One of the eagerly awaited spaces on Disney Cruise Line's Disney Destiny is its prime-time dining venue, Pride Lands: Feast of The Lion King, the first dining experience to feature the story and music of "The Lion King." And if the taste I got this week is any indication, it will be a roaring success.
Ed the hyena and Timon the meercat at Disney Cruise Line's preview of the Lion King dinner experience, coming to the Disney Destiny. Photo Credit: Rebecca Tobin
Cruise brands over the years have been perfecting the art of the ship "reveal": The drop of information about a new feature of the upcoming vessel, be it food, entertainment or design. And Disney Cruise Line is a master of the craft.
For the Disney Destiny, the line utilized a ballroom at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World as a staging site to preview Pride Lands to a group of about 100 media. (Earlier in the day it had shown off other sections of the Destiny, such as a Doctor Strange-themed bar and updates to its Grand Hall.)
For the Pride Lands reveal, we first had cocktail hour in the adjacent part of the ballroom, where Disney had mocked up a piano bar and lounge to evoke De Vil's, another new lounge coming to the Destiny -- named for villainess Cruella de Vil of "One Hundred and One Dalmatians."
Then the curtains to the side of the room slowly parted, and, phones and cameras ready, we advanced forward, while the delicious smells from the cooking rushed out to greet us.
The room was decorated in the style of the ship's version of Pride Lands: Woven baskets and savanna grasses dotted the space, and backdrops depicted silhouettes of acacia trees.
Show director Paul Bryant took to the stage in the center of the room, accompanied by drummers with authentic African drums. And while advising us that the project is still in development, he sketched out the main premise: The dining show will be told by two storytellers who will step into different characters (Simba, Timon, Mufasa, etc.) by "putting a prop in their hand or a piece of costume on their bodies."
"So, therefore, you have to be taken in by the story," Bryant said.
Clockwise from top: a lentil soup, red snapper and short ribs. To drink: Can You Feel the Rum Tonight. Photo Credit: Rebecca Tobin
To do that, he said, "when you step into the space you're transported to the pride lands. Can you hear the soundscape? Turn it up," he said, turning to the person working the room's sound console. "You feel like you are there with us."
In addition to the traditional African music will be songs from the beloved movie. And there are references everywhere. Exhibit A was the Can You Feel the Rum Tonight cocktail: Rum, cream liqueur, mango smoothie mix and a pinch of cinnamon.
While the show will take center stage, the food also will be a star, based on our preview meal. We feasted on delicious sweet potato, lentil and coconut soup; a roast chicken with jollof rice; a Swahili coconut-tamarind red snapper; and a beef short rib with malanga mash (mashed potatoes thickened with taro, the server said). My table raved over peri-peri shrimp with a creamy gouda pap (a cornmeal porridge) and toasted corn.
We ate with gusto, and as Pumbaa the warthog might say, it was "satisfying."
Disney had a kids' menu on display, too. An on-theme meal would be the Savanna salmon with joloff rice, but kids can also get things like Mufasa's Jungle Pasta (penne with tomato sauce and chicken breast). The kids meals are served on a plate decorated with Rafiki's vision of the baby cub Simba -- and the plate was coveted by more than one adult at the preview.
Dinnerware for the Lion King restaurant, including a plate for kids decorated with Rafiki's vision of a lion cub. Photo Credit: Rebecca Tobin