After we survived our expedition (and did the badges available in that area), we decided we were ready for lunch. Flametree Barbecue is our restaurant of choice at AK, but Daniel really wanted pizza. Fine. I went to Pizzafari and grabbed his lunch while Brad & Joshua went to Flametree to get the rest of ours. We met up in the seating area below Flametree and found a table on the lowest level.
I call this lunch with a view.
The annoying birds were really not too annoying. There were two of them that hung out on the rails and watched us. I'm sure if we had dropped something, they would have swooped in, but since we didn't they never moved in our direction.
Oh, a sidenote about using CS credits. I never grew accustomed to the fact that dessert came with the meal. I don't eat dessert often and certainly not at lunch time. I wound up choosing a fruit or yogurt when it was an option because the sweet stuff usually went to waste.
After lunch we headed toward Dinoland.
The boys did one of the badges before it was time to use our FPs for Dinosaur.
Daniel calls this the "calm" dinosaur ride. He calls Jurassic Park (at Universal) the "extreme" dinosaur ride. 
We did the Triceratops Spin.
And I could tell that everyone was starting to tire out. I asked what else they wanted to do. Daniel wanted to try and earn ALL the Wilderness Explorer badges. I counted how many were left and looked where they were and told him it would take probably 2 hours to finish, which was fine, if that's what everyone wanted to do. Joshua said he didn't want to stay that long (he knew we were done with rides), so the two of them negotiated and decided to earn the badges that were left everywhere except Conservation Station/Rafiki's Planet Watch ones. Joshua didn't want to ride the "sideways train to nowhere" (as he calls it). Daniel agreed, so we did what badges were left working our way back toward the exit.
The Animal Call badge.
The Fossil badge.
We had to go back to the exit of the Kilimanjaro Safari ride in order to get that badge (so if you can sign up and get your Handbook BEFORE you do the safari ride, you will avoid that) and then we had to stop back by the signup booth in order to earn the Animal Finder badge. Here's a hint: the Guide will ask you to name something you learned about one of the animals you marked off on the animal finder pages. You might want to prime your kids by asking them some questions about the animals before they face the Guide if they freeze up or get stage fright around strangers.
If the park is not packed and you are there at opening time, it would be possible to get all the badges in one day. It was probably around 4pm when we left, so we could have done it if we hadn't pooped out. However, the point of the badges is really to get the kids involved and interested in whatever it is you are seeing... not just collecting them.
We got back to the hotel and I decided to run a load of laundry while the boys took a dip in the pool
We then grabbed dinner at the food court...
... and then decided to use the vouchers from our package for mini golf. I asked the boys which course they wanted to play and they picked Winter Summerland.
It is in the same parking lot as Blizzard Beach, so you just follow the signs for that (or take that bus) and you'll find it.
Our package came with two free vouchers, so we still had to pay for two games. The CM charged us for two kids and gave us the adult games for free ($14 for adults, $12 for kids 3 to 9). I wasn't expecting that and started to tell him Joshua was 12, but he just smiled and handed me the receipt. If he was okay with it, I'll be okay with it.
You have a choice of playing the Winter course or the Summer course. We picked Winter.
Each hole had a theme and most of them had an interactive element, where if you hit the ball the right way something would happen.
When the ball went under the cooler, the snacks would pop up.
You had to wait for the drawbridge to lower for your ball to cross the "moat".
Ski slopes with Santa buried in the middle.
If your ball went under the snow pile, it would climb the spinning North Pole
and drop out of the back.
The giftwrap hole.
Santa's legs dropped and lifted from the chimney.
If your ball went under the present stack, Jester Mickey
popped out of the Jack-in-the-box.
popped out of the Jack-in-the-box.
The last hole was a computer screen and Santa sends you a message
when you knock your golf ball under the computer.
It was a really cute theme and I'm really glad we took the time to play a round. We all had a lot of fun with it!
We turned back in our clubs and drove back to our resort and called it a day.
"The sideways train to nowhere" I LOVE that LOL
ReplyDeleteI never thought about it, but he is kinda right. LOL!
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