Pixar Studios Proudly Presents:
PANKOT PALACE
A dining experience accompanying “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Welcome to the amazing Pankot Palace Dining Experience. A night of delicious tastes and intriguing adventure awaits! The entrance to our new dining experience can be found within a new lounge in Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Just past the Adventure Outpost, to the left of the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular is The Raven, the Nepalese bar from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Guests without a reservation for the Pankot Palace Dining Experience can still explore the lounge and find many wonders waiting for them. This intimate area is spacious and well-worn with age. The fireplace against the far wall (although unlit) is huge and could heat the entire room if needed. Although the locals and hikers searching for good company and booze enjoy the bar (and your sure to see some including the Raven's enforcer, Mohan), guests should have no problem find a seat at the bar. Just beware, Marion can sometimes be found drinking some of the locals under the bar which can understandably cause tempers to rise and incite a bar brawl.
When the lounge is quiet and the company in good spirits, guests can hear the soothing melodies inspired by the Indiana Jones movies.
Guests in the mood to explore may find some of the ancient relics scattered around the shelves and cases against the walls. Personal notes and even the personal journal of Abner Ravenwood can be found hidden among pictures of a young Indiana Jones and Marion and pictures of Abner with Indy.
Clever eyed guests will spot Marion's keepsake box with varying money from all over the world and buried near the bottom is the headpiece for the staff of Ra.
The best seats in the house are by far the newly installed balcony seating overlooking the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular for those looking to take in a quick show. It is only here that guests can see how the show is reset for the next one as well as get a birds eye view of the action.
All patron's of the Raven may also order from the Drink and Appetizer Sampler Menu, containing such delicacies as:
Chilled Monkey Brains (chilled strawberries and fro yo served in themed mug available for purchase)
Monkey Taste-Tested Un-poisoned Dates
Short Round Rolls (Eggrolls)
Snake Surprise (Noodle Salad)
Crispy Cleopatra (Fried deviled eggs)
Soup of the Head (Soup served with chives, bocconcini, and pimiento-stuffed olives)
Gently roasted vanAhira
Sukiyaki (Japanese Hotpot)
The Raven Sample Drink Menu
Hall of Promise (a wine flight of drinks based of Eternal Beauty, Earthly Riches, and Future Sight as seen in the Temple of the Forbidden Eye)
The Three Challenges (a beer flight of drinks based of the Breath, the Word, and the Path as seen in The Last Crusade)
Choose Wisely (Orange, Cranberries, Lime juice, Orange Juice, Spiced Rum, Cranberry Juice, Club Soda - comes with in a themed mug available for purchase)
Crystal Skull (Vodka, Ginger Beer, Lime - comes with in a themed mug available for purchase)
Mutt’s Greaser Gas (coke, diet coke, sprite, dr. pepper)
Paco's Punch (non-alcoholic fruit punch, served with glowing "Sankara Stones" - glowing, color changing ice cubes )
Rene Belloq's Family Label (White Rum)
Regan “Red” Rum – (bourbon or rye whisky, sugar cube, Angostura bitters, orange twist)
British Tar (Masala Chai: most famous and flavored beverage in India, made by black tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs)
The Stone Tiger (Chaach: Buttermilk is also known as Majige,Tak, Moru and Chaach, a slightly sour milk best to have in warm climates)
Golden Idol (Lassi: popular and traditional Yogurt based drink refreshing drink to have in the summers - comes with in a themed mug available for purchase)
Siafu Stinger (Shikanje: drink which is made from sugar, water and lemons)
Jungle Cutter (Thandai: Bhang or thandai is made from milk and dry fruits which makes it tasty and healthy)
Ugha Attack (Sol kad: refreshing Konkani drink a hint of kokum and a light coconut base)
The Black Sleep (Jal-Jeera: consists of cumin, ginger, black pepper, mint, black salt and the powder used to flavor this drink - comes with in a themed mug available for purchase)
For those guests with reservations for the Pankot Palace Dining Experience, the entry will also be at The Raven and will kick start their one of a kind dining adventure in a most spectacular way.
THE PANKOT PALACE DINING EXPERIENCE:
“INDIANA JONES AND PANDORA’S BOX”
"The Pankot Palace Dining Experience" is a fully immersive dining adventure without equal. A large party of guests (approximately 20, combined from smaller groups as needed) enjoys a combined dinner theater meal and guided walkthrough. Rotating groups depart every 10 minutes. The entire two-hour experience is ADA accessible and family-friendly. By reservation only.
Backstory: It is March 1936, half a year since the events of Temple of Doom and another half year before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The whereabouts of Indiana Jones are unknown. But dinner guests have been invited to The Raven by its archeologist proprietor, one Abner Ravenwood, to discuss Indy’s latest adventure.
(
0:00 - 0:10)
Dining check-in: Guests to The Pankot Palace Dining Experience are welcome to check-in at The Raven, Abner Ravenwood’s Nepalese bar. As this is a prix fixe family style dining experience, guest will "declare their adventure" and choose what feast they would like: Raider's Feast (Egyptian), Mara's Feast (Indian), Crusader's Feast (Chinese), and Crystal Feast (South American). Each choice includes a variety of apps, dinner, and deserts and will be served later on in the experience.
When a party’s reservation is ready, they are approached by a live performer portraying Abner’s Sherpa assistant. He explains to guests that Abner has just perished in a tragic avalanche accident (true to Indy canon), and that guests must now be on their way. There are sinister parties involved, and eyes everywhere!
(
0:10 - 0:15)
Walkway 1: Guests follow the Sherpa “outside” (actually deeper into the building) into the nighttime Himalayan mountains. A cold wind blows. The Sherpa explains that guests have been invited for a dinner package which includes an appetizer in the nearby Shaman’s shack, and a grand adventure to follow. This adventure concerns Pandora’s Box, the long lost mythological artifact which Indy now seeks. Abner had just days earlier discovered its location in India.
(
0:15 - 0:35)
Appetizers – The Shaman’s Shack: Moving through snowy mountain passes, achieved much like the queue for Flights of Passage, guests finally reach the Shaman’s shack. All around is Tibetan Buddhist décor. Inside this humble abode, guests sit for their appetizer course in the presence of the Shaman.
Raiders Feast (Egyptian)
Bread Service: Basket of Baladi, Saboob, and Eish merahah
Appetizers: Fava Beans and Falaffel, Alexandrian Sausage, Shawerma
Mara's Feast (Indian)
Bread Service: Basket of roti, kulcha, and chapati
Appetizers: Machli Biraan, Mushrooms Pakora, Prawn Puri
Crusader's Feast (Chinese)
Bread Service: Basket of steamed buns, mantou, and milk bread
Appetizers: Cantonese Spare Ribs, Obi Wan Shumai (Shrimp, Pork, Chicken, Beef, Vegetable), Shanghai Potstickers
Crystal Feast (South American)
Bread Service: Basket of arepa, pão de queijo, and pandebono
Appetizers: Lime chicken enchiladas, Twice-fried green plantains, Argentinian picada
As guests eat, the Shaman explains the history of Pandora’s Box, with the visual aid of a photograph projector. “It was a Greek artifact of greatest antiquity, which contained within it all the evils of this world. Once thought but a legend, recent archeological evidence suggests Pandora’s Box was real. It was held by Alexander the Great of Macedonia when he traveled east in his great empire-building wars. Tablets tell that Alexander triumphed thanks to the Box’s powers…but it grew too unwieldy. Fearing the evils he was continually unleashing, Alexander hid the Box east of the Indus River in present day India, the furthest his travels took him. A booby-trapped crypt was created to conceal Pandora’s Box, which shrank into the mists of history.”
The Shaman now produces several weathered treasure maps, handed to each dining party.
Upon these maps is the solution to discovering Pandora’s Box, found in the province of Pankot, India. Surprisingly, Pandora’s Box lays buried below Pankot Palace – the setting of Temple of Doom. It seems the Box has had an evil influence on the region, inspiring ancient warlords and even recent fanaticism. Unless it is found and silenced, yet another evil might soon overtake Pankot Palace.
Tonight’s quest: Guests are to travel to Pankot via hidden mine cart railway, and then partake in a special state dinner held by the Maharajah to celebrate Pankot’s freedom from Mola Ram. At this dinner, guests will rendezvous with Indiana Jones, who has discovered the rites to undoing the Box’s evil. But guests must beware, for criminal gangs also seek the Box, and they will stop at nothing to claim the maps guests now possess!
(
0:35 - 0:45)
Walkway 2: The Shaman pushes aside a large handmade bookcase and shows a hidden mountain passageway. For centuries, his people have used this as an escape route in times of trouble. Carved tunnels lead directly down the Himalayan slopes into India and to the catacombs of Pankot Palace. The Sherpa leads guests into a crumbling and dimly-lit passage, where they come upon a large fully-enclosed mine cart.
Guests are sealed within and the cart begins its subterranean descent. The experience is very much like the “terravators” in Journey to the Center of the Earth, where simple sound effects and lighting tricks give the impression of an epic journey. In reality, this mine cart is an elevator which carries guests upstairs to the main dining hall.
(
0:45 - 0:50)
Walkway 3: At the end of the “ride,” guests exit into the Pankot temple catacombs. Glowing volcanic passageways lead to deep recesses full of ancient carvings, but guests will not be seeing those yet. Instead, their Sherpa leads them to an 18th century hallway of carved marble, and from there into the bustling dining halls of Pankot Palace!
(
0:50 - 1:40)
Dinner in the Pankot Palace Dining Room:
As guests travel through the marble hallways, they may catch a glimpse of the grand dining hall, reminiscent of the one seen in the Temple of Doom, but this is not where they will be heading. The Maharajah has something more intimate in mind. Guests are led to one of six private rooms allowing for the private experience set specifically to their adventure. Although there may be many different groups dining at similar times, this experience is designed so that the parties should not overlap keeping the story intact and allowing the entertainment to flow naturally and independently of each other.
As guests enter the room, a snake charmer in the corner plays soothingly as the "snake" rises up and down in the basket. The guards stand silently as everyone takes their seats and enjoys the opulence of the room such as the "silver" dishware, jewel crusted walls, and vibrant murals behind the slightly raised stage against the back wall. Once everyone is seated and the doors closed, the snake charmer takes his leave through a secret alcove signaling the start of The Guardian of Tradition Dinner which includes the main course and dessert.
Raiders Feast (Egyptian)
Main Course: Kushari, Fattah, Sayadeya, and Koobideh
Desserts: Umm Ali (Egyptian Bread Pudding), Kunafeh (Egyptian cheese cake), and Baklava
Mara's Feast (Indian)
Main Course: Malayan Curry - served with choice of chicken, lamb, or vegetables, Masala Fried Tilapia, Lamb Tikka Bhuna
Dessert: Apple Jalebi, Kheer, Gujia
Crusader's Feast (Chinese)
Main Course: Happy Family, Peking Duck, Szechuan Chicken or Beef
Dessert: Egg Tart, Ginger milk curd, Red bean cake
Crystal Feast (South American)
Main Course: Skillet carne asada, Peruvian-style grilled beef, Torta Espanola
Dessert: Flan, Chocolate marquesa, Tres leches
Live dinner entertainment: While guests enjoy their meals, they are constantly entertained by Indian dancing girls in colorful saris. All our performers are shared with the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular nearby, here creating a much more intimate experience.
As the meal winds down, ruffians burst into the room! They shut sliding doors, sealing the private dining room from the rest of Pankot Palace. This is our dinner’s main showpiece, where the criminals seeking Pandora’s Box threaten diners. (Not too evilly, mind you; it’s all a fun bit of dinner theater.)
The criminals’ identity rotates, much like Pankot’s different dining rooms and its later booby-traps, so that no two meals here are the same! Some of the featured criminal gangs include:
- A group of Persian Hassassins wearing turbans and wielding scimitars, hired by unseen rival archeologist Renee Belloq.
- Mafiosos hired by the nefarious antiques collector seen at the start of Last Crusade, known only as “Panama Hat.”
- The Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, protectors of ancient artifacts, who seek to prevent discovery of Pandora’s Box.
- Tongs working for Shanghai gangster Lao Che, seeking revenge against Indy for last year’s incident at Club Obi-Wan.
No matter which gang guests encounter, the storyline plays out similarly. The thugs make threats and attempt to snatch guests’ maps. The Lead Thug raises his fists in anger…and Indy’s bullwhip wraps around his wrist! Indiana Jones leaps into the room at the last second and battles the thugs in a rousing stunt battle! (Impromptu stunt shows much like this are planned for nearby Star Wars Land.)
Hidden speakers blare the rousing Raiders March by John Williams. Punches are thrown. A thug breaks a chair over Indy’s back. Indy ducks as one thug accidentally slugs his partner. The battle climaxes with Indy and the Lead Thug engaged in a spectacular sword fight! Of course, Indy triumphs in the end. The Lead Thug flies out a window. The other thugs flee, and guests are rescued!
(
1:40 - 1:50)
Walkway 4: Indy chats with diners, and everyone has their picture taken with the performer. Finally he asks to study their maps. Indy deduces the secret of Pandora’s Box…and has guests follow him back down into the temple’s catacombs!
(This post-dinner walkthrough, though no more frightening than Disneyland's Indy queue, could be too extreme for very young guests. Guests wishing to skip this finale may return to The Raven by the mine cart elevators.)
Guests follow Indy through winding basalt caverns and towards the ancient antechambers glimpsed before dinner. These crypts are far older than anything else in Pankot, dating back to Alexander the Great and realized in a Grecian style. Guests who saved the drink coasters from their dining experience now possess a keycard which can help to translate the weird alphabet carved into the walls (a nod to the cards once featured in Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland). Shattered artifacts are everywhere.
Indy leads guests down one of many Greek passageways, where booby-traps sit between them and Pandora’s Box. These traps vary just like the thugs; each experience is unique. Trap encounters include:
- Guests travel over a tiled floor with hieroglyphics. If guests step on the wrong stone, they are hit with a blast of mist.
- Down a hallway covered in spider webs, Indy accidentally triggers a shaft of light. A gigantic boulder rolls along the walls overhead, straight over guests’ heads!
- Doors lock behind guests and a spiked ceiling slowly descends, only to stop in the nick of time as Indy deduces its riddle.
- Across a crumbling stone catwalk over a pit swarming with vipers. Pop-out mummies are triggered on certain steps.
- The room ahead is entirely submerged in water, swarming with eels. Indy turns a hidden switch and the water transforms into mist and vanishes.
- A room full of slanted pillars and floors, using the same "gravity hill" illusion as found on Tom Sawyer Island.
- Across a booby-trapped stone floor. Carved idols in the wall spit out gusts of wind, simulating blow darts, when guests step on the triggers.
(
1:50 - 2:00)
The Sacred Chamber of Pandora’s Box: Ultimately Indy leads guests into the cylindrical temple room where Pandora’s Box sits under a heavenly shaft of light. The Box, displayed atop a pillar, is cluttered with carvings depicting Greek monsters. Indy thanks guests for their help. He then explains how he unearthed in the Library of Alexandria the rites which can dispel the Box’s evil powers once and for all. Indy whips out a scroll from his knapsack.
Indy recites a bizarre ceremony in Ancient Greek. The Box opens on its own, and astounding effects of lightning and mist envelop the chamber. Projection effects show the Box’s evil spirits emerging. They wail as they flash away, banished from existence. All lights shut off, stranding the guests in an otherworldly star-field.
Lights come back on…and guests find themselves not in the sunken chamber, but in a library in Nepal. Where Indy once stood, now is the Sherpa. He says he’s been expecting us, anticipating this teleportation would occur once Pandora’s Box was defeated. The Sherpa sees guests through a wooden door back into The Raven where this all began, and with very little explanation as to what just took place.
So what did just happen? The sacred chamber was actually a large descending elevator, much like Haunted Mansion’s stretching room. With careful stage lighting effects, the same as were once used in the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas, guests were seemingly “teleported” from one room to another – a simple matter of walls rising in the darkness. Altogether, a fittingly supernatural climax for our Indiana Jones dining experience!
As guests are dropped back off at the Raven they will think back on the amazing adventure they just had. The incredible smells and tastes of the authentic cuisine, their original visit to the Raven, the exciting walk to the Shaman's Shack, the perilous ride to get to Pankot Palace, and their thrilling adventure with Indiana Jones. It was an experience to remember, and remember it they shall. As a small bonus for the most astute guests, if they glance around the Raven once they return they will notice small relics from their recent adventure which they most likely did not see or understand when they first checked-in (including the lid of Pandora's Box, the Shaman's necklace, one of the minecart's wheels, and most importantly, a small stone tablet which guests will need their decoder coaster to translate, and which reveals more of what may have happened to Indy in the secret chamber of Pandora's Box).
As your trek through our one of a kind dining experience comes to a close, we at Pixar Studios would like to thank you for sharing in our adventure.
Felt like a lot of moving parts not only in the land, but connecting to more lands and making sure everything flows into lands that aren't there yet haha, but overall -- challenge was accepted!
