The Disney Cruise Line’s latest ship – the Disney Destiny – is about to set sail for its maiden voyage, and we got a sneak peek at everything the new ship has to offer.

The Destiny features several exciting new experiences for the line, including a heavy Marvel presence (a Spider-Man stern character, a fresh take on the World of Marvel restaurant featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy, a Wakanda-themed atrium, and a Doctor Strange lounge that recreates the Sanctum Sanctorum), a Hercules stage show, a Pirates of the Caribbean lounge,  and — our ficus today — a NEW Lion King dining experience! 

Atmosphere

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.

But enough about the restaurant — what’s on the menu here?!

Eats

First up, we had the Curried Apricot Chicken Sosaties, which are Grilled Chicken Skewers, Tri-color Quinoa Pilaf, and Red Chermoula. This was our favorite thing we had at Pride Lands. You get a hearty serving of chicken thigh meat. The meat itself is very flavorful…it’s been marinated and then grilled on the skewer.

The tasty quinoa makes a nice bed for the skewers and tastes great with the red chermoula. This dish isn’t super spicy, but it is well-seasoned with African spices. This is a good option for those who might want to stay away from spicy dishes.

The Roasted Red Capsicum Soup with Toasted Pão Bread Crostini and Sun-Dried Tomato Sofrito.  Although we were expecting something like a tomato bisque type soup, it really wasn’t like that. It’s got a nice red pepper taste, but there’s also a sweetness to it. It’s got a lovely flavor, but it’s definitely more focused on the red pepper flavor over the tomato.

We next had Sarabi’s Roasted Beef Tenderloin Salad, made with Sarabi’s Roasted Beef Tenderloin Salad
Grilled Halloumi Cheese, Lemon-marinated Artichoke Hearts, and Caramelized Grape Tomatoes. We felt a little mixed by this. Now, the beef tenderloin was a good quality piece of meat and was roasted well…it was about medium well to well. It was tender and well-seasoned, but we couldn’t get over the temperature at which it was served. The rest of the salad is kind of boring. It’s okay. The tomatoes in our salad were not caramelized, though. So this was okay, but we wished we’d picked something else.

The Kiara’s Black-Eyed Pea Hummus comes with Matbucha, Carrot-Green Mango Atchar, and Toasted Tiger Bread. The hummus is nice and creamy. There was something like sesame seeds on top that also added a bit of texture. Most of the flavor comes from the peas, and it’s comforting, earthy, and just nice.

The Pan-Seared Berbere Spiced Roasted Chicken comes with Tomato-Red Pepper Rice, Fried Plantains, and Green Harissa Sauce. Y’all…this is the entree to beat. Everything had such a good flavor and was spiced really well. The spices reminded us of the spices you get on the corn from Harambe Market in Animal Kingdom, although these weren’t quite as potent.

We also tried the Roasted Prime Rib of Beef with a Loaded Baked Potato, Black Garlic Broccolini, Honey Glazed Carrots, Veal Jus, and Horseradish. The beef is cooked about medium, and you get a huge slab of it. It’s also a fairly lean piece of meat and has just enough fat on it to give it some flavor. The veal jus added extra flavor and made it a little more robust. The broccolini was a little oily, but we didn’t taste the garlic. The baked potato was a bit dry. Overall, though, this is a filling meal if you’re craving red meat.

The Passion Fruit Layer Cake is Vanilla Butter Cake, Passion Fruit Cremieux, and Strawberry-Hibiscus Sauce. The cake is pretty standard, although there’s passion fruit between the layers. This didn’t blow us away, and we honestly thought it needed more passion fruit flavor. Instead, it’s just like a slightly fruity vanilla cake.

This is a good dessert for pickier eaters, so we’ll give it that.

The Zebra Sundae is made with Cookies ‘n Cream Ice Cream, Chocolate Wafer Cookies, Chocolate Fudge Sauce, and Whipped Cream. It was a delicious sundae, and it will certainly be a real kid-pleaser. It’s got comforting flavors, and it’s perfectly sweet. Even the whipped cream got the memo and held its structure on top, so it doesn’t melt into the rest of the sundae.

We also tried the Creamsicle Cheesecake, made with Vanilla Cheesecake, Orange Mousse, Orange Segment Glaze, and Chocolate Sauce. This sounded great on paper, but it’s not really a cheesecake. It’s more like a mousse with more mousse next to it. So if you order this expecting cheesecake, you’ve been warned.

The best part of this is the orange sauce that was in a little indentation on top. It drizzles down on the cheesecake when you cut into it. It was a nice sweet orange, much like a mandarin orange.

If you love cheesecake mousse, this will be a must for you, but we thought the menu’s description was off.

Drinks

We also tried the African Sangria, made with Vusa, Campari, Starr Rum, Fanta, Sprite Cassis, and Bitters for $14. It was…fine. It’s sweet, but not super robust. It’s just a nice sangria, although it tastes a bit watered down. It also wasn’t super fresh and just didn’t do it for us.

There are better drinks onboard the ship, as well as at this restaurant. If you want something sweet that’s refreshing, though, this will do the trick. If you want a great sangria, just skip it.

Overall

If you love The Lion King, this restaurant is obviously going to please you, but some items on the menu are better than others. So keep that in mind, and you’ll enjoy your dining experience here!

We’ll be updating this post, so please stay tuned for more!

The Pride Land restaurant is just one of many new experiences the Disney Destiny brings to the company’s expanding fleet. Stay tuned to DFB for more on the Destiny!

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Are you planning to set sail on the Destiny? Let us know in the comments below. 

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney Cruise Line to attend their media preview of the Disney Destiny. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ

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