After the Nemo musical, we had a hankerin’ for some Asian cuisine. Chrissy’s all time favorite quick service restaurant in all of Walt Disney World is Yak and Yeti, so we promised her we’d have at least one meal there during our trip. The food is pretty good, and they give you a very sizable portion for your money. Alli and I decided to split a pork egg roll and an order of chicken fried rice.
Each was less than $4.00 and we walked away stuffed.
The only downside of this quick service location is the seating. The seating area for this restaurant is massive, and yet it always seems to be completely full. Once while eating there in the past, we had to share a table with another family visiting with their toddler daughter. Her name was Taylor and lemme tell ya… This girl had her parents WHIPPED. Her parents had gotten her an order of chicken nuggets with a side of apple slices, but Taylor was NOT about those options. She wanted her pretzels and only her pretzels. And so began the most mind boggling back and forth bargaining war between Taylor and her parents. “Ok Taylor.. If you eat TWO chicken nuggets and ONE apple, you can have THREE pretzels… Ok how about if you only eat ONE nugget and TWO apple slices, then you can have some pretzels. How about that? No? Work with us here, Taylor…” This battle raged on for quite some time and, to this day, I don’t know that Taylor has ever eaten another chicken nugget.
Have I mentioned that I absolutely love the Animal Kingdom signage? It seems so natural and authentic. Here you can see advertisements for Everest, Maharajah, and Kali River Rapids.
One of our other favorite hidden gems is the tiny indoor/outdoor market next to the Yak and Yeti seating area.
We’ve spent a lot of time in this tiny store. They sell a lot of interesting Asian tchotchkes, and the items inside are usually fairly cheap. Not to mention more cool signs...
Check it out next time you’re in Anandapur.
It was nearly time for our Dinosaur FP, so we decided to head in that direction and explore Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama for a minute or two.
Now, I know what you’re all thinking. This area is a gross eyesore in an otherwise beautiful park, but Alli and I both love it for what it is. The story goes that married couple Chester and Hester owned a run-down gas station along Route 498 (April 1998 is when Animal Kingdom first opened).
One day while digging, they stumbled upon some dinosaur bones. This prompted all sorts of tourists to flock to the area. So Chester and Hester, dollar signs in their eyes, decided to build a small carnival area in order to give the tourists somewhere to throw their money away. They also decided to convert their filling station into a gift shop/museum.
Before long, the scientists of the Dino Institute caught wind of the discoveries, and set up shop next door.
We realize that this area looks cheap and carnival-like, and that’s because it’s suppose to! It’s supposed to be a cheap carnival that was set up in a parking lot, and that’s exactly what it resembles, even down to the faded parking lines on the black top.
In one of his posts on Instagram, Joe Rohde talks about how difficult it was to make this area appear authentic. The challenge with constructing something in a Disney park that exists in the real world is that we, as guests, KNOW what certain things look like. Tomorrowland can look like anything, because it’s imaginary. But we all know what a cracking blacktop parking lot is supposed to look like, and therefore the Imagineers had to put extra work into it to make it feel as real as possible. I don’t know. We just appreciate this area. Leave us alone.
Now time for me to drool over our next attraction: DINOSAUR.
In my opinion, this is the most underrated attraction in Walt Disney World, and it is definitely my favorite. I love dinosaurs and I love time travel, so this attraction is everything to me. There’s never a long wait and the queue is perfectly themed to resemble both a museum and a top-notch scientific lab. This attraction is exciting and terrifying and so, so, so much fun.
Once upon a time, this ride was sponsored by McDonald’s. Look out for the red, white, and yellow pipes in the lab section of the queue.
Those complicated scientific formulas are actually the formulas for ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. Apparently one of the secrets to time travel is… condiments?
We had some time to kill so we decided to catch It’s Tough to be a Bug. This is the show that takes place inside of the Tree of Life. It’s a fine show with amazing 3-D effects and an amazing Hopper animatronic (Hopper and the Wicked Witch from GMR are apparently two of the most advanced animatronics at WDW. Well… Operating animatronics. I’m looking at you, Yeti). Also, the queue provides amazing close-up views of the animals carved into the Tree's roots.
For this show, they say move all the way to the end of the row. Don’t do that. The theater will rarely fill up. Sitting in the middle of the row allows for a better 3-D experience. Try to work it out to where you’re not too far left or too far right.
The next show we were excited about catching was the Festival of the Lion King.
We made it just in time to catch the 3:00 showing. Our excitement was mainly focused around the new theater. Since our last time seeing the show, the FoLK show had been moved from Camp Minnie-Mickey to Harambe, which makes 1000% more sense. However, the theater is exactly the same, so there wasn’t much to be excited about. The new area was gorgeous, but the actual theater inside was no different.
This is one of the most popular shows on property by far. People LOVE this show. We think it’s ok. Actually, if I’m being honest, I think we all fell asleep at some point during this performance. Not saying I dislike this show. Before seeing it 500 times, this show gave me chills. Now, I’m just too familiar with it. Not to mention the fact that during this specific showing, it seemed as if they were not running with their starting lineup. The main for performers were dry and awkward. Still a great show, however, Highly recommended. If you've never seen it, it's most definitely a must do.
Upon leaving the theater, we stumbled upon a few FP+ cast members near the Dawa Bar. Because we had used up our Fatpasses for the day, we decided to check out what else was available. Basically, all that was left was Dinosaur. Like I said, I love that ride, but we all knew at this point in the day, a FP for Dinosaur was not required. However, this meant that we’d be riding it again so I was obviously excited. I also spotted another pin from my Pirate collection.
It’s a compass that reads “The dead do not bear witness”, just a rewording of the famous pirate phrase “Dead men tell no tales”. I’m still on the lookout for the last two pins in the set, but I’m satisfied with how my collection is coming along.
Alli swears on everything that the frozen lemonade from Drinkwallah is the best frozen lemonade there is, so we were on a mission to get some.
I swear they have different machines or something in there! In reality, they probably don't. I just find that the flavor of the lemonade is more sour instead of fake lemon taste.
However, upon seeing the menu, something caught our eye…
…coconut-lychee lemonade? With rum? Sold. It was delicious. However, I think they skimped out on the rum. There was either very little rum or none at all.
I could taste a little rum, but it was definitely one of those highly flavored low proof varieties. It was still a delicious drink! I don't like margaritas and that's a lot of what is offered in DAK for adult beverages, so it was good to see this variety. This isn't a frozen lemonade, just to clarify, it's a mixed drink.
We headed back towards Dinoland, but we arrived a little early for our fastpass. So we decided to ride Primeval Whirl. This attraction is exciting, but for all the wrong reasons. It’s exciting because you actually may die. So we nervously laughed our way through this ride in order to hide our fear and pain (this ride is a rough one). After our bruising, we went to use our Dinosaur fastpass only to discover, as we assumed, that there was no line. We walked right on.
Primeval Whirl is definitely more rough and tumble than Goofy's Sky School over in DCA, though they are very similar. I think it's the difference in the ride vehicles that brings the pain.
It was dinner time. We knew we had to try the new food at Harambe Market.
We decided on a curry sausage-dog, Spice-rubbed Karubi Ribs, and a watermelon lemonade. The corndog was served on a bed of veggies and the ribs came with a chickpea, corn, and tomato salad.
We were both disappointed. The sausage-dog was really dry, the ribs hardly had any meat on them, and everything seriously lacked flavor. The food wasn’t terrible, but we probably won't eat here in the future. If we do, we’ll try something else from the menu. At least the lemonade was good! And as I’ve said before, the area is gorgeous and not crowded at all.
I love the idea of the options at Harambe Market and they sound really good in theory. We are definitely adventurous eaters and there's not much I shy away from. I understand that the food Disney serves has to be palatable to many different people. However, if you're going to call it a curry dog, I should be able to taste SOME curry. I couldn't. I know curry can be an off-putting taste to some, so why not make a flavorful sauce to go on the side so people can decide how much to use for themselves? Also, the two veggie salads really needed some seasoning or to be tossed in a more flavorful sauce. Zuri's Sweet Shoppe didn't open until after we left, but I'll go back over there to try that for sure. When I could eat at delicious Flame Tree Barbecue in DAK for the same price, I probably won't be eager to return.
Next time: Chrissy and Scott almost lose their vision, a postal service secret that not many people know about, and we say farewell for now.
