MouseStation 113 – Disney’s Animal Kingdom Top 3
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Today’s show is sponsored by Owner’s
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Mark and Mike spent a few minutes talking about the details of what they
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Featured Topic – Disney’s Animal Kingdom Top 3
In this week’s feature, Mike and Mark discuss their Top 3 attractions, dining
locations and live entertainment at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. If you missed
the Disneyland Top 3 from last month, why don’t you check
it out?
Top 3 dining locations
As always, we started with dining. Mike really wanted to vote for the cast
cafeteria at the park, but Mark said that it had to be guest dining experiences.
So Mike’s number three choice is the Rainforest
Cafe at the park’s entrance. He likes having breakfast there before heading
into the park. Mike prefers the location at Disney’s Animal Kingdom to the
location at Downtown Disney.
For his number three, Mark issued a caveat that there are multiple dining
locations that have changed or opened recently, so he had to rule out including
the Yak & Yeti Marketplace counter-service location or the newly-buffet
service Tusker House. Instead, he opted for Pizzafari.
For some reason, he and his family keep falling into Pizzafari to eat. He
gave an honorable mention to the coffee and pastry cart as you come across
the bridge onto Discovery Island because he eats breakfast there often.
Mike talked about how the coffee sold at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is all shade-grown.
Mike’s runner up is the Royal Anandapur Tea Company. As a former loose-leaf
tea salesperson, he loves the tea. He says that it’s the only place at Walt
Disney World where he is completely satisfied with the tea service. He complained
about being handed Lipton at both the China and Japan pavilions.
Mark’s second choice is Flame Tree BBQ.
Between the delicious food and the great view from the seating area, it’s
hard to beat this place.
Mike and Mark both agree that their favorite dining location at the park
is now the new Yak
& Yeti Restaurant. Mike specifically likes sitting and eating at the bar,
though Mark likes the table service. The food quality and variety, the service,
the decor and the location are all wonderful. Mike was also impressed by the
drink menu.
Top 3 live entertainment options
Mark’s number three entertainment choice is DiVine,
because she does such a wonderful job of blending in, and it’s such fun to
watch people react to her when she actually moves.
DiVine is Mark’s number three live entertainment at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Photos by Mark Goldhaber.
Mike’s third choice is the Flights of Wonder.
He loves the tourist jokes and the birds. His runner-up is Mickey’s
Jammin’ Jungle Parade.
Mark and Mike’s number two and number one choices are reversed.
Mark’s number two and Mike’s number one is Festival
of the Lion King. It was Mark’s top choice until his number one opened.
He loves all of the acts, and he loves listening to the singers. Mike, Lion
King fan that he is, loves everything about this show.
Mark’s number one and Mike’s number two is Finding
Nemo – The Musical. Mike would have had a hard time choosing between this
and Tarzan Rocks! if the latter hadn’t had
to close to make room for the former. Mark has a real soft spot ofr this show,
partly because the story strikes such a chord with him. Kristen and Bobby
Lopez did a wonderful job in creating the show. He talked about interviewing
the Lopezes in Episode 6.
Top 3 attractions
Mike picked the Maharajah Jungle Trek as
his number three choice. He loves looking at the animals, he loves the theming
and he loves big cats. (And they’ve got tigers!) In addition to the tigers,
Mark likes the fruit bats and flying foxes (which inspired his son’s fruit
bat costume at Halloween a few years
back).
Mark’s third pick is the new Primeval Whirl.
It’s a great wild mouse coaster with the added dimension of spinning cars.
Mike and Mark agree that their second choice is Kilimanjaro
Safaris. Mike doesn’t care for the new story line, but he loves seeing
the animals and how different it is each time that you go on it. He also loves
that they won’t disturb the animals and will stop the vehicle if an animal
has one foot in the road. If you only have time to do one attraction in the
park, he’d recommend it above his number one attraction. Mark also thinks
that it’s the best animal attraction in the park. If yo’re not going to go
to Africa on safari, this is your next best shot at that experience.
Mike and Mark also agree that their number one is the Expedition
Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. (Since Mike used to work there,
he has to use the complete name whenever he refers to it.) They both love
the queue as well as the attraction. The only thing that they don’t like is
the “bird soaring on the air currents” at the top of the attraction.
Mark did a photo tour of the attraction,
mostly showing the queue, following the attraction’s DVC/AP preview weekend.
Mark and Mike agree that the short run-out after the encounter with the Yeti
is a problem, and that the attraction could have used a longer run-out by
about 10-30 seconds or so. Mike laments that most people don’t realize that
Everest itself is not the big mountain that attracts your attention, but rather
the peak way in the back, which is supposed to be much further back, well
beyond the Forbidden Mountain.
In next month’s Top 3 segment, Mark and Mike will combine their respective
Top 3 lists to come up with their combined Top 3 lists for all domestic (U.S.)
Disney parks.
So what are your Top 3?. Let us know by sending an email
or calling our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278) and let us know what
your favorites are!
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