[Goofy3230]

LOL - my DH would have done the same thing if he were close enough to the rhino!

[Goofy3230]

Beth, where are you? I need more of your TR (it's Sunday morning and everyone here is asleep, I can read in peace!)

[packerbeth]

After winding our way around the tree, it was time for a visit to the AK First Aid center. On our way there, we passed Pizzafari again.





Aren't these light fixtures cool?

Christian and I made a quick trip into the First Aid center to take care of business, and when we came out, we found this:

I'm not sure Rick would be real happy about me posting this, but...

We only had a couple of things left to do: Dinoland and EE! I was so amazed by the emptiness of the park.

You can see Rose on the left and Grace on the right.





We hadn't gotten any pictures when we were here earlier. I think Rose is singing, "Together...we swim together..."

We didn't have much time in Dinoland if we wanted one more ride on EE, so we chose the family-friendly Triceratop Spin. There was absolutely no line, so after we parked the stroller, we were able to walk right up and wait for the next spin. The CM didn't realize at first that we needed the h/c accessible Dino; some folks in chairs transfer more easily than Christian does. It is so cool how they load his chair onto these rides. They open up the door, and the entire innards of the car swing out. Then they load him on and swing the whole thing back in. I rode with Christian and Rick took the girls. I got a couple of photos from the air.




Not great, but I'm not very good at night shots in general.

When our first ride was over, they asked if we wanted to go on again. Of course, we said sure! One CM looked a little confused when Rick and the girls didn't get out of their Dino, since they were a couple of cars ahead of us. When he saw us and asked if we were going again, I told him yes, and that they were with us. We enjoyed a second ride over Dinoland, but declined when they asked us if we wanted to go around yet again. No, thanks, we would like to get one more ride on EE!

When we disembarked, we had a lovely conversation with the male CM, whose name was Adam, and the female who had loaded Christian onto the ride(I don't remember her name). We enjoyed our time with them so I had the girls pick out thank you cards. The CMs appreciated it, and I am glad we were able to put smiles on their faces at the end of their workday.

And now for the main reason I wanted to come to AK at night:


Oooooooooooooh, creepy!


An empty EE queue...oooooooooooooooh, even creepier!

Rick and I each rode once, and I have to say, as much as I love EE during the day, and adore the first row, it was even cool cool cooler at night! Oh man. It is such a rush! This was probably my eighth time ever on this attraction, and as well as I may know it, flying along in the dark, I completely forgot what was coming up next! We'd gone forwards, stopped, backwards, stopped, around a couple of corners, and I thought we were almost done. But wait, we hadn't even seen the Yeti yet! It was just amazing. Such a fabulous end to the day.


Oh, but we're not done yet...

[Goofy3230]

So cool how empty AK was, I'm hoping they have EMH in August, I have to check the schedule (not that I will go on EE, but my DH and DD will). I love they way you tell your story. Thanks for the teaser, my DS (5) and DD(11) are up now and what nerve, they want breakfast, lol. I'll catch up later.

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by Goofy3230

So cool how empty AK was, I'm hoping they have EMH in August, I have to check the schedule (not that I will go on EE, but my DH and DD will). I love they way you tell your story. Thanks for the teaser, my DS (5) and DD(11) are up now and what nerve, they want breakfast, lol. I'll catch up later.

That's okay; we're off to church now. I'll have more this afternoon.

[packerbeth]

It was just before 9 p.m. so we knew if we wanted to get to Kali River Rapids, we had to hurry. It was not a must-do attraction for us, but we figured if we timed it right, we could do it at the end of the night and not worry about walking around in wet clothes. I had been on Kali in September, so I knew how soaked you can get on this ride! The girls seemed up for it, and Rick did, too, so we made a mad dash to Kali once we were done with EE. There were no CMs in sight when we arrived at the queue, so we weren’t even sure the ride was still running. I told Rick to go ahead anyway, figuring they would send him back if they weren’t able to ride. We were just going to sit near the entrance and wait, but then a CM came along and directed us to the bridge where you can see the rafts go by (and squirt the riders, as well!)

Here we are, waiting for the Kali riders!

There must have been several rafts worth of riders ahead of my group, because we waited quite a while. Lots of rafts also went by with no one riding them! Finally, I saw them! Rick is on the far side, and the girls are to his right.



Now they're on the right side.

Once I saw them coming, I will admit to squirting them as they went by. At least, I tried to squirt them, but it was so dark, I couldn't see any water coming out. I didn't know if I had succeeded until I saw my family:

While they weren't as wet as I had been when I rode on it, they were wet enough to wish I'd brought a change of clothes. I did have their jackets with me, however, so we found a nearby restroom, where they took off their shirts and put their jackets on.
Three cast members were standing outside the bathrooms, waiting for us to head out. We were the last people in this area of the park, and they had to "lock up" after us, so to speak. They assured us there was no rush, but we got out of there pretty quickly, anyway.


Time to go!

I took a few photos of the Tree of Life all lit up, but at the time I couldn't really tell if they were any good or not. They're not, but at least you get the general idea!





One last shot of an empty park:

Good-bye, Animal Kingdom!


We got right on a bus and took it to the Poly instead of the TTC. Rick thought it would be a quicker walk from the GCH, but I thought it would be a longer bus ride. We were both right. It had taken 15 minutes from the TTC to AK; it was a 22 minute ride from AK to the Poly. I believe it is because we stopped at the Contemporary first. I think we all collapsed into bed and went right to sleep! We had plans for the Studios and Epcot in the morning!

Notes from my Passporter:
The weather today was another beautiful day.
The best thing today was having breakfast with Hugh and his family.
The worst thing today was having to miss parts of the Nemo musical to take the girls to the bathroom.
The funniest thing today was waking Kate up to meet Pooh.
Today we tried Pizzafari and pm EMH at AK and the result was a really nice CS meal in a cool air conditioned spot, and AK is a lot of fun at night!
The most magical moment was riding EE in the first row, and again in the dark.

[cinderbella]

OHHH!!!!!!!!! I cannot WAIT to do AKL at night on our trip!!!! It just looks SO awesome!

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by cinderbella

OHHH!!!!!!!!! I cannot WAIT to do AKL at night on our trip!!!! It just looks SO awesome!

It was seeing someone else's pictures of AK at night that inspired me to get my family there. I know you'll have a fun time there; stay as late as you can and watch the crowds clear out!

[cinderbella]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

It was seeing someone else's pictures of AK at night that inspired me to get my family there. I know you'll have a fun time there; stay as late as you can and watch the crowds clear out!

I will!! I think on our first night there it is open til 11!! EE is the dark sounds amazing.

[Prezcatz]

Those shots from the nighttime make we want to try a PM EMH at AK...and AK is my least favorite of the parks! Too cool!!!

Prezcatz Paul

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by Prezcatz

Those shots from the nighttime make we want to try a PM EMH at AK...and AK is my least favorite of the parks! Too cool!!!

Prezcatz Paul

It's my favorite park, so I'm glad to help put it in a better light (or dark ) for you!

[dznygrl]

Ohmygoodness, I can't believe how empty AK was at night! That looks heavenly! AK is our favorite park and it would be so amazing to have it practically to ourselves at night!! I hope they have evening EMH there when we go next year.

[missymouse]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

It was seeing someone else's pictures of AK at night that inspired me to get my family there. I know you'll have a fun time there; stay as late as you can and watch the crowds clear out!

When DH saw your pictures, he asked me if AK had any PM EMH while were there!

[JustaT]

Wow....AK at night is SOOOOOO . I am definitely going to have to try that sometime.

[mickeysgirlz]

your TR. Night time EMH at AK are fairly new (I think?) I've been wanting to try them . . . now I am going to MAKE sure I do!!

Thanks for all the pictures, can't wait to see more!