I have ALWAYS wanted to visit AK in the evening, during EMH. Yet for some reason this has always eluded me. I think my hankering for a nighttime visit started after they built EE. I had a
moment when I realized if I liked BTM in the dark, I would love EE in the dark. I am sad to say I have yet to ride EE in the dark. It did not happen this trip, and it won't on my short September trip. Why..... because I will never seem to plan my trips during AK evening EMH.
How can that be????? Well, let me see..... l visited Jan 2008.....4 nights solo....missed EMH; I visited June 2009......5 nights after 3 nights at Vero......missed EMH; I visited in Dec 2008....4 nights with DH......missed EMH again. That brings me to June 2009....thought I had EMH nailed for sure and they moved it to Monday, my arrival day.
My original plan would have been to stack EE FP's all day and bring them back at night. This obviously DID NOT happen. The other reason I did not even attempt to ride EE on my first night was that I still was under the impression that LJ might be a bit wimpy when it came to thrill rides. I'm not kidding, his parents had all my caution bells and whistles in high gear. I was not going to take him to any ride that might freak him out and scar him for life!
I knew the only amusement park he had ever been to was Dutch Wonderland. If you are not familiar with Dutch Wonderland, which most of you probably aren't, it is a chilren's amusement park right in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. It is perfect for young children and they do have a pretty fun old wooden coaster, but by 9 years of age most kids are starting to outgrow it! LJ told me he loved the the DW coaster and the simulator rides, but we had stepped up LJ's game quite a bit at Disney world, so I didn't know what to expect.
As it turns out, I could have thrown all caution to the wind because it turned out that LJ loved everything. He is a junior thrill ride junky. I wish I had known sooner. I wish his parents had known. I hope they do now!
So DH, LJ and I packed up and drove to AK. Yeah - we are so lazy - we drove. I bought all the kids' park tickets at
AAA and, in addition to a discount and the ability to pay with $250 in AAA visa rebates, purchasing tickets at AAA comes with a nice little side bonus - drum roll please - THE AAA DIAMOND PARKING PASS. I like using the AAA pass at AK. You end up parked next to the handicapped lot and you enter the park from the opposite side. It gets you so close that I must always resist the urge to get out of the car and start skipping to the entrance....yeah....get a mental image of that!
Before we left we asked the older boys if the wanted to join us, but they were still in their recumbant position on the bed, so off we went. I will add that prior to leaving I remembered I needed to cancel an ADR that I had originally scheduled for boma later that evening. I love Boma, but I REALLY wanted to see AK in the dark and I was still digesting Chik fil a.
The first thing DH and I needed to do after we arrived was get my AP. I let my AP expire after my December visit. I knew it would make more sense to buy a new one this visit. I was originally going to buy my ticket at AAA and then upgrade, but DH got one of those 10% discount cards in the mail. My DVC AP ended up costing something like $356. It was only about $8 or $10 more than DH's renewal. I was happy to have saved a little $.
Of course, there was only one CM at park services so the wait in line was a bit tedious. Here's a pic I took of the backside of the AK entrance. Yeah, I was that bored, but I tried not to get impatient.
Finally, AP in hand we entered the turnstiles.......
I took this picture in honor of LL's light fixture fetish:
A few more random shots....
It's funny, but when you already have a gazillion disney pictures stored on your computer and photobucket account, you tend to take some rather obscure pictures. At least, I do!
So, given the fact that LJ loves simulator rides, I asked him if he wanted to go on a ride that is "almost" a simulator.....Dinosaur. I explained the ride to him and he thought he would prefer it over Bug's Life. So off we went!
If you've read my previous TRs, you know I love this ride. I could ride it multiple times in any visit, heck, in any hour. The line was just long enough for me to slow down for this picture:
So how do you think LJ described this ride?????? Anyone guess "AWESOME"! Seriously, he loved it and after only one trip back to the Crustaceon period he had already started memorizing the lines to the pre show.
OK ....my head is seriously cut off there in the back row, but look at that guy in the front row.....what's up with that????? Is that fear or total boredom or too many cocktails at dinner?????
Here's a few more nighttime pics:
I think LJ's mom called at this point, probably because DN7 asked to speak with his brother. We were in the gift shop behind dinosaur when she called and it is loud back there, so I don't know how he heard a thing.
After dinosaur we looked at the line for Primeval whirl. Too long for my tastes, so LJ and I rode the little brontosaurus spinning ride (the AK version of dumbo). I haven't been on this ride since my oldest was 9, so I enjoyed my spin through the night time air. The temperature and humidity was perfect. It really was a glorious evening.
Our next stop was the Boneyard. Again, this was a nostalgic visit for me because my kids are way too old for that. LJ ran in and out of tunnels and up and down stairs and DH and I got nervous everytime he was out of sight more than a few minutes.
I think this is a close up of one of the rocks in there:
After the boneyard we hit Bug's Life. I kept real quiet so LJ could enjoy the little surprise visit at the end of the show. Again "AWESOME!"
At this point I asked if we got walk over to Asia to "look at" EE. I really wanted a night time pic. Of course, once we got over there I had to resist the urge to go running off to the single rider line.
these next few night time pics are a bit blurry:
I had a brief moment of insanity when I suggested that LJ and I ride Kali River Rapids. I knew he would love it, but then I looked at my watch and realized it was well after 9pm. 9pm is LJ's official bedtime at home. My brother warned me that if he stayed up too late he would be "a mess" the next day. I assumed this to mean anytime after 10pm, so I decided we better call it a night. As it turns out we kept LJ up after his bedtime every night and he never turned into a pumpkin, even when we kept pushing the bedtime later and later!
Here is our last look at the nightime version of AK:
I hadn't looked for it yet
Yeah for you!
OTTV I think i just assumed
when i didn't see anything Mon/Tues
Ahhhh home sweet home... how I long for thee.....
I packed my DH's underwear this trip AND I threatened him with an appearance from none other than the underwear gnome! Plus we did wash before we left Kidani. 
Kidani! I am seriously starting to wish it was my home resort.
My September dates are 9/20 - 24. I wanted to go the following when everyone and their grandmother will be there, but my coworker is leaving for a 3 week safari in Africa. Figures, so I had to plan a week early to get free dining. And I only feel comfortable leaving the kids alone for 4 nights. 
