Day 19: Wilderness Explorers / WDW-40, 2016
Home » Travel » Day 19: Wilderness Explorers / WDW-40, 2016 »“Join the inhabitants of the Pride Lands for a grand celebration of The Lion King with songs from the film. This is a vibrant and exciting retelling of the tale of the cub who would be king, a lion prince fulfilling his destiny to become ruler—wildly presented by Simba and his friends in their own version of the story. From the opening number to the end, you’re in for a variety of thrilling entertainment.” – Walt Disney World
If you are a fan of The Lion King then you will not want to miss this show! I look forward to watching this every time we visit Animal Kingdom. It’s so vibrant, energetic and full of the songs you now and love from the film. Definitely worth booking a FastPass+ slot for this show. It’s 30 minutes long in an air-conditioned theatre, so it’s also a nice way to get out of the humidity and sun for a while!
There is not much more to tell you about it that I haven’t before in my other Disney Trip Reports, so here are this year’s photos!
We spent most of the day at Animal Kingdom, I can’t say exactly what we did, but I know we went on It’s Tough To Be A Bug, which we love, but to this day I swear isn’t suitable for young kids or those with a nervous disposition, or those with arachnophobia!
It is a 3D/4D show and is not a bug’s life re-make or anything like that. The only familiar characters are Flik and Hopper; and it tells you all about the different types of bugs in the world, and how they help us humans out. It’s fun and educational, and not scary per se, but there is a part where the lights go out, it’s very noisy, smoke is released, things drop down from the ceiling, and we will always hear children screaming and crying in fear – so yeah, they need to warn you about that!!
The theatre for It’s Tough To Be A Bug is located beneath the Tree of Life, so it’s a nice opportunity to walk the winding path down to it and see the carvings in the tree. Something new (or at least that we hadn’t seen before) was also the release of a flock of macaws, which was amazing to see, but tricky to capture on my camera as I wasn’t prepared at all! This was my first year of using a DSLR at Disney and I have a lot of learning to do!
But here are pictures of the Tree of Life, and said birds…
My brother wanted to go on Expedition Everest, and hubby managed to get a FastPass+ time slot while we were in the park, so we made our way over to Asia for the pair of them to ride it, while Meg and I watched on! I think Asia is my favourite land in Animal Kingdom, the attention to detail just amazes me!
When you brother photo bombs your Instagram Disney Snack pic… little sod!
For dinner this evening we decided on Olive Garden. After picking up Chris and Meg from their Disney Resort, we drove to the one at Rolling Oaks, just off W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee, which is one we have been to before.
Olive Garden is a family-friendly, Italian chain restaurant and the food has always been good when we have visited.
For starter we decided to order a couple of of the Create a Sampler Italiano and share them between the four of us. You can choose 2 or 3 from the following: parmesan zucchini bites, calamari, stuffed mushrooms (with clams), fried mozzarella, lasagna fritta or toasted beef and pork ravioli. Served with marinara sauce and creamy ranch.
Olive Garden »
Starters…
Sampler Italiano – Calamari, Parmesan Zucchini Bites, Stuffed Mushrooms ($11.99)
Sampler Italiano – Calamari, Toasted Ravioli, Fried Mozzarella ($11.99)
Clearly we love calamari since we ordered it on both samplers! You can’t really go wrong with fried food can you?
I didn’t take photos of all of our main courses -just mine and Steve’s. But I will list what everyone had. We decided against dessert as we were STUFFED. Also included with your meal is a salad, served family style, as well as bread sticks. I don’t seem to have photos of them either, but you can check out some old photos from Olive Garden in this post from 2013.
Main Course…
Me: Five Cheese Ziti Al Forno – A baked blend of Italian cheeses, pasta and our signature five cheese marinara. ($12.99)
Him: Tour Of Italy – Three OG classics all on one plate! Chicken Parmigiana, Lasagna Classico** and our signature Fettuccine Alfredo – all with homemade sauces made fresh every morning. ($17.99)
Them: Shrimp Scampi – Shrimp sautéed in a garlic sauce, tossed with asparagus, tomatoes, and angel hair pasta. ($16.29)
Them: Cucina Mia! Create Your Own Pasta Bowl – Rigatoni with Italian Sausage. ($15.29)
Olive Garden, Kissimmee
Bill: $102.89 + Tax: $7.21 + Tip: $# = $110.10
TiW Discount: $N/A
Total Paid: $110.10
All in all the food was good – it’s not going to win any awards, but if you’re looking for an off-site restaurant and have a craving for pasta, I recommend Olive Garden.
Tomorrow it’s a change of scenery completely as we are off to Universal Studios!
Read about the day after:
Day 20: Robots In Disguise « coming soon
Universal Studios / Dinner at Hard Rock Cafe
Read about the day before:
Day 18: All The Food
Epcot Food & Wine Festival