Hakuna Matata Trip 8 Nights at AKL (Part 5 AK & Fantasmic Dinner)

[SuAnne]

We were up and at AK for the 9:00 opening…well actually I must admit I was a little over zealous in getting the girls out the door, because the AK bus was right there and we were at AK by 8:15 which led to some grumbling from the troops.

We’ve never seen the opening ceremony at AK and it was really cute and then we were off (with everyone else!) to the Safari. We grabbed a fastpass on the way in so we could go back later.

We saw lots of animal out bright and early and we got a really good look at the new baby elephant Kianga as our truck had to stop as there was an ostrich blocking the road. She is so cute!

The crowds were very light so we rode Dinosaur twice and everything else was a walk on. I skipped Kali River Rapids, as I am always the one who gets totally soaked. Getting wet is one thing, but coming off looking like I’ve gone swimming is another!

We went to Pizzafari for lunch and bought children’s AK lunch vouchers for each of us. For lunch we had a individual pizza, a bag of chips and a drink and then we used our coupons later for a drink and popcorn or ice cream. It was a great value.

We left AK around 1:00 and headed back to the hotel for our afternoon pool ritual and we each had a nice drink from the pool bar. Alli had a virgin Pina Colada (I made sure of that!), Hayley had a Shirley Temple (a.k.a a Minnie Mouse) and I had a Victoria Falls Mist. Boy is that tasty!! I I think I may have mentionned that last year! I’ve actually hunted down the recipe for it. It’s ¼ ounce Van de Hum Tangerine Liqueur ,½ ounce Midori Melon,¼ ounce Banana Liquor,¼ ounce Citrus Juice ,Splash of Sprite . I’m going to have to try this one here at home.

We had booked dinner at Mama Melrose’s with the Fantasmic Dinner package and we headed over to MGM around 5:00 and the girls were able to go on Tower of Terror and Rock’n Roller Coster both twice before dinner. Me….I just stayed cool shopping in the Christmas store.

We had a wonderful dinner at Mama Melrose’s. We had cheese flatbread ( not as good as Jiko’s though…) a Caesar salad . I had the seafood pasta which was wonderful, Alli had the Chicken/Artichoke dish that she ate every bit of and Hayley had penne with pasta sauce (child’s meal) For dessert Alli and I had the cheesecake and Hayley was also able to order dessert from the adult menu, so she had this chocolate lava type cake. It was all very, very good.

After dinner the girls did Tower of Terror one more time. Don’t know how they could do it on such a full stomach!! We went to our seats around 8:00pm for the 8:30 show and we were able to enter from the entrance by TofT by just showing our Fantasmic passes.

The girls wanted to sit right down front, which was kind of neat to see the show up close. The show was excellent as usual, but I noticed that there were only two princess boats. Maybe I’m wrong but I thought there were more of them?

The crowds weren’t too bad leaving and we were able to get right on an AKL bus with no wait.

Now since this was the point where I stopped making detailed trip note, I can’t remember what we did when we arrived back at the hotel, but I imagine it involved sitting out on the balcony and watching our Tommies, as that had become our favorite nighttime activity. I can’t ever remember staying anywhere where we so enjoyed coming home to our room each night. It was such a perfect way to end our day.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Sounds like a great day to me!

Steph

 

[johnsonet]

Originally posted by SuAnne
I can’t remember what we did when we arrived back at the hotel, but I imagine it involved sitting out on the balcony and watching our Tommies, as that had become our favorite nighttime activity. I can’t ever remember staying anywhere where we so enjoyed coming home to our room each night. It was such a perfect way to end our day.

I know exactly what you mean...isn't it the BEST!?
So nice to hear a great review of Mama Melrose's. I have never been but will check it out in December.

 

[Cass]

Another nice day and seems like you lucked out with good weather - last August it rained so much in the evenings Fantasmic was rained out a lot.

So you entered the show at the Tower of Terror you didn't have to go to the Oscar's filling station gate?

I am sure I saw the AKL opening with you guys last summer???

 

[SuAnne]

I asked the CM at the main entrance if we could go in there and she said sure, so no we didn't have to go all the way down to Oscar's.

Maybe I had one too may Victoria Falls Mists but I don't remember seeing the AK opening last year. This year they let us in at 8:45 up to Discovery Island and then the characters all came out in their safari outfits on a double decker bus. Did we see that last year???