I attended the 10/19 event. We had dinner at Boma and planned to arrive at 7 to get on the safari which closed at 7:30. It began to rain during dinner so we decided to do an extra trip through the buffet and not worry about the safari since we weren’t in the mood to do a night safari in the rain. It was still raining when we left AKL, but stopped on the bus ride to DAK. There was exactly one flash of lightning while we were on the bus which made me worried that some attractions would close, but that didn’t turn out to be an issue. We got to DAK around 7:28 and the security guy in the no bags line made me empty my pockets which was annoying since he only did it to me while everyone else got waved through without even having to go through the metal detector.
We walked by safari around 7:36 and it was closed. It looked pretty empty so I’m not sure if it closed early due to the rain or they just got everyone through the line very quickly. Anything with animals and all shows except River of Light were closed for the day. We didn’t want to wait for any of the After Hours attractions since they would have little to no wait in about 90 minutes. We ended up doing Kali and luckily didn’t get too wet. PW broke down while I was in line so I left. The Dinorama games were also already closed. We caught a little bit of Rivers of Light from afar and my friend concluded that he didn’t need to see it during the event. Interestingly enough, when we walked by again later, there were a decent number of people watching the Rivers of Light showing during After Hours. In most online reviews I’ve seen, the viewing area is almost completely empty. With nothing else to do we decided to do some shopping. I wanted to get one of the Tibetan bags from the Everest shop for a friend, but I didn’t find anything that I liked. I really wish they stocked more handmade items in Asia like they do African items in Harambe. I ended up getting an Orange Bird Park Pal at the Dinosaur Treasures shop in Dinorama. I had been looking for him, but this was the first and only shop I saw him in. We had not been to MK yet at this point in the trip though.
With about 15-20 minutes left before After Hours started, we decided to do Dinosaur, which had a 5 minute posted wait. They ended up having to close the ride while they retrieved an item that had fallen on to the track. The people in the standby line were a mix of day guests and After Hours guests. After a few minutes, they started letting After Hours guests into the Fastpass line even though the ride was down which upset a lot of the guests in the standby line. I wasn’t close enough to the front of the line to hear everything that was going on, but it sounded like people in both lines were arguing their case for which line should be let in first. Once I noticed that it was already 9 and that After Hours had started, I decided to get out of line and head to Everest instead. On the way there we see a few people at the dance party. This would be the only time we saw people there. Every other time we pass by, the host and DJ are just talking to each other.
The bar by Everest is open, but I didn’t stop to see what was being offered. We make it to Everest and are let in through the Fastpass line. The first time, the CM began to take down some of the ropes in the queue so we could get to the station faster as there was no line, but by the second time they had been told to put everything back. I could have ridden all night, but my friend was done after 2 so we decided to head back to Dinosaur.
Dinosaur was working again and we got in quickly. We had to watch the preshow. We ended up only doing it once. I would have done it again, but I really didn’t feel like watching the preshow again. We grab some snacks from Dinorama. The popcorn is fresh here and served in a cup. PW is open and for whatever reason CMs are being allowed to ride it. This attraction was not advertised to be open during the event so it was a nice bonus. I went on TS just to say I was the only one on it, but a family got on at the last second. A few seconds into the ride it stopped and we were lowered back to the ground (it actually comes down pretty fast and was startling). The CM came and apologized. He said that they had to stop the ride because someone stood up and that they would be restarting the ride soon. I decided the couple of seconds I got was more than enough for me and asked to get off. I used the restroom and grabbed a bottle of water. By the time we left Dinorama, TS had not yet restarted and the family that was standing up was being asked to leave. We decide to head to Pandora.
One the way to Pandora, there is another snack station next to Tough to Be a Bug (which, along with the Mickey and Minnie meet and greet, were the two attractions we skipped). From what I could tell, this station only had popcorn (in a cup). There are actually quite a few people watching the Tree of Life projections when we pass by. The snack station near Tree of Life has boxed popcorn, ice cream, and drinks. There is a beer and hot dog cart near Tiffins. Pongu Pongu in Pandora is also open.
We do Flight of Passage twice and would have done it more except neither one of us could have taken having to watch that preshow again. There was a child with an older woman (possibly his grandmother) on our first ride that didn’t want to leave. They were in the group before ours and once we entered the link chamber they tried to blend into our group and ride again. The cast member told them it would not be possible as our group was full and the woman began saying she was disabled and that the queue was too long for her to walk through again. Eventually another CM came and escorted them out. In between FoP rides we did River Journey once and watched a little of the drum circle. The snack station in Pandora had drinks and fruit bars. I’m not sure if the fruit bars are the same ones they sell during the day or not. They did not have the Pandora exclusive one with 3 different flavors. They had a coconut bar and a strawberry bar (there was also a sugar free strawberry bar available upon request). The strawberry bar was the Helados Mexico brand. We left about 30 minutes early to catch a bus back to Pop. The bus was shared with AoA.
I’m glad I got to experience this event once, but I do not think I would do it again. For the cost, there is just not enough to do in DAK. There might be a little more value if they allowed you to bypass the preshow on FoP and Dinosaur. Still, you would have to have a desire to ride the same handful of attractions multiple times whereas with MK and DHS After Hours you have a lot more variety. They also really need to offer more food options. Towards the end of the event we were quite hungry and also heard lots of other guests asking if there were places to eat. The only really substantial food offering was the hot dog and it was $10. The event ends so late that everything is closed by the time you make it back to your resort. We ended up buying snacks from a vending machine at Pop.