My recap of the event on 3/5:
I arrived at AK around 6 pm, and used my AP to go in the park to get my wristband at Guest Services. There was already a significant line of “party” attendees outside the gates, waiting to get in. I am an Annual Passholder, and travel frequently to the parks. This was a solo trip for me - woot woot!
Knowing I needed some dinner, I popped into the Nomad Lounge for a drink and some small plates. My intention was to eat quickly, and then head out for some rides...but I ended up making new friends at the bar, and well...so much for good intentions. I didn’t leave the Lounge until about 7:50 pm.
I left, and meandered over to Dinosaur. No one in line; walked right into the preshow. However, as I mentioned above, once we were let into the room, going down the stairs to the loading area, it became immediately apparent there was a problem. NO ONE was boarding. Cast members were looking at each other, somewhat in confusion, and then sending empty jeeps through the queue. Eventually, a CM hopped into one of the jeeps and said he’d be the guinea pig and go through the attraction. Another CM then announced to us, “If he gets back okay, we’ll start sending you all through.” Welp. So - we all stood there for several minutes, wondering if we’d ever see the Guinea Pig CM again - and to our great delight -and cheers - he eventually re-emerged, surviving unscathed. He did not get eaten by any dinosaurs, so, we were cleared to board.
Leaving there, I wandered over to Expedition Everest. The longest line here was for anyone wanting to ride in the first row; for everyone else, it was a walk-on. I rode it 6-7 times, and when the line for the first row disappeared, I asked for it, as well - and it was awesome. You could see the fireworks off in the distance at Epcot. I love EE, but it’s just an entire different ride in the pitch dark!!
Leaving EE, I then made my way over to Pandora...passing several popcorn/snack areas along the way, with about 10 people deep in each line. (But the lines moved VERY fast!) I don’t see well in the dark, and got a bit lost in Pandora...I thought I was making my way to FOP, but found myself in the line for Navi...oh well. It was a walk-on, so enjoyed that.
I then got off and blindly made my way to FOP. Approaching it around 9:15 pm, I was surprised to see a bunch (8-10?) of guests standing outside the entrance, some of whom where angrily exchanging words with some of the CM’s in front. I wasn’t sure what what was going on, but as I approached, I could see that guests were upset at the 40-minute wait that was currently posted. The CM’s were explaining that the wait was long because they were still trying to clear out some of the day guests, and of course, the DAH guests were NOT happy about this sort of wait for an event that we’ve all paid big $$$ for. Some guests chose not to get in the line and walked away...I decided to go for it, knowing that there were no FP peeps to slow the line down even more.
Surprisingly, I was in the first pre-show within 20 minutes of getting into line, so the 40-minute wait posted was a misnomer. Being a solo guest, it was easy to get pulled out of the long lines in the “tunnel” area and popped to the front to fill in the odd space. I ended up riding FOP a total of 5 times in a row...but yes, each time, BOTH pre-shows were operating, and man, what a long walk out of the attraction and back around.
By now, it was about 10:50 pm, and I was getting tired...and cold. Last night was definitely chilly - for Florida standards. I decided to just walk around and take some photos of Pandora in the dark, and enjoyed the ambiance. It was pretty much a ghost town at this point - I’m not sure where everyone was; maybe they’d gotten cold and left.
I grabbed some popcorn (in a box) and water (in bottles) on my way out of Pandora, and walked over to the Tree of Life, to watch some of the Awakenings. By now, it was about 11:15 pm - and I was ready to call it a night. Walked over to the bus lines, and the buses were coming fast and furious. I had just missed a Caribbean Beach bus when I walked up, but to my delight (because I was now REALLY cold!), another bus pulled up within 2 minutes - woot woot!