The Luau ended a couple of minutes after 10pm and we gathered ourselves up and walked toward the exit. As we shuffled out with everyone else, we began to hear the familiar sounds of fireworks in the distance. Wishes had just begun, across the lake. I had hoped that we might be able to see them after the Luau, but wasn't sure if the timing would line-up. We hurried out to the beach and took it all in, enjoying the moment. I still couldn't resist getting my camera out and trying to capture some pictures as best I could though.
I'll just let the pictures tell the story.
It was so great to be able to see them from the beach! This was on our wish list, and I was hoping that the timing would work out in order to make up for my bad judgment call a couple of years before (
Link to "Fireworks and Spectormagic" chapter of my "I paid..." trip report).
I was a little surprised at how few people stopped on the beach to watch them. It was just us and a couple of other families. Most everyone else went on their way after the Luau ended.
To get home to Kidani, we decided to catch a boat over to the Magic Kingdom and then a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Walking to the boat launch I realized that I was so full that I couldn't even take a full deep-breath! I had eaten too much, but it was so good. I understood why Dan (FauntleroyFan07) wouldn't share an appetizer with us the year before when he and his wife met us at the Yeehaa Bob show after they had just been to the Luau. Man, was I stuffed. Scheduling 3 all-you-can eat's in 3 days probably wasn't the best plan. (Boma dinner on Wednesday, Biergarten lunch on Thursday, and the Luau dinner on Friday.) But in my defense, Judy demanded that Boma be added to the itinerary when she found out that my Plan didn't include it originally.
By 10:30 we were on our boat ride across the Seven Seas Lagoon and I attempted a picture of our group. But, dagnabbit -- for the second night in a row, I had forgotten to reset my camera settings after taking fireworks pictures, so these are pretty blurry. I think this has a 1/3 of a second exposure time, which is pretty long to hold a camera still by hand, and it may have also been on manual focus, I'm not sure.
Judy said that I needed to be in a picture for a change, so volunteered to get behind the camera. She did not correct my camera settings either
so this one is just as blurry.
I think I'm lucky that they turned out as well as they did, actually.
I took a quick picture of the front of the Magic Kingdom as we made our way from the boat dock to the buses. Still blurry.
We got an Empire bus rather than a Disney bus for the ride back to AKL. I guess that's one of the agencies they contract with for their peak times, like right after Wishes. Well, this turned out to be a pretty memorable ride. I've been on plenty of Disney bus rides at night, returning to our hotel, where everyone is nearly silent just due to sheer exhaustion, and little kids are snuggled up to their mothers, falling asleep. Not this ride. For this ride, everybody was still on a Disney high and apparently in a partying mood. Some people from Wales were seated in the front, near the driver, and that led our driver to declare what a huge Tom Jones fan he was. It wasn't too long before he was belting out "What's New Pussycat" to entertain the whole bus. Or at least that's what I think he was trying to do. And as I think back on it, good or bad, it certainly was entertaining.
Anyway, my trip notes for this bus ride didn't end with "What's New Pussycat", oh no. When we arrived back at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we stopped at Jambo House first and our Tom Jones-crooning bus driver had to get off to help someone with a wheelchair or something. With the crazy mood that this particular busload of travelers was in, while the driver was off the bus, one of the passengers jumped into the driver's seat and started honking the horn. Yes, an adult passenger. No, I am not making this up! And, no, it wasn't me. Or Poppy. Or Gram. The driver had to run back onto the bus and get them out of his seat, exclaiming "You're going to get me in trouble!"
The short ride to Kidani was uneventful, as best as I can recollect, but I was kind of glad that this particular adventure was behind us!
When we got back to the room, we had giraffes and zebras outside, and I wrote "Crashed!" in my trip notes. (That referred to me hitting the pillow, not our bus ride.) But then, most every Disney day ends that way, right?
Up next: Packing up and hitting the road
Link to next chapter
again. 
I have been to Charleston and enjoyed the city. Have only been "through" Savannah. 
Great idea!
I'd feel weird about that -- like a guy at a bridal shower. 
