ACTUALLY THE LAST ART OF ANIMATION UPDATE EVER (Still Kidding), Shrimp Tandoori, Abs Bro, The Entirety

Back to the Art of Animation Resort for what feels like the seven thousandth point two four time.

As cupcake reported in the comments section of “A Hat, Cars Land For Poor People, Rafiki, Surf and Surf Burger – Art of Animation 6/14/12” Art of Animation is indeed sold out of the resort-specific pen.

At $6.95, they’re less expensive and way cooler than the keychains or magnets.  Useful too with a bit of an Epic Mickey vibe.

I hadn’t seen these two shirts before:

Brave merchandise has also invaded:

As has Phineas and Ferb:

Remember when you couldn’t find any?  Yeah, not so much a problem these days.  I think it’s better represented than anything else Disney has right now, other than maybe Star Wars or Cars.

Back to the Landscape of Flavors, where research continues.  It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.  At 3:32pm, it’s much less crowded and hectic than the last time we visited at peak dinner time.  There’s virtually nobody here.

This time, we’re interested in the Tandoori station:

And specifically the Shell-on Shrimp.

The food as presented for your viewing pleasure:

Naan.

Boneless Chicken Thigh.

Portuguese Sausage.

Acorn Squash.

Cauliflower with Tomatoes.

Spinach and Paneer Cheese.

Mongolian Beef Stir Fry.

Mongolian Grill Fish.  Probably the blandest looking of the options.

Shell-on Tandoori Shrimp.

Boneless Chicken Thigh it looks like.

The raw meats are refrigerated in the back of the station.

Everything is Tandoori’d out for you fresh.  My shrimp are being pulled off the stick and plated.  The meat is grilled on a circular grill in the middle of the area.  Since I was the only one there, it didn’t take long for the meal to be prepared.  Add 15 people and you’re looking at long waits again.

My Shell-on Shrimp with basmati rice, spinach and paneer cheese, squash, and naan.

Shrimp deets.

I buy a lot of refillable mugs (sup DISboards.com).  In context.

The naan stretched out.  This was quite the plate of food with a nice variety of side items.  Since the menu didn’t mention rice, I wasn’t expecting a healthy helping of that.  Though you’ll notice I somehow ordered the exact same items that are plated in the example above.

With the shells on the shrimp, it’s a little messy to de-shell them and get them in your mouth.  There’s really no sexy way about it, that I’ve figured out anyway.  Don’t worry though, you can rinse your hands in the pool after you eat.  Wiping them on your sister also works well.  They were very good.  The six of them isn’t a huge portion, but it comes alongside a lot of other food.  The naan was excellent.  Crispy, freshly prepared and as you can see, a large piece.  A very nice complement to the meal.  The basmati rice didn’t have a lot of flavor.  Bland as you might expect from the variety.  The squash was also on the difficult side to eat.  I couldn’t get the “skin” off of it and felt stupid holding it up to my mouth like a piece of cantaloupe still attached to the rind.  I did anyway.  It comes with just the one piece, tasted sweet, and felt squishy.  About what you would expect.  Something about the phrase “paneer cheese” grosses me out, but I ordered it anyway because it sounded more interesting than the other items and I’m in no hurry to order whatever “pickled vegetables” are.  This side seemed to have the most heft.  You get a couple large spoonfuls of it rather than the single piece of squash.  It didn’t seem to have a lot of flavor, but it is certainly a nice change of pace from your Disney fries.

Overall, I enjoyed the meal quite a bit.  The food may seem a little “out there,” but it’s really more accessible than you might expect.  There isn’t anything particularly “weird” going on here.  It would make sense to add pot stickers and egg rolls or something as a side item.   Wontons, shrimp tempura, spring rolls etc. might fare better than paneer cheese and pickled vegetables.   I’m interested in trying the Mongolian Beef Stir Fry next.

The fact that Landscape of Flavors accepts the Tables in Wonderland discount (without the 18% tip included) is a nice bonus too.  That makes eating here less expensive than the theme parks in most instances.

The Lion King section continues to come along.  That directory sign might be new.

Though looking over the fence, we don’t really see any changes.  It’s interesting that this section is the only one without a pool, considering how easy it would be to incorporate a watering hole.

Over to the Little Mermaid section.

The Little Mermaid is a sort of odd thematic choice for the resort’s only “standard rooms.”  It seems like the underwater theme is pretty close to the Finding Nemo theme.  And it isn’t like you’re going to be able to get too many eight year old boys into a Princess Ariel room, especially once they see the Cars section.  Your Prince Dapper(s) will never forgive you.

Exterior walkways on these standard rooms.

The long and short of it.

As expected, the most work is going on over here as its opening is the furthest off (September).

From the bridge that connects Pop Century and Art of Animation.  A long winded Pop Century update is upcoming.

Poor Flounder, bagged up as if he’s a goldfish you just won from the local carnival.

Zoomed out.  Mother says I don’t need the 70-200mm F2.8 II IS lens.  Clearly, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

More work.

More work.  I’m hoping whatever that thing is off to the right is being used in a gigantic version of Mouse Trap.

In case you’re wondering how creepy this website is, I’m currently hunched down in the bushes.  The “Why are you taking pictures of my daughter?” conversation is only a matter of time.

Speaking of creepy.  He will only be referred to as “Abs Bro” from henceforth.  Though King Triton is okay.  Ursula (not pictured) is the coolest.

The size of the various pieces is staggering. Much more obvious when you have a (purported) human standing nearby.  He could just be very short.  You never know.

The entirety of the complex.

From the other side.

We’ll take a walk through Cars Land For Poor People to see if anything has changed since the last time we were here.

It hasn’t really.

These signs might be new.

New to the site anyway.

Since it doesn’t smell like poop anymore, we can hang out a bit:

Bring a weapon and an army if you want to muscle someone out of their cone cabana.

From the bus.

Still independent buses from Pop Century.

Looking forward to the other two sections!