Since this trip is all about my 40th birthday I thought I would show you how we celebrated Dh's 40th last month. Yes, for those of you doing the math I married a younger man. But only by a few months.
Dh wanted to have all our family and friends over for a pig roast. We rented jumpy castles and set up a big tent. The weather held and a fun time was had by all. All but the pig that it.
Back to the Report.
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Once we composed ourselves and disposed of the banana we headed to the bus stop.
Luck was following us because once again a bus magically appeared. We did have to walk all the way to the actual bus stop before we saw a bus rounding the corner with “Disney Studios” lit up.
It was 8:40 am when we made it to the studios.
The plan today was to go straight to TSM, do a couple of other rides and get the Jedi robe for our DS6. If Dh had it his way we would have headed to the robes first. Yeah like there is a ton of people parading down to the star wars store to buy merchandise. Like they are going to run out or something. He didn't see the humour in this. I guess I was tired because I did. Or maybe I was just rolling over the funnies from the banana incident at Boma.
The lineups at the turnstiles were pretty long. However, they only had a few open.
I left Dh in line to go up to the front to grab a times guide. Just as I did that a new turnstile line opened up.
Yay!
I signaled for Dh to join me and I was the 12th person to get through.
“Boy all your disboards friends would be pretty proud of you right now”
I checked to make sure Dh was being serious. Cause sometimes he bugs me about the disboards. He doesn’t quite get why I continue posting on the boards or even why I’m writing trip reports. But he seemed to be serious which meant that even he understood what great time we were making.
In case I hadn’t mentioned it we were making the dash for Toy Story Mania. I was going to get us fastpasses and go on the ride first thing.
We pushed our way up to the front of the street.
On the right side so we would be closer to TSM. We were about 5 people deep. The show started. A couple from Brazil was chosen. It was kind of cute but didn’t have the same full body happy bubbling Disney feeling that the MK show leaves you with.
Behind me I noticed a couple from our Keys to the Kingdom tour. We chatted a bit. They are retired and down with their family. They were leaving today but wanted to hit the Rock and Roll coaster and have their final counter service first. They joked that the three for four deal actually cost them more money because they upgraded to AKL (although we didn’t see them). They were sweet and we wished them well as we parted at the shows ending.
With no strollers or grandparents to slow us down Dh and I managed to get right behind the rope drop people. See them there in the front of my picture. I was so psyched to be that close to the front of the line.
I was second in line to get a fast pass for the ride. Our return time was 9:40am.
With the fast pass in hand off we went onto the ride.
I went for accuracy and tried to hit only the high numbers while Dh was just going for it. He beat me but at least my accuracy was higher than his.
I wrote down that we went on the Great Movie Ride next. But I think it was the back stage tour. I’m getting them mixed up. It’s the one where they show you the submarine sequence and then the truck on fire. We had waited in line for it as a family before but gave up because the line just seemed way too long. I kind of wish we had just skipped it again today. It just seems really dated. Here's some pictures from it.
The best part was walking through the prop area. I could have taken more time in there.
Then we went to One Man’s Dream. We didn’t stay for the movie. Dh was itching to get to Star tours. Remember we still had to buy that Jedi robe. The robe was the whole reason we were even in the park today. He wanted to go straight there but I convinced him we needed to do the Toy Story Mania fast pass thing first.
We saw the Jedi Training going on when we walked into Star Tours.
It was really the only time I missed my kids. Thinking about how my DS6 would have enjoyed it (of course he already has enjoyed it. Twice even!) got me a little misty eyed.
Then walking through the queue and remembering our last trip when due to rain the training was cancelled so we rode the ride and literally ran into Darth Vader in the lineup. Even I was a bit spooked by his presence. Anyhow the memory didn’t help the mist disappear.
I’m glad to hear they are updating this ride too. I look forward to seeing the improvements.
Finally in the shop at the end of Star Tours we picked up the Jedi Robe for DS6. We also got him a Storm Trouper T-shirt. He actually wears the T-shirt but as I mention not the robe.
Here is the one time he wore the robe.
My neck was hurting from the ride and I was tired. We had an ADR at Downtown Disney. I wanted to just take a Taxi Cab. Even thinking about having to transfer buses at a resort thing was making me tired.
I also wanted a snack. But Dh wanted to save our snack credits. Why I’m not sure.
Then again why I didn’t just say you take the bus and I’m taking a Taxi I don’t know. I should have. I was grumpy. No snack does that to you.
Here I am by the Mermaid fountain. Ariel is my favorite princess and we didn't have time to go to her show so the fountain would have to do.
We made our way down towards the turnstiles. Of course I had to stop for photopass pictures on the way out.
We got this one for our DS6 who loves stitch.
Once we got to the bus stops I wasn't actually sure what the best route was to get to downtown disney. Okay that's not true. I knew the BEST route was to take a taxi. However, Dh still wasn't having it. It brought back horrible memories of our Seaworld disaster from the year before. I wanted to just take a taxi but I had mentioned the bus system to Dh. So we took the bus. For various reasons it took 2 hours. So brutal. Anyway all that anger started to reheat inside of me.
I wasn’t sure which resort we should switch at. Dh asked a CM and they suggested CBR or POP. A POP bus was just pulling up so we took it.
It felt kind of funny to drive into POP. We were supposed to stay there this trip before I upgraded us to AKL. (Actually we were supposed to stay there for this upcoming trip this weekend until I upgraded us once again. But remember Shh as the upgrade is a surprise to Dh). It looked nice and I figured I would have enjoyed it. Although waiting in the open air bus stop at POP made me remember how much I enjoyed the covered bus stops at the moderates and Deluxes pretty gosh darn quick. It was hot.
Finally a bus came. Now I hadn’t paid too much attention to the transportation to and around Downtown Disney and I made a mistake. I know shocking as it may seem.
My mistake and my last chapter is coming up next click here.
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33955438&postcount=338
Boma's pressed coffee (I have to flip flop with you and say I prefer it over Kona's 
I actually skipped the updates to wish you good travels. Going back to read later on!
