2015 Christmas Trip Report Day 6 - HS & AK

[jans2kids]

It's been busy 5 days and the trip is starting to come to an end. We have hit all the Christmas related shows and sights that we wanted so these last 2 days will be a do what we want days. Andrew decided he wanted to sleep in so we left him to sleep and we headed over to HS. It was an EE day so we made it there around 8:00 and headed over to TSM, not bad 20 minutes without FP+, then Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and then we hung out at the new Club Disney until our FP+ for ToT. There were usually 3 characters out on the dance floor, they show film clips on the walls & they do sell snacks & drinks.
Bryan & I rode ToT and then we all headed over to Beauty & the Beast show that was just starting at 10:00am. We were starting to get hungry since we skipped breakfast so we decided on Backlot Express since they opened at 11 but on the way we rode the GMR and watched some of the Street Actors on the main stage in front of GMR. Just as we had got our food and sat down Andrew texted & said he was in the park so we told him where we were & he ordered some food and joined us. I had my new favorite the Royal Guard Burger.
After a relaxing meal we used FP+ #2 at TSM and then #3 was for the Holiday Comedy Warehouse. Bryan & I decided to see the show while the others went to visit Walt's Dream. We met up again & were going to head back to swim but the last thing I wanted to do was go get another picture with Darth Vader since I wore my Darth Vader shirt that day. Andrew came with me while Bryan & Janice roamed around & watched some of the street actors.
Back at the hotel we swam at the Mighty Ducks pool for about an hour before heading over to AK. The park was open until 9:00 and I figured by this time of day the crowds would be leaving and we would be able to do most of the park in 4+ hours - I was so wrong. We had heard that during a late afternoon Safari that the animals may be more active. That was not true as most of the animals were gone, no rhino's, hippos, elephants, painted dogs or zebras. Our Safari guide was also not very good as she was not familiar with the animals, only pointed out animals after someone in the truck yelled out they saw one, and did not play the part continuing to say that they must of taken all the animals in for the night when we didn't see them. Since we had a long wait to ride this caused us to miss the Pangani trail as it was now closed for the day at 4:30.
There was a FotLK show at 5:00 but as we approached there were so many people waiting and they were announcing that they were not letting anyone else in line as the show would be full. That was ok as there were still shows at 6 & 7. We had gotten FP+ for EE when we got there ending at 7:35 and we tried to change them but nothing else was available. As we headed across the park we came upon Flights of Wonder & they had just started their final show of the day so we went in & found a few seats. After that we saw Tough to be a Bug and then went to PIzzafari for dinner. This was another bad choice as it was not crowded but we waited over 15 minutes for our food.
Since there only 1 more FotLK show at 7:00 we had to now rush through dinner so we could get there and get in the standby line. Since they are now offering FP+ it appeared to me that more than half of the seats were for FP+. We did get a seat, & the theater was full before the show even started. Another disappointment came a few minutes into the show when it was time for the tumble monkeys. There were only 3 of them instead of 4 so they skipped over that part of the show which is our favorite. The show was over at 7:30 and our EE FP+ expired at 7:35 so the 3 guys booked it over and made it on by 7:40. Janice was waiting when we exited & we all rode Dinosaur.
While at dinner Bryan decided he wanted to go back to HS to see Fantasmic with the 3rd showing being at 10:30. Plus we also needed to stop at guest relations and print out our SW boarding passes for the next night. So after Dino Bryan & Janice headed to guest relations & then onto HS. Andrew & I wanted to ride PW at night & also ride Kali at night. We didn't want to get totally soaked on Kali so we brought along some cheap ponchos to wear. We ended up getting 4 rides on Kali between 8:30-9:00 with the last 2 being by ourselves. We got stuck once right before the hill so we were able to get some neat nighttime pictures.
We arrived at HS & walked down towards Fantasmic to wait for Bryan & Janice. They were checking out the Osborne lights one last time & they were able to find the black cat that we couldn't find a few nights ago. While waiting I walked to the Fp kiosk to see if anything was left & there were Fantasmic FP+ so I got them. In the end we did not need them as the theater was only 3/4 full.
Once back at ASM we started on that dreaded task of packing. At least we would have one more day in the parks as our flight was not until 8:30pm.
Tommorow Magic Kingdom

[faline]

Oh...where was the black cat?? We kept looking but weren't able to find it.

Sounds like the day was a mixed bag but you certainly covered lots of ground!!