ANIMAL KINGDOM
Our last full day was enjoyed at Animal Kingdom. My family isn’t the biggest fan of this park, so I’ve never really been given the chance to truly appreciate it until now.
We made it to the park for rope drop and made a beeline for Expedition Everest. We had a fast pass for this ride a little later in the morning, but you can usually hop on and off a bunch of times right after rope drop. We managed to ride it twice before I started to get a little queasy.
Next up, DINOSAUR! To this day, this ride still terrifies me like it did when I was 10 years old riding it for the first time. I did keep my eyes open most of the time. Tom thinks I’m seriously silly. What 27 (at the time) year old closes their eyes on a Disney Ride? This girl!
We then went to my favorite show on property, Finding Nemo the Musical. I couldn’t wait for Tom to see the incredible puppets. If you have not gone to this show yet please please go. It is broadway quality packed into 45 minutes. The music is wonderful. This is definitely on my must do list.
Lunch was enjoyed at the newly opened Harambe Market. This was, by far, our favorite lunch. This spot is a hidden gem. The food was fresh and flavorful. We were able to get a seat very easily. Tom had the Beef Flatbread and I had the Grilled Vegetable Stack. Both are served with Green Papaya Slaw and Black-Eyed Pea Salad. For dessert, we had this chocolate, coconut tart. It was really tasty.
Next, was our fast pass for Kali River Rapids. I have a serious love-hate relationship with this ride. It is so much fun, but you also get so wet and it takes you hours to dry. I kept telling Tom I didn’t want to do it. It wasn’t hot enough, blah, blah, blah. I tried every excuse I could think of. I know… I’m lame. He was not pleased with me (in a joking way), he wanted to ride! So I caved because I love him. And, of course it was great, a lot shorter than I remembered it being, but we didn’t get wet at all. Luck was on my side.
While walking to our next attraction, we noticed a very short line to meet Tarzan! This was a really cool character find. I’ve never met him before and our interaction was a lot of fun. He kept asking us where the bananas were and told us stories of his monkey adventures.
We ended our time in Animal Kingdom with the Maharajah Jungle Trek. This experience has always been on my list, but until this trip I’ve never been able to enjoy. However, I was unaware that you had to walk through a room with snakes… Tom had to guide me with my eyes closed after I put up a fight to turn around. I have had a fear of snakes my whole life. The rest of the experience was really cool. We got to see tigers and gorillas.
The moral of our Animal Kingdom story is, I was a brat. I’m lucky Tom is so awesome!
Back at All-Star Music, we enjoyed cocktails by the pool and swam for a couple of hours. After getting ready, we boarded the bus to EPCOT for our last dinner reservation.
EPCOT
Our plans for EPCOT were to enjoy World Showcase. We would start on one end to go to dinner in Italy. Then, complete the other half. We also wanted to check out all the topiaries from Flower and Garden.
I always begin my journey around the world in Mexico. It’s one of the coolest pavilions. The second you step in you are instantly transported to a Mexican village at night.
Next up, Germany. We decided to stop in Germany for a little pre-dinner snack. My dad works for a German company and travels there from time to time so we thought it would be fun to try something new there. We ordered a cheese plate and a flight of red wine. Now the cheese was very tasty, but we were unaware that if you like red wine, don’t order German red wine. They are known for their whites and their beer. The wine was not the best, but we didn’t hate it. We recommend getting the cheese, just pick the white wine flight if you do.
We finished our wine and cheese and walked next door to Italy. We had reservations a Via Napoli. It’s Neapolitan style pizza baked perfectly in wood burning ovens.
We ordered an individual Quattro Formaggi Pizza (white pizza – mozzarella, parmesan, fontina, provolone) and an individual Capricciosa Pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella, eggplant, artichokes, ham, mushrooms). We shared both pizzas and it was the perfect amount of food. The Capriccosa was our favorite.
For dessert, I enjoyed my favorite of all time, Tiramisù, and Tom ordered Coppa Brutti Ma Buon (“ugly but good” amarena cherry and vanilla gelato sundae).
Review:
What I’m about to say next won’t be a popular opinion (people really love this place), but I give Via Napoli a 3 out of 5 stars. It was a good meal, but for us it wasn’t anything special. We live in NYC, so we have incredible pizza at our disposal every day. The pizza was very tasty, but we’ve had better. Our desserts were great. Inside, it seemed to be extremely loud which would have made for a poor experience. Luckily, we were able to eat outside.
However, if you do not have awesome pizza where you live we definitely say to check this place out. Everyone should try this style of pizza at least once, but we won’t be going back on our next trip.
The rest of our night was spent exploring World Showcase. The topiaries for Flower and Garden were incredible. This festival is definitely something every Disney fan should experience. The sheer amount of work that goes into this blows my mind!
Leaving EPCOT was bittersweet knowing tomorrow we would be going home, but not until we enjoyed one last day in the Magic Kingdom.
The Cocho Life 
Pizza at D-World is tough. There is a lot of good pizza in the world, in all different styles. It would be difficult to stand out in that space. However, I have to say I have never had a great slice at D-World. For some reason they just don’t seem to get it.
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Very true! Disney does a lot of different food very well. We did enjoy the pizza it just wasn’t our favorite!
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