and moved from Texas to Orlando. I am jealous of how close she lives to WDW, but was very excited that it meant she could meet up with us for lunch this day so we would have a chance to catch up. She texted that she was running later than planned and told us not to wait on her for our lunch.
We were in line at Satu’li Canteen at 12:15pm and it took about 20 minutes to order and get our food. I wished we had done online ordering, but we hadn’t really had time and with 7 people, it was sometimes easier just to jump in line and let each person order what they wanted. My mom found us a table near the exit in the corner that was marked as reserved for parties of 6 or more.
I can only load 10 pictures per post, so I am skipping the kids meal, but they had a kid’s quesadilla, which came with chips and grapes. They seemed to like it.
I absolutely love the tofu bowls here, so I ordered mine with the sweet potato hash and creamy herb dressing. I love everything about this dish… the taste and texture of the crispy tofu, the flavor of the sweet potato hash and the dressing, and how it all works so well together. It’s also the perfect serving size for me. It leaves me full but not too full.
Pat ordered a beef bowl with beans and rice and the black bean sauce. He said it was good but the portion was much too small for him. He was still hungry after lunch. It doesn't look like much protein to me.
I think my mom ordered the chicken bowl with a hearty salad and green onion sauce. I don’t think she cared much for this dish, especially the quinoa as it was prepared.
I’m pretty sure it was my dad who ordered the chicken with noodles and green onion sauce. I think he liked it pretty well.
Not pictured, but my MIL ordered the chicken bowl with beans and rice and the black bean sauce, and I think she liked her dish too. We also ordered both desserts.
The chocolate cake says it comes with a crunchy cookie layer and banana cream topping. It also had a thin chocolate piece and pineapple with it.
It was one of my least favorite desserts of the trip. If you’re expecting cake, do not order this. It’s more of a chocolate mousse and the “crunchy cookie layer” was not crunchy in my opinion – it’s a very soft dessert and I don’t like mousse (with one exception as you will soon see), so this one is not for me.
The other dessert is the blueberry cream cheese mousse with passion fruit curd.
This one IS for me. While it’s still a mousse, it feels thicker to me, more like cheesecake, and I like that. I love the combination with the passion fruit curd. DD4 liked the yellow part, and I think DD2 preferred the chocolate, but she ate a few bites from both.
While we ate, I kept re-loading the app, in search of a FP for the Safaris. The ride had re-opened and I believe the line was consistently over an hour long (and anything over 30 minutes is pretty much too long for the girls). I was determined to find a FP, but gave up after awhile.
We were almost finished with our meal by the time my friend arrived, but were happy to sit in the A/C a bit longer so I could chat with her while she ate her meal. It’s always fun to catch up with an old friend, but especially one who loves Disney as much (or even more) than me. She was planning to go to the last showing of Illuminations with her team from work as a team building event – I may be asking her for a job soon haha! The girls were starting to get antsy after a bit, so we said our goodbyes and went in search of our next ride.
