Festival of Lion King or Finding Nemo Musical?

Heading to Animal Kingdom 9/18
If I only have time for 1 show, which would you choose? I have a 3 and 6 yr old who love both movies (and an 11 and 14 yr old).
Also, is Rafiki’s Planet watch worth it? My little ones would love to meet Rafiki but I am worried that the wait for the train there and back will eat into a lot of my morning…

It may be a toss up with the little ones. Our 2 and 4 year old liked the Lion King slightly more. I think it was because we were at the back in Nemo and they couldn’t see as much. With the older kids involved I would go with the Lion King.

The train ride does eat a lot of time. It is basically a petting zoo. I can get that near our home (-) Rafiki. Not worth it if you are pressed for time. It is something we have done at the end of the day but we have always had two days at AK.

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If you drop Rafiki’s Planet Watch, maybe you could do both shows. They are both SO very good! Lion King is the slight winner, however. :slight_smile:

Both good but I would pick Lion King. DS7 loved meeting Rafiki and we still had plenty of time to do everything else we wanted to. We didn’t do anything else there though.

I just have to vote for Lion King!

Tough choice… I go with Lion King.

SKIP PLANET WATCH. I put it into our recent AK plan thinking my kids would love it, they’re 4 and 6 and absolutely the right personalities for it… but it was a) lame, and b) my kids hated it. (Apparently I’m the only one who thought bat surgery was interesting). A total pain to get to/from also on the slow/infrequent train. Finally, we found it more disorganized than other parts of WDW - e.g., figuring out where/how to get WE badges wasn’t obvious at all.
Which means you have time for 2 shows. :wink: We love them both, but I’m actually partial to Flights of Wonder.

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Yes, if you can fit both shows, better choice than Rafiki. It’s very time consuming and not much there there.

Our littles loved, fascinated by Nemo, we got up front b/c had fpps. Haven’t been to Lion King yet, going next trip. I’m hearing lately that Lion King is even better than Nemo.

I would definitely choose Finding Nemo over FOTLK. Finding Nemo always makes me cry and it is such a cute musical.

My 3 and 7 year old girls picked Lion King over Nemo. There is more crowd interaction at Lion King, so maybe that is why.

Nemo: True broadway-musical with song telling a story and incredibly well-rendered fish “actors”. Tells the story of Finding Nemo.
FOLK: A cirque-du-soleil style musical acrobatics show in a circular theatre with some audience interaction, lots of music, no plot, good laughs.
Flights of Wonder: Outdoor show with a plot (Bird expert giving a demo when hapless bird-averse “celebrity adventurer” stumbles into the scene and reluctantly becomes part of the show, resulting in a series of humorous and exciting demonstrations of incredible birds.
Nemo is probably the most captivating, given the cohesive plot line and formal theatre. I find FoW more riveting than FOLK, but love them both.

Our daughter liked Nemo when we visited when she was 5. We just visited this month (she’s now 9) and at this older age she preferred Lion King. I did too (though I thought Nemo was wonderful as well). Lion is more of a musical review while Nemo is a reenactment of the story with puppets. The music is better in Lion and the staging more elaborate with trapeze artists, fire jugglers, etc creating a lot of excitement. The performers are very impressive in both shows, I just think the musical material in Lion edges out Nemo by a slim margin.

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ps. We love Flights of Wonder too! (Never been to Rafiki so can’t comment.)