The Disney Cruise Line’s latest ship — the Disney Destiny — is about to set sail for its maiden voyage! The latest addition to the Disney fleet is loaded with new experiences based on Marvel characters, legendary Disney theme park attractions, and — our focus today — legendary 1994 film The Lion King.
Taking the place of the dinner-show experience that has been filled by Frozen and Coco on other Disney vessels, the Pride Lands: Feast of the Lion King restaurant brings the story of Simba to life using the songs of the iconic film. As guests dine, musicians in full Lion King costumes perform music from the movie’s soundtrack, as well as fun, new mashups, and more.
Background
Recently, we had the chance to experience Pride Lands: Feast of the Lion King onboard the Disney Destiny! This is a first-of-its-kind musical dining experience. You’ll get dinner and a show at this brand-new Disney restaurant.
As you enjoy a delicious themed meal, you’ll get to watch as singers and musicians perform the iconic songs from The Lion King. The re-telling of Simba’s story will be performed live in front of you as you dine. The performance was amazing — a top-notch Disney performance like you know and love!
We loved listening to iconic songs from The Lion King! We heard classics like “Circle of Life” and “Can You Feel The Love Tonight.”
One thing we do want to note, though, is that the performance doesn’t actually involve any recognizable characters from The Lion King. While the performers were remarkable, it could be disappointing for kiddos who are expecting to see familiar faces — so you might want to temper their expectations.
Atmosphere
The setup of the dining space was also very nice! The design of the tables, chairs, menus, plates, napkins, and everything kept the same color patterns and look.
The menu and drink menu had the sun on it!
But enough about that, let’s get back to the FOOD!
Food
Let’s kick things off with Kiara’s Black Eye Pea Hummus, which was a really nice appetizer. The hummus itself was nice and creamy. There were sesame seeds on top, and the main flavor was black beans — a comforting, almost herby flavor. The flavor was too much, and we appreciated that.
We had Matbucha on the side, and we instantly became obsessed with it. It’s like a cooked African salad with great flavor, a little acidity, and even a little bit of a kick to it.
The bread, unfortunately, wasn’t great. It was a little hard and cold. However, the bread service that you get also goes great with the spreads!
We had to try the Roasted Red Capsicum Soup. It came with Toasted Pão Bread Crostini and Sun-dried Tomato Sofrito.
The soup was good; we were expecting more of a tomato soup, but we got a lot more red peppers in the flavor. That was totally fine, the flavor was amazing, just don’t anticipate much tomato.
Next up, we got the Curried Apricot Chicken Soaties, which are an appetizer. This was a chicken skewer with quinoa and red chermoula.
This might have been our favorite thing to eat here. It was a good amount of chicken, and it was marinated really well, making it very flavorful! Nothing special about the quinoa, but it was tasty. The sauce was a great addition to this dish and wasn’t that spicy, but did have a red pepper flavor to it. The spices were heavily spiced but not in a hot spicy way.
We got the Pan-scared Berbere Spiced Roasted Chicken with Tomato-Red Pepper Rice, Fried Plantains, Blistered Tomatoes, and Green Harissa Sauce. The chicken comes over a bed of fried rice. There are a lot of African spices on this, giving this dish lots and LOTS of good flavor.
It almost tastes like the spices they put on the corn at Harambe Market in Animal Kingdom — just not as much in your face. Everything mixed was wonderful and felt very authentic. So if you like extra spices and extra flavor, this will deliver!
Sarabi’s Roasted Beef Tenderloin Salad had Grilled Halloumi Cheese, Lemon-marinated Artichoke Hearts, Caramelized Grape Tomatoes, Spiced Garbanzo Beans, Cucumber, Baby Spinach, Escarole, Oakleaf, Green Onion, Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette.
We had some mixed feelings about this one. The beef tenderloin was of good quality, well seasoned, and tender. The salad, unfortunately, was a little boring. It was spiced, but it could’ve used dressing. Also, our tomatoes were good, but they didn’t seem caramelized, which is what the menu says they’ll be. Overall, the two large pieces of tenderloin were great, but we would’ve had something else that wasn’t the salad.
We also got the Roasted Prime Rib of Beef. This came with a cheddar twice-baked potato, honey-glazed carrots, garlic broccolini, and you can get horseradish on the side.
We actually really enjoyed this! The prime rib of beef was a huge slab; it didn’t have a ton of fat on it, and it was cooked very well — a warm pink. It was very flavorful.
The honey carrots were a loose term. Two very small carrots clearly looked to be one carrot split in two. The broccoli was a little bit oily, and we couldn’t taste any of the garlic flavor.
The twice-baked potato was good, but there was no hint of cheese, and it was a little dry.
There was this Creamsicle Cheesecake that caught our eye. It was a Vanilla Cheesecake with Orange Mousse, Orange Segment Glaze, and Chocolate Sauce. Unfortunately, this wasn’t our favorite dessert. It wasn’t cheesecake, it was a mousse — so just be aware if you get this. It was fine, but we were just expecting to get cheesecake, not mousse.
The best part of it was this orange sauce that was at the top. When you cut into it, it would drizzle down the treat. It was a sweet mandarin orange taste. If you love cheesecake mousse, you’ll love this. We just wish the description on the menu were more accurate!
Then there’s the Passion Fruit Layer Cake — a Vanilla Butter Cake with Passion Fruit Cremieux, White Chocolate Ganache, Passion Fruit Glaze, and Strawberry-Hibiscus Sauce.
It was a thin piece of cake. The vanilla was your typical vanilla cake, and there was a layer of passion fruit between them. There was a Simba chocolate coin on top of the cake, and some Oreo crumble pieces around it.
The cake was alright — we were hoping for more passion fruit, but this was really more of a piece of vanilla cake. If you’re looking for a passion fruit-flavored treat, this probably won’t satisfy you. This is more in line with what kids may want, or someone who was adventurous with their meal and wants to have a simpler dessert.
We also had to get the Zebra Sundae, which was a cookies-and-cream-style sundae.
This was so delicious! Sometimes sundaes are messy ice cream, but this was so good and comforting, unbelievably creamy, and perfectly sweet.
The whipped cream held its structure and didn’t dissolve on the ice cream — it was also light. It was chocolately, creamy, and had big chunks of ice cream on the top. Is it for the kiddos? Yes. Will we get it again? Absolutely!
One of the drinks we got was the African Sangria. It was sweet, but it wasn’t robust like a nice sangria. It was also a little watered down and didn’t feel super fresh. It was fine, but there are just better drinks on board the ship and in the restaurant. Again, it’s fine, it’s not bad, just not a great sangria.
We tried a few more drinks, too, but more on that later!
Overall
We think Pride Lands: Feast of the Lion King is an incredible addition to the Disney Cruise Line lineup of entertainment restaurants. While we didn’t love everything we had here, we were impressed by the range of flavors and the overall experience.
We tried a bunch more where that came from, so make sure you check back here as we continue to update this review!
The Destiny and its Lion King dining experience are about to set sail. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on the new ship.
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Are you planning to set sail on the Destiny? Let us know in the comments below.
Disclosure: We were invited by Disney to attend the Destiny sailing. This did not affect our reporting of the event — our opinions are our own.
Yes, we will be on Destiny Cruise in May 2026 Can’t wait – and thanks for all the details and pics 🙂