We had come to mop up the extra attractions we hadn't got round to last time. We started the day with a disappointingly doughy Danish pastry from the "bakery" in the Africa area, then popped round the corner for the first show of The Lion King. This was a live-action show featuring acrobatics, singing and dancing, and large animatronic animals. Despite the name, there wasn't actually much to do with lions in it - much of the action centred around Timon and Pumba, with their "tumble monkeys" doing acrobatic manoeuvres to music. There was also the dark evil section with a fire-eater and juggler, and the slow smoochy "Can you feel the love tonight" song with a pair of dancers. It was a great show and visually stunning - very highly recommended.
We were on our way across to Expedition Everest, our second FastPass attraction, but noticed that Flights of Wonder, their bird show, was letting in, so we joined the crowd in the arena for that. It was definitely worth it - a zippy (but sometimes over-cheesy) script and some exotic birds made it a very enjoyable experience.
From there we decided to have another go on Dinosaur, since the queue was minimal. The simulator ride was just as odd second time round - I'm still not convinced about the dark bit where you just seem to bounce around a lot. But hey, it's not It's A Small World...
We decided our next call would be lunch. The Flame Tree Barbecue provided Tom with an enormous side plate of onion rings with his meal, and a more moderate yet tasty pulled pork sandwich for me. A rather stupid family on the table behind us were whining about there not being any napkins, but hadn't thought to try any of the multiple condiment areas where they were available, or even just asking a member of staff... *sigh*
After lunch, our final FastPass was for Finding Nemo: The Musical. In a large theatre building this was a fully-fledged musical, with characters puppeteered in Avenue Q style (performers visible on stage, holding the puppet and speaking or singing for them). I must confess I've not seen the film, but if it's anything like this stage show then I may have to. The cast were excellent and the costumes and puppets were superb. It's lovely to see something like this done properly.
Back at the resort we had a brief rest and then headed over to the pool, this time thankfully without heavy bags of laundry. I spent a pleasant few hours with my Kindle, with the occasional dip in the water to cool off. Who knows, I might even end up with some sort of tan! Stranger things have happened...
Dinner that evening was booked at the California Grill, one of the Signature restaurants in the dining plan, located on top of the Contemporary resort. Before this, however, we popped over to Downtown Disney on the boat, as I wanted to look for a specific t-shirt in their large Disney shop, and Tom wanted to try to claim the gift voucher we had included with our package. Unfortunately he couldn't find his paperwork and I couldn't find the t-shirt I wanted so both of us left empty handed! Due to the building work at Downtown Disney, the bus station is laid out in a very confusing temporary fashion, which lead to lots of people being in the wrong queue line for their bus!
Over at the Contemporary, we checked in and were given the usual pager. As we were in the lift up to the 15th floor, the pager started buzzing, so we were seated almost instantly. Our waiter was polite but not as friendly as the nice waitress we'd had at Narcoossee's two nights before. I ordered Bison, and Tom ordered the lamb. Due to bad timing our main courses arrived just before Wishes began. Mine wasn't a massive portion, and as such I'd basically finished when the fireworks started, so was able to head out onto the balcony area to watch. Poor Tom, however, was stuck in the darkened restaurant trying to pull meat he couldn't see from a bone he also couldn't see, as his food got rapidly colder. By the time the lights came back up he didn't look fantastically impressed.
For dessert I chose banana fritters with dipping sauces (chocolate, salted caramel and peanut butter... you can guess which one I left!) while Tom had a sampler plate, including a s'more, a bizarre cherry mojito and a small square of strawberry shortcake.
Despite the hype we didn't really think either the food or the service were exceptional. We'd had a much nicer meal and time at Narcoossee's a couple of nights before, and this sadly didn't compare as well. For a normal table service restaurant, it would have been fine, but I'd have been disappointed were I actually paying in cash. We tipped slightly below the norm as we didn't feel the service had been as good as it should have been. Still, at least the view was good.
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