Subsonic Radio

I live in AZ but make regular trips for work in Orlando, so I thought I'd write a "micro" trip report for the few hours I spent last night at the Animal Kingdom.

Monday July 26, 2010

Took advantage of a rare opportunity to go to DAK after dark. The park was open until 8:00pm and then had EMH until 11:00. With the sun setting around 8:30, that gave me my first experience in DAK with the lights on. Knowing how magical all the other parks are after dark I was looking forward to seeing if my least favorite park was any better at night.

Arrived at about 6:30pm (I had to work that day) and went to It's Tough To Be A Bug. Haven't seen that show in years and still enjoyed it. Next, headed over to Expedition Everest. The ride had a 25 min wait but the single rider line was open and was only about 10 min. After that, I got in a ride on Dinosaur which took me past the 8:00pm closing time.

Since I was not a resort guest, I obviously could not ride anything, so I decided to try Yak & Yeti for dinner. Having heard good things about it, I was excited to try. The restaurant is pretty big, but I still had about a 15min wait. They have a small bar just past the entrance where there are about eight stools. You can order the full menu and eat there, but I opted to wait for a regular table. The service was friendly and efficient, and my Chicken Lo Mein was a generous portion (huge!) but tasted a little plain.

After dinner it was dark and I wandered the park looking at the sites. First observation: there is very little color in the lighting design at DAK. Almost everything is white lights - some just generic "vapor" lights. There were parts of some paths that had more subtle lighting and I was going to share some pics I took but nothing seemed to turn out that great. I'll have to see what the pics look like on a regular monitor and not my laptop and will share any that turned out ok.

Next observation: DAK at night suffers from the same problem as DAK during the day. A lack of things to do. Setting aside the fact that I could not ride anything (I probably could've because the cast members appeared lax in guest card checking at the two places I looked) I just wasn't that interested in going on anything. This has always been a problem for me, DAK is at best a half day park.

I stayed until about 10pm and as I was leaving I decided to branch off the main road and check out a resort I had not visited before: Coronado Springs. Hearing that this resort is all about the conventions, I was surprised to see the number of choices for dining, drinking and activites that seem to be offered. They have a fun Aztec pyramid pool with water slide out on a remote island, and lots of waterfront paths which are probably fun to stroll on non-humid and sticky nights. I'd probably still choose Port Orleans French Quarter as my moderate of choice (primarily for it's convenient boat access to Downtown Disney) but Coronado Springs was a happy surprise.

That's it. I headed back to my hotel after that. Like I said, it's a micro trip report.

What a fun way to spend an evening after work! I was going to ask why you couldn't ride anything after the park closed but I guess you answered that. It does sound like you could have ridden whatever you wanted...was it very crowded in the evening? I would think if there weren't big lines, the CM's probably wouldn't care if you had a hotel card or not.
I hope at least a few of your photos turn out ~ I'd love to see them!
My one brother and his family stayed at the Coronado during a business trip and they quite enjoyed the atmosphere there. My niece really enjoyed the pool area as well.

Very interesting! We've never seen DAK at night, it must have been cool. You're right that it suffers from a crippling lack of things to do, though. Thanks for the mini-review of Coronado Springs, too. We just might stay there one of these days.

Very interesting. It is funny that you bring this up because in 2006 we went to EMH at DAK. I did notice that the lighting was sparse and not very creative. It almost felt like the park was never designed to have guests in it once the sun goes down. I do agree that the park does still lack things to do once EMH hours start. We ended up eating a snack at Rainforest Cafe that night. It is nice to see the different perspective of the park, but once you seen it, you don't care to see it again.

Interesting report of Coronado Springs... Might have to check that out.

Amy- no it wasn't very crowded. I think the busiest area was that abomination that is the carnival next to Dinosaur.

Thanks for sharing your mini trip report with us!!! I would have to agree, AK is at best a 1/2 day park. We've actually skipped this park our last two visits! It's just not one of our favs. I would like to see it sometime at night though!

I'm glad to hear you liked Coronado! I've stayed there twice, once in 2001 and again 2005 for the Marathon. My mom and I will be returning at the end of Oct. I was impressed with the updated rooms that I saw on the web site. It's a gorgeous resort and for us a close tie for fav. moderate with POFQ.

OK, I up'd some pictures to the Disney at Night topic:

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5987&p=151552#p151552

Enjoy!