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.
