And just like that …. It’s the end of the trip!

We spent the morning packing up and sorting out whose suitcase would carry what for the way home.  

We had the private party at Animal Kingdom to look forward to at 8PM.  While I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, I did know we were having chicken tenders, a build-your-own-tater-tot bar, mini cheesecake bites, and pop.  We were also told there would be games and music and that Triceratops Spin and Expedition Everest would be open for us to ride.

In the mean time Nan still had about $80 on her Disney gift cards and offered us lunch at Disney Springs.  I asked for suggestions on the message board I visit and decided Wolfgang Puck Express was the way to go.

We headed over around 11:00 AM.  Just as I was crossing the pedestrian bridge I got a text from my clinical leader asking if I could come in 3P-7:30P.  I took great delight in sending her this shot!

And NOW the sun comes out! 

We had fun letting the girls browse.  Marie found a smorgasbord of Nightmare Before Christmas items in the Christmas store; it took her a while to find just the perfect mug.

We narrowly beat the lunch crowd.

I had the BBQ chicken salad.

Nan went for the chicken Caesar.

Hmmmm – look who got mac and cheese.   

As I am documenting this, Johanna is standing over my shoulder commenting on how Wolfgang Puck’s was the best meal of her vacation.

Marie had the BBQ chicken pizza. 

And Tab had the Spinach and Mushroom.

We headed back to the house to relax; the girls swam for a little while.

And at 7:02PM Johanna reported to me that Katriel had fallen asleep. 

Oops.

We were supposed to check in for our party at 7:45PM.

It was only a 15 minute drive to AK, so I let her sleep til 7:25PM.  It was HARD to wake her.

When we arrived, there were no CMs monitoring the parking lot, so parking was free.  It was easy to find our group leader and as we waited for her to hand out our wrist bands I noticed this sign.  I wondered why they closed the area before our party arrived.

Our group was probably around 500 or so… (I could be total off).  We went quickly through security and were then led through the tapstiles just being asked to show our bands. 

CMs led us past the Tree of Life over to Dinoland USA.

I wish I had taken better photos.  It blew my minds.  Somewhere around 70 tables were set up along the edges of the whole land.  Table after table, with black tablecloths and candles.

The nugget and tater tot bar was actually very cool.

While I didn’t try the gravy, the chili was spicy and beanless, and the cheese tasted volumes better than I expected. 

The D.J. in the “Jambo Jeep” was cheerful and had guests on their feet dancing.

Marie and Tab headed off to Everest.

We took a spin on Triceratops Spin

Then Nan, Johanna, Katriel and I tried our hands at a few games.

All the CMs were so great.  They interacted with the kids and were so friendly and chatty. 

The whole experience was incredible.

I won this game.  Just sayin’.  It doesn’t really matter that everyone else playing was 10 or younger, does it?

We headed over to where the big girls were.  I wanted to walk around AK while it was almost empty.

Walk-on doesn’t begin to describe it.  Marie and Tab’s first ride through it was just them and one other passenger.   They didn’t have their Magic Bands with them, so they didn’t get to keep that image.

I decided to go for it myself, even though it was so rough yesterday.  Johanna had a surge of bravado as well, and we went for it. 

We immediately boarded.  There was no waiting to see how full they could make the cars.  They just sent them out and then loaded another partial train with the folks still walking up.

This would have been a great photo… grrrrr.

We stopped for a little dancing, but were sore they put the food away. 

It was only 9:48PM!

We decided to leave at 10PM.  We had a full day of travel in the morning and a good night’s sleep would do us all good.

It took 11 minutes to drive back to our house. 

And – just like that – it was over.

Our last two trips to WDW had us at AK on our first Disney day.  This time it was our last day.  It has long been my favorite park, but I believe HS is a good tie.

It is an 11 minute drive from our rental house to AK parking.  So quick and easy via a western route – not the main WDW route.

7:40AM

7:59AM

They let us in at 8:20AM for the inner queue.

I had a FPP for Flight of Passage for 9:00-10:00AM. 
Then we had Kilimanjaro Safari 10:05-11:05 and Dinosaur 11:05-12:05.

I warned my family that we were not heading to the same ride as 90% of the pack we were with, but we had congregated on the right and needed to safely navigate to the left.

We were heading to Navi and I was NOT going to rush.

As I was parking my stroller I watched someone dump their child-empty stroller as they were rushing for Navi.  Then I saw a woman my age fall hard on the damp ground as she was full on RUNNING for Navi.

8:52AM

I took some poor photos on the ride – the last one I attempted is timed 9:01AM.

We went to get in line for FOP.  

At 9:18AM we were to this part of the queue.  Standby was already one hour.

It was a cool ride.  Very awesome.  But it takes so long to actually get ON the ride.

Oh look – Starbucks!

We went to meet Pocahontas on our way to Kilimanjaro Safari.

She was fabulous.  The kids chatted with her a while.

When we got off KS, Marie and Tab went to use the Dinosaur Fast Passes.  We gave them all our bands and told them they didn’t HAVE to ride three times but they needed to tap our bands if nothing else. 

These jewels had looked forward to this for two months.

I watched my app and saw the girls diminishing our Fast Passes.  They did end up riding three times.

I grabbed these.

Then we went to meet Dug and Russell
Marie and Tab met Scrooge McDuck after Dinosaur and got to Dug and Russell just in time to jump into the group.

It was 12:22PM so we decided to go eat lunch in Flame Tree BBQ out in an area that was almost completely empty.

We rode Expedition Everest.  It used to be my favorite coaster, but it almost tore my head off this time. 

We watched the UP bird show, but I missed a bunch communicating with the director for the spring musical as she was looking for Nigel to audition that afternoon.  Then I had to contact him, give him directions, etc.

We went to queue for Festival of the Lion King when I scored these beauties.

At 3:45PM we checked in for our education piece of our trip.

In order to be part of the Traveling Homeschoolers group, we needed to attend an educational activity.  I chose Caring for Giants and we were assigned 4PM group – which was perfect.  We went backstage and then into vehicles to the back of the elephants’ quarters.  We spoke with two different educators.  It was really cool.  It seemed to take five minutes!  It sped by!

I wanted to eat at Flame Tree.  We ate here.  It was terrible.

Enough said.

I suddenly realized it was 6:05PM and I sent the four girls hurrying off toward Flight of Passage.  Nan and I cleaned up and then worked our way over that way. 

Nan went shopping and I went to the ride exit and waited forever for them to get off.  The standby line was 210 minutes. 

It was 6:59PM when they finally came out and 9 minutes past the end of the FPP window for Nan’s and my FPP.  I handed them our park tickets and told them it was worth a try. 

I was a few steps behind them with the little girls as I watched them successfully tap in 11 minutes past the window.

I took the two youngers to find desserts and Nan. 

We watched some of the projections on the Tree of Life, having missed Rivers of Light PM show.  We really failed at a lot of shows. 

Hanny took her treat home.

7:59PM

It was a really good day.